It’s possible to be on the right side – but not to be peaceable and faithful. Don’t we see that with Joab? Joab exclaims in verse 20: ‘Far be it from me, that I should swallow up or destroy! That is not true.’ Yet what has Joab just done? He’s just fresh from murdering Amasa. Reaching out and holding his […]

Amidst all the chaos and strife, there is one person who stands out in this chapter. Someone who, when those around her are losing their heads, is in her own words ‘peaceable and faithful in Israel’. We’re not told her name. Simply in verse 16 that she is a wise woman from the city of Abel. This city is under […]

In verse 3 David comes to his house at Jerusalem. It should have been a glorious moment. But it’s not quite a return to how things were before his sin with Bathsheba. On the national level, there are clear tensions, which in the days of David’s son Solomon will become even clearer when the nation fractures irreversibly. It’s all part […]