Then the woman went to all the people with her wise advice, and they cut off the head of Sheba son of Bicri and threw it to Joab. So he sounded the trumpet, and his men dispersed from the city, each returning to his home. And Joab went back to the king in Jerusalem. - 2 Sam. 20:22 NIV
Sometimes the wisdom of one woman is greater than that of a thousand men. David's kingdom was characterized by intrigue after intrigue. Someone was always killing someone or trying to take what was not theirs. Amnon rapes Tamar. Absalom kills Amnon. Absalom tries to take the kingdom from David. David flees with the rest of his family from his own son. Ziba betrays Mephibosheth. Absalom dies going against David's forces and David mourns. Sheba continues the revolt against the kingship of David. Joab, the commander of Davis's army, kills Amasa who was still loyal to David. Finally, Joab corners Sheba at Abel and besieges the city.
Sometimes it is a woman who sees the obvious and convinces the masses of the right course of action. Who knows what the outcome would have been were it not for the one woman who saw that all of the intrigue and jockeying for position needed to stop somewhere. "We are the peaceful and faithful in Israel," she says, "why are you trying to destroy us?" She takes her message to the city's leaders and they decide that enough is enough. Sheba was sacrificed for the peace of the city, and thus ended most of the intrigue during David's rule.
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