Taken from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION (C) 1978 by the New York Bible Society, used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers. JOAB 2SA 2:13 Joab son of Zeruiah and David's men went out and met them at the pool of Gibeon. One group sat down on one side of the pool and one group on the other side. 2SA 2:14 Then Abner said to Joab, "Let's have some of the young men get up and fight hand to hand in front of us." "All right, let them do it," Joab said. 2SA 2:15 So they stood up and were counted off--twelve men for Benjamin and Ish-Bosheth son of Saul, and twelve for David. 2SA 2:24 But Joab and Abishai pursued Abner, and as the sun was setting, they came to the hill of Ammah, near Giah on the way to the wasteland of Gibeon. 2SA 2:25 Then the men of Benjamin rallied behind Abner. They formed themselves into a group and took their stand on top of a hill. 2SA 2:26 Abner called out to Joab, "Must the sword devour forever? Don't you realize that this will end in bitterness? How long before you order your men to stop pursuing their brothers?" 2SA 2:27 Joab answered, "As surely as God lives, if you had not spoken, the men would have continued the pursuit of their brothers until morning." 2SA 2:28 So Joab blew the trumpet, and all the men came to a halt; they no longer pursued Israel, nor did they fight anymore. 2SA 2:29 All that night Abner and his men marched through the Arabah. They crossed the Jordan, continued through the whole Bithron and came to Mahanaim. 2SA 2:30 Then Joab returned from pursuing Abner and assembled all his men. Besides Asahel, nineteen of David's men were found missing. 2SA 2:31 But David's men had killed three hundred and sixty Benjamites who were with Abner. 2SA 2:32 They took Asahel and buried him in his father's tomb at Bethlehem. Then Joab and his men marched all night and arrived at Hebron by daybreak. 2SA 3:27 Now when Abner returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside into the gateway, as though to speak with him privately. And there, to avenge the blood of his brother Asahel, Joab stabbed him in the stomach, and he died. 2SA 8:16 Joab son of Zeruiah was over the army; Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud was recorder; 2SA 10:7 On hearing this, David sent Joab out with the entire army of fighting men. 2SA 10:8 The Ammonites came out and drew up in battle formation at the entrance to their city gate, while the Arameans of Zobah and Rehob and the men of Tob and Maacah were by themselves in the open country. 2SA 10:9 Joab saw that there were battle lines in front of him and behind him; so he selected some of the best troops in Israel and deployed them against the Arameans. 2SA 10:10 He put the rest of the men under the command of Abishai his brother and deployed them against the Ammonites. 2SA 10:11 Joab said, "If the Arameans are too strong for me, then you are to come to my rescue; but if the Ammonites are too strong for you, then I will come to rescue you. 2SA 10:12 Be strong and let us fight bravely for our people and the cities of our God. The LORD will do what is good in his sight." 2SA 10:13 Then Joab and the troops with him advanced to fight the Arameans, and they fled before him. 2SA 10:14 When the Ammonites saw that the Arameans were fleeing, they fled before Abishai and went inside the city. So Joab returned from fighting the Ammonites and came to Jerusalem. 2SA 11:1 In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king's men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem. 2SA 11:15 In it he wrote, "Put Uriah in the front line where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die." 2SA 11:16 So while Joab had the city under siege, he put Uriah at a place where he knew the strongest defenders were. 2SA 11:17 When the men of the city came out and fought against Joab, some of the men in David's army fell; moreover, Uriah the Hittite was dead. 2SA 11:18 Joab sent David a full account of the battle. 2SA 11:19 He instructed the messenger: "When you have finished giving the king this account of the battle, 2SA 11:20 the king's anger may flare up, and he may ask you, 'Why did you get so close to the city to fight? Didn't you know they would shoot arrows from the wall? 2SA 11:21 Who killed Abimelech son of Jerub-Besheth? Didn't a woman throw an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died in Thebez? Why did you get so close to the wall?' If he asks you this, then say to him, 'Also, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead.'" 2SA 11:22 The messenger set out, and when he arrived he told David everything Joab had sent him to say. 2SA 11:23 The messenger said to David, "The men overpowered us and came out against us in the open, but we drove them back to the entrance to the city gate. 2SA 11:24 Then the archers shot arrows at your servants from the wall, and some of the king's men died. Moreover, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead." 2SA 11:25 David told the messenger, "Say this to Joab: 'Don't let this upset you; the sword devours one as well as another. Press the attack against the city and destroy it.' Say this to encourage Joab." 2SA 12:26 Meanwhile Joab fought against Rabbah of the Ammonites and captured the royal citadel. 