hed with great speed
against Sheba; and when he was come to Gibeon, which is a village forty
furlongs distant from Jerusalem, Amasa brought a great army with him,
and met Joab. Now Joab was girded with a sword, and his breastplate on;
and when Amasa came near him to salute him, he took particular care that
his sword should fall out, as it were, of its own accord: so he took
it up from the ground, and while he approached Amasa, who was then near
him, as though he would kiss him, he took hold of Amasa's beard with his
other hand, and he smote him in his belly when he did not foresee it,
and slew him. This impious and altogether profane action Joab did to a
good young man, and his kinsman, and one that had done him no injury,
and this out of jealousy that he would obtain the chief command of the
army, and be in equal dignity with himself about the king; and for the
same cause it was that he killed Abner. But as to that former wicked
action, the death of his brother Asahel, which he seemed to revenge,
afforded him a decent pretense, and made that crime a pardonable one;
but in this murder of Amasa there was no such covering for it. Now when
Joab had killed this general, he pursued after Sheba, having left a man
with the dead body, who was ordered to proclaim aloud to the army, that
Amasa was justly slain, and deservedly punished. "But," said he, "if you
be for the king, follow Joab his general, and Abishai, Joab's brother:"
but because the body lay on the road, and all the multitude came running
to it, and, as is usual with the multitude, stood wondering a great
while at it, he that guarded it removed it thence, and carried it to a
certain place that was very remote from the road, and there laid it, and
covered it with his garment. When this was done, all the people followed
Joab. Now as he pursued Sheba through all the country of Israel, one
told him that he was in a strong city, called Abelbeth-maachah. Hereupon
Joab went thither, and set about it with his army, and cast up a bank
round it, and ordered his soldiers to undermine the walls, and to
overthrow them; and since the people in the city did not admit him, he
was greatly displeased at them.

8. Now there was a woman of small account, and yet both wise and
intelligent, who seeing her native city lying at the last extremity,
ascended upon the wall, and, by means of the armed men, called for Joab;
and when he came to her, she began to say, That "God ordained kings and