Joab said to Amasa, "How are you, my friend?" and took hold of his beard with his right hand in order to kiss him.

Amasa was not on guard against the sword that Joab was holding in his other hand, and Joab stabbed him in the belly, and his insides spilled out on the ground. He died immediately, and Joab did not have to strike again. Then Joab and his brother Abishai went on after Sheba.

" 'God's curse on anyone who secretly commits murder.' "And all the people will answer, 'Amen!'

"There is something else. You remember what Joab did to me by killing the two commanders of Israel's armies, Abner son of Ner and Amasa son of Jether. You remember how he murdered them in time of peace as revenge for deaths they had caused in time of war. He killed innocent men, and now I bear the responsibility for what he did, and I suffer the consequences.

The LORD will punish Joab for those murders, which he committed without my father David's knowledge. Joab killed two innocent men who were better men than he: Abner, commander of the army of Israel, and Amasa, commander of the army of Judah.

Ishmael and the ten men with him pulled out their swords and killed Gedaliah.

So Ishmael went out from Mizpah to meet them, weeping as he went. When he came to them, he said, "Please come in to see Gedaliah."

As soon as they were inside the city, Ishmael and his men killed them and threw their bodies in a well.

started chasing Abner, running straight for him.

"Stop chasing me!" Abner said. "Run after one of the soldiers and take what he has." But Asahel kept on chasing him.

But Asahel would not quit; so Abner, with a backward thrust of his spear, struck him through the stomach so that the spear came out at his back. Asahel dropped to the ground dead, and everyone who came to the place where he was lying stopped and stood there.