1. A good-for-nothing man by the name of Sheba, Bichri’s son, from the tribe of Benjamin happened to be at Gilgal. He blew a ram’s horn ⌊to announce⌋,“We have no share in David’s kingdom.We won’t receive an inheritance from Jesse’s son.Everyone to his own tent, Israel!”
2. So all the people of Israel left David to follow Sheba, Bichri’s son. But the people of Judah remained loyal to their king ⌊on his way⌋ from the Jordan River to Jerusalem.
3. When David came to his palace in Jerusalem, he took the ten concubines he had left to look after the palace and put them in a house under guard. He provided for them but no longer slept with them. So they lived like widows in confinement until they died.
4. The king told Amasa, “Call the people of Judah together for me, and in three days be here yourself.”
5. Amasa went to call Judah together, but he took longer to do it than David had given him.
6. David then told Abishai, “Sheba, son of Bichri, will do us more harm than Absalom. Take my men and go after him, or he will find some fortified cities and take the best ones for himself.”
7. So Joab’s men, the Cherethites, Pelethites, and all the soldiers went with Abishai. They left Jerusalem to pursue Sheba, Bichri’s son.
8. When they were at the large rock in Gibeon, Amasa met them there. Joab wore a military uniform, and strapped over it at his hip was a sword in a scabbard. As he stepped forward, the sword dropped ⌊into his hand⌋.
9. “How are you, my brother?” Joab asked Amasa. He took hold of Amasa’s beard with his right hand to kiss him.
10. Amasa wasn’t on his guard against the sword in Joab’s ⌊left⌋ hand. Joab stabbed him in the stomach, and his intestines poured out on the ground. (He died without being stabbed again.) Then Joab and his brother Abishai pursued Sheba, son of Bichri.
11. One of Joab’s young men stood beside Amasa and said, “Anyone who favors Joab and is on David’s side should follow Joab.”
12. Amasa was wallowing in his blood in the middle of the road. When the man saw that all the troops stopped as they came to the body, he carried Amasa from the road to the field and threw a sheet over him.
13. As soon as he was moved from the road, everyone followed Joab and pursued Sheba, Bichri’s son.