So she went out and asked her mother, “What should I ask for?” Her mother said, “Ask for the head of John the Baptizer.”
Then Jonadab told him, “Lie down on your bed. Act sick, and when your father comes to see you, say to him, ‘Please let my sister Tamar come to feed me. She can prepare a meal in front of me as I watch her, and she can feed me.’ ”
“If the people who were in my tent had said, ‘We wish we had never filled ⌞our stomachs⌟ with his food’….
Evildoers closed in on me to tear me to pieces. My opponents and enemies stumbled and fell.
The wicked person plots against a righteous one and grits his teeth at him.
Wicked people pull out their swords and bend their bows to kill oppressed and needy people, to slaughter those who are decent.
Urged by her mother, she said, “Give me the head of John the Baptizer on a platter.”
Later, John the Baptizer appeared in the desert of Judea. His message was,
He swore an oath to her: “I’ll give you anything you ask for, up to half of my kingdom.”
So the girl hurried back to the king with her request. She said, “I want you to give me the head of John the Baptizer on a platter at once.”