Amasa (עמשא) or Amessai is a person mentioned in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Abigail Abigail () was an Israelite woman in the Hebrew Bible married to Nabal; she married the future King David after Nabal's death (1 Samuel ). Abigail was David's third wife, after Ahinoam and Saul's daughter, Michal, whom Saul later married to ...

(), a sister of King

David David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Dam ...

(). Hence, Amasa was a nephew of David, and cousin of

Joab Joab (; ), the son of Zeruiah, was the nephew of King David and the commander of his army according to the Hebrew Bible. Name The name Joab is, like many other Hebrew names, theophoric—derived from Yahweh (), the name of the God of Israel, ...

, David's military commander, as well as a cousin of

Absalom Absalom ( , ), according to the Hebrew Bible, was an Israelite prince. Born to David and Maacah, who was from Geshur, he was the only full sibling of Tamar. He is described in the Hebrew Bible as being exceptionally beautiful, as is his siste ...

, David's son. David calls him "my bone and my flesh" (). Amasa's father was

Jether Jether () is a name mentioned several times in the Hebrew Bible. It means "surplus" or "excellence". #The father-in-law of Moses ( Exodus 4:18 marg.), called elsewhere Jethro or Jothor. #The oldest of Gideon's seventy sons, who was asked to kill ...

(, ) who was also called Ithra (). Jether had

dual-nationality Multiple citizenship (or multiple nationality) is a person's legal status in which a person is at the same time recognized by more than one country under its nationality and citizenship law as a national or citizen of that country. There is no ...

, being an Ishmaelite and

Israelite Israelites were a Hebrew language, Hebrew-speaking ethnoreligious group, consisting of tribes that lived in Canaan during the Iron Age. Modern scholarship describes the Israelites as emerging from indigenous Canaanites, Canaanite populations ...

, although it might be a case of an assimilated Ishmaelite living in Israel. When Absalom rebelled against David and won over the

tribes of Israel The Twelve Tribes of Israel ( , ) are described in the Hebrew Bible as being the descendants of Jacob, a Hebrew patriarch who was a son of Isaac and thereby a grandson of Abraham. Jacob, later known as Israel, had a total of twelve sons, from ...

(), Absalom appointed Amasa as commander over the army (), in effect replacing Joab, who had served as commander for David. After the revolt was crushed and Absalom died (), David was invited back to Jerusalem and restored as king. David re-appointed Amasa as his military commander in Joab's stead "from now on" as his military commander (). Other versions translate this status differently: it is given as "permanently" in the

Jewish Publication Society The Jewish Publication Society (JPS), originally known as the Jewish Publication Society of America, is the oldest nonprofit, nondenominational publisher of Jewish works in English. Founded in Philadelphia in 1888, by Reform Rabbi Joseph Krauskop ...

1985 translation and "for life" in the

New International Version The New International Version (NIV) is a translation of the Bible into contemporary English. Published by Biblica, the complete NIV was released on October 27, 1978, with a minor revision in 1984 and a major revision in 2011. The NIV relies ...

. David's appointment of Amasa has been interpreted as "a bold stroke of policy, to promise the post of commander-in chief to the general of the rebel army". Kirkpatrick, A.
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
on 2 Samuel 19, accessed 13 August 2017 While being fiercely loyal to David, Joab was also suspicious of any potential rivals for

's power or threats to David's kingdom, and had no qualms about taking the lives of any who might stand in his way (e.g.,

Abner In the Hebrew Bible, Abner ( ) was the cousin of King Saul and the commander-in-chief of his army. His name also appears as "Abiner son of Ner", where the longer form Abiner means "my father is Ner". Biblical narrative Abner is initially men ...

: , and Absalom: ). So it was not difficult for Joab to also decide to murder Amasa (, ). Joab's own justification for killing Amasa may have been because he believed Amasa to be conspiring with

Sheba son of Bichri In the Old Testament, Sheba was a Benjaminite leader who revolted against King David, recounted in Books of Samuel, 2 Samuel. In the Bible Sheba was a son of Bichri, of the family of Becher (biblical figure), Becher, the son of Benjamin, and thus ...

the Benjamite, due to Amasa's slowness to mobilize the army against Sheba's rebels ().

References

{{Authority control Family of David Ancient soldiers Ancient Arabs