She now turns the conversation around on him. If he is so willing to grant a pardon to a young man he does not know, why is he unwilling to extend the same pardon to his own son Absalom? "Then the woman said, 'Let your servant speak a word to my lord the king.' 'Speak,' he replied. The woman said, 'Why have you devised a thing like this against the people of God? When the king says this, does he not convict himself, for the king has not brought back his banished son? Like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be recovered, so we must die. But that is not what God desires; rather, He devises ways so that a banished person does not remain banished from Him.'" (2 Samuel 14:12-14)
She says something like, "Do I have permission to speak freely, my lord? Why are you keeping Absalom, who the people now consider the heir-apparent to the throne, away from his people Israel? Why have you not sent for him during these three years while he's lived far from the house of the Lord in the house of a heathen king? He did not fare well spiritually during the two years nothing was done to bring his elder brother Amnon to justice; his bitterness only festered and grew during that time. How much worse of an effect must the past three years have had on him spiritually? He's exiled from everyone and everything familiar to him. He's not where he can see people coming and going from the house of the Lord every day---a thing that might encourage him to go to the house of the Lord with a repentant heart and offerings for atonement. Life is short, King David, and we are not promised tomorrow. The time to reconcile with your son is now, while you are both alive and well and can make peace with each other. Does not God desire to make peace with us when we go astray? Does He not make the first move toward that reconciliation? May it please the king to follow the Lord's example. May it please the king to make the first move to heal his family and the nation by calling Absalom back from Geshur."
She continues, "And now I have come to say this to my lord the king because the people have made me afraid. Your servant thought, 'I will speak to the king; perhaps he will grant his servant's request. Perhaps the king will agree to deliver his servant from the hand of the man who is trying to cut off both me and my son from God's inheritance. And now your servant says, 'May the word of my lord the king secure my inheritance, for my lord the king is like an angel of God in discerning good and evil. May the Lord your God be with you.'" (2 Samuel 14:15-17) She goes on behaving as if the case she has put before the king is genuine, as if she truly did have two sons who came to blows in the field with the end result being the death of one of them. But now David sees through the ruse. Instead of being upset with her, he asks in a calm and respectful tone who put her up to it. "Then the king said to the woman, 'Don't keep from me the answer to what I am going to ask you.' 'Let my lord the king speak,' said the woman. 'The king asked, 'Isn't the hand of Joab with you in all this?'" (2 Samuel 14:18-19a)
She previously credited him with good discernment; her high opinion of his wisdom is proven justified when he not only sees through the fictitious legal case but also sees who is behind sending her to him with a story so similar to the circumstances of his own life. Who else but the shrewd Joab would have thought of such a thing? No doubt many of David's family members and friends, along with a large number of the citizens of Israel, wanted to see David reconciled to Absalom, but none of them dared confront him with their opinion of what he should do. But Joab has never lacked boldness. He has always been and will always be a man of action. David knows that a woman from Tekoa, who he has never laid eyes on before, would not have come to him of her own accord and made up such a story in order to persuade him to call Absalom home. No one but his nephew Joab, who often thinks he knows more than David, would have gone to great lengths to put on this production. Joab knows David well enough to realize that just telling him what he ought to do wouldn't work, maybe because he's already tried that and failed to get David to listen to him. But Joab also knows that presenting a false legal case worked for the prophet Nathan when he confronted David with his sins of adultery and murder. Joab takes a page out of Nathan's book, as the expression goes, and it works as well for him as it did for Nathan.
The woman stops pretending she is bringing a genuine legal case before the king. "The woman answered, 'As surely as you live, my lord the king, no one can turn to the right or to the left from anything my lord the king says. Yes, it was your servant Joab who instructed me to do this and who put all these words into the mouth of your servant. Your servant Joab did this to change the present situation. My lord has wisdom like that of an angel of God---he knows everything that happens in the land.'" (2 Samuel 14:19b-20)
Joab has either been standing in the king's court all this time or else David has him brought before his throne now, for he speaks directly to his nephew and grants his request. "The king said to Joab, 'Very well, I will do it. Go, bring back the young man Absalom.' Joab fell with his face to the ground to pay him honor, and he blessed the king. Joab said, 'Today your servant knows that he has found favor in your eyes, my lord the king, because the king has granted his servant's request.'" (2 Samuel 14:21-22)
Joab will fetch Absalom home but things will not go as either of them expects. After extending mercy to Absalom in allowing him to return, David will withdraw and treat him harshly.
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