2 Samuel 14:12
ESV
Then the woman said, "Please let your servant speak a word to my lord the king." He said, "Speak."
NIV
Then the woman said, "Let your servant speak a word to my lord the king." "Speak," he replied.
NASB
Then the woman said, 'Please let your servant speak a word to my lord the king.' And he said, 'Speak.'
CSB
Then the woman said, "Please, may your servant speak a word to my lord the king?" "Speak," he replied.
NLT
Please allow me to ask one more thing of my lord the king,' she said. 'Go ahead and speak,' he responded.
KJV
Then the woman said, Let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak one word unto my lord the king. And he said, Say on.
NKJV
Therefore the woman said, “Please, let your maidservant speak another word to my lord the king.” And he said, “Say on.”
What does 2 Samuel 14:12 mean?
The widowed woman from Tekoa has received exactly what she came to request from King David. He has agreed to use his authority to pardon her son for the crime of murdering his brother and to order her clan not to execute him (2 Samuel 14:14–11). The matter should be resolved.The woman, though, is not a widow whose son is guilty of murdering his brother. She is Joab's secret agent. Joab knows that David's son Absalom has been in exile for three years for murdering his brother Amnon (2 Samuel 13). He knows David has strong feelings about Absalom, although it's not clear what those feelings are (2 Samuel 14:1). Joab believes that leaving Absalom in exile is not in the nation's best interests.
The message is twofold. First, if David forgives a stranger for murder but doesn't forgive his own son, he stands condemned (2 Samuel 14:13). Second, he is free to forgive because God is gracious and offers restoration for outcasts (2 Samuel 14:14). Execution for murder is God's first civil law (Genesis 9:6). And yet, when Adam and Eve sinned, before He pronounced the curses they and their descendants would endure, He promised grace: one who would crush Satan's head (Genesis 3:15) and bring forgiveness and salvation.
When David murdered Uriah, God showed grace and let David live (2 Samuel 12:13). There's precedent for David to let Absalom live, too.
Scholars conjecture that upon the death of David's firstborn, Amnon, Absalom was the heir apparent. Some believe David's second-born, Abigail's son Chileab (2 Samuel 3:2), called Daniel in the genealogies (1 Chronicles 3:1), has died. It's also possible that Abigail's first husband Nabal had no heirs, and David's marriage to her was a form of levirate marriage to produce a son to inherit Nabal's estate (2 Samuel 25). That would explain Chileab's absence from the stories as well as Absalom's importance to Joab and the people.
