Who was the wise woman of Tekoah?

        The wise woman of Tekoah (II Sam. 14:1-20) was the mother of two sons. She was a dramatic actress as well as a sagacious woman. Dressed in mourning, she came up from her home in Tekoah to Jerusalem and feigned a story about her two sons, one of whom, she said, had been killed by the other as they fought together in the field, where there was no one to part them. Now her whole family wanted to put her guilty son to death. She begged David to have mercy on her son and David declared the young man would not be harmed.
       The woman had come from the town of Tekoah, twelve miles south of Jerusalem and six miles south of Bethlehem, far enough away so that her story could not be easily investigated. She had woven it together to be as much like the story of David's own sons, Absalom and Amnon, as she could make it and still not have him recognize immediately the real purpose of her mission.
       Several years before, Absalom had murdered Amnon, in revenge for what Amnon had done to their sister Tamar. For this crime David had banished Absalom, his most beloved son, and had not seen him for three years.
       Realizing that David now needed the company of his favorite son, the discerning Joab, commander-in-chief of David's army, had instructed the woman to come from Tekoah and make this appeal. Though in his heart David still loved Absalom, he probably had not recalled him because he dreaded public opinion.
       To overcome David's scruples and help him see that mercy was reasonable in this case, the woman of Tekoah came with her story, and David soon saw that it paralleled that of his own two sons. When he asked if Joab had sent her, she revealed that he had put all these words into her mouth. Then in her argument she made it clear that Absalom had reason to complain that he was treated by his own father more sternly than her son, one of the humblest subjects in the realm.
       She let him know that the nation could now say that the king gave more attention to her humble petition than to the wishes and desires of the whole kingdom. She argued with him also that the death of her own son would be only a private loss to her family, but the termination of Absalom's banishment was to the common interest of all Israel, who now looked to Absalom as David's successor on the throne.
       This wise woman of Tekoah was successful in her mission. After she left, David sent Joab to Geshur to bring Absalom back to Jerusalem. The reconciliation came about because the woman of Tekoah had acted so well the feigned story of her two sons.
       Evidently she was a devout woman, for she stressed that "as an angel of God, so is my lord the king to discern good and bad: therefore the Lord thy God will be with thee." Earlier she had spoken of her own "inheritance of God" coming through her son. Her devotion to God was what probably won King David's heart.