To Put Words in One's Mouth

Now Joab the son of Zeruiah perceived that the king's heart was toward Absalom.
And Joab sent to Tekoah, and fetched thence a wise woman, and said unto her, I pray thee, feign thyself to be a mourner, and put on now mourning apparel, and anoint not thyself with oil, but be as a woman that had a long time mourned for the dead:
And come to the king, and speak on this manner unto him. So Joab put the words in her mouth.

-- II Samuel 14: 1-3 (KJV)

Joab, King David's nephew and Israel's commander-in-chief, is currently basking in his uncle's favor. Joab is a ruthless character, but in this he is matched by David's son Absalom, who has just murdered his brother Amnon for raping his sister Tamar. Though Absalom is the apple of his father's eye, the king is understandably upset. And when Absalom flees without a word of explanation or apology, David is paralyzed with grief and anxiety. Joab, seeing this, sets in motion a plot to reconcile the two. His agent in this is a nameless woman of Tekoah; Joab puts the appropriate words in her mouth.

Wyclif coined this figure for manipulation in his 1382 translation, and it remains popular. Strangely, though, the reverse expression, "to take the words out of one's mouth," of sixteenth-century origin, was much more common before the eighteenth century. Since it is better to give than to receive, one would think that Wyclif's coinage should have prevailed earlier on.

 
Index  |  Next:  A Jeroboam

Michael Macrone is Associate Site Producer of GraceCom and the author of nine books on language, literature, and ideas, including the best-selling Brush Up Your Shakespeare!