Skip to content
ArticlesBibleBooksOpen the app

2 Samuel 20:12

Verse 12 of 26. The 20th of 24 chapters in 2 Samuel, in History.

8When 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.

9Joab said to Amasa, “Is it well with you, my brother?” Joab took Amasa by the beard with his right hand to kiss him.

10But 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.

11One of Joab’s young men stood by him, and said, “He who favors Joab, and he who is for David, let him follow Joab!”

12Amasa 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.

13When he was removed out of the highway, all the people went on after Joab to pursue Sheba the son of Bichri.

14He 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.

15They 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.

16Then a wise woman cried out of the city, “Hear, hear! Please say to Joab, ‘Come near here, that I may speak with you.’”

Read 2 Samuel 20

World English Bible. Public domain. Set as prose throughout, including the poetry, because the text is published to us without its lines.