Ithra

Ithra is the father of Amasa, the cousin Absalom installed over his rebel forces and whom Joab later murdered. The name surfaces in two spellings — Ithra in 2 Samuel and Jether in Chronicles and Kings — and with two ethnic labels, Israelite and Ishmaelite. Across the four notices the same man stands behind a single line: Amasa's parentage and the family connection that ties him to David through Abigail.

Ithra the Israelite, Husband of Abigal

The first notice fixes Ithra as Amasa's father at the moment Absalom appoints Amasa to command the rebel army: "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" (2 Sam 17:25). The verse establishes two things at once — the name and ethnic label "Ithra the Israelite," and the kin link through Abigal that makes Amasa cousin to both David and Joab.

Jether the Ishmaelite in Chronicles

The Chronicler's genealogy of Judah carries the same marriage but renames the father: "And Abigail bore Amasa; and the father of Amasa was Jether the Ishmaelite" (1 Chr 2:17). The mother's name surfaces here as Abigail (a slight variant of Abigal in 2 Samuel), and the ethnic tag shifts from Israelite to Ishmaelite — a divergence the UPDV preserves rather than harmonizing.

Amasa Son of Jether in Solomon's Charge

Two further notices, both in David's parting charge and Solomon's verdict against Joab, retain the Chronicler's spelling. David recalls Joab's bloodguilt: "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" (1 Kgs 2:5). Solomon, sentencing Joab, repeats the patronymic: "Abner the son of Ner, captain of the host of Israel, and Amasa the son of Jether, captain of the host of Judah" (1 Kgs 2:32). The name Ithra / Jether persists in the record as the marker by which Amasa is distinguished from his cousins and remembered as the murdered captain whose blood Joab must answer for.