Amasa

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Amasa - burden.

• Was a son of Abigail (2 Sam 17:25); Abigail was sister to both King David (1 Chr 2:16,17), and to Zuriah, the mother of Joab. This made Amasa both cousin to Joab, and nephew to David (hence Amasa was also cousin to Absalom).

Absalom, David's mutinous son, revolted and won over the tribes of Israel (2 Sam 15). He appointed Amasa over the army, in effect replacing Joab, who had been general for his father David.

After the revolt was crushed, David held out an olive branch to Amasa (in a likely effort to appease and reunite Judah with the other 10 tribes of Israel) by offering to appoint Amasa as his new army commander (2 Sam 19:13). While being fiercely loyal to David, Joab was also suspicious of any potential rivals for Joab'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: 2 Sam 3:27, and Absalom: 2 Sam 18:14). So it was not difficult for Joab to also decide to murder Amasa (2 Sam 20:10, 1 Kin 2:5,32).

• Was a son of Hadlai, and one of the leaders of Ephraim (2 Chr 28:12) during the reign of the evil King Ahaz (2 Chr 28:1-4).

This entry incorporates text from the public domain Easton's Bible Dictionary, originally published in 1897.