1 Chronicles 11:6
Now David had said, "Whoever is the first to strike down a Jebusite will become chief commander." And Joab son of Zeruiah went up first, and he became the chief.
Sermons
Joab, the Military StatesmanR. Tuck 1 Chronicles 11:6
Popular and Royal WisdomW. Clarkson 1 Chronicles 11:1-8
Capture of JerusalemF. Whitfield 1 Chronicles 11:4-9














Though this man, Josh, is introduced to us before (2 Samuel 2:13, 26, etc.), yet, in order of time, this passage is his first appearance, and only here have we the account of his prowess in taking Jebus, and his part in the building of the city of David. He probably had been chief captain of David's band of outlaws, but on this occasion he gained the position of general of the national army, and he became subsequently the great military statesman of the kingdom, and the chief king's counsellor. Probably he may be regarded as the man who exercised most influence over the king, and the careful review of their relations produces a deep impression that the influence was seldom a good one. He became David's master, and under his bondage David vainly writhed and struggled in his later years.

I. JOAB HIMSELF. The incidents by which he is made known to us are mainly the following: -

1. Abner's killing of Asahel, Joab's brother (2 Samuel 2:12-32), filled Joab with purposes of revenge.

2. Joab treacherously slew Abner (2 Samuel 3:6-39), and David felt himself too weak to do more than denounce the murder; he dare not punish the murderer.

3. Joab took a leading part in the wars of the reign, especially distinguishing himself against the Ammonites (2 Samuel 10:6-14).

4. Joab connived at David's sin in the matter of Bathsheba, and so gained the power over him which he so humiliatingly used afterwards.

5. Joab was faithful in the time of Absalom's rebellion.

6. He directly and insultingly disobeyed his king and lord in slaying Absalom.

7. He showed his mastery and his control of the army by killing Amass, who had been appointed chief general in his stead.

8. He properly remonstrated with David against his self-willed scheme of taking a census.

9. But after David's death he took the part of Adonijah, and was condemned by Solomon. He was strictly a man of the world, brave, daring, manly, generous, and persevering, but masterful, impatient of what he thought David's hesitancy and weakness; a man who saw clearly an end to be aimed at, and was in no way particular about the choice of means by which to reach it. He was unscrupulous, having no quick sensitiveness of conscience to that which is wrong. He ordered his life by the rule of the expedient, not the rule of the right, and was heedless of the claims of others if they stood in his way. A man who was a type of a class still to be found in business and social spheres, who are all for self, and do not mind who they trample down as they go up. "His character was ambitious, daring, unscrupulous, yet with an occasional show of piety" (2 Samuel 10:12). Wordsworth says, "Joab is the personification of worldly policy and secular expediency, and temporal ambition eager for its own personal aggrandizement, and especially for the maintenance of its own political ascendancy, and practising on the weaknesses of princes for its own self-interests; but at last the victim of its own Machiavellian shrewdness."

II. JOAB'S INFLUENCE ON DAVID. Sometimes it was good. He skilfully aided in the restoration of the banished Absalom; and he properly roused the king from the excessive grief he felt at the death of his favourite son. Again and again, with statesmanlike genius, he enabled David promptly to seize the occasions that promised success; and he had religion enough, or insight enough, to see where David was wrong in the matter of the census. But, as a whole, Joab's influence was bad. His unscrupulousness led David into crimes, and his masterfulness prevented David from properly punishing crimes. When conflict came between state necessity and religious duty, Joab gained the victory for mere policy, and so made David act in ways that were unworthy of one who was only Jehovah's vicegerent. It is never good for us to come into the power of any fellow-man. We should be ever in God's lead, but refuse any fellow-man's bonds. And no undue influence exerted by a fellow-man can ever relieve our responsibility before God. Craft, guile, policy, are no forces of blessing in any human spheres. - R.T.

And he slew an Egyptian.
We too are called upon to slay, to destroy and to overthrow. Are we anxious to slay a lion?

1. There is a lion to be fought by every man — Satan (1 Peter 5:8). We are called upon to fight against —

2. Self-indulgence.

3. Worldly fashion.

4. Worldly ambition.Truly there is battle enough now to be done. Whosoever will set himself against the customs of his time, the popular policies of the circle in which he moves, the prejudices of the persons whose friendship he values, will find that he must have a sword in his right hand, and that even whilst he sleeps he must have his armour so near that at a moment's notice he can be once more in the fray.

(J. Parker, D. D.)

