2 Samuel 20: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

After Absalom's revolt ends, a Benjamite named Sheba calls Israel to abandon David, and the northern tribes follow him while Judah stays with the king. David sends Abishai and Joab's men after Sheba; on the way Joab kills Amasa, the commander David had appointed in his place, and takes over the pursuit. Joab besieges Sheba in Abel of Beth-maacah until a wise woman of the city negotiates with him, and the townspeople throw Sheba's head over the wall. The chapter closes with a list of David's chief officials.

Claim by Claim

1. 20:1
   • A worthless, lawless man happened to be there.
   • His name was Sheba son of Bichri.
   • He was a Benjamite.
   • He blew a ram's horn.
   • He said that they had no share in David.
   • He said that they had no inheritance in the son of Jesse.
   • He called every man of Israel to go to his tents.
2. 20:2
   • Every man of Israel went up from following David.
   • Every man of Israel followed Sheba son of Bichri.
   • The men of Judah clung to their king.
   • The men of Judah stayed with him from the Jordan as far as Jerusalem.
3. 20:3
   • David came to his house in Jerusalem.
   • The king took the ten concubine women.
   • He had left those ten women to keep the house.
   • He put them in a house under guard.
   • He provided food for them.
   • He did not go in to them.
   • They were shut up until the day of their death.
   • They lived as widows.
4. 20:4
   • The king said to Amasa to summon the men of Judah to him within three days.
   • The king told Amasa to be present there himself.
5. 20:5
   • Amasa went to summon Judah.
   • Amasa delayed beyond the appointed time set for him.
6. 20:6
   • David said to Abishai that Sheba son of Bichri would now do them more harm than Absalom had.
   • David told Abishai to take his lord's servants.
   • David told Abishai to pursue Sheba.
   • David said this was lest Sheba find fortified cities and escape from their sight.
7. 20:7
   • Joab's men went out after him.
   • The Cherethites went out after him.
   • The Pelethites went out after him.
   • All the mighty men went out after him.
   • They went out from Jerusalem to pursue Sheba son of Bichri.
8. 20:8
   • They were at the great stone that is in Gibeon.
   • Amasa came before them.
   • Joab was girded with his military garment as his clothing.
   • Over it was a belt with a sword fastened on his loins in its sheath.
   • As he went forward, the sword fell out.
9. 20:9
   • Joab asked Amasa whether he was well, calling him his brother.
   • Joab's right hand took hold of Amasa's beard to kiss him.
10. 20:10
    • Amasa was not on guard against the sword in Joab's hand.
    • Joab struck him with it in the belly.
    • Amasa's intestines spilled out on the ground.
    • Joab did not strike him a second time.
    • Amasa died.
    • Joab and his brother Abishai pursued Sheba son of Bichri.
11. 20:11
    • One of Joab's young men stood beside Amasa.
    • He said that whoever delighted in Joab and whoever was for David should follow after Joab.
12. 20:12
    • Amasa lay wallowing in his blood in the middle of the highway.
    • The man saw that all the people were standing still.
    • He moved Amasa from the highway into the field.
    • He threw a garment over him.
    • He did this because he saw that everyone who came upon Amasa stood still.
13. 20:13
    • Once Amasa was removed from the highway, all the men passed on after Joab.
    • They went to pursue Sheba son of Bichri.
14. 20:14
    • He went through all the tribes of Israel to Abel and Beth-maacah.
    • He went through all the Berites.
    • They assembled together.
    • They also went after him.
15. 20:15
    • They came and besieged him in Abel of Beth-maacah.
    • They cast up a siege mound against the city.
    • The mound stood against the outer rampart.
    • All the people with Joab were battering the wall to bring it down.
16. 20:16
    • A wise woman called out from the city.
    • She called for them to listen.
    • She asked them to tell Joab to come near there.
    • She said she wished to speak with him.
17. 20:17
    • Joab came near to her.
    • The woman asked whether he was Joab.
    • He answered that he was.
    • She told him to hear the words of his handmaid.
    • He answered that he was listening.
18. 20:18
    • The woman said that in former times people used to say that they should surely seek counsel at Abel.
    • She said that in this way they settled the matter.
19. 20:19
    • She said she was among the peaceable and faithful of Israel.
    • She said Joab was seeking to destroy a city that was a mother in Israel.
    • She asked why he would swallow up the inheritance of the LORD.
20. 20:20
    • Joab answered.
    • Joab said far be it, far be it from him that he should swallow up or destroy.
21. 20:21
    • Joab said the matter was not so.
    • Joab said a man from the hill country of Ephraim, named Sheba son of Bichri, had lifted up his hand against the king, against David.
    • Joab said to hand over that man alone.
    • Joab said he would then depart from the city.
    • The woman said to Joab that Sheba's head would be thrown to him over the wall.
22. 20:22
    • The woman went to all the people with her wisdom.
    • They cut off the head of Sheba son of Bichri.
    • They threw the head out to Joab.
    • Joab blew the ram's horn.
    • The men dispersed from the city, each to his tents.
    • Joab returned to Jerusalem to the king.
23. 20:23
    • Joab was over all the army of Israel.
    • Benaiah son of Jehoiada was over the Cherethites and over the Pelethites.
24. 20:24
    • Adoram was over the forced labor.
    • Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud was the recorder.
25. 20:25
    • Sheva was the scribe.
    • Zadok and Abiathar were priests.
26. 20:26
    • Ira the Jairite was also a priest to David.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

