What is the significance of Tekoa in the Bible?

City of Judah, probably founded by the preceding. Rehoboam built or fortified it 'for defence.' 2 Chr. 11:6. The 'wise woman' Joab employed to speak to the king respecting the return of Absalom was from this city. 2 Sam. 14:2, 4, 9. Being built on a hill it was a suitable place for blowing the trumpet in time of danger, as in Jer. 6:1. The prophet Amos was among its herdsmen. Identified with ruins at Tekua, 31 38' N, 35 12' E. The WILDERNESS OF TEKOA was probably on its east. 2 Chr. 20:20.

Designation of Ikkesh, father of Ira, one of David's mighty men. 2 Sam. 23, 26; 1 Chr. 11:28; 1 Chr. 27:9. The Tekoites were inhabitants of Tekoa: they helped to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, but "their nobles put not their necks to the work of their Lord." Neh. 3:5, 27.

This that we are meditating on is somewhat a neglected scripture. But it shows us that we may ofttimes find some stray and rich kidneys of wheat in the distant corners of the Lord's granary. And this gospel in the mouth of this unknown widow, the "wise woman of Tekoah," further shows us that Israel, even in their infant dispensation, had sweet truths to feed upon. From the beginning indeed the joy has been but one. "The woman's seed" was the king's highway cast up under the eye of faith, the known and published good news, whereby God hath devised to fetch home His banished ones.

"A wise woman" of Tekoah is, therefore provided, whom Joab instructs in this matter. Perhaps we may not know the proper sense of that description of her, but it will shortly appear that she was wise indeed, and that too in the secrets of God Himself. She feigns herself it mourner, and comes to the king with just such a title of sorrow as must at once have caught his affections, and brought his own sorrow fully to mind. She tells him of her two sons, how one had slain the other in a quarrel in a field, and that the kinsman was out against the manslayer, threatening to leave her a withered stump in the earth. David is surprised. Such matters should lie with the proper judges to determine between the avenger and the manslayer. (Num. 35.) But David is surprised — nature speaks in him too quickly — the yearnings of nature move him, and he gives her a pledge three times assured that nothing shall befall her son. Then, armed with this pledge, she more distinctly assails the heart of the king. She is willing to let the pledge be to Absalom the king's son, and not to her son, and would have it known that she had been all the while pleading for David's sorrow and not for her own.

In all these records of those sad events we hear not a word that David inquired of the Lord. Joab now appears upon the scene again and that for evil, though he did not mean to do evil to the king. He concocts a scheme by which Absalom is to be brought back into the favor of the king. This he must have tried many times before, for verses 19 and 22 indicate this. It seems almost as if Joab imitated Nathan, when he came with his message to David. But God had not sent him and David's conscience was not touched. The wisdom he used was not the wisdom from above, but the wisdom of a cunning man. The whole story was deception and "the wise woman" of Tekoah lent herself as a willing instrument. And David finds out that it is all a plot and, blinded by a mere love for Absalom, without thinking of the claims of God in this case, he becomes a willing victim to the scheme of Joab. And so Absalom was brought back. The King commands, "Let him turn to his own house, and let him not see my face." It was an evil hour when it happened. Absalom's rebellion and the king's exile were the fruit of the unscrupulous plot of Joab.

David's heart was towards the prodigal, but he said, "If this heart bring him back, this hand holds a sword that must be planted in his bosom as soon as he returns." Then Joab comes in through the wise woman of Tekoah, as you read, and the end of it is that David gives way and brings him back without judging his sin. But does God bring back His prodigals without judging their sin? No, no. He has judged it in the Cross of Christ.

The wise woman of Tekoah said, "We must needs die," i.e., the moral of her story is, Make haste; and the moral of my story to you is make haste, for you may soon die, you know not how soon, and you must meet God. "Yet," she says, "Doth he (God) devise means that his banished be not expelled from him." I have told you God's means. I know they find no acceptance in the eyes of man. "We preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness," but the Cross of Christ is God's only way of salvation. Christ maintains the character of the Throne of God in righteousness, while He manifests the character of the heart of God in its deep, deep love. Can you, my friend, agree with a lunatic who once thus exquisitely expressed it? "Could I with ink the ocean fill, Were every blade of grass a quill, Were the whole heaven of parchment made, And every man a scribe by trade, To write the love of God above Would drain the ocean dry: Nor could the scroll contain the whole, Though stretched from sky to sky."

The pouring out of water was the acknowledgement of utter weakness and emptiness. This figure was employed by the wise woman of Tekoah in her reasoning with David. "We are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again" (2 Sam. 14:14). The action being altogether without precedent serves to show that Israel perceived what was morally suitable to the circumstances of the moment. Such an acknowledgement of weakness cannot fail to bring blessing from God. In the spiritual realm, felt weakness is power, as the Apostle lets us know in 2 Corinthians 12. As Hannah also said, "they that stumbled are girded with strength" (1 Sam. 2:4). Is it not a singular lesson to have to learn that our self-sufficiency is our undoing? God can use those who are "not anything," i.e, nothing (1 Cor. 3:7). God alone counts, whether now or in ages past. When weakness calls Him in, all is well.

What, then, is “to know good and evil”? It is something which is said of Godhead too; “as one of us,” we read “to know good and evil”! It is to sit in judgment, and pass sentence, on good or evil which we find in our own souls. Of David the king, it was said, by the wise woman of Tekoah, “as an angel of God, so is my Lord the king, to discern good and bad” (2 Sam. 14:17). This in reference to the decisions of judgment. So of Solomon in 1 Kings 3:9; so of Israel, Deut. 1:39; see also Heb. 5:14.

"The legs of the lame are not equal: so is a parable in the mouth of fools." A parable should accurately re-present what it is intended to teach, but subtle manipulation can so use a parable as to convey a completely false conclusion. A fool will use comparisons that are not equal, not parallel at all: his whole argument then is lame because not balanced. The wise woman of Tekoah, being hired by Joab, used subtle, worldly wisdom in presenting to David a case that was in measure similar to that of his son Absalom, but not at all parallel: in fact completely at odds in fundamental points. David allowed himself to be deceived by it. This was plain dishonesty, the type of thing to which an unbeliever will resort to gain his own ends, the resource of one who in God's eyes is a fool. David ought to have easily discerned that these legs were not equal (2 Sam. 14). No believer should be deceived by such things.

Meshullam, whom our chapter mentions after Meremoth, was a man of doubtful character, for he had allied himself to Tobijah, to whose son, named Johanan, he had given his daughter (Neh. 6:18). From all appearances, he was of the priestly race, and perhaps Eliashib had exercised an influence upon him by his own example. In spite of this vexatious alliance, he shows zeal for the house of God, but not the same zeal as Meremoth. Although he next works at the "city of David", his work is directed first of all at protecting his own living quarters (v. 30). After him, Zadok is among those who do not fear to the work in isolation, at their own risk and peril. Next to these three men the Tekoites repair. They belong to a city of Judah, not far from Bethlehem (Amos 1:1; 2 Sam. 14:2). "But their nobles put not their necks to the work of their Lord." On the whole, this lack of zeal, this indifference of the nobles does not — and may it always be so — occasion the consequences which are so frequent in similar cases. On the contrary, since the Tekoites are not dependent upon their leaders, they redouble their zeal all the more. In verse 27 we see them repair "a second piece" of the city of David "over against the great tower which lies out, as far as the wall of Ophel". Ophel, where the dwellings of the Nethinim were located, was connected to one of the gates of the temple. This place is also mentioned in Isaiah 32:14: "[Ophel] and watchtower" (see footnote JND).