(2) 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: (3) And come to the king, and speak on this manner unto him. So Joab put the words in her mouth. (4) And when the woman of Tekoah spake to the king, she fell on her face to the ground, and did obeisance, and said, Help, O king. (5) And the king said unto her, What aileth thee? And she answered, I am indeed a widow woman, and mine husband is dead. (6) And thy handmaid had two sons, and they two strove together in the field, and there was none to part them, but the one smote the other, and slew him. (7) And, behold, the whole family is risen against thine handmaid, and they said, Deliver him that smote his brother, that we may kill him, for the life of his brother whom he slew; and we will destroy the heir also: and so they shall quench my coal which is left, and shall not leave to my husband neither name nor remainder upon the earth. (8) And the king said unto the woman, Go to thine house, and I will give charge concerning thee. (9) And the woman of Tekoah said unto the king, My lord, O king, the iniquity be on me, and on my father's house: and the king and his throne be guiltless. (10) And the king said, Whosoever saith ought unto thee, bring him to me, and he shall not touch thee anymore. (11) Then said she, I pray thee, let the king remember the LORD thy God, that thou wouldest not suffer the revengers of blood to destroy anymore, lest they destroy my son. And he said, As the LORD liveth, there shall not one hair of thy son fall to the earth.
The Reader, to enter into the full beauties of this speech, will recollect how much it was the custom in the eastern world to discourse by story and parable. Nathan had adapted this plan to David in his own instance. See 2 Samuel 12:1. And here the woman of Tekoah so represents the outlines of Absalom's assassination of his brother Amnon, that the king for the moment overlooked his own family distresses on the same occasion, in the supposed history of this woman. But the Reader to enter into the principal beauty of this story, must be careful not to overlook the grand point in that law, which made provision that an Israelite should not have, upon any consideration, the right of his inheritance cut off, nor his name destroyed from among the people. This inheritance, no doubt, had an eye to the covenant of redemption; cause the same law that made provision for this inheritance; made provision also for its recovery by redemption in the next of kin, in case of loss. See Numbers 27:1-11 compared with Deuteronomy 25:5-10. Then turn to Ruth 4:1-7. Hence you see how sweetly the whole of this gracious provision, respecting the inheritance of Israel, pointed to the Lord Jesus, our Goel, our kinsman-Redeemer, who both stops the avenger of blood in becoming our city of refuge, and redeems our justly forfeited inheritance, as our relation, by his redemption. David therefore, no doubt, perfectly well understanding the grand point referred to, concerning the inheritance of which the woman of Tekoah complained she should be deprived, and the coal be quenched, whereby a name, or remainder, would not be left to her husband; entered with more earnestness into the burden of her petition, and with an eye to Christ sware to the woman by an oath, that her case should be as she wished. Reader! think then, how eternally secure must be our inheritance, when Jesus himself, our kinsman-Redeemer, hath purchased it, and how sure the name he hath preserved to his people. This is to be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name. Isaiah 42:2.