2 Samuel 20
The kingdom is whole again, but the wounds of Absalom's rebellion run deep. Judah and Israel have found their way back together - but their unity is fragile. In this moment, a man of Belial raises a new cry, almost identical to the one that will tear the kingdom apart forty years later. "We have no part in David," he cries. "Every man to his tents, O Israel." The rebellion is small, quickly crushed. But it foreshadows something larger - the eventual split of north from south that will last until the exile.
As the chapter unfolds, we see the collateral damage of Absalom's rebellion - ten concubines confined to widowhood for life, innocent suffering for a sin not theirs. We watch Joab move down yet another rival, this time Amasa, with a sword hidden in his garment. And we encounter one of Scripture's most remarkable figures: a wise woman who saves a city by speaking what the people need to hear. She stands in a tradition of female wisdom that echoes through the Bible - from Deborah to Esther to the Samaritan woman at the well. Her voice reminds us that wisdom is not found only in armies or in power. Sometimes it is found in the counsel of those the powerful overlook.
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People in this chapter
Son of David’s sister Zeruiah; commanded the army through every campaign. Killed Abner in revenge; arranged Uriah’s death at David’s order; killed Absalom against David’s explicit command; backed Adonijah at the end. Solomon executed him at Joab’s request near the altar.
2 Samuel 20:1-2Sheba's Cry: "We Have No Part in David"
1And there happened to be 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 is a Benjamite - part of Saul's old tribe, the tribe that lost the kingdom when David was chosen. The deep resentment lingers. And Sheba's cry is not new. Listen: "We have no part in David, neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse." Nearly identical words will be shouted over the corpse of King Solomon's son, forty years from now, when the kingdom splits into north and south - "What portion have we in David? Neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: to your tents, O Israel" (1 Kings 12:16). Sheba foreshadows the final break. He plants the very seed that will grow into the division that lasts until the Babylonian captivity.123
2So 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.
The moment is a watershed. Israel - the northern tribes - breaks away from David. Judah holds fast. The fracture line runs along tribal identity, along old wounds, along a resentment so deep that it takes only one man with a trumpet to rend the kingdom in two. The unity that came after Absalom is revealed as fragile. A single voice can tear it open again.
2 Samuel 20:3The Ten Concubines Left Bereft
3And 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.
David confines the ten concubines to a house - they are guarded, imprisoned in their own home. They are not killed, but they are cut off from life. In the ancient world, a concubine without a king was a woman without status, without future, without escape.
David provides for them - they are fed, cared for in the material sense. He is not cruel in the way kings often were. But he feeds them as one might feed animals in a pen. They are alive, but their lives are over.
David does not go in unto them. He does not take them as wives or concubines again. This is significant - he has cut off even the possibility of future children, future hope. They are suspended in time, neither dead nor living, neither free nor enslaved in the normal sense. They live as widows, though their husband still draws breath.
These women did nothing. They were left in David's house, and Absalom defiled them (16:22) - an act of public humiliation meant to destroy his father. Now they pay the price for a sin they did not commit, inflicted upon them by a son they did not raise, set in stone by a father who cannot face the wound. Their lifelong confinement is the bitter fruit of Absalom's rebellion - innocent suffering for a sin not their own.
2 Samuel 20:4-12Joab's Hand (Again)
4Then said the king to Amasa, Assemble me the men of Judah within three days, and be thou here present. 5So Amasa went to assemble the men of Judah: but he tarried longer than the set time which he had appointed him.
Amasa is David's general now - chosen to replace Joab. This is an extraordinary appointment. Amasa had been Absalom's general during the rebellion (2 Sam. 17:25). He stood on the other side. But David, in his desire to heal the wounds of the kingdom, has chosen him. Trust him. Raise him to power. And Amasa is slow to muster the men. Perhaps he is overwhelmed. Perhaps he is testing his authority. Or perhaps he simply cannot move as quickly as the moment demands.
6And David said to Abishai, Now shall Sheba the son of Bichri do us more harm than did Absalom: take thou thy lord's servants, pursue after him, lest he get him fenced cities, and escape us.
Impatient, David turns to Abishai - Joab's brother. The chain of command bypasses Amasa. And Abishai takes an army with him. One general is being sidelined for another. The kingdom is not at peace. The old lines of power are asserting themselves.
7So Joab's men and the Cherethites and the Pelethites, and all the mighty men went out after him: and they departed out of Jerusalem, to pursue after Sheba the son of Bichri. 8When they were at the great stone 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; as he went forth it fell out.
They meet at Gibeon - a place laden with memory. It was here that Joab first encountered Abner, Saul's general (2 Sam. 2:12-17). And now, Joab moves toward Amasa with the same purpose he moved then. Amasa is in his way. Amasa has been raised above him. Amasa is a rival who will not last.
9And Joab said to Amasa, Art thou in health, my brother? And Joab took Amasa by the beard with his right hand to kiss him.
Joab greets Amasa as a brother and moves to kiss him - the gesture of greeting, of peace, of covenant. But the gesture masks the knife. Judas will use the same greeting to betray Jesus: "Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he; take him" (Matt. 26:48). The kiss of greeting becomes the sign of death.
10But 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.
Amasa sees no sword in Joab's hand because it fell out of the sheath as Joab walked (v. 8). He is unsuspecting. The strike is surgical and final - a single blow to the fifth rib, the wound that undoes. Joab does not strike again because one blow is enough. He knows his craft.
This is the third time Joab has dispatched a rival. He killed Abner with a kiss (2 Sam. 3:27). He contrived the death of Uriah (2 Sam. 11:14-15, with David's connivance). He killed Absalom, hanging him in the oak (2 Sam. 18:14). Now Amasa. Joab is a dangerous man - brilliant, ruthless, absolutely necessary to David's kingdom and absolutely uncontrolled by any law but his own. He is a picture of power divorced from mercy, of the general who serves the king by becoming a murderer in his own right.