People
Abiel, Abiezer, Abishai, Adina, Ahiam, Ahijah, Ahlai, Anathoth, Ariel, Asahel, Azmaveth, Baanah, Benaiah, Benjamin, Benjaminites, David, Dodai, Dodo, Eleazar, Elhanan, Eliahba, Eliel, Eliphal, Elnaam, Ezbai, Gareb, Hachmoni, Haggeri, Hanan, Hashem, Heled, Helez, Hepher, Hezro, Hotham, Hothan, Hurai, Ikkesh, Ilai, Ira, Israelites, Ithai, Ithmah, Ittai, Jaasiel, Jashobeam, Jasiel, Jebusites, Jediael, Jehiel, Jehoiada, Jeiel, Jeribai, Joab, Joel, Joha, Jonathan, Joshaphat, Joshaviah, Maacah, Maachah, Maharai, Mibhar, Moabites, Naarai, Naharai, Nathan, Obed, Reubenites, Ribai, Sacar, Samuel, Saul, Shage, Shama, Shammoth, Shimri, Shiza, Sibbecai, Sibbechai, Uriah, Uzzia, Zabad, Zelek, Zeruiah
Places
Adullam, Anathoth, Baharum, Beeroth, Bethlehem, Carmel, Gaash, Gibeah, Harod, Hebron, Jebus, Jerusalem, Kabzeel, Millo, Moab, Netophah, Pas-dammim, Pirathon, Tekoa, Valley of Rephaim, Zion
Topics
Attack, Becometh, Captain, Chief, Command, Commander, Commander-in-chief, David, Jebusite, Jebusites, Jeb'usites, Joab, Jo'ab, Leads, Overcome, Prince, Received, Smite, Smites, Smiteth, Strikes, Zeruiah, Zeru'iah
Outline
1. David Becomes King over All Israel
4. Jerusalem
10. David's Mighty Men

Dictionary of Bible Themes
1 Chronicles 11:6

     5261   commander

1 Chronicles 11:1-9

     5087   David, reign of
     7236   Israel, united kingdom

1 Chronicles 11:4-8

     5437   palaces

1 Chronicles 11:4-9

     5597   victory, act of God

Library
The Story of a Cup of Water
BY THEODORE T. MUNGER [From "Lamps and Paths," by courtesy of Houghton, Mifflin & Co.] Be noble! and the nobleness that lies In other men, sleeping, but never dead, Will rise in majesty to meet thine own. --James Russell Lowell: Sonnet IV Restore to God his due in tithe and time: A tithe purloined cankers the whole estate. Sundays observe: think, when the bells do chime, 'Tis angels' music; therefore come not late. God there deals blessings. If a king did so, Who would not haste, nay give, to see
Philip P. Wells—Bible Stories and Religious Classics

Some Buildings in Acra. Bezeiha. Millo.
Mount Sion did not thrust itself so far eastward as mount Acra: and hence it is, that mount Moriah is said, by Josephus, to be "situate over-against Acra," rather than over-against the Upper City: for, describing Acra thus, which we produced before, "There is another hill, called Acra, which bears the Lower City upon it, steep on both sides": in the next words he subjoins this, "Over-against this was a third hill," speaking of Moriah. The same author thus describes the burning of the Lower City:
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica

Epistle cxxii. To Rechared, King of the visigoths .
To Rechared, King of the Visigoths [82] . Gregory to Rechared, &c. I cannot express in words, most excellent son, how much I am delighted with thy work and thy life. For on hearing of the power of a new miracle in our days, to wit that the whole nation of the Goths has through thy Excellency been brought over from the error of Arian heresy to the firmness of a right faith, one is disposed to exclaim with the prophet, This is the change wrought by the right hand of the Most High (Ps. lxxvi. 11 [83]
Saint Gregory the Great—the Epistles of Saint Gregory the Great

Epistle Xlv. To Theoctista, Patrician .
To Theoctista, Patrician [153] . Gregory to Theoctista, &c. We ought to give great thanks to Almighty God, that our most pious and most benignant Emperors have near them kinsfolk of their race, whose life and conversation is such as to give us all great joy. Hence too we should continually pray for these our lords, that their life, with that of all who belong to them, may by the protection of heavenly grace be preserved through long and tranquil times. I have to inform you, however, that I have
Saint Gregory the Great—the Epistles of Saint Gregory the Great

Chronicles
The comparative indifference with which Chronicles is regarded in modern times by all but professional scholars seems to have been shared by the ancient Jewish church. Though written by the same hand as wrote Ezra-Nehemiah, and forming, together with these books, a continuous history of Judah, it is placed after them in the Hebrew Bible, of which it forms the concluding book; and this no doubt points to the fact that it attained canonical distinction later than they. Nor is this unnatural. The book
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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