²⁵ Absalom had appointed Amasa to be commander of the army in Joab’s place. Amasa was the son of a man called Ithra the Ishmaelite who had married Abigail, the daughter of Nahash and the sister of Joab’s mother Zeruiah.

¹³ “And say to Amasa: ‘Are you not my bone and my flesh?^[a] May God deal with me in the most severe way possible if from now on you are not the commander of my army in place of Joab.’ ”