11And 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. 12And 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.
Amasa lies bleeding in the road - a corpse that freezes the pursuit. His body becomes an obstacle. Someone (one of Joab's men) removes him from the highway into the field, covers him with a cloth, and the army moves on. The message is stark: Joab has taken command. The rival is gone. The moment of hesitation is erased. Power has shifted, and the pursuit continues.
2 Samuel 20:13-22The Woman Who Saved Her City
13When he was removed out of the highway, all the people went on after Joab, to pursue after Sheba the son of Bichri. 14And he went through all the tribes of Israel unto Abel, and to Beth-maachah, and all the Berites: and they gathered together, and went also after him. 15And they came and besieged him in Abel of Beth-maachah, and 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 is a walled city in northern Israel, where Sheba has fled and holed up. Joab surrounds it, builds siege ramps, batters the walls. The city will fall. It is only a matter of time and strength. No one can help the people inside.
16Then 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.
A woman calls out from the walls. She is unnamed, unidentified by lineage or status - simply "a wise woman." But the text announces her character before she speaks. In 2 Samuel 14, another wise woman - the woman of Tekoah - persuaded David to restore Absalom. Here is a second woman whose wisdom will turn the course of events. Wisdom is not found only in kings and generals. Sometimes it is found in a woman whose name the Bible does not record, who speaks from the walls of a condemned city.
17And when he was come near unto her, the woman said, Art thou Joab? And he said, I am he. Then she said to him, Hear the words of thine handmaid. 18And 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.
The woman reminds Joab of Abel's reputation. "They shall surely ask counsel at Abel." The city was known for wisdom. When disputes arose, people sought Abel for counsel. "And so they ended the matter" - counsel given, the matter was settled. The woman is invoking memory, history, precedent. Abel is not just another city. It is a city of wisdom.
19I 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?
The woman identifies herself: "I am one of them that are peaceable and faithful in Israel." She is not Sheba. She is not a rebel. She is one of the people Joab is supposed to protect, not destroy.
Abel is a "mother in Israel" - a city that gives life, that nurses, that nurtures the people. The phrase conjures an image of motherhood, care, lineage. To destroy Abel is to destroy something maternal in Israel itself. The woman is framing this not as a military question but as a moral one. You are going to kill a mother. Is that what you mean to do?
20And Joab answered and said, Far be it, far be it from me, that I should swallow up or destroy. 21The matter is not so: but a man of mount Ephraim, Sheba the son of Bichri by name, hath lifted up his hand against the king, even against David: deliver him only, and I will depart from the city.
Joab responds with clarity. He does not deny the truth the woman has spoken. "Far be it from me" - he says it twice, emphasizing the point. But he reframes the issue. This is not about destroying a city. It is about catching one man - Sheba - who has "lifted up his hand against the king." Deliver the rebel, and the siege ends. The city is spared.
22And the woman said unto Joab, Behold, his head shall be thrown to thee over the wall. So the woman went to all the people in her wisdom. And they cut off the head of Sheba the son of Bichri, and cast it out to Joab. And Joab blew a trumpet, and retired from the city, every man to his tent. And Joab returned to Jerusalem unto the king.
The woman goes to the people. No argument. No debate. She simply speaks, and the people understand. They cut off Sheba's head and cast it over the wall. The rebellion is ended. The city is spared. Joab sounds the trumpet of retreat, and the army withdraws. The woman has done what armies could not do without bloodshed - she has turned the people, spoken to their conscience, reminded them of who they are.
2 Samuel 20:23-26David's Kingdom in Order
23Now Joab was over all the host of Israel: and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the Cherethites and the Pelethites: 24And Adoram was over the tribute: and Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was the recorder: 25And Sheva was the scribe: and Zadok and Abiathar were the priests: 26And Ira the Jairite was a chief ruler about David.
Benaiah is over the Cherethites and Pelethites - David's foreign bodyguard, loyal directly to him. Benaiah will later serve David's son Solomon and help secure his throne. He is a younger power, rising.
Jehoshaphat is the recorder - the keeper of records, the one who chronicles the kingdom's decisions and deeds. The recorder is a keeper of memory.
Sheva is the scribe - not the same as the recorder. The scribe handles the king's correspondence, drafts decrees, keeps the administrative machinery moving. Knowledge and writing are concentrated in a small group.
Zadok and Abiathar are the priests. Abiathar has been with David since the beginning - a refugee priest who fled Saul. Zadok is newer to David's service, rising in prominence. Eventually Abiathar will fall and Zadok will remain, a signal of the succession to come (Solomon will back Zadok, 1 Kings 2:35).
Ira the Jairite is listed as "a chief ruler about David." His exact role is unclear - perhaps a counselor, perhaps a trusted lieutenant. He appears in the lists of David's mighty men. Presence in these lists is a form of honor, a recording of loyalty and service.
Notice what is remarkable: Joab is over all the host, but he is not the whole of government. There are scribes, priests, recorders, tribute officials, foreign bodyguards. There is a kingdom - structured, layered, with multiple lines of authority. The chaos of the rebellion has given way to order. The succession is being prepared without being named. Benaiah is rising. Zadok is rising. The old men (Abiathar) are beginning to fade. And through it all, David remains the figure around whom everything is organized.
Further study
- David as King of IsraelSefariaDavid's consolidation of power and establishment of monarchy over united Israel.
- City of David ExcavationsIsrael Antiquities AuthorityContinuous excavation revealing David-era structures and urban development in Jerusalem.
- Jerusalem CapturedBible Odyssey/SBLDavid's capture of the Jebusite city and establishment as Israel's capital.