Bible Strands
2 Samuel 14:2
So Joab sent to Tekoa to bring a wise woman from there. He told her, “Please pretend to be a mourner; put on clothes for mourning and do not anoint yourself with oil. Act like a woman who has mourned for the dead a long time.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Joab addresses a wise woman from Tekoa after recognizing that King David’s heart desired his exiled son Absalom (2 Samuel 14:1). He instructs her to stage a prolonged mourning performance to approach the throne.
The words — The text records va/i.yish.lach (and he sent) and cha.kha.mah (wise) as Joab formulates the request (2 Samuel 14:2). The Hebrew emphasizes the deliberate selection of a recognized counselor and the commissioning of her journey.
The thread — Tekoa appears as a geographic marker in 2 Chronicles 11:6 and identifies the prophetic origin of Amos in Amos 1:1. The motif of ritual clothing and preparation surfaces in Ruth 3:3, where a woman is instructed to wash, perfume herself, and dress for a specific encounter.
Why it lands — The passage requires a reader to observe how political mediation operates through staged ritual and carefully managed speech. It demands attention to the mechanics of persuasion before evaluating the moral or theological outcome.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And Joab sent to Tekoah, and fetched thence a wise woman, and said unto her, I pray thee, feign thyself to be a mourner, and put on now mourning apparel, and anoint not thyself with oil, but be as a woman that had a long time mourned for the dead:
Cross-references
- 2 Chronicles 11:6 He built up Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa,
- Ruth 3:3 Therefore wash yourself, put on perfume, and wear your best clothes. Go down to the threshing floor, but do not let the man know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking.
- Amos 1:1 These are the words of Amos, who was among the sheepherders of Tekoa—what he saw concerning Israel two years before the earthquake, in the days when Uzziah was king of Judah and Jeroboam son of Jehoash was king of Israel.
- 2 Samuel 12:20 Then David got up from the ground, washed and anointed himself, changed his clothes, and went into the house of the LORD and worshiped. Then he went to his own house, and at his request they set food before him, and he ate.
- 2 Chronicles 20:20 Early in the morning they got up and left for the Wilderness of Tekoa. As they set out, Jehoshaphat stood up and said, “Hear me, O people of Judah and Jerusalem. Believe in the LORD your God, and you will be upheld; believe in His prophets, and you will succeed.”
- Nehemiah 3:5 Next to him, the Tekoites made repairs, but their nobles did not put their shoulders to the work under their supervisors.
- Jeremiah 6:1 “Run for cover, O sons of Benjamin; flee from Jerusalem! Sound the ram’s horn in Tekoa; send up a signal over Beth-haccherem, for disaster looms from the north, even great destruction.
- 2 Samuel 11:26 When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him.
- Nehemiah 3:27 And next to them, the Tekoites repaired another section, from a point opposite the great tower that juts out to the wall of Ophel.
- Psalms 104:15 wine that gladdens the heart of man, oil that makes his face to shine, and bread that sustains his heart.