2SA 12:27 Joab then sent messengers to David, saying, "I have fought against Rabbah and taken its water supply. 2SA 12:28 Now muster the rest of the troops and besiege the city and capture it. Otherwise I will take the city, and it will be named after me." 2SA 12:29 So David mustered the entire army and went to Rabbah, and attacked and captured it. 2SA 14:1 Joab son of Zeruiah knew that the king's heart longed for Absalom. 2SA 14:2 So Joab sent someone to Tekoa and had a wise woman brought from there. He said to her, "Pretend you are in mourning. Dress in mourning clothes, and don't use any cosmetic lotions. Act like a woman who has spent many days grieving for the dead. 2SA 14:3 Then go to the king and speak these words to him." And Joab put the words in her mouth. 2SA 14:4 When the woman from Tekoa went to the king, she fell with her face to the ground to pay him honor, and she said, "Help me, O king!" 2SA 14:18 Then the king said to the woman, "Do not keep from me the answer to what I am going to ask you." "Let my lord the king speak," the woman said. 2SA 14:19 The king asked, "Isn't the hand of Joab with you in all this?" The woman answered, "As surely as you live, my lord the king, no one can turn to the right or to the left from anything my lord the king says. Yes, it was your servant Joab who instructed me to do this and who put all these words into the mouth of your servant. 2SA 14:20 Your servant Joab did this to change the present situation. My lord has wisdom like that of an angel of God--he knows everything that happens in the land." 2SA 14:21 The king said to Joab, "Very well, I will do it. Go, bring back the young man Absalom." 2SA 14:22 Joab fell with his face to the ground to pay him honor, and he blessed the king. Joab said, "Today your servant knows that he has found favor in your eyes, my lord the king, because the king has granted his servant's request." 2SA 14:23 Then Joab went to Geshur and brought Absalom back to Jerusalem. 2SA 14:24 But the king said, "He must go to his own house; he must not see my face." So Absalom went to his own house and did not see the face of the king. 2SA 14:29 Then Absalom sent for Joab in order to send him to the king, but Joab refused to come to him. So he sent a second time, but he refused to come. 2SA 14:30 Then he said to his servants, "Look, Joab's field is next to mine, and he has barley there. Go and set it on fire." So Absalom's servants set the field on fire. 2SA 14:31 Then Joab did go to Absalom's house and he said to him, "Why have your servants set my field on fire?" 2SA 14:32 Absalom said to Joab, "Look, I sent word to you and said, 'Come here so I can send you to the king to ask, "Why have I come from Geshur? It would be better for me if I were still there!" 'Now then, I want to see the king's face, and if I am guilty of anything, let him put me to death." 2SA 14:33 So Joab went to the king and told him this. Then the king summoned Absalom, and he came in and bowed down with his face to the ground before the king. And the king kissed Absalom. 2SA 17:25 Absalom had appointed Amasa over the army in place of Joab. Amasa was the son of a man named Jether, an Israelite who had married Abigail, the daughter of Nahash and sister of Zeruiah the mother of Joab. 2SA 18:1 David mustered the men who were with him and appointed over them commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds. NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION (C) 1973, 1978, 1984 INTERNATIONAL BIBLE SOCIETY 2SA 18:2 David sent the troops out--a third under the command of Joab, a third under Joab's brother Abishai son of Zeruiah, and a third under Ittai the Gittite. The king told the troops, "I myself will surely march out with you." 2SA 18:3 But the men said, "You must not go out; if we are forced to flee, they won't care about us. Even if half of us die, they won't care; but you are worth ten thousand of us. It would be better now for you to give us support from the city." 2SA 18:4 The king answered, "I will do whatever seems best to you." So the king stood beside the gate while all the men marched out in units of hundreds and of thousands. 2SA 18:5 The king commanded Joab, Abishai and Ittai, "Be gentle with the young man Absalom for my sake." And all the troops heard the king giving orders concerning Absalom to each of the commanders. 2SA 18:6 The army marched into the field to fight Israel, and the battle took place in the forest of Ephraim. 