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David and Joab
How David and Joab are linked in Scripture, with every passage where their stories cross.
How they are linked
Joab served David.
Joab won command of David's army by going up first against the Jebusites at Jerusalem. He led David's wars for years, and David once said the sons of Zeruiah were "too hard for me".
So Joab the son of Zeruiah went first up, and was chief
1 Chronicles 11:6, King James Version
Joab the son of Zeruiah was over the host
2 Samuel 8:16, King James Version
these men the sons of Zeruiah be too hard for me
2 Samuel 3:39, King James Version
Where they cross: 1 Chronicles 11:4-6
Joab confronted David.
Joab challenged David more than once. He objected to numbering Israel as a cause of trespass, and after Absalom died he told the grieving king that he had shamed his own servants.
why will he be a cause of trespass to Israel?
1 Chronicles 21:3, King James Version
Thou hast shamed this day the faces of all thy servants
2 Samuel 19:5, King James Version
Where they cross: 1 Chronicles 21:2-6
Notes are commentary, checked against the cited verses in a separate review. Quoted words are Scripture.
Every passage, in order
2 Samuel 3:39
39And I am this day weak, though anointed king; and these men the sons of Zeruiah be too hard for me: the Lord shall reward the doer of evil according to his wickedness.
2 Samuel 8:16
16And Joab the son of Zeruiah was over the host; and Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was recorder;
2 Samuel 19:5
5And Joab came into the house to the king, and said, Thou hast shamed this day the faces of all thy servants, which this day have saved thy life, and the lives of thy sons and of thy daughters, and the lives of thy wives, and the lives of thy concubines;
1 Chronicles 11:4-6
4And David and all Israel went to Jerusalem, which is Jebus; where the Jebusites were, the inhabitants of the land.
5And the inhabitants of Jebus said to David, Thou shalt not come hither. Nevertheless David took the castle of Zion, which is the city of David.
6And David said, Whosoever smiteth the Jebusites first shall be chief and captain. So Joab the son of Zeruiah went first up, and was chief.
1 Chronicles 21:2-6
2And David said to Joab and to the rulers of the people, Go, number Israel from Beer-sheba even to Dan; and bring the number of them to me, that I may know it.
3And Joab answered, The Lord make his people an hundred times so many more as they be: but, my lord the king, are they not all my lord’s servants? why then doth my lord require this thing? why will he be a cause of trespass to Israel?
4Nevertheless the king’s word prevailed against Joab. Wherefore Joab departed, and went throughout all Israel, and came to Jerusalem.
5And Joab gave the sum of the number of the people unto David. And all they of Israel were a thousand thousand and an hundred thousand men that drew sword: and Judah was four hundred threescore and ten thousand men that drew sword.
6But Levi and Benjamin counted he not among them: for the king’s word was abominable to Joab.
King James Version