Now Absalom had placed Amasa over the army in the place of Joab. Now Amasa was the son of a man named Jether the Ishmaelite, who went in to Abigail the daughter of Nahash and sister of Zeruiah, the mother of Joab.
Say to Amasa, ‘Are you not my bone and my flesh? May God do to me, and more so, if you are not commander of the army before me from now on in the place of Joab.’ ”