Verses 4-10
The Failure And Death Of Amasa (20:4-10a).
Amasa, David’s close relative and new commander-in-chief, was now called on by David to gather together the men of Judah ‘within three days’ so as to deal rapidly with the threat being caused by Sheba, so that they would be able to act before he could become a real danger. Amasa was, however, clearly either inefficient or careless for he failed to achieve David’s target, or to report back at the proper time, possibly partly because men were reluctant to follow the general who led them to defeat when fighting for Absalom, but also partly because he did not treat his position seriously enough. There is no doubt that he unquestionably and completely failed in his duty. The result was that David then turned to the faithful Abishai, who had previously led one of David’s three units against Israel, and was standing by him, and called on him to gather David’s troops and pursue Sheba before he could establish himself. We must undoubtedly see his command to Abishai as arising because Abishai was close at hand, and immediately available, and therefore also as including his brother when he could be contacted. It was thus a request that he go with his brother (when he could make contact with him) so that they might both go and pursue Sheba. This is evident from what follows.
Accordingly Abishai swiftly gathered together Joab’s men (presumably the standing army always held at the ready), together with David’s bodyguard and mighty men, and set off in pursuit of Sheba, and was at some point joined by Joab. And when they reached the great stone at Gibeon they came across Amasa who, seemingly unconcernedly, came to meet them. This put them under a huge dilemma. Their mission was now extremely urgent and there was no time for negotiating with or arguing with the official commander-in-chief who had already proved so negligent and inefficient. Nor did they want to have to do battle with any men who were with him. So Joab made a swift decision, and presumably on the grounds of treason and failure to observe the king’s commands, summarily executed him. He would no doubt argue afterwards that it had been necessary because of the urgency of the situation. He had proved himself unfit to command and had actually been subordinate in that he had not reported back to David. Thus Joab and Abishai, entrusted with the king’s urgent command, had had no alternative.
a Then the king said to Amasa, “Call me the men of Judah together within three days, and be you present here.” So Amasa went to call the men of Judah together, but he lingered longer than the set time which he had appointed him (2 Samuel 20:4-5).
b And David said to Abishai, “Now will Sheba the son of Bichri do us more harm than Absalom did. You take your lord’s servants, and pursue after him, lest he obtain for himself fortified cities, and tear out our eye” (2 Samuel 20:6).
c And there went out after him Joab’s men, and the Cherethites and the Pelethites, and all the mighty men, and they went out of Jerusalem, to pursue after Sheba the son of Bichri (2 Samuel 20:7).
b When they were at the great stone which is in Gibeon, Amasa came to meet them. And Joab was girded with his war clothing which he had put on, and on it was a girdle with a sword fastened on his loins in its sheath, and as he went forth it fell out (2 Samuel 20:8).
a And Joab said to Amasa, “Is it well with you, my brother?” And Joab took Amasa by the beard with his right hand to kiss him. But Amasa paid no heed to the sword that was in Joab’s hand. So he smote him with it in the body, and shed out his bowels to the ground, and struck him not again, and he died (2 Samuel 20:9-10).
Note that in ‘a’ Amasa carelessly ignored the injunction that had been urged on him by David, and in the parallel he carelessly ignored the sword that was in Joab’s hand. In ‘b’ David declares that Amasa’s lateness and carelessness might well be responsible for great harm which Sheba might cause, and calls on Abishai to prepare David’s servants to chase after Sheba, and in the parallel Amasa arrives too late, and meanwhile Joab, Abishai’s brother, has prepared himself for the chase. Centrally in ‘c’ Abishai leads out Joab’s men, and David’s bodyguard and mighty men.
‘ Then the king said to Amasa, “Call me the men of Judah together within three days, and be you present here.” ’
Having appointed Amasa as commander-in-chief of the armies of Israel/Judah ‘the king’ called on him to muster the men of Judah ‘within three days’ and to personally report back to him. (Three days may in fact have indicated ‘a few days’, as it so often does, but it was nevertheless specific. It did not justify delay). The point was that promptness and speed were essential, for David recognised that this was an emergency situation, and having been caught out by Absalom, he did not intend also to be caught out by Sheba.