2SA 18:7 There the army of Israel was defeated by David's men, and the casualties that day were great--twenty thousand men. 2SA 18:8 The battle spread out over the whole countryside, and the forest claimed more lives that day than the sword. 2SA 18:9 Now Absalom happened to meet David's men. He was riding his mule, and as the mule went under the thick branches of a large oak, Absalom's head got caught in the tree. He was left hanging in midair, while the mule he was riding kept on going. 2SA 18:10 When one of the men saw this, he told Joab, "I just saw Absalom hanging in an oak tree." 2SA 18:11 Joab said to the man who had told him this, "What! You saw him? Why didn't you strike him to the ground right there? Then I would have had to give you ten shekels of silver and a warrior's belt." 2SA 18:12 But the man replied, "Even if a thousand shekels were weighed out into my hands, I would not lift my hand against the king's son. In our hearing the king commanded you and Abishai and Ittai, 'Protect the young man Absalom for my sake.' 2SA 18:13 And if I had put my life in jeopardy--and nothing is hidden from the king--you would have kept your distance from me." 2SA 18:14 Joab said, "I'm not going to wait like this for you." So he took three javelins in his hand and plunged them into Absalom's heart while Absalom was still alive in the oak tree. 2SA 18:15 And ten of Joab's armor-bearers surrounded Absalom, struck him and killed him. 2SA 18:16 Then Joab sounded the trumpet, and the troops stopped pursuing Israel, for Joab halted them. 2SA 18:17 They took Absalom, threw him into a big pit in the forest and piled up a large heap of rocks over him. Meanwhile, all the Israelites fled to their homes. 2SA 18:18 During his lifetime Absalom had taken a pillar and erected it in the King's Valley as a monument to himself, for he thought, "I have no son to carry on the memory of my name." He named the pillar after himself, and it is called Absalom's Monument to this day. 2SA 18:19 Now Ahimaaz son of Zadok said, "Let me run and take the news to the king that the LORD has delivered him from the hand of his enemies." 2SA 18:20 "You are not the one to take the news today," Joab told him. "You may take the news another time, but you must not do so today, because the king's son is dead." 2SA 18:21 Then Joab said to a Cushite, "Go, tell the king what you have seen." The Cushite bowed down before Joab and ran off. 2SA 18:22 Ahimaaz son of Zadok again said to Joab, "Come what may, please let me run behind the Cushite." But Joab replied, "My son, why do you want to go? You don't have any news that will bring you a reward." 2SA 18:23 He said, "Come what may, I want to run." So Joab said, "Run!" Then Ahimaaz ran by way of the plain and outran the Cushite. 2SA 18:29 The king asked, "Is the young man Absalom safe?" Ahimaaz answered, "I saw great confusion just as Joab was about to send the king's servant and me, your servant, but I don't know what it was." 2SA 18:30 The king said, "Stand aside and wait here." So he stepped aside and stood there. 2SA 18:31 Then the Cushite arrived and said, "My lord the king, hear the good news! The LORD has delivered you today from all who rose up against you." 2SA 18:32 The king asked the Cushite, "Is the young man Absalom safe?" The Cushite replied, "May the enemies of my lord the king and all who rise up to harm you be like that young man." NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION (C) 1973, 1978, 1984 INTERNATIONAL BIBLE SOCIETY 2SA 18:33 The king was shaken. He went up to the room over the gateway and wept. As he went, he said: "O my son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you--O Absalom, my son, my son!" 2SA 19:1 Joab was told, "The king is weeping and mourning for Absalom." 2SA 19:2 And for the whole army the victory that day was turned into mourning, because on that day the troops heard it said, "The king is grieving for his son." 2SA 19:3 The men stole into the city that day as men steal in who are ashamed when they flee from battle. 2SA 19:4 The king covered his face and cried aloud, "O my son Absalom! O Absalom, my son, my son!" 2SA 19:5 Then Joab went into the house to the king and said, "Today you have humiliated all your men, who have just saved your life and the lives of your sons and daughters and the lives of your wives and concubines. 2SA 19:6 You love those who hate you and hate those who love you. You have made it clear today that the commanders and their men mean nothing to you. I see that you would be pleased if Absalom were alive today and all of us were dead. 2SA 19:7 Now go out and encourage your men. I swear by the LORD that if you don't go out, not a man will be left with you by nightfall. This will be worse for you than all the calamities that have come upon you from your youth till now." 2SA 19:8 So the king got up and took his seat in the gateway. When the men were told, "The king is sitting in the gateway," they all came before him. Meanwhile, the Israelites had fled to their homes. 