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again to have recourse to Abishai, or rather, through him, to Joab.^35 There was now no
lack of trusty warriors, and the expedition at once moved northwards.
The forces, under the leadership of Abishai and Joab, had reached the great stone at
Gibeon, when Amasa "came to meet them"^36 from the opposite direction, no doubt, on
his way to Jerusalem. Joab was, as usual, "girt with his armor-coat as a garment, and
upon it the girdle of the sword, bound upon his loins, in its scabbard; and it [the
scabbard] came out, and it [the sword] fell out."^37
Amasa seems to have been so startled by this unexpected appearance of a host with
another leader as to have lost all presence of mind. He saw not the sword which Joab
picked up from the ground, and now held low down in his left hand, but allowed his
treacherous relative to take him by the beard, as if to kiss him, so that the sword ran
into the lower part of his body. Probably Joab, while determined to rid himself of his
rival, had adopted this plan, in the hope of leaving it open to doubt whether Amasa's
death had been the result of accident or of criminal intention. Then, as if there were not
time for delay, Joab and Abishai left the body weltering where it had fallen, and
hastened on their errand.
It was a dreadful sight; and not all the urgency of the soldier whom Joab had posted by
the dead or dying man could prevent the people from lingering, horror-stricken, around
him. At last the body had to be removed. It had been left on the ground, probably alike
as a mark of contempt and a warning to others not to provoke the jealousy of Joab. And
now David's army was in full chase after Sheba and his adherents. They followed him
through the whole land up to the far north among the fortresses^38 by the Lake Merom,
where he was at last tracked to Abel, or rather, Abel-Beth-maachah.
To this fortress Joab now laid siege. Its destruction, however, was averted by the
wisdom of one of its women. Demanding speech of Joab from the city-wall, she
reminded the general that the people of Abel had been famed, not for being rash in
action, but rather wise and deliberate in counsel. Had Joab ever asked whether the town
of Abel, which he was about to destroy, shared the views of Sheba, or took part in the
rebellion? She, and, by implication, her fellow-citizens, were quite the contrary of
turbulent conspirators. How, then, could Joab act so unpatriotically, so un-Jewishly, as
to wish to destroy a city and a mother in Israel, and to swallow up the inheritance of
Jehovah? And when Joab explained that it was not the destruction of a peaceable city,
but the suppression of a rebellion which he sought, she proposed, as a speedy end to all
trouble, that Sheba should be killed, and, in evidence of it, his head thrown over the
wall. It was an easy mode of ridding themselves both of a troublesome visitor and of a
terrible danger, - and the gory head cast at his feet convinced Joab that the rebellion
was at an end, that he might retire from the city, dismiss his army, and return to
(^)