‘ So Amasa went to call the men of Judah together, but he lingered longer than the set time which he had appointed him.’
So Amasa set about mustering the army of Judah. But he did not do it with sufficient urgency. Thus when the time limit arrived the forces were nowhere to be seen, and nor was Amasa, who was supposed to have reported back. He was seemingly not astute enough as a general to recognise, as David himself had, the need for all speed before the rebellion could be established. It must therefore be appreciated that his failure to report back by the time allotted was gross dereliction of duty. It was indeed to treat the king with unforgivable casualness. Amasa was thus gravely at fault and liable for severe punishment however we look at it.
‘ And David said to Abishai, “Now will Sheba the son of Bichri do us more harm than Absalom did. You take your lord’s servants, and pursue after him, lest he obtain for himself fortified cities, and tear out our eye.” ’
Having waited in vain for Amasa’s appearance with the army of Judah David was now extremely concerned. Consequently he turned to Abishai, who as we have seen from past incidents was constantly in attendance on him (e.g. 2 Samuel 16:9; 2 Samuel 21:17; 1 Samuel 26:6-9), and expressing that concern, pointed out that this delay could well prove disastrous for the kingdom. It could even result in Sheba doing more harm to the kingdom than Absalom had done. It was therefore necessary that something be done immediately in order to try to rectify the situation.
So he looked to the man who was immediately to hand, to Abishai, one of his chief generals, to do it. We may reasonably assume that Joab was temporarily absent from the court for some reason. However, while his command to Abishai was in the singular it must necessarily be seen as including Joab, once he could be contacted, for Joab was not in disgrace, and Abishai and Joab had always worked in collusion in maintaining David’s armed strength (2 Samuel 10:9-10; 2 Samuel 18:2). Furthermore Joab was seemingly still in command of the standing army now known as ‘Joab’s men’. Abishai would thus recognise that he was being expected to carry out the king’s command in the usual way, in conjunction with his brother when he could be contacted, and that David was looking to him to act personally with all speed with the forces that they had immediately available. The command was addressed to him because it would appear that Joab was simply not at present immediately to hand, and the task was urgent. The urgency of the situation demanded that Abishai take the matter in hand.
And that task was simple. To pursue and destroy Sheba before he had time to consolidate and establish fortified cities, thus putting himself in a position to tear out the kingdom’s very eye. To tear out the eye (the literal translation) was to render the opponent helpless, or at the least to make him severely handicapped.
‘ And there went out after him Joab’s men, and the Cherethites and the Pelethites, and all the mighty men, and they went out of Jerusalem, to pursue after Sheba the son of Bichri.’
So Abishai immediately left the king’s presence, summoned Joab’s men (the standing army), the king’s elite troops and bodyguard (the Cherethites and Pelethites), and David’s chief officers and mighty men, who would all be close by and could be immediately called on, and left Jerusalem in order to pursue Bichri, being joined at some stage by his brother whom he had no doubt urgently summoned by messenger. Unlike Amasa they were both experienced commanders and fully aware of the urgency of the situation.
The fact that it does not say ‘Joab and his men’ can be seen as confirming that for some reason Joab was temporarily absent, possibly on affairs of state, for it is quite unnecessary to assume that there had been a rift between him and David however unhappy Joab was at losing his position as commander of ‘All Israel’. David would undoubtedly have given him another comparably high position in his court.
‘ When they were at the great stone which is in Gibeon, Amasa came to meet them. And Joab was girded with his war clothing which he had put on, and on it was a girdle with a sword fastened on his loins in its sheath, and as he went forth it fell out.’