2SA 19:13 And say to Amasa, 'Are you not my own flesh and blood? May God deal with me, be it ever so severely, if from now on you are not the commander of my army in place of Joab.'" 2SA 20:8 While they were at the great rock in Gibeon, Amasa came to meet them. Joab was wearing his military tunic, and strapped over it at his waist was a belt with a dagger in its sheath. As he stepped forward, it dropped out of its sheath. 2SA 20:9 Joab said to Amasa, "How are you, my brother?" Then Joab took Amasa by the beard with his right hand to kiss him. 2SA 20:10 Amasa was not on his guard against the dagger in Joab's hand, and Joab plunged it into his belly, and his intestines spilled out on the ground. Without being stabbed again, Amasa died. Then Joab and his brother Abishai pursued Sheba son of Bicri. 2SA 20:11 One of Joab's men stood beside Amasa and said, "Whoever favors Joab, and whoever is for David, let him follow Joab!" 2SA 20:12 Amasa lay wallowing in his blood in the middle of the road, and the man saw that all the troops came to a halt there. When he realized that everyone who came up to Amasa stopped, he dragged him from the road into a field and threw a garment over him. 2SA 20:13 After Amasa had been removed from the road, all the men went on with Joab to pursue Sheba son of Bicri. 2SA 20:16 a wise woman called from the city, "Listen! Listen! Tell Joab to come here so I can speak to him." 2SA 20:17 He went toward her, and she asked, "Are you Joab?" "I am," he answered. She said, "Listen to what your servant has to say." "I'm listening," he said. 2SA 20:18 She continued, "Long ago they used to say, 'Get your answer at Abel,' and that settled it. 2SA 20:19 We are the peaceful and faithful in Israel. You are trying to destroy a city that is a mother in Israel. Why do you want to swallow up the LORD'S inheritance?" 2SA 20:20 "Far be it from me!" Joab replied, "Far be it from me to swallow up or destroy! 2SA 20:21 That is not the case. A man named Sheba son of Bicri, from the hill country of Ephraim, has lifted up his hand against the king, against David. Hand over this one man, and I'll withdraw from the city." The woman said to Joab, "His head will be thrown to you from the wall." 2SA 20:22 Then the woman went to all the people with her wise advice, and they cut off the head of Sheba son of Bicri and threw it to Joab. So he sounded the trumpet, and his men dispersed from the city, each returning to his home. And Joab went back to the king in Jerusalem. 2SA 20:23 Joab was over Israel's entire army; Benaiah son of Jehoiada was over the Kerethites and Pelethites; 2SA 24:3 But Joab replied to the king, "May the LORD your God multiply the troops a hundred times over, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king want to do such a thing?" NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION (C) 1973, 1978, 1984 INTERNATIONAL BIBLE SOCIETY 2SA 24:4 The king's word, however, overruled Joab and the army commanders; so they left the presence of the king to enroll the fighting men of Israel. 2SA 24:5 After crossing the Jordan, they camped near Aroer, south of the town in the gorge, and then went through Gad and on to Jazer. 2SA 24:6 They went to Gilead and the region of Tahtim Hodshi, and on to Dan Jaan and around toward Sidon. 2SA 24:7 Then they went toward the fortress of Tyre and all the towns of the Hivites and Canaanites. Finally, they went on to Beersheba in the Negev of Judah. 2SA 24:8 After they had gone through the entire land, they came back to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. 2SA 24:9 Joab reported the number of the fighting men to the king: In Israel there were eight hundred thousand able-bodied men who could handle a sword, and in Judah five hundred thousand. 1KI 1:7 Adonijah conferred with Joab son of Zeruiah and with Abiathar the priest, and they gave him their support. 1KI 2:5 "Now you yourself know what Joab son of Zeruiah did to me--what he did to the two commanders of Israel's armies, Abner son of Ner and Amasa son of Jether. He killed them, shedding their blood in peacetime as if in battle, and with that blood stained the belt around his waist and the sandals on his feet. 1KI 2:28 When the news reached Joab, who had conspired with Adonijah though not with Absalom, he fled to the tent of the LORD and took hold of the horns of the altar. 