The Story

Bible readers are well-acquainted with the luminous figures of the Old Testament: the first Adam, the venerable Abraham, and the illustrious Patriarchs, not forgetting the liberating Moses, the regal David, and the sagacious Solomon. Yet amidst these towering titans, there stands a man of iron and intrigue, mentioned nearly 150 times in the Old Testament, a second-tier character who shapes first-rate events. Joab, the indomitable chief general of King David's forces (2 Sam. 8:16; 20:13; 1 Chr. 27:34), embodies a paradox of fierce loyalty and ruthless pragmatism. His allegiance to David binds him to his king. Yet, this loyalty is no mere passive virtue; it is an active, tumultuous force, compelling Joab to soil his hands in the blood of David's potential rivals.

Joab is not just the commander of David’s troops; he is also David’s nephew. David’s sister, Zeruiah (1 Chron. 2:16-17), has three sons, each of whom is a skilled fighter (2 Sam. 2:18-24). Their father remains absent from the biblical narrative, and the three sons are designated “sons of Zeruiah” (1 Sam 26:6; 2 Sam 2:18; 21:17; 1 Chr 2:16). Joab emerges as the key mover and shaker in David’s Kingdom. There are threats against David that he looks squarely in the eye, whether from inside or outside the Kingdom. His fierce loyalty to the king reverberates loudly and ominously throughout the Davidic Dynasty.

Joab first appears in the power struggle of 2 Samuel 2. The people of Judah make David king. But Saul’s son, Ish-bosheth, seeks to restore Saul’s throne. The man pulling the strings of the puppet prince is Abner. Abner opens negotiations with Joab at a summit held at the pool of Gibeon. When talks yield nothing, Abner suggests a physical contest. Each side chooses twelve men to compete in an MMA fight, only with weapons, no octagon, and a fight to the death. Whichever side wins will lead a unified Israel. With a grim determination, David and his men win; Abner and his men flee. Joab’s younger brother, Asahel, chases down Abner from behind and tackles him. Abner, an experienced warrior, stops short and thrusts his sword backward through Asahel’s body. Joab continues his pursuit unsuccessfully as Abner finds refuge with relatives (2 Sam. 2:1-32).

Warfare continues between the house of Saul and the house of David. David’s family and power increase. Abner, left with no choice, ingratiates himself through back-channel politicking. The panoply of Saul’s coalition is falling apart, so Abner switches his allegiance to David as his only path to survival, promising to bring all of Israel under David’s kingship. Before the coronation ceremony for King David, Joab reveals a barely hidden personal obsession by intercepting and ruthlessly murdering Abner as an act of revenge for Asahel’s death (2 Sam. 3:1-39).

Joab distinguishes himself in battle and earns a promotion to military chief (1 Chron. 11:6). He and his forces seem invincible in battle (2 Sam 11:13–14; 18:2; 20:7–22). Joab acts independently yet remains steadfastly loyal to the King. He suspects Abner of being a spy (2 Sam. 3:24f). He allows David to take credit for the victory against the Ammonites (2 Sam. 12:26-28). He stays true to David during the conspiracy of Absalom (2 Sam. 18:2). He helps cover for David in the Bathsheba affair (2 Sam. 11:18-21). He knows David’s heart regarding Absalom (2 Sam. 13-14). But Joab’s loyalty doesn’t mean he withholds opinions. He also criticizes David’s deep grief over Absalom’s death, offering shrewd advice (2 Sam 18:33–19:4). He opposes David’s census, preferring to rely upon the Lord (2 Sam. 24:3).

Yet Joab displays a disturbingly violent streak. When Abner kills Joab’s brother, Asahel, in battle, Joab responds by luring Abner into a white flag meeting and killing him (2 Sam. 3:27). Later, Joab attempts to reconcile David with his son, Absalom, but then ostracizes Absalom when he returns to Jerusalem (2 Sam. 14:1-19). Joab disobeys David’s command to deal gently with his son and kills the perfidious Absalom. David, so grieved, replaces Joab with Amasa (2 Sam. 19:13). Joab, with a remarkable degree of high dudgeon, responds by assassinating Amasa (2 Sam. 20:8-13).

Joab’s loyalty toward David combines with frustration. David’s propensity to mourn the loss of his enemies, often in public and dramatic ways, infers guilt upon Joab, who frequently destroys David’s enemies. Joab’s exasperation with David grows with time. David punishes the man who claims to assassinate Saul (2 Sam. 2:15). David holds a state funeral and laments publicly for Abner, who Joab killed (2 Sam. 3:31-39). David executes the murderers of Ish-Bosheth, his chief rival to the throne (2 Sam. 4:12). David weeps bitterly when Joab kills Absalom, who conspires to take the throne (2 Sam. 18:33). All Joab has done is act in David’s best interest, yet David seems to love those who hate him and hate those who love him (2 Sam. 19:6).

At the end of David’s life, during the transfer of power to Solomon, Adonijah, the oldest surviving son, tries to become the next king. He recruits two powerful people from David’s ranks: Joab the military man and Abiatha the priest. Adonijah hosts a coronation feast but doesn’t invite Nathan the prophet, Zadok the priest, or Solomon, the rival heir to the throne. Adonijah is trying to be king, but going about it the wrong way, thus confirming he is not the Lord's choice. He is self-exalting, presumptuous, and undisciplined (1 Kings 1:5f). Yet Joab’s loyalty shifts and he sides with Adonijah. David commands Solomon to bring Joab to justice (1 Kings 2:5-6). After David’s death, Solomon executes Joab for his war crimes (1 Kgs 2:28–35).

