# 2 Samuel 20 📖: Sheba's Rebellion [[📚 Explore the Bible Books]] [[-2 Samuel Overview]] | [[2 Samuel 19]] | [[2 Samuel 21]] > [!info] Table of Contents > [[#📜 Scripture Text (NET)]] > [[#📖 Verse-by-Verse Commentary]] > [[#🤔 Interesting Facts / Historical and Cultural Insights]] > [[#🧠 Chapter Summary]] > [[#✝️ Christ in This Chapter]] > [[#🔎 Key Principles / 🛟 Life Application]] > [[#💬 Discussion Questions]] > [[#✍️ Key Verses to Remember]] > [[#🔗 Related Passages/Cross Reference]] > [[#🙏 Devotional Reflection]] > [[#📂 Internal Notes]] ## 📜 Scripture Text (NET) (The NET Bible: New English Translation. Biblical Studies Press, 2005) ### Sheba’s Rebellion [[#Verse 01.]] Now a wicked man named Sheba son of Bikri, a Benjaminite, happened to be there. He blew the trumpet and said, “We have no share in David; we have no inheritance in this son of Jesse! Every man go home, O Israel!” [[#Verse 02.]] So all the men of Israel deserted David and followed Sheba son of Bikri. But the men of Judah stuck by their king all the way from the Jordan River to Jerusalem. [[#Verse 03.]] Then David went to his palace in Jerusalem. The king took the ten concubines he had left to care for the palace and placed them under confinement. Though he provided for their needs, he did not sleep with them. They remained under restriction until the day they died, living out the rest of their lives as widows. [[#Verse 04.]] Then the king said to Amasa, “Call the men of Judah together for me in three days, and you be present here with them too.” [[#Verse 05.]] So Amasa went out to call Judah together. But in doing so he took longer than the time that the king had allotted him. [[#Verse 06.]] Then David said to Abishai, “Now Sheba son of Bikri will cause greater disaster for us than Absalom did! Take your lord’s servants and pursue him. Otherwise he will secure fortified cities for himself and get away from us.”  [[#Verse 07.]] So Joab’s men, accompanied by the Kerethites, the Pelethites, and all the warriors, left Jerusalem to pursue Sheba son of Bikri. [[#Verse 08.]] When they were near the big rock that is in Gibeon, Amasa came to them. Now Joab was dressed in military attire and had a dagger in its sheath belted to his waist. When he advanced, it fell out. [[#Verse 09.]] Joab said to Amasa, “How are you, my brother?” With his right hand Joab took hold of Amasa’s beard as if to greet him with a kiss.  [[#Verse 10.]] Amasa did not protect himself from the knife in Joab’s other hand, and Joab stabbed him in the abdomen, causing Amasa’s intestines to spill out on the ground. There was no need to stab him again; the first blow was fatal. Then Joab and his brother Abishai pursued Sheba son of Bikri. [[#Verse 11.]] One of Joab’s soldiers who stood over Amasa said, “Whoever is for Joab and whoever is for David, follow Joab!”  [[#Verse 12.]] Amasa was squirming in his own blood in the middle of the path, and this man had noticed that all the soldiers stopped. Having noticed that everyone who came across Amasa stopped, the man pulled him away from the path and into the field and threw a garment over him.  [[#Verse 13.]] Once he had removed Amasa from the path, everyone followed Joab to pursue Sheba son of Bikri. [[#Verse 14.]] Sheba traveled through all the tribes of Israel to Abel of Beth Maacah and all the Berite region. When they had assembled, they too joined him.  [[#Verse 15.]] So Joab’s men came and laid siege against him in Abel of Beth Maacah. They prepared a siege ramp outside the city that stood against its outer rampart. As all of Joab’s soldiers were trying to break through the wall so that it would collapse,  [[#Verse 16.]] a wise woman called out from the city, “Listen up! Listen up! Tell Joab, ‘Come near so that I may speak to you.’” [[#Verse 17.]] When he approached her, the woman asked, “Are you Joab?” He replied, “I am.” She said to him, “Listen to the words of your servant.” He said, “Go ahead. I’m listening.”  [[#Verse 18.]] She said, “In the past they would always say, ‘Let them inquire in Abel,’ and that is how they settled things.  [[#Verse 19.]] I represent the peaceful and the faithful in Israel. You are attempting to destroy an important city in Israel. Why should you swallow up the Lord’s inheritance?” [[#Verse 20.]] Joab answered, “Not at all! I don’t intend to swallow up or destroy anything!  [[#Verse 21.]] That’s not the way things are. There is a man from the hill country of Ephraim named Sheba son of Bikri. He has rebelled against King David. Give me just this one man, and I will leave the city.” The woman said to Joab, “This very minute his head will be thrown over the wall to you!” [[#Verse 22.]] Then the woman went to all the people with her wise advice and they cut off Sheba’s head and threw it out to Joab. Joab blew the trumpet, and his men dispersed from the city, each going to his own home. Joab returned to the king in Jerusalem. [[#Verse 23.]] Now Joab was the general in command of all the army of Israel. Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the Kerethites and the Perethites.  [[#Verse 24.]] Adoniram was supervisor of the work crews. Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud was the secretary.  [[#Verse 25.]] Sheva was the scribe, and Zadok and Abiathar were the priests. 26 Ira the Jairite was David’s personal priest. [[#Verse 26.]] Ira the Jairite was David’s personal priest. ## 📖 Verse-by-Verse Commentary ###### Overall. ###### Verse 01. ###### Verse 02. ###### Verse 03. ###### Verse 04. ###### Verse 05. ###### Verse 06. ###### Verse 07. ###### Verse 08. ###### Verse 09. ###### Verse 10. ###### Verse 11. ###### Verse 12. ###### Verse 13. ###### Verse 14. ###### Verse 15. ###### Verse 16. ###### Verse 17. ###### Verse 18. ###### Verse 19. ###### Verse 20. ###### Verse 21. ###### Verse 22. ###### Verse 23. ###### Verse 24. ###### Verse 25. ###### Verse 26. ## 🤔 Interesting Facts / Historical and Cultural Insights 1. Sheba's cry (20:1) is almost the same as the northern tribes' cry when they rejected Rehoboam (1 Kings 12:16). 2. Sheba was a Benjamite (20:1), from Saul's tribe. 3. David placed the ten concubines Absalom had violated under guard, and they lived as widows until their deaths (20:3). 4. Amasa was given three days to gather the men of Judah but took longer (20:4-5). 5. Joab took Amasa by the beard with his right hand as if to kiss him, and Amasa did not notice the sword in Joab's other hand (20:9-10). 6. Joab killed Amasa at the great stone in Gibeon (20:8), not far from where the war between David's and Saul's houses began (2:13). 7. Abel Beth Maacah was in the far north of Israel, near Dan (20:14-15). 8. Joab's men built a siege ramp against the city wall (20:15), a common ancient siege method. 9. The woman called her city "a mother in Israel" (20:19), possibly meaning a leading town with villages around it. 10. Adoram, over the forced labor (20:24), is likely the same official later stoned to death in Rehoboam's day (1 Kings 12:18). ## 🧠 Chapter Summary > [!note] 🌱 Still growing. This section is on its way. ## ✝️ Christ in This Chapter Christ is the Peacemaker who saves by His own death. A city was spared when one guilty rebel was handed over (20:21-22). In Jesus, the innocent One died for the people so that many would not perish (John 11:50-52), making peace through the blood of His cross (Colossians 1:20). ## 🔎 Key Principles / 🛟 Life Application > [!note] 🌱 Still growing. This section is on its way. ## 💬 Discussion Questions 1. Sheba's rallying cry rejected any share in David (20:1). How do people today reject the King God has given? 2. Joab greeted Amasa as a brother and then killed him (20:9-10). How can we guard against flattery that hides harmful motives? 3. The wise woman asked questions and sought peace instead of letting her city be destroyed (20:16-19). How can you be a peacemaker in a tense situation? ## ✍️ Key Verses to Remember - 📖 verse 1: Sheba calls Israel to abandon David. - 📖 verse 19: The wise woman speaks for a peaceful and faithful city in Israel. - 📖 verse 22: The woman's wise counsel saves the city. ## 🔗 Related Passages/Cross Reference - 🔗 [[1 Kings 12#Verse 16.|1 Kings 12:16]] - Israel rejects David's house again. - 🔗 [[Ecclesiastes 09#Verse 14.|Ecclesiastes 9:14-15]] - A poor wise man saved a city by his wisdom. - 🔗 [[Matthew 05#Verse 09.|Matthew 5:9]] - Blessed are the peacemakers. - 🔗 [[Proverbs 27#Verse 06.|Proverbs 27:6]] - The wounds of a friend and the kisses of an enemy. - 🔗 [[Luke 22#Verse 47.|Luke 22:47-48]] - Jesus is betrayed with a kiss. ## 🙏 Devotional Reflection 📝 SOAP: [[2 Samuel 20 - SOAP|Don’t Avoid the Problem]] ## 📂 Internal Notes