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.
The woman ... said ... O king, the iniquity be on me - i:e., the iniquity of arresting the course of justice and pardoning a homicide, whom the go'el was bound to slay wherever he might find him, unless in a city of refuge. This was exceeding the royal prerogative, and acting in the character of an absolute monarch. The woman's language refers to a common precaution taken by the Hebrew judges and magistrates, solemnly to transfer from themselves the responsibility of the blood they doomed to be shed either to the accusers or the criminals (2 Samuel 1:16; 2 Samuel 3:28); and sometimes the accusers took it upon themselves (Matthew 27:25).