Transitioning from a carefully crafted fictional tale to stark reality, the woman of Tekoa reveals the true motive behind her elaborate charade. She explains to King David why she chose to present a parable rather than directly asking him to bring back his exiled son, Absalom.
Her decision to use her own fabricated tragedy as a subtle hint to Absalom's situation was born out of deep fear [רש"י, ביאור שטיינזלץ]. The people around her had intimidated her, warning her against speaking openly to the monarch. The primary approach among commentators is that she was cautioned specifically about the king's anger. Because the matter of Absalom was highly sensitive and the king had not shown a readiness to forgive, she worried he would scold her for meddling in royal affairs and presuming to act as his advisor [רש"י, מצודת דוד, ביאור שטיינזלץ].
Alternatively, her fear may have been rooted in the threat of social mockery. As a simple woman, she risked being ridiculed by the onlookers in the royal court for attempting to advise on matters of state, especially when far greater individuals had kept silent. By framing her plea as a desperate legal battle for her own son's life, she ensured the bystanders would not mock her, hoping they would only recognize her wisdom after she had successfully made her point [אלשיך]. The identity of those who discouraged her is also debated; they may have been the royal guards, or perhaps the residents of her own hometown who warned her that crying out to the king would be entirely useless [רד"ק].
Despite these severe warnings and her own anxiety, she resolved to act. While most view her approach as a calculated rhetorical strategy designed to avoid insulting the king with outright lies, her very presence and the specific words she spoke were ultimately guided by divine providence from God [מלבי"ם]. Her profound hope was that by communicating indirectly, the king would be moved to grant her true request. She wanted him to realize that he was the actual subject of her story. Once he had decreed mercy for her fictional son, she trusted he would apply that exact same judgment to himself and finally bring his own son home [מלבי"ם, מצודת דוד].