One other person, place or group in the registry answers to the name Amasa. Every Amasa in the Bible
- verses
- 11
- first named
- 2 Samuel 17:25
- last named
- 1 Chronicles 2:17
- period
- United Monarchy
- tribe
- Arabia
Description
Who was Amasa?
Amasa was the son of Jether, an Ishmaelite, and Abigail, the sister of King David. He was a cousin of Joab, David's military commander. (2Sa.17.25; 1Ch.2.17)
During Absalom's rebellion against David, Amasa was appointed as the commander of Absalom's army. (2Sa.17.25) After Absalom's defeat and death, David sought to reconcile with the rebellious factions and offered Amasa the position of commander over his army, replacing Joab. (2Sa.19.13).
However, when David ordered Amasa to assemble the men of Judah to counter a revolt led by Sheba, Amasa took longer than the allotted time. David then dispatched Abishai to pursue Sheba, with Joab and his men following. (2Sa.20.4-7)
When Amasa caught up with them, Joab approached him as if to greet him, but instead killed him with a sword. Joab then continued the pursuit of Sheba. (2Sa.20.8-13)
Joab's murder of Amasa was likely motivated by jealousy and a desire to maintain his position as David's military commander. David, however, saw this act as a betrayal and later instructed his son Solomon to bring judgment upon Joab for the deaths of Amasa and Abner. (1Ki.2.5-6)
The story of Amasa highlights the complex relationships and power struggles within David's family and his kingdom. It also demonstrates the consequences of loyalty, betrayal, and the struggle for power in the royal court.
Relations
Direct connections
Every entity the graph places in a stated relation with this one, grouped by the kind of link. Each relation is authored once and its inverse derived, so both ends always agree. Rows marked “registry” come from the identity spine rather than from a verse, and a row marked “which bearer is the source’s decision” is one where the name could have meant more than one person. The last group is not a relation at all — it counts the events two entities stand in together.
The 10 best-attested of 11 are drawn. All 11 are listed below.
Child of
Took part in
Stands in the same events as
Places
Where this happens
A person is placed by the events they take part in, and an event has to clear three things to place them: it must say where it happened, that place must be one the gazetteer can put a coordinate on, and the verse must report it rather than foretell, command or ask it. Nothing anchored here clears all three. Where the text names a setting no gazetteer surveys — a vineyard, a palace, a plot of ground — it is left off rather than guessed at; where a place is named only in a prophecy, the map does not draw what was said to be coming as though it had happened; and a place reached only through a relation is not inherited, because standing beside somebody is not being somewhere.
No verse Atlas has read as a report puts this person anywhere.
Not read yet
Read it
Where to read it
Every verse of the text carried here that names this entity — 11, across 3 books. The name is written 15 times in them.
Onward
Where this page goes
Not the direct relations above — these are one hop further out, ranked so that a rare shared connection outweighs a common one. Descriptions by STEPBible TIPNR.
Where they appear
Chapter by chapter
Atlas's reading of each chapter this person appears in, in canonical order. One line per chapter, and each leads to the whole of it.
Sources