When, in carrying out their pursuit, they arrived at the great stone of Gibeon (which was in Benjamin and was some miles/kilometres north of Jerusalem), Amasa came to meet them. We are given no details of his situation and do not know whether he had the men of Judah with him. On the other hand he would arrive as the official commander-in-chief, and would undoubtedly have wished, in view of his superior rank, to take over the pursuit. We are not told anything about how far he had accomplished the task that David had set him of mustering the men of Judah, nor why he was at Gibeon, rather than in the south where the mustering of the men of Judah would have had to take place, nor why he had not reported back to David when he was supposed to. It is possible that he had learned of the pursuit being carried out by Joab and Abishai while still mustering the troops, and so had himself hastened to meet them with a view to exerting his command, leaving whatever troops he had mustered to follow behind, hoping thereby to preserve his status. But it is equally possible that his presence there indicated how far he was failing is his urgent task of mustering the men of Judah. After all, what was he doing in Benjamin?
By now Joab had joined up with Abishai, and was clad for war, wearing over his ‘war clothing’ a belt into which was tucked the scabbard which contained his sword. And as he went out to meet Amasa his scabbard fell out from his belt. Knowing Joab we may suspect that this was not in fact accidental. Joab could certainly not draw his sword as he approached Amasa, but to have in his hand a sword and scabbard which had fallen from his belt would not appear at all suspicious, just careless (unless you knew Joab really well).
‘ And Joab said to Amasa, “Is it well with you, my brother?” And Joab took Amasa by the beard with his right hand to kiss him.’
Then Joab greeted Amasa, and asked him how he did, after which he took Amasa by the beard with his right hand, seemingly in order to greet him with a kiss of welcome. It would appear that in that society to take the beard in this way was, like a formal handshake, an act of friendship. Possibly it contained the same idea behind it as a handshake, in that it demonstrated that the sword hand was empty. This act of laying hold of the beard in order to give a kiss of friendship was, in fact, still customary among Arabs and Turks as a sign of friendly welcome even in more recent days.
As we are given nothing of the background, and as there were no repercussions on Joab later as a result of what followed, it seems reasonable to assume that Joab considered that he had some good reason for thinking that Amasa’s failure to muster the troops quickly enough, and to report back, was due either to an act of open treachery, or to an act of clear insubordination, or at the best to an act of gross negligence sufficient to endanger the kingdom. And, whichever it was, his failure to report back to the king within the time allotted was in itself almost treason. He was certainly to be seen as due for severe punishment, for the kingdom was at stake. This would no doubt explain why Joab felt himself justified in executing him, lest in his treachery, or gross negligence, or perverseness he in some way sought to hinder the pursuit, thus causing unnecessary delay. We must recognise that there was no time here for niceties, and they could not stop to argue, nor to do battle with him if he proved intransigent. Joab thus saw himself as executing someone while on active service because of his failure to obey the king’s commands. (Nevertheless we do not need to dismiss the suggestion that he almost certainly had a dual motive, for we have already come to recognise that anyone who sought to take over Joab’s position as commander of the armies of Israel was in grave danger of his life (compare Abner in 2 Samuel 3:27). Even Joab, however, could not have murdered either of them out of hand without an ostensibly good reason).
‘But Amasa paid no heed to the sword that was in Joab’s hand. So he smote him with it in the body, and shed out his bowels to the ground, and struck him not again, and he died.’
Amasa revealed his own military naivete by paying no heed to the sword that was in Joab’s left hand. He did not appear to have considered the fact that he had committed gross folly. It was probably the same lack of military astuteness that had caused him to delay in the mustering of the troops. Thus he was taken completely by surprise when Joab’s kiss of friendship ended up by being a sword in the body, which resulted in his bowels coming out and falling on the ground. We note that Joab did not need to strike twice. There was nothing inefficient about his military expertise. And in consequence Amasa died a traitor’s death.
It is made clear later that David did not approve of this execution (1 Kings 2:5), for when he could he preferred to exercise mercy, but there can be little doubt that he recognised that to quite some extent Joab had been justified in what he did the light of the urgency of a war situation. It was presumably that fact that prevented Joab from being punished. Considerable leeway had to be given to a successful general who had constant life and death decisions to make, even if it was stored up in the mind in order to affect future decisions.
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