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(A)The king said to her, “What do you want?” She replied: “Alas, I am a widow; my husband is dead. Your servant had two sons, who quarreled in the field, with no one to part them, and one of them struck his brother and killed him. Then the whole clan confronted your servant and demanded: ‘Give up the one who struck down his brother. We must put him to death for the life of his brother whom he has killed; we must do away with the heir also.’ Thus they will quench my remaining hope[a] and leave my husband neither name nor posterity upon the earth.”(B)

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Footnotes

  1. 14:7 Hope: lit., “glowing coal.” The image is similar to that of a lighted lamp, e.g., Ps 132:17, or small hearth fire, to keep alive the ancestral name.

The king asked her, “What is troubling you?”

She said, “I am a widow; my husband is dead. I your servant had two sons. They got into a fight with each other in the field, and no one was there to separate them. One struck the other and killed him. Now the whole clan has risen up against your servant; they say, ‘Hand over the one who struck his brother down, so that we may put him to death(A) for the life of his brother whom he killed; then we will get rid of the heir(B) as well.’ They would put out the only burning coal I have left,(C) leaving my husband neither name nor descendant on the face of the earth.”

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