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.

Some people believe this was because

Joab had disobeyed David's command not to harm Absalom, but we have no evidence that David even knew about that.

It seems more likely that this choice is motivated either by David's bitterness over Joab's rebuke

or by David's attempt to get the tribe of Judah back on his side.

Regardless, David's plan works, and Judah gets on board and reinstates him as king.

...