{"id":61517,"date":"2019-08-20T13:26:05","date_gmt":"2019-08-20T10:26:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=61517"},"modified":"2023-03-14T11:55:36","modified_gmt":"2023-03-14T09:55:36","slug":"joab-the-final-chapter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/joab-the-final-chapter\/","title":{"rendered":"Joab: The Final Chapter"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[834,900,423,838],"acf":{"old_id":"61517","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34891,"related_cahpter":"289","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"But Joab was too essential to David\u2019s monarchy to be disposed of so easily","content":"

David cursed Joab back in II Sam. 3, when Joab killed Abner.\u00a0 David kept Joab on, however, relying on him even after Joab killed Absalom and then Amasa.\u00a0 Now, as David lies dying, he instructs his successor Solomon: <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFurther, you know what Joab son of Zeruiah did to me, what he did to the two commanders of Israel\u2019s forces, Abner son of Ner and Amasa son of Jether: he killed them, shedding blood of war in peacetime, staining the girdle of his loins and the sandals on his feet with blood of war.\u00a0 So act in accordance with your wisdom, and see that his white hair does not go down to Sheol in peace.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShedding blood of war in peacetime\u201d is the crime, and Abner and Amasa the victims.\u00a0 But Joab had two other famous, named victims, killed in wartime, who loom large in the wings of this scene: Absalom and Uriah.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Joab\u2019s killing of Absalom seems vindicated by what follows in II Sam. 19, but the reader may wonder whether David ever forgave Joab on a personal level.<\/span><\/p>\n

Absalom\u2019s rebellion and death were themselves among the many consequences of David\u2019s own sin, fulfilling Nathan\u2019s prophecy that \u201cI will make a calamity rise against you from within your own house\u2026\u201d All because \u201cYou have put Uriah the Hittite to the sword; you took his wife and made her your wife\u201d (II Sam.12:9-11).<\/span><\/p>\n

David\u2019s misery, it turns out, traces back to his own murder-adultery. And the one who helped him commit the murder was Joab.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

From Solomon\u2019s perspective, Joab is guilty of the additional crime of supporting Solomon\u2019s rival Adonijah. And indeed it is after Solomon kills Adonijah that Joab realizes he is in peril, \u201cfor Joab had sided with Adonijah, though he had not sided with Absalom.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

What can we make of Joab\u2019s fate? Is it high-minded, just-deserts for Joab\u2019s personal, backstabbing machinations? Is Joab a casualty of Solomon\u2019s political consolidation? Or is it revenge for his personal slights to David or Solomon?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps it is all of the above. Joab lives by a mixture of cold strategic calculations, loyalty to the Davidic monarchy, and personal grudges, and dies by that same mixture.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It is not only Joab who lives by this mixture of personal and political, noble and ignoble, but David himself. Cursed Joab and blessed David (and his son) cannot be so easily separated.\u00a0 Perhaps this intertwining lies behind the<\/span> Talmud\u2019s<\/span> imagined dialogue between Joab and Solomon:\u00a0 According to the Talmud, Joab warned Solomon that \u201cyou cannot perform two against that man\u201d (i.e., you cannot punish me twice). If you kill me, Joab explained, be ready to accept the curses that David placed upon me. If you let me go, I will accept the curses.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Solomon chose to eliminate Joab, but the separation came at a cost: \u201cRav Yehuda says that Rav says: All the curses with which David cursed Joab were ultimately fulfilled in David\u2019s descendants.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Joab was too essential to David\u2019s monarchy to be disposed of so easily.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>This is the final post in a series.\u00a0 Previous posts can be found here,\u00a0<\/span>The Saga of Joab<\/span><\/a>, and here – Joab: Outside Looking In<\/a><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":61519,"id":61519,"title":"1kings2-the end","filename":"1kings2-the-end.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/1kings2-the-end.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/joab-the-final-chapter\/1kings2-the-end\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"1kings2-the-end","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":61517,"date":"2019-08-20 10:25:50","modified":"2022-10-23 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