Troublesome Topic: JOAB USED TRICKERY TO KILL AMASA AND ABNER

II Sam 20: 8 – 10 

Amasa had been ordered to gather men to do battle against Sheba of Bichri, but Amasa did not accomplish his task within the time given him to do it. David had to send others out because he could not wait for Amasa any longer. When Amasa finally returned, he followed Joab’s men and caught up with them.

As Joab approached Amasa to greet him, his sword or dagger (the Hebrew word can mean either one) fell out of its sheath and Joab picked it up. Following their customs, Joab grabbed Amasa’s beard to greet him with a kiss, and we can assume that Amasa grabbed Joab’s beard to kiss him as well.

Amasa was not concerned about the dagger or sword that was in Joab’s hand because he had just picked it up and had not resheathed it yet. Amasa did not think he had done anything deserving death; he had gotten delayed in fulfilling his mission, but in his mind, it was justified. Besides that, Joab was not the one to act as judge in such matters anyway; any punishment for the delay should have come from King David, since David had given him the order.

But Joab was thinking of this delay in a very different way. It had cost them precious time which had given their enemy, Sheba, an advantage. This could allow their enemy to get away, or many men might lose their lives in defeating Sheba because of the advantage he had gained due to this delay. So in Joab’s mind, this was a serious thing. He also figured that David would be too nice to Amasa and not punish him “properly” for this costly delay.

So he took matters into his own hands and killed Amasa with the dagger/sword that was in his hand. Verse 9 tells us that Joab grabbed Amasa’s beard with his right hand, which was the custom. That means that Joab was left-handed, or that he could handle a sword very well with both hands, the latter being quite probable. 

We cannot be sure if it was a full-size sword, a short sword or a dagger. Either way, Joab was probably holding it in a casual way that did not communicate anything other than “I’m going to resheath this thing right after I greet you with a kiss.” I envision Joab’s hand was not on the hilt of the sword, but around the part of the blade closest to the hilt, the part that is not sharp at all. He started to thrust the blade into the side of Amasa’s belly and then quickly repositioned his hand to get a better grip and push the sword further in, then he gave it a twist or a flick that opened Amasa’s midsection wide open, such that his entrails spilled out on the ground, as the Biblical text describes.

Notice that Joab did not go through proper channels of authority; he did not take Amasa to the king who would serve as judge in this matter. Neither did he challenge Amasa to one-on-one combat to settle the matter. A one-on-one contest would not have fit this situation perfectly, but it would have been better than deceit. Joab resorted to trickery. It is very doubtful that Joab’s sword or dagger had fallen out of its sheath by accident at the perfect moment to allow Joab to pull this off without Amasa suspecting any danger.

II Samuel 3:27

After Abner killed Joab’s brother Asahel by using trickery, Joab was overflowing with anger and silently vowed to take revenge for his brother’s death. When David accepted Abner’s offer to bring him the tribes that were not yet committed to his reign, it was more than Joab could take. So, he sent a messenger to Abner to come back to the city gate because he (Joab) had something to tell him. Abner came back, probably thinking that Joab wanted to discuss ways to meld into one the armies of these various tribes. But, according to II Sam 3:27, when Abner arrived, Joab stabbed him in the stomach and killed him.

The Biblical narrative gives us few details, and yet it is enough to surmise that there was deceit involved. First Joab called Abner back with the pretense that he wanted to talk to him. Also, this was done within the chambers of the city gate, which was the place to transact business agreements, not the place for one-on-one combat. The account, though brief, strongly implies that Joab did this the wrong way.

Was Joab the proper one to take this action? Joab may have argued that he was acting as the “avenger of blood,” which is a possibility. Even if his family had not gotten together and asked him to do this, which was the proper method, he knew that he would likely be chosen, so my guess is that he appointed himself. But even the avengers of blood had to follow the rules. I think that an avenger of blood had to challenge the one he thought was guilty of committing murder to a one-on-one encounter with all the rules that applied. Therefore, the family would choose someone who was good at one-on-one combat – someone like Joab. So the problem was not that Joab took action, but how he took action.

David was very displeased with this and took great pains to prove to the people that he, David, had nothing to do with the murder of Abner. David was angry with Joab for repaying a wrong with another wrong. Joab did not reflect God’s character by saying, “I will do it the right way even if he did it the wrong way.”

Abner broke the unwritten rules of warfare by not fighting fairly; Joab broke the written law by committing murder.

The two incidents described above were the reasons David told Solomon to not let Joab die a peaceful death; instead Solomon was instructed to take Joab’s life as punishment for his acts of violence.