The Theology

Joab tried to bring the kingdom by brute force and power. And this is why David orders his execution. Joab killed Abner and Amasa under the guise of peace rather than war (2 Sam. 3:23; 20:9). Joab fought Absalom’s men with great pertinacity, it is true. But to kill Absalom, in wretched fashion no less, was a contumacious display. Joab’s relationship with David never recuperated. Joab put the blood of war on David’s belt and feet (1 Kings 2:5). Joab thinks he is vigorously working for the Lord’s Anointed. Instead, he is assaulting Israel and Judah. Blood returns for blood and so Solomon executes Joab (1 Kings. 2:33).

Joab’s execution is necessary to clear David’s house of the guilt of Joab’s bloodshed (1 Kings 2:5, 31-33; Dt. 22:8). Blood will be on Joab and his seed. Peace will be on David and his seed (1 Kings 2:33). Where was Joab buried? In his own house in the wilderness (1 Kings 2:34). The wilderness is where Israel, wandered, for forty years, lost. Just like the generation that failed to reach the promised land and was buried in the wilderness, so is Joab. And just like Joshua led the next generation into the promised land, so now Solomon establishes his new regime (1 Kings 2:34f).

A survey of Joab’s life can be described as eclectic. Joab’s role is a jagged but ultimately unbroken line through David’s reign. Joab was ostensibly on David’s team, the right team. And God’s judgment came for him, anticipating Jesus’ words, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness’” (Mt. 7:21-23). Joab was a hardened man of war. David learned that such men prove useful. At different points, Joab read the sign of the times better than David, for example by his discouragement of the census in 2 Samuel 24. Yet the overriding quality of Joab is that violence was his quintessential characteristic.

Relationships can be complicated. Relationships are born, then defined, then matured, and then sometimes fail because of the nature of humans themselves. So, what did David do about Joab? He kicked the problem to Solomon. Why didn’t David reprimand Joab sooner? Why didn’t he discipline him? Why did he leave it for his son to execute Joab? Edwin Friedman calls this mode of leadership the “failure of nerve.” So David may have performed all the purification rites for the bloodshed. But his failure of leadership was in not taking ultimate responsibility for Joab.

As for Joab, his loyalty to the anointed turned out to be a mask for his loyalty to himself. The stalwart warrior was at his best in the rudest shocks of battle. Yet his unabated zeal for personal paybacks dimmed his highest deeds of bravery and daring. Revenge perverts the quest for glory. The “godly exult in glory” (Ps. 149:5). A big imagination isn’t wrong. Large ambition isn’t a vice. The quest for glory isn’t sin. Rather it is sin that distorts imaginations, misdirects ambition, and disfigures glory. Sodomites seek a twisted glory rather than the glory of the immortal God (Rom. 1:23). Pharisees seek vain glory rather than justice, mercy, and faithfulness (Mt. 23:23). Evangelicals, too often, seek no glory at all rather than being zealous for it (Rom. 2:6-10; 5:2; 1 Pt. 1:8). Like Joab, each fails to pursue glory properly. They come short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23).

There are consequences for all the blood Joab and David shed. Why is Solomon, rather than David, charged with building the temple? Because David has “shed too much blood” (1 Chron. 22:8). Again, David says “I made preparations for building. But God said to me, ‘You may not build a house for my name, for you are a man of war and have shed blood’” (1 Chron. 28:3-4). Later in the Davidic dynasty, the Lord does not pardon Manasseh. Why not? Because of the innocent blood he shed (2 Kings 24:4). According to Numbers 35:33-34, “shed blood” pollutes the land. Only the blood of the one who shed blood can make atonement for the land.

This is why Joab’s killings led to his execution. And it's why David cannot build the temple. The temple will manifest the presence of God. Shed blood cannot be part of the foundation of the building. The law has purification rites for those defiled by a corpse in civilian life (Numbers 19:14-18). The law also has purification rites for soldiers who have killed in battle (Numbers 31:19-24). So David could have received purification for his bloodshed. Surely he did. Yet the Lord gave the building of the temple to Solomon, making David like Moses, who was also excluded from the one thing he’d worked his entire life for, entering the promised land. And perhaps—perhaps—God withholding the temple glory from David anticipates a new day to come, one where the Kingdom expands not by revenge, riots, or pogroms, but by a new kind of holy war (2 Cor. 10:3-6) and a new kind of prince—the Prince of Peace (Is. 9:6).

Bibliography

Bridge, E. J. (2016). “Joab the Commander.” In J. D. Barry, D. Bomar, D. R. Brown, R. Klippenstein, D. Mangum, C. Sinclair Wolcott, L. Wentz, E. Ritzema, & W. Widder (Eds.), The Lexham Bible Dictionary. Lexham Press.

Merrill, Eugene H. Kingdom of Priests: A History of Old Testament Israel (Baker Academic, 2008), 246-248, 252-253, 275, 288-290, 304-307.

Murray, Donald “Under YHWH's Veto: David as Shedder of Blood in Chronicles,” Filologia Neotestamentaria 82 [2001]: 457–76