Amasa

Amasa son of Jether (also called Ithra) was David's nephew through Abigail, sister of Zeruiah, which made him cousin to Joab and Abishai. He served briefly as commander over Israel's army — first under Absalom in revolt, then under David in reconciliation — and was killed by Joab in a feigned greeting on the highway at Gibeon. A second, unrelated Amasa appears once as an Ephraimite chief in the reign of Ahaz.

Lineage

Two genealogies place Amasa within David's extended family. The Samuel notice ties him to the king's sister: "And Absalom set Amasa over the host instead of Joab. Now Amasa was the son of a man, whose name was Ithra the Israelite, that entered Abigal the daughter of Nahash, sister to Zeruiah, Joab's mother" (2Sa 17:25). The Chronicler gives the parallel record with a variant on the father's ethnicity: "And Abigail bore Amasa; and the father of Amasa was Jether the Ishmaelite" (1Ch 2:17). Through his mother Abigail he was nephew to David and first cousin to Joab — the kinship that made his later murder a domestic crime as much as a military one.

Captain Under Absalom

When Absalom raised his rebellion against David, he appointed Amasa to lead the rebel host in place of Joab (2Sa 17:25). The appointment placed cousin against cousin: Amasa over Absalom's army, Joab over David's loyalists.

Reconciled and Made Captain Under David

After Absalom's defeat and death, David moved to bind the southern tribes back to his throne by elevating the rebel general rather than punishing him. The message sent to Amasa was framed in kinship terms: "And say⁺ to Amasa, Are you not my bone and my flesh? God do so to me, and more also, if you are not captain of the host before me continually in the place of Joab" (2Sa 19:13). The promise was both reconciliation and a deliberate displacement of Joab.

David's first order to his new captain came when Sheba son of Bichri raised a fresh revolt: "Then the king said to Amasa, Call together for me the men of Judah three days, and be present here" (2Sa 20:4). Amasa went to muster Judah but did not return within the appointed time, and David handed pursuit of Sheba to Abishai and Joab instead.

Killed by Joab at Gibeon

Joab caught up with Amasa at the great stone in Gibeon and killed him with a concealed sword while pretending to greet him as a brother. "When they were at the great stone which is in Gibeon, Amasa came to meet them. And Joab was girded with his apparel of war that he had put on, and on it was a belt with a sword fastened on his loins in its sheath; and as he went forth it fell out. And Joab said to Amasa, Is it well with you, my brother? And Joab took Amasa by the beard with his right hand to kiss him. 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 insides to the ground, and struck him not again; and he died" (2Sa 20:8-10). The aftermath halted the army on the road: "And Amasa lay wallowing in his blood in the midst of the highway. And 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" (2Sa 20:12).

David's Verdict and Solomon's Sentence

On his deathbed David named Amasa's killing as one of two innocent-blood charges Joab had to answer for: "Moreover you know also what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me, even what he did to the two captains of the hosts of Israel, to Abner the son of Ner, and to Amasa the son of Jether, whom he slew, and shed the blood of war in peace, and put the blood of war on his belt that was about his loins, and in his sandals that were on his feet" (1Ki 2:5). Solomon ratified the charge when he ordered Joab's execution, naming Amasa a second time in the same pair: "And Yahweh will return his blood on his own head, because he fell on two men more righteous and better than he, and slew them with the sword, and my father David didn't know it, [to wit,] Abner the son of Ner, captain of the host of Israel, and Amasa the son of Jether, captain of the host of Judah" (1Ki 2:32). Amasa's blood is treated as a debt Yahweh would settle on Joab's own head.

Amasa Son of Hadlai

A separate Amasa appears once in the reign of Ahaz, among the Ephraimite chiefs who refused to allow Judahite captives to be brought into Samaria: "Then certain of the heads of the sons of Ephraim, Azariah the son of Johanan, Berechiah the son of Meshillemoth, and Jehizkiah the son of Shallum, and Amasa the son of Hadlai, stood up against those who came from the war" (2Ch 28:12). He shares only the name with David's nephew.