Episode 128: Amasa and Sheba are murdered

2 Samuel 20

Sheba blew a trumpet

20 ¹ There was a man named Sheba (a man of Belial) who blew a trumpet and said,

We don’t want anything to do with David.

Everyone in Israel should go home.

² So everyone in Israel left David to follow Sheba.

But the people of Judah stayed with David.

David punishes his concubines (for being publicly raped by his son Absalom)

³ When David returned to his house in Jerusalem, he punished his ten concubines for being publicly raped by his son by refusing to have sex with them and forced them to "keep house" for the rest of their lives.

Joab murders Amasa (by smiting him under the fifth rib)

⁴ David said to Amasa,

Gather the men of Judah and bring them to me within three days.

⁵ But after three days, Amasa hadn’t brought the men of Judah.

⁶ David said to Abishai,

Sheba is even more of a threat to us than was Absalom.

Go get him. Don't let him escape.

⁷ So Abishai, Joab, and the mighty men went to find Sheba.

⁸ On their way, they found Amasa in Gibeon. ⁹Joab came up to him and grabbed his beard, as if to kiss him, and said, "How are you, my brother?"

¹⁰ But instead of kissing him, he smote him in the fifth rib, and all his bowels spilled out.

¹² And he wallowed in his own blood in the midst of the highway.

¹³ After Amasa's body was removed from the highway, they went on to chase after Sheba.

Sheba is decapitated (and his head is thrown over the wall)

¹⁵ When they came to the city of Abel, they besieged it and began to batter the wall.

¹⁶ Then a woman cried out, saying,

¹⁹ Why are you trying to destroy our city?

²⁰ Joab said,

I don't want to destroy it. I just want Sheba.

Deliver him and we'll leave your city alone.

²¹ The woman said,

Okay. We'll throw his head over the wall.

²² So they cut off Sheba's head and threw it over the wall.

Then Joab blew his trumpet, and everyone went home.