⁸ While they were at the great rock in Gibeon,^(A) Amasa came to meet them. Joab^(B) was wearing his military tunic, and strapped over it at his waist was a belt with a dagger in its sheath. As he stepped forward, it dropped out of its sheath.

⁹ Joab said to Amasa, “How are you, my brother?” Then Joab took Amasa by the beard with his right hand to kiss him. ¹⁰ Amasa was not on his guard against the dagger^(C) in Joab’s^(D) hand, and Joab plunged it into his belly, and his intestines spilled out on the ground. Without being stabbed again, Amasa died. Then Joab and his brother Abishai pursued Sheba son of Bikri.

¹¹ One of Joab’s men stood beside Amasa and said, “Whoever favors Joab, and whoever is for David, let him follow Joab!” ¹² Amasa lay wallowing in his blood in the middle of the road, and the man saw that all the troops came to a halt^(E) there. When he realized that everyone who came up to Amasa stopped, he dragged him from the road into a field and threw a garment over him.

¹⁹ He has sacrificed^(A) great numbers of cattle, fattened calves, and sheep, and has invited all the king’s sons, Abiathar the priest and Joab the commander of the army, but he has not invited Solomon your servant.