From the Death of Saul to the Death of David - Flavius Josephus

whom Absalom his son had accompanied, truly he removed them to another
house, and ordered those that had the care of them to make a plentiful
provision for them, but he came not near them any more. He also appointed
Amass for the captain of his forces, and gave him the same high office which
Joab before had; and he commanded him to gather together, out of the tribe
of Judah, as great an army as he could, and come to him within three days,
that he might deliver to him his entire army, and might send him to fight
against [Sheba] the son of Bichri. Now while Amass was gone out, and made
some delay in gathering the army together, and so was not yet returned, on
the third day the king said to Joab, "It is not fit we should make any delay in
this affair of Sheba, lest he get a numerous army about him, and be the
occasion of greater mischief, and hurt our affairs more than did Absalom
himself; do not thou therefore wait any longer, but take such forces as thou
hast at hand, and that [old] body of six hundred men, and thy brother
Abishai, with thee, and pursue after our enemy, and endeavor to fight him
wheresoever thou canst overtake him. Make haste to prevent him, lest he
seize upon some fenced cities, and cause us great labor and pains before we
take him."
7. So Joab resolved to make no delay, but taking with him his brother,
and those six hundred men, and giving orders that the rest of the army which
was at Jerusalem should follow him, he marched with great speed against
Sheba; and when he was come to Gibeon, which is a village forty furlongs
distant from Jerusalem, Amasa brought a great army with him, and met Joab.
Now Joab was girded with a sword, and his breastplate on; and when Amasa
came near him to salute him, he took particular care that his sword should
fall out, as it were, of its own accord: so he took it up from the ground, and
while he approached Amasa, who was then near him, as though he would
kiss him, he took hold of Amasa's beard with his other hand, and he smote
him in his belly when he did not foresee it, and slew him. This impious and
altogether profane action Joab did to a good young man, and his kinsman,
and one that had done him no injury, and this out of jealousy that he would
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