One of Joab’s soldiers who stood over Amasa said, “Whoever is for ¹  Joab and whoever is for David, follow Joab!”

So David sent a message to Joab that said, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” So Joab sent Uriah to David.

Then Joab blew the trumpet ¹  and the army turned back from chasing Israel, for Joab had called for the army to halt.

Then ten soldiers who were Joab’s armor bearers struck Absalom and finished him off.

In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah.

Then Joab sent a full battle report to David. ¹ 

So Joab got up and went to Geshur and brought Absalom back to Jerusalem. ¹ 

(19:2) Joab was told, “The king is weeping and mourning over Absalom.”

from the descendants of Joab, Obadiah son of Jehiel, and with him 218 men;

But the king’s edict stood, despite Joab’s objections. ¹  So Joab left and traveled throughout Israel before returning to Jerusalem. ² 

Absalom had made Amasa general in command of the army in place of Joab. (Now Amasa was the son of an Israelite man named Jether, who had married ¹  Abigail the daughter of Nahash and sister of Zeruiah, Joab’s mother.)

Abner said to Joab, “Let the soldiers get up and fight ¹  before us.” Joab said, “So be it!” ² 

Then Absalom sent a message to Joab asking him to send him to the king, but Joab was not willing to come to him. So he sent a second message to him, but he still was not willing to come.

When the news reached Joab (for Joab had supported ¹  Adonijah, although he had not supported Absalom), he ²  ran to the tent of the Lord and grabbed hold of the horns of the altar. ³ 

Amasa did not protect himself from the knife in Joab’s other hand, and Joab ¹  stabbed him in the abdomen, causing Amasa’s ²  intestines to spill out on the ground. There was no need to stab him again; the first blow was fatal. ³  Then Joab and his brother Abishai pursued Sheba son of Bicri.

Then Joab said to the Cushite, “Go and tell the king what you have seen.” After bowing to Joab, the Cushite ran off.

Joab said to Amasa, “How are you, my brother?” With his right hand Joab took hold of Amasa’s beard as if to greet him with a kiss.

When Uriah came to him, David asked about how Joab and the army were doing and how the campaign was going. ¹ 

Included with the thirty were the following: Asahel the brother of Joab, Elhanan son of Dodo from Bethlehem, ¹ 

Zelek the Ammonite, Naharai the Beerothite (the armor-bearer ¹  of Joab son of Zeruiah),