Bible Commentaries
2 Samuel 20

Verse 1

And there happened to be there a man of Belial, whose name was Sheba, the son of Bichri, a Benjamite: and he blew a trumpet, and said, We have no part in David, neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: every man to his tents, O Israel.

Sheba ... a Benjamite. Though nothing is known of this man, he must have been a person of considerable power and influence ere he could have raised so sudden and extensive a sedition. He belonged to the tribe of Benjamin, where the adherents of Saul's dynasty were still numerous, and perceiving the strong disgust of the other tribes with the part assumed by Judah in the Restoration his ill-designing heart resolved to turn it to the overthrow of David's authority in Israel.

Every man to his tents. This proverbial expression may have had its foundation in the fact that many of the Israelite peasantry adhered to the custom of the patriarchs who tilled land, and yet lived in tents, as Syrian peasants often do still. This was the usual watchword of national insurrection, and from the actual temper of the people, it was followed by effects beyond what he probably anticipated.

Verse 2

So every man of Israel went up from after David, and followed Sheba the son of Bichri: but the men of Judah clave unto their king, from Jordan even to Jerusalem.

From Jordan even to Jerusalem. The quarrel had broken out shortly after the crossing of the Jordan, between Judah and the other tribes who withdrew, so that Judah was left nearly alone, to conduct the king to the metropolis. Thus, it happened that at a moment when there was the greatest need of harmony and union, there was the most imminent danger of a worse dismemberment than before, and of the rejection by the greater portion of Israel of a king in whose favour Yahweh had but recently given decisive testimony.

Verse 3

And David came to his house at Jerusalem; and the king took the ten women his concubines, whom he had left to keep the house, and put them in ward, and fed them, but went not in unto them. So they were shut up unto the day of their death, living in widowhood.

The king took the ten women his concubines. Jewish writers say that the widowed queens of Hebrew monarchs were not allowed to marry again, but were obliged to pass the rest of their lives in strict seclusion. So are the wives of the emperor of China. On the death of the reigning sovereign all his women are transferred from the palace to a separate mansion, where they live in seclusion during the rest of their lives (Macarlney, p. 375). David treated his concubines in the same manner, after the outrage committed on them by Absalom. They were not divorced, because they were guiltless; but they were no longer publicly recognized as his wives; nor was their confinement to a sequestered life a very heavy doom, in a region where women have never been accustomed to go much abroad.

Verse 4

Then said the king to Amasa, Assemble me the men of Judah within three days, and be thou here present.

Then said the king to Amasa, Assemble me the men of Judah within three days. Amasa is now installed in the command which David had promised him. The revolt of the ten tribes probably hastened the public declaration of this appointment, which he hoped would be popular with them, and Amass was ordered within three days to levy a force from Judah sufficient to put down the insurrection. The appointment was a blunder, and the king soon perceived his error. The specified time passed, but Amasa could not muster the men. Dreading the loss of time, the king gave a commission to assemble the royal body-guard to Abishai, and not to Joab-a new affront, which no doubt wounded the pride of the stern and haughty old general. But he hastened, with his attached soldiers, to go as second to his brother, determined to take the first opportunity of wreaking his vengeance on his successful rival.

Verse 5

So Amasa went to assemble the men of Judah: but he tarried longer than the set time which he had appointed him.

No JFB commentary on this verse.

Verse 6

And David said to Abishai, Now shall Sheba the son of Bichri do us more harm than did Absalom: take thou thy lord's servants, and pursue after him, lest he get him fenced cities, and escape us.

David said to Abishai ... take thou thy lord's servants, and pursue after him, lest he ... escape us, [ hatsiyl (H5337) `eeyneenuw (H5869), turn away our eyes - i:e., elude our sight; Septuagint, skiasei tous ofthalmous heemoon].

Verse 7

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.

No JFB commentary on this verse.

Verse 8

When they were at the great stone which is in Gibeon, Amasa went before them. And Joab's garment that he had put on was girded unto him, and upon it a girdle with a sword fastened upon his loins in the sheath thereof; and as he went forth it fell out.

Amasa went before them. Having collected some forces, he by a rapid march overtook the expedition at Gibson, and assumed the place of commander, in which capacity he was saluted, among others, by Joab.

Joab's garment ... was girded - in the fashion of travelers and soldiers.

A girdle with a sword fastened upon his loins, [ maatªnaayw (H4975) = his side (cf. Ezekiel 9:2-3)]. This statement receives ample illustration from the Assyrian sculptures, on which warriors are depicted, their swords not on their thigh, but on the loin or side.

A sword ... and as he went forth it fell out - i:e., out of the scabbard. The sword or dagger was fixed into the girdle in a horizontal direction, not suspended from it. In this position Joab's sword falling out of the large sheath might appear an accident very likely to happen; whereas it could not possibly have fallen out had it hung loosely and perpendicularly, like the swords of the moderns. According to Josephus, he let it drop on purpose, as he was accosting Amasa, that stooping, as it were accidentally, to pick it up, he might salute the new general with the naked sword in his hand, without exciting any suspicion of his design. He "went forth" in a ceremonious manner to meet Amasa, now commander-in-chief, in order to seem to render to that officer, whom he considered as usurping his post, a conspicuous honour and homage.

Verse 9

And Joab said to Amasa Art thou in health my brother? And Joab took Amasa by the beard with the right And Joab said to Amasa, Art thou in health, my brother? And Joab took Amasa by the beard with the right hand to kiss him.

