¹⁷ Then your maidservant said, ‘Please let the word of my lord the king be ^[a]comforting, for as ^(A)the angel of God, so is my lord the king to discern good and evil. And may the Lord your God be with you.’”

¹⁸ Then the king answered and said to the woman, “Please do not hide anything from me that I am about to ask you.” And the woman said, “Let my lord the king please speak.” ¹⁹ So the king said, “Is the hand of Joab with you in all this?” And the woman replied, “As your soul lives, my lord the king, no one can turn to the right or to the left from anything that my lord the king has spoken. Indeed, it was ^(B)your servant Joab who commanded me, and it was he who put all these words in the mouth of your maidservant;