What Does II Samuel 20:22 Mean?

The wise woman delivers: "Then the woman went unto all the people in her wisdom. And they cut off the head of Sheba the son of Bichri, and cast it out to Joab. And he blew a trumpet, and they retired from the city, every man to his tent. And Joab returned to Jerusalem unto the king." The sequence is swift: the woman persuades the people, Sheba is beheaded, his head is thrown over the wall, Joab blows the trumpet (the same instrument that signaled the end of the battle in the forest of Ephraim), and the army disperses. The rebellion ends not with a battle but with a negotiation.

The phrase "in her wisdom" credits the woman with the resolution that saved the city. Her diplomatic skill accomplished what Joab's military power was prepared to achieve through destruction, and the narrative implicitly contrasts her constructive wisdom with Joab's destructive efficiency. The wise woman of Abel Beth-maachah has demonstrated that wisdom can resolve conflicts that violence can only escalate, and her example stands as a rebuke to the culture of bloodshed that has dominated the books of Samuel.

The wisdom of God, which is "first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits," is the wisdom that resolves conflicts without creating new ones. The gospel does not batter the walls of the human heart but speaks to it through the still small voice of the Spirit, and the surrender that Christ requires is not coerced by siege but invited by grace. The trumpet that Joab blew over the wall of Abel is the foreshadowing of the trumpet that will announce the final peace, when every wall is demolished and every war is ended forever.