DAWN
Daily Arts Web Nucleus
Discover the Arts! Each day a different image from the Literary, Performing, or Visual Arts representing a portion of Scripture plus an explanation with links 2014 July 25
Judith Beheading Holofernes (1611-1612)
Artemisia Gentileschi (1593 - c. 1656)
Baroque Style
Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples, Italy
Image Source: Web Gallery of Art
Explanation: 2 Samuel 20 contains the account of the rebellion of Sheba. The rebellion was stopped by the death of Sheba. Upon the counsel of an unnamed wise woman in the town of Abel of Bethmaachah the townspeople cut off Sheba's head and threw it to his pursuers. Whether the wise woman was involved directly in the removal of Sheba's head, as in the painting above, we are not told. But she was the key figure in precipitating the action.
Sheba was a Benjamite who blew a trumpet and said, "We have no part in David." He drew all of the tribes except Judah, David's tribe, after him. This call came on the heels of the division among the tribes over the honor of installing David back on his throne, described in the previous chapter. The situation in Israel was still volatile (1-2). Before David responded to Sheba's rebellion, he put his ten concubines whom Absalom had defiled in ward and fed them but had no further relations with them. They lived in widowhood till they died (3). David then told Amasa to assemble the men of Judah and meet him in Jerusalem within three days. But Amasa did not return within the appointed time; so David told Abishai to pursue Sheba. Joab and his men went with him and met Amasa in Gibeon. There Joab disembowelled Amasa and left him lying in the highway. Joab may have done this on the pretext that Amasa's delay in gathering the troops showed a reluctance to follow David (4-10). One of Joab's men called on all who followed David to go after Joab. This call to loyalty may also reflect a suspicion about Amasa. Beneath it all, however, was a power grab by Joab. And Amasa lay wallowing in his death throes, causing everyone who saw him to stop and stare until he was moved out of the highway into the nearby field and covered with a cloth (11-13). Meanwhile, Sheba went northward throughout the tribes of Israel and gathered all who would follow him until he came to Abel of Bethmaachah where he took refuge. When Joab arrived, he laid siege to the city. And a wise woman in the city told Joab that the city was peaceable and asked him why he wanted to swallow up the inheritance of the LORD. Joab said that he had no such intention; rather, he wanted Sheba to be delivered to him for inciting rebellion against David. The woman spoke to her people and they cut off Sheba's head and threw it to Joab over the wall. And Joab returned to David in Jerusalem (14-22). Joab once again was over the armies of Israel. Various other administrative officers are also mentioned (23-26).
2 Samuel 20
1 And there happened to be there a man of Belial, whose name was Sheba, the son of Bichri, a Benjamite: and he blew a trumpet, and said, We have no part in David, neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: every man to his tents, O Israel.
2 So every man of Israel went up from after David, and followed Sheba the son of Bichri: but the men of Judah clave unto their king, from Jordan even to Jerusalem.
3 And David came to his house at Jerusalem; and the king took the ten women his concubines, whom he had left to keep the house, and put them in ward, and fed them, but went not in unto them. So they were shut up unto the day of their death, living in widowhood.
4 Then said the king to Amasa, Assemble me the men of Judah within three days, and be thou here present.
5 So Amasa went to assemble the men of Judah: but he tarried longer than the set time which he had appointed him.
6 And David said to Abishai, Now shall Sheba the son of Bichri do us more harm than did Absalom: take thou thy lord's servants, and pursue after him, lest he get him fenced cities, and escape us.
7 And there went out after him Joab's men, and the Cherethites, and the Pelethites, and all the mighty men: and they went out of Jerusalem, to pursue after Sheba the son of Bichri.
8 When they were at the great stone which is in Gibeon, Amasa went before them. And Joab's garment that he had put on was girded unto him, and upon it a girdle with a sword fastened upon his loins in the sheath thereof; and as he went forth it fell out.
9 And Joab said to Amasa, Art thou in health, my brother? And Joab took Amasa by the beard with the right hand to kiss him.
10 But Amasa took no heed to the sword that was in Joab's hand: so he smote him therewith in the fifth rib, and shed out his bowels to the ground, and struck him not again; and he died. So Joab and Abishai his brother pursued after Sheba the son of Bichri.
11 And one of Joab's men stood by him, and said, He that favoureth Joab, and he that is for David, let him go after Joab.
12 And Amasa wallowed in blood in the midst of the highway. And when the man saw that all the people stood still, he removed Amasa out of the highway into the field, and cast a cloth upon him, when he saw that every one that came by him stood still.
13 When he was removed out of the highway, all the people went on after Joab, to pursue after Sheba the son of Bichri.
14 And he went through all the tribes of Israel unto Abel, and to Bethmaachah, and all the Berites: and they were gathered together, and went also after him.
15 And they came and besieged him in Abel of Bethmaachah, and they cast up a bank against the city, and it stood in the trench: and all the people that were with Joab battered the wall, to throw it down.
16 Then cried a wise woman out of the city, Hear, hear; say, I pray you, unto Joab, Come near hither, that I may speak with thee.
17 And when he was come near unto her, the woman said, Art thou Joab? And he answered, I am he. Then she said unto him, Hear the words of thine handmaid. And he answered, I do hear.
18 Then she spake, saying, They were wont to speak in old time, saying, They shall surely ask counsel at Abel: and so they ended the matter.
19 I am one of them that are peaceable and faithful in Israel: thou seekest to destroy a city and a mother in Israel: why wilt thou swallow up the inheritance of the LORD?
20 And Joab answered and said, Far be it, far be it from me, that I should swallow up or destroy.
21 The matter is not so: but a man of mount Ephraim, Sheba the son of Bichri by name, hath lifted up his hand against the king, even against David: deliver him only, and I will depart from the city. And the woman said unto Joab, Behold, his head shall be thrown to thee over the wall.
22 Then the woman went unto all the people in her wisdom. And they cut off the head of Sheba the son of Bichri, and cast it out to Joab. And he blew a trumpet, and they retired from the city, every man to his tent. And Joab returned to Jerusalem unto the king.
23 Now Joab was over all the host of Israel: and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the Cherethites and over the Pelethites:
24 And Adoram was over the tribute: and Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was recorder:
25 And Sheva was scribe: and Zadok and Abiathar were the priests:
26 And Ira also the Jairite was a chief ruler about David.
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