Took Amasa by the beard with the right hand to kiss him. This act, common with two friends on meeting, when one of them was come from a journey ('kissing of the beard' is always a token of warm greeting), indicates respect as well as kindliness; and the performance of it evinced the deep hypocrisy of Joab, who thereby put Amasa off his guard. No wonder, then, that while this act of friendly words of congratulation, after long absence, occupied Amasa's attention, he did not perceive the sword that was in Joab's left hand. The action of Joab was indeed a high compliment, but neither suspicious nor unusual; and to this compliment, Amasa paying attention, and no doubt returning it with suitable politeness, he could little expect the fatal event that Joab's perfidy produced.

Verse 10

But Amasa took no heed to the sword that was in Joab's hand: so he smote him therewith in the fifth rib, and shed out his bowels to the ground, and struck him not again; and he died. So Joab and Abishai his brother pursued after Sheba the son of Bichri.

Smote him ... in the fifth rib. The seat of the liver and bowels, where wounds are mortal.

Struck him not again - i:e., despatched him at the first blow.

Verse 11

And one of Joab's men stood by him, and said, He that favoureth Joab, and he that is for David, let him go after Joab.

He that favoureth Joab, and he that is for David, let him go after Joab. On the fall of Amasa, Joab of his own accord, assumed the command; and it is a striking proof of his unrivalled influence over the army, that with this villainous murder perpetrated before their eyes, they unanimously followed him as their leader in pursuit of Sheba. A soldier conjoined his name with David's, and such a magic spell was in the world. "Joab," that all the people "went on" - Amasa's men as well as the rest. The conjunction of these two names is very significant. It shows that the one could not afford to do without the other-neither Joab to rebel against David, nor David to get rid of Joab, though hating him.

Verses 12-13

And Amasa wallowed in blood in the midst of the highway. And when the man saw that all the people stood still, he removed Amasa out of the highway into the field, and cast a cloth upon him, when he saw that every one that came by him stood still.

No JFB commentary on these verses.

Verse 14

And he went through all the tribes of Israel unto Abel, and to Beth-ma'achah, and all the Berites: and they were gathered together, and went also after him.

He went through all the tribes of Israel unto Abel - beating up for recruits. But there the prompt marches of Joab overtook and hemmed him in by a close siege of the place.

Verse 15

And they came and besieged him in Abel of Beth-ma'achah, and they cast up a bank against the city, and it stood in the trench: and all the people that were with Joab battered the wall, to throw it down.

Abel of Beth-maachah - or Abel-maim (the meadow of waters) (cf. 1 Kings 15:20; 2 Kings 15:29; 2 Chronicles 16:4). A verdant place-the addition of "maachah" betokening that it belonged to the district Maachah, which lay far up the Jordan, at the foot of Lebanon. The first preparation for a siege was the construction of a causeway or embankment for wheeling the battering rams and other military machines close to the wall. These consisted sometimes simply of immense mounds of earth, at other times the heap of earth was largely mixed with branches of trees, or a rude pathway was formed of stones or brickwork. Such a construction was necessary, especially where there was a moat or trench round the city, as there appears to have been at Abel. Numerous illustrations of these military processes for carrying on a siege are found depicted on the monuments of Assyria and Egypt.

Verse 16

Then cried a wise woman out of the city, Hear, hear; say, I pray you, unto Joab, Come near hither, that I may speak with thee. Then cried a wise woman. The appeal of this woman, who, like Deborah, was probably a judge or governess of the place, was a strong one.

Verse 17

And when he was come near unto her, the woman said, Art thou Joab? And he answered, I am he. Then she said unto him, Hear the words of thine handmaid. And he answered, I do hear.

No JFB commentary on this verse.

Verse 18

Then she spake, saying, They were wont to speak in old time, saying, They shall surely ask counsel at Abel: and so they ended the matter.

They were wont to speak in old time. The translation on the margin gives a better meaning, which is to this effect: When the people saw thee lay siege to Abel, they said, Surely he will ask if we will have peace; because the law (Deuteronomy 20:10) prescribes that he should offer peace to strangers, much more then to Israelite cities; and if he do this, we shall soon bring things to an amicable agreement, because we are a peaceable people. The answer of Joab brings out the character of that ruthless veteran as a patriot at heart, who, on securing the author of this insurrection, was ready to put a stop to further bloodshed, and release the peaceable inhabitants from all molestation.

Verse 19

I am one of them that are peaceable and faithful in Israel: thou seekest to destroy a city and a mother in Israel: why wilt thou swallow up the inheritance of the LORD?

Thou seekest to destroy ... and a mother in Israel. The woman might mean herself by the use of this last expression, which is applied to another female governor, Deborah (Judges 5:7); but it is more probable that she intended it to refer to the city Abel, which, with the circumjacent villages, was "a mother in Israel." (See this use of the phrase, Numbers 21:25; Numbers 21:32; Numbers 32:42; Joshua 17:11; Judges 11:26.)

Verses 20-22

And Joab answered and said, Far be it, far be it from me, that I should swallow up or destroy.

No JFB commentary on these verses.

Verse 23

Now Joab was over all the host of Israel: and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the Cherethites and over the Pelethites:

Now Joab was over all the host. David, whatever his private wishes, found that he possessed not the power of removing Josh; so, winking at the murder of Amasa, he re-establisbed that officer in his former post of commander-in-chief. The enumeration of David's cabinet is here given to show that the government was re-established in its normal course.