2 Samuel 20 Introduction

Structure and Formatting

This chapter continues the story of what David did as the king of Israel and specifically how he was restored completely to his position as king after Absalom’s rebellion. It describes how a man named Sheba encouraged the Israelites not to accept David as their king again. David had appointed Amasa, who had been Absalom’s military commander, as his own commander. But when he did not take swift action against Sheba, David sent his own personal troops to pursue Sheba. They met Amasa on the way, and Joab murdered him. Joab then trapped Sheba in a city whose inhabitants killed him so that Joab would not destroy their city. That ended the rebellion, and David was firmly established as king once again.The author indicates this by ending the chapter with a list of David’s officials ([20:23–26](../20/23.md)). This list is much like the one in [8:16–18](../08/16.md) that follows the author’s statement that “David was king over all of Israel.” See how you formatted the earlier list. It may be helpful to format this list in the same way, for example:Now Joab was over all of the army of Israel.Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, was over the Kerethites and over the Pelethites.Adoniram was over the forced labor.Jehoshaphat, the son of Ahilud, was the recorder.Sheva was the scribe.Zadok and Abiathar were priests.Ira the Jairite was also a priest to David.