^13 (A)And say to Amasa, ‘Are you not my bone and my flesh? ^(B)God do so to me, and more also, if you are not commander of the army before me ^[a]continually in place of Joab.’ ”

⁹ Then Joab said to Amasa, “Are you in health, my brother?” ^(A)And Joab took Amasa by the beard with his right hand to kiss him. ¹⁰ But Amasa did not notice the sword that was in Joab’s hand. And ^(B)he struck him with it ^(C)in the stomach, and his entrails poured out on the ground; and he did not strike him again. Thus he died.

Then Joab and Abishai his brother pursued Sheba the son of Bichri. ¹¹ Meanwhile one of Joab’s men stood near Amasa, and said, “Whoever favors Joab and whoever is for David—follow Joab!” ¹² But Amasa wallowed in his blood in the middle of the highway. And when the man saw that all the people stood still, he moved Amasa from the highway to the field and threw a garment over him, when he saw that everyone who came upon him halted.

⁵ “Moreover you know also what Joab the son of Zeruiah ^(A)did to me, and what he did to the two commanders of the armies of Israel, to ^(B)Abner the son of Ner and ^(C)Amasa the son of Jether, whom he killed. And he shed the blood of war in peacetime, and put the blood of war on his belt that was around his waist, and on his sandals that were on his feet.

³² So the Lord ^(A)will return his ^[a]blood on his head, because he struck down two men more righteous ^(B)and better than he, and killed them with the sword—^(C)Abner the son of Ner, the commander of the army of Israel, and ^(D)Amasa the son of Jether, the commander of the army of Judah—though my father David did not know it.