Proverbs 29:5

¹“Listen to this, you priests! Listen, house of Israel, and give ear, house of the king! For the judgment is against you; for you have been a snare at Mizpah, and a net spread on Tabor.

²Everyone lies to his neighbor. They speak with flattering lips, and with a double heart.

⁹For there is no faithfulness in their mouth. Their heart is destruction. Their throat is an open tomb. They flatter with their tongue.

⁵He who denounces his friends for plunder, even the eyes of his children will fail.

¹⁷Then your servant said, ‘Please let the word of my lord the king bring rest; for as an angel of God, so is my lord the king to discern good and bad. May the LORD, your God, be with you.’”

¹⁸Then the king answered the woman, “Please don’t hide anything from me that I ask you.” The woman said, “Let my lord the king now speak.”

¹⁹The king said, “Is the hand of Joab with you in all this?” The woman answered, “As your soul lives, my lord the king, no one can turn to the right hand or to the left from anything that my lord the king has spoken; for your servant Joab urged me, and he put all these words in the mouth of your servant.

²⁰Your servant Joab has done this thing to change the face of the matter. My lord is wise, according to the wisdom of an angel of God, to know all things that are in the earth.”

²¹The king said to Joab, “Behold now, I have granted this thing. Go therefore, and bring the young man Absalom back.”

²²Joab fell to the ground on his face, showed respect, and blessed the king. Joab said, “Today your servant knows that I have found favor in your sight, my lord, O king, in that the king has performed the request of his servant.”

²³So Joab arose and went to Geshur, and brought Absalom to Jerusalem. ²⁴The king said, “Let him return to his own house, but let him not see my face.” So Absalom returned to his own house, and didn’t see the king’s face.

⁵that they may keep you from the strange woman, from the foreigner who flatters with her words.

⁵For neither were we at any time found using words of flattery, as you know, nor a cloak of covetousness (God is witness),

¹⁷For the net is spread in vain in the sight of any bird;

¹⁸For those who are such don’t serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the innocent.

²¹With persuasive words, she led him astray. With the flattering of her lips, she seduced him.