Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible recap.

We open today with David mourning the death of Absalom.

As far as we know, he doesn't have any idea how Absalom died or that Joab had anything

to do with it.

But Joab knows, and it seems like he's feeling a lot of guilt over David's grief and his

own rebellion against David's orders to protect Absalom.

He rebukes David for not being more grateful over their victory and for letting the death

of his enemy weigh him down, even though it was his son.

David responds in the way Joab suggests by putting a stop to his grief and going home

to Jerusalem to appear before the people.

But it seems like David might harbor some resentment for Joab's harsh words, whether

he was right or not.

The people of Israel aren't really sure what to do with David now.

Should they still regard him as king?

There are two primary responses and they're divided along tribal lines.

Judah, David's tribe, and then the rest of Israel.

Interestingly, the ones who are hesitating the most about reinstating David as king are

his own people, Judah.

As he's attempting to convince the leaders of Judah to reinstate him, David does something

unexpected.

He replaces Joab, the commander of his army, with Amasa, who was the commander of Absalom's

army approximately 24 hours earlier.

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