Sheba's Revolt and the Wise Woman of Abel
1 There happened to be there a wicked fellow, whose name was Sheba the son of Bichri, a Benjamite; and he blew the trumpet, and said, “We have no portion in David, neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse. Every man to his tents, Israel!” 2 So all the men of Israel went up from following David, and followed Sheba the son of Bichri; but the men of Judah joined with their king, from the Jordan even to Jerusalem. 3 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 custody and provided them with sustenance, but didn’t go in to them. So they were shut up to the day of their death, living in widowhood. 4 Then the king said to Amasa, “Call me the men of Judah together within three days, and be here present.” 5 So Amasa went to call the men of Judah together, but he stayed longer than the set time which had been appointed to him. 6 David said to Abishai, “Now Sheba the son of Bichri will do us more harm than Absalom did. Take your lord’s servants and pursue after him, lest he get himself fortified cities, and escape out of our sight.” 7 Joab’s men went out after him with the Cherethites, the Pelethites, and all the mighty men; and they went out of Jerusalem to pursue Sheba the son of Bichri. 8 When they were at the great stone which is in Gibeon, Amasa came to meet them. Joab was clothed in his apparel of war that he had put on, and on it was a sash with a sword fastened on his waist in its sheath; and as he went along it fell out. 9 Joab said to Amasa, “Is it well with you, my brother?” Joab took Amasa by the beard with his right hand to kiss him. 10 But Amasa took no heed to the sword that was in Joab’s hand. So he struck him with it in the body and shed out his bowels to the ground, and didn’t strike him again; and he died. Joab and Abishai his brother pursued Sheba the son of Bichri. 11 One of Joab’s young men stood by him, and said, “He who favors Joab, and he who is for David, let him follow Joab!” 12 Amasa lay wallowing in his blood in the middle of the highway. When the man saw that all the people stood still, he carried Amasa out of the highway into the field, and cast a garment over him when he saw that everyone who came by him stood still. 13 When he was removed out of the highway, all the people went on after Joab to pursue Sheba the son of Bichri. 14 He went through all the tribes of Israel to Abel, to Beth Maacah, and all the Berites. They were gathered together, and went also after him. 15 They came and besieged him in Abel of Beth Maacah, and they cast up a mound against the city, and it stood against the rampart; and all the people who were with Joab battered the wall to throw it down. 16 Then a wise woman cried out of the city, “Hear, hear! Please say to Joab, ‘Come near here, that I may speak with you.’” 17 He came near to her; and the woman said, “Are you Joab?” He answered, “I am.” Then she said to him, “Hear the words of your servant.” He answered, “I’m listening.” 18 Then she spoke, saying, “They used to say in old times, ‘They shall surely ask counsel at Abel,’ and so they settled a matter. 19 I am among those who are peaceable and faithful in Israel. You seek to destroy a city and a mother in Israel. Why will you swallow up Yahweh’s inheritance?” 20 Joab answered, “Far be it, far be it from me, that I should swallow up or destroy. 21 The matter is not so. But a man of the hill country of Ephraim, Sheba the son of Bichri by name, has lifted up his hand against the king, even against David. Just deliver him, and I will depart from the city.” The woman said to Joab, “Behold, his head will be thrown to you over the wall.” 22 Then the woman went to all the people in her wisdom. They cut off the head of Sheba the son of Bichri, and threw it out to Joab. He blew the trumpet, and they were dispersed from the city, every man to his tent. Then Joab returned to Jerusalem to the king. 23 Now Joab was over all the army of Israel, Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the Cherethites and over the Pelethites, 24 Adoram was over the men subject to forced labor, Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was the recorder, 25 Sheva was scribe, Zadok and Abiathar were priests, 26 and Ira the Jairite was chief minister to David.
A northern secession, another murder by Joab's hand, and a town saved by one woman who asks the besieger a question.
There happened to be there a wicked fellow, whose name was Sheba the son of Bichri, a Benjamite; and he blew the trumpet, and said, “We have no portion in David, neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse. Every man to his tents, Israel!”
One malcontent with a trumpet turns a quarrel at a ford into a secession, and the whole north walks away. The sentence should be remembered, because it is repeated almost word for word when the kingdom finally splits under Solomon's son 1 Kings 12:16. The fracture that ends Israel's united monarchy is already fully formed here; David reunites the country by force one more time, and the seam does not heal.
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 custody and provided them with sustenance, but didn’t go in to them. So they were shut up to the day of their death, living in widowhood.
The verse is easy to read past and should not be. Ten women were left behind as caretakers 2 Samuel 15:16, violated in public as a political signal 2 Samuel 16:22, and now spend the rest of their lives in provided-for confinement. They chose nothing at any stage. The account states their fate plainly and blames no one, which leaves the reader to notice that the sword promised to David's house fell hardest on people who had no part in his sin.
9 Joab said to Amasa, “Is it well with you, my brother?” Joab took Amasa by the beard with his right hand to kiss him. 10 But Amasa took no heed to the sword that was in Joab’s hand. So he struck him with it in the body and shed out his bowels to the ground, and didn’t strike him again; and he died. Joab and Abishai his brother pursued Sheba the son of Bichri.
Amasa, given three days to muster Judah, is late, and Abishai is sent instead — with Joab, demoted and unmentioned in the order, coming along. The murder is Abner's death repeated exactly 2 Samuel 3:27: a greeting, a brother's word, a concealed blade, one thrust. Joab kills his own cousin in the road to take back a command the king had given away, and the army follows him because he is the only one who can end the revolt. David never says a word about it.
I am among those who are peaceable and faithful in Israel. You seek to destroy a city and a mother in Israel. Why will you swallow up Yahweh’s inheritance?”
At Abel of Beth Maacah the battering has begun when a woman calls over the wall and negotiates. Her argument has three parts: the town's ancient reputation for settling disputes, its peaceable loyalty, and the fact that it belongs to God. Joab, who has just murdered a kinsman, hears her out and states his actual terms — one man's head, not a city 2 Samuel 20:21.
Then the woman went to all the people in her wisdom. They cut off the head of Sheba the son of Bichri, and threw it out to Joab. He blew the trumpet, and they were dispersed from the city, every man to his tent. Then Joab returned to Jerusalem to the king.
She persuades the town, Sheba's head comes over the wall, the trumpet sounds, and a siege ends without a breach. It is the second time in this book that a nameless wise woman changes the course of the kingdom by talking to a man who came to destroy 2 Samuel 14:2, and the pattern is deliberate: in a story full of armed men solving nothing, the two clean resolutions belong to women with arguments. The cabinet list that follows 2 Samuel 20:23–26 shows the state restored — with Joab, as ever, over the army.
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