²⁵ Absalom had appointed Amasa^(A) over the army in place of Joab. Amasa was the son of Jether,^[a](B) an Ishmaelite^[b] who had married Abigail,^[c] the daughter of Nahash and sister of Zeruiah the mother of Joab.

¹³ And say to Amasa,^(A) ‘Are you not my own flesh and blood?^(B) May God deal with me, be it ever so severely,^(C) if you are not the commander of my army for life in place of Joab.^(D)’”

⁹ Joab said to Amasa, “How are you, my brother?” Then Joab took Amasa by the beard with his right hand to kiss him. ¹⁰ Amasa was not on his guard against the dagger^(A) in Joab’s^(B) hand, and Joab plunged it into his belly, and his intestines spilled out on the ground. Without being stabbed again, Amasa died. Then Joab and his brother Abishai pursued Sheba son of Bikri.

¹¹ One of Joab’s men stood beside Amasa and said, “Whoever favors Joab, and whoever is for David, let him follow Joab!” ¹² Amasa lay wallowing in his blood in the middle of the road, and the man saw that all the troops came to a halt^(C) there. When he realized that everyone who came up to Amasa stopped, he dragged him from the road into a field and threw a garment over him.

³² The Lord will repay^(A) him for the blood he shed,^(B) because without my father David knowing it he attacked two men and killed them with the sword. Both of them—Abner son of Ner, commander of Israel’s army, and Amasa^(C) son of Jether, commander of Judah’s army—were better^(D) men and more upright than he.

⁵ “Now you yourself know what Joab^(A) son of Zeruiah did to me—what he did to the two commanders of Israel’s armies, Abner^(B) son of Ner and Amasa^(C) son of Jether. He killed them, shedding their blood in peacetime as if in battle, and with that blood he stained the belt around his waist and the sandals on his feet.

⁴ Then the king said to Amasa,^(A) “Summon the men of Judah to come to me within three days, and be here yourself.”