In this chapter, and the previous four chapters, we see that David’s troubles and the trouble for his household are continued to be lived out as Nathan the prophet told him earlier, 2 Samuel 12:10.
Not long after the death and fall of Absalom and his men, 2 Samuel 18:9-15, another rebellion begins to rise against David and his household. This rebellion is led by Sheba and its possible he was trying to take advantage of the complaints the northern tribes made, 2 Samuel 19:40-43.
He openly declared that the Benjamites have no share in David, Jesse’s son. The good news for David is that his cry for war wasn’t going to last very long, 1 Kings 12:16. He appears to have gathered a large number of men behind him, which tells us the men of Judah didn’t really appease the complaints against the northern tribes, 2 Samuel 19:40-43.
Notice that David returned to Jerusalem and provided for his concubines all the days of their lives, but he didn’t have any kind of sexual relations with them. This is because they had become defiled after Absalom had openly slept with them, 2 Samuel 16:22.
Amasa was a nephew of David, the son of David’s sister Abigail, and his father was an Ishmaelite, 1 Chronicles 2:13-17. He was the former rebel commander of Absalom’s army, 2 Samuel 17:25.
For some reason Amasa had been delayed, this is possibly because he knew Sheba and wanted to give him time to escape or gather an army to fight against those who were loyal to David.
There are other possibilities for his delay, maybe he didn’t think it was necessary to hurry up, maybe he didn’t know how to summon the troops quickly, or maybe the men of Judah had lost confidence in him.
Whatever the reason, David was still reluctant to place Joab in command, and so he summoned Abishai, who quickly gathered an army and sent him after Sheba.
Because Joab had been relegated when Amasa was appointed as the commander of David’s army, Joab appears to have an opportunity to get rid of Amasa. Joab pretends to be Amasa’s friend and so whilst he’s on his way to meet those who were rebelling, he murders Amasa in the middle of the road, 2 Samuel 3:27.
However by doing so, Amasa’s dead body lying on the middle of the road became an obstacle for the soldiers who were chasing Sheba. As soon as Amasa’s body is removed from the road, everyone then followed the command of Joab.
Sheba passed through Beth Maakah, which was a fortified city, near Dan in the land of the Naphtali, in the north of Palestine. It appears that Sheba is running as far north as mobile and as far away as he can from Joab and his army. He appears to be heading towards his father, Bichri who was the father of Sheba, 2 Samuel 20:1.
When Joab’s men reached the city, a wise woman came forward to negotiate terms of peace but there was only one thing which would meet the requirements of Joab and that was the head of Sheba. It was left to the men of Beth Maakah to cut off Sheba’s head and throw it over the wall to Joab.
Here we have a list of David’s key people who were in government, 2 Samuel 8:16-18 / 1 Chronicles 18:14-17. It’s with this list that the writer closes the history of David’s reign. The remaining four chapters of 2 Samuel form a kind of appendix.
This list belongs to a later period in David’s reign because David’s use of forced labour didn’t take place in the first part of his reign but in the latter part of it.
This use of forced labour by David was adopted by his son Solomon and greatly developed by him, sadly, it would be because of this forced labour that later would cause another rebellion against Solomon’s son, Rehoboam.
Although Joab was loyal to David and a great military commander of his men, David never forgave Joab for the murder of Absalom, Abner and Amasa, and near the end of his life, David left orders for his son Solomon to kill Joab, 1 Kings 2:5-6.
"Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."