1KI 2:29 King Solomon was told that Joab had fled to the tent of the LORD and was beside the altar. Then Solomon ordered Benaiah son of Jehoiada, "Go, strike him down!" 1KI 2:30 So Benaiah entered the tent of the LORD and said to Joab, "The king says, 'Come out!'" But he answered, "No, I will die here." Benaiah reported to the king, "This is how Joab answered me." 1KI 2:31 Then the king commanded Benaiah, "Do as he says. Strike him down and bury him, and so clear me and my father's house of the guilt of the innocent blood that Joab shed. 1KI 2:32 The LORD will repay him for the blood he shed, because without the knowledge of my father David he attacked two men and killed them with the sword. Both of them--Abner son of Ner, commander of Israel's army, and Amasa son of Jether, commander of Judah's army--were better men and more upright than he. 1KI 2:33 May the guilt of their blood rest on the head of Joab and his descendants forever. But on David and his descendants, his house and his throne, may there be the LORD'S peace forever." 1KI 2:34 So Benaiah son of Jehoiada went up and struck down Joab and killed him, and he was buried on his own land in the desert. 1KI 11:16 Joab and all the Israelites stayed there for six months, until they had destroyed all the men in Edom. 1CH 2:16 Their sisters were Zeruiah and Abigail. Zeruiah's three sons were Abishai, Joab and Asahel. 1CH 11:6 David had said, "Whoever leads the attack on the Jebusites will become commander-in-chief." Joab son of Zeruiah went up first, and so he received the command. 1CH 18:15 Joab son of Zeruiah was over the army; Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud was recorder; 1CH 19:6 When the Ammonites realized that they had become a stench in David's nostrils, Hanun and the Ammonites sent a thousand talents of silver to hire chariots and charioteers from Aram Naharaim, Aram Maacah and Zobah. 1CH 19:7 They hired thirty-two thousand chariots and charioteers, as well as the king of Maacah with his troops, who came and camped near Medeba, while the Ammonites were mustered from their towns and moved out for battle. 1CH 19:8 On hearing this, David sent Joab out with the entire army of fighting men. 1CH 19:9 The Ammonites came out and drew up in battle formation at the entrance to their city, while the kings who had come were by themselves in the open country. 1CH 19:10 Joab saw that there were battle lines in front of him and behind him; so he selected some of the best troops in Israel and deployed them against the Arameans. 1CH 19:11 He put the rest of the men under the command of Abishai his brother, and they were deployed against the Ammonites. 1CH 19:12 Joab said, "If the Arameans are too strong for me, then you are to rescue me; but if the Ammonites are too strong for you, then I will rescue you. 1CH 19:13 Be strong and let us fight bravely for our people and the cities of our God. The LORD will do what is good in his sight." 1CH 19:14 Then Joab and the troops with him advanced to fight the Arameans, and they fled before him. NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION (C) 1973, 1978, 1984 INTERNATIONAL BIBLE SOCIETY 1CH 19:15 When the Ammonites saw that the Arameans were fleeing, they too fled before his brother Abishai and went inside the city. So Joab went back to Jerusalem. 1CH 20:1 In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, Joab led out the armed forces. He laid waste the land of the Ammonites and went to Rabbah and besieged it, but David remained in Jerusalem. Joab attacked Rabbah and left it in ruins. 1CH 20:2 David took the crown from the head of their king--its weight was found to be a talent of gold, and it was set with precious stones--and it was placed on David's head. He took a great quantity of plunder from the city 1CH 21:3 But Joab replied, "May the LORD multiply his troops a hundred times over. My lord the king, are they not all my lord's subjects? Why does my lord want to do this? Why should he bring guilt on Israel?" 1CH 21:4 The king's word, however, overruled Joab; so Joab left and went throughout Israel and then came back to Jerusalem. 1CH 21:5 Joab reported the number of the fighting men to David: In all Israel there were one million one hundred thousand men who could handle a sword, including four hundred and seventy thousand in Judah. 1CH 26:28 And everything dedicated by Samuel the seer and by Saul son of Kish, Abner son of Ner and Joab son of Zeruiah, and all the other dedicated things were in the care of Shelomith and his relatives. 1CH 27:23 David did not take the number of the men twenty years old or less, because the LORD had promised to make Israel as numerous as the stars in the sky. 1CH 27:24 Joab son of Zeruiah began to count the men but did not finish. Wrath came on Israel on account of this numbering, and the number was not entered in the book of the annals of King David. 1CH 27:34 Ahithophel was succeeded by Jehoiada son of Benaiah and by Abiathar. Joab was the commander of the royal army. Bible Bulletin Board internet: www.biblebb.com modem: 609-324-9187 Box 318 Columbus, NJ 08022 ....online since 1986 Sysop/Webmaster: Tony Capoccia