20:1

"A worthless troublemaker" translates the Hebrew phrase "a man of Belial," a standard insult for someone lawless and destructive. The ram's horn (shofar) was the normal way to signal an assembly, an alarm, or a call to arms across open country. Calling David "the son of Jesse" rather than "the king" is deliberately dismissive: it names him as an ordinary man from an ordinary family. "Everyone go home" (King James "every man to his tents") was the set phrase for breaking up a national gathering and withdrawing allegiance; "tents" survives from the days of a wandering people and by this period simply meant "home." Sheba's tribe matters: Benjamin was the tribe of Saul, the king David replaced, and it had never fully accepted David's rule.

20:2

This follows directly on the collapse of Absalom's rebellion. David is on his way back to the capital, escorted by the men of Judah, when the northern tribes break away again. The split here, Israel (the northern tribes) against Judah (the south), is the same fault line that will permanently divide the kingdom two generations later.

20:3

"Secondary wives" translates a word usually rendered "concubines": legally recognized wives of lower rank, whose children had a weaker claim than those of a chief wife. These particular ten are the women Absalom had publicly taken during his revolt as a way of claiming his father's throne. David can neither send them away nor take them back, so they are kept in a guarded house, supported for life but living "as widows", a woman with no husband and no prospect of one.

20:4

Amasa had been the commander of Absalom's rebel army; David appointed him head of the national army after the revolt, replacing Joab. Joab, who had killed Absalom against David's orders, had just been demoted in his favor.

20:6

Abishai was Joab's brother; both were sons of David's sister Zeruiah, and Amasa was their cousin. "Your master's servants" means David's own professional soldiers, as opposed to the militia of ordinary men that Amasa had been sent to muster. Walled cities were the only defensible strongholds in the country; once inside one, a rebel could hold out indefinitely.

20:7

The Cherethites and Pelethites were David's personal guard, a unit of foreign professional soldiers, the names are generally taken to indicate Cretan and Philistine origin. Being outsiders, they had no tribal loyalties and were dependable in exactly this kind of internal revolt. "Fighting men" renders a term for David's corps of elite veteran warriors.

20:8

Gibeon lay a few miles north-west of Jerusalem; the "great stone" was a known landmark. The Hebrew of the sword slipping out is obscure and has been read two ways: either the blade genuinely fell loose and Joab picked it up, or he let it drop on purpose so as to be holding a weapon openly in a way that looked accidental. The ambiguity is in the original.

20:9

Taking a man by the beard with the right hand was the ordinary gesture of an affectionate greeting between kinsmen or equals, and it puts the greeter's weapon hand where the other man can see it. It also brings Joab close enough to strike.

20:10

The King James "smote him in the fifth rib" is an old attempt at a Hebrew phrase meaning the belly or abdomen. Joab has now killed the second rival to his command: he had earlier killed Abner the same way, in the same place on the body, with the same false greeting.

20:11

The young man is forcing a choice out loud. With the newly appointed commander dead on the road, every soldier has to decide on the spot whether Joab is a murderer to be answered for or the man they are now following, and the shout links following Joab with staying loyal to David.

20:12

A body left in the open road brought the advancing column to a halt: passers-by stopped to stare, and contact with a corpse also made an Israelite ritually unclean, so no one would simply step over it. Covering it and dragging it into the field cleared the road.

20:14

Abel of Beth-maacah lay at the far northern edge of Israelite territory, near the sources of the Jordan, Sheba has run the whole length of the country. "The Berites" is uncertain; the Hebrew word here is obscure and may be a place name, a clan name, or a copying error.

20:15

Standard siege technique: attackers heaped earth and rubble into a ramp up against the city's defenses until it reached the top of the outer wall, then used it as a platform to batter or climb over. "Trapped him inside" is the sense of the older word "besieged", surrounded the town so no one could leave.

20:16

A "wise woman" was a recognized role, not just a compliment. Such women were known locally for skill in negotiation, proverbs and settling disputes, and could speak with authority on a town's behalf, which is why Joab takes her seriously enough to walk up to the wall.

20:17

"Thine handmaid" means "your servant." It was a polite, humble way to speak to someone powerful.

20:18

The woman is quoting a proverb: Abel had an old reputation as the place you went to have a dispute arbitrated, so a matter taken there was considered settled. Her point is that a town of this standing should be talked to, not stormed. The Hebrew of the saying is compressed and its exact wording is disputed.

20:19

"A mother in Israel" was the standard term for a chief town that had smaller villages depending on it, a mother city with her daughters. "What belongs to the LORD" translates "the inheritance of the LORD": the land and people assigned to Israel by God, portioned out among the tribes as a permanent family holding. Destroying an Israelite town meant permanently removing a piece of that holding.

20:21

"Raised his hand against the king" is the fixed idiom for armed rebellion against a ruler. The hill country of Ephraim is the highland region north of Jerusalem; Sheba's Benjamite territory bordered it. Handing over a single named rebel in exchange for lifting a siege was a recognized negotiated outcome in ancient warfare.

20:22

The horn signals the end of the operation, and the men disperse "each to his own place", the same phrase Sheba used to start the revolt in verse 1, now closing it.

20:23

Verses 23 to 26 are a list of David's chief officials, the equivalent of naming a cabinet. A near-identical list appears earlier in 2 Samuel 8; such lists were a normal way for ancient records to mark the settled shape of a reign. Joab, despite murdering the man David appointed over him, is back in command of the army.

20:24

"In charge of the workers forced to labour for the king" translates an office covering conscripted labor gangs, subjects required to work on royal building projects without pay. It was deeply resented; the man holding this post was later stoned to death by a mob. The "recorder" was a senior court officer, something between royal herald and keeper of the official annals, not a mere note-taker.

20:25

The "secretary" (King James "scribe") was the king's chief writing officer, handling correspondence, treaties and state documents, a high government post. Zadok and Abiathar held the chief priesthood jointly, which was unusual; each represented a different priestly line.

20:26

The Hebrew says Ira was "priest to David," but Ira was not from the priestly tribe, and the King James translators instead rendered it "chief ruler," understanding the word here to mean a personal adviser or royal chaplain-like official. Both readings are defensible and the point is unresolved.