2 Samuel 20:12

12 `Amasa lay wallowing in his blood in the midst of the highway. When the man saw that all the people stood still, he carried `Amasa out of the highway into the field, and cast a garment over him, when he saw that everyone who came by him stood still.

2 Samuel 20:12 Meaning and Commentary

2 Samuel 20:12

And Amasa wallowed in blood in the midst of the highway
By which it seems, that though the wound was mortal, and of which he died, that as yet there was life in him, and through the pain he was in, and the pangs of death on him, he rolled himself about in his own blood in the high road, where the fact was committed:

and when the man saw that all the people stood still;
gazing at the shocking sight, and could not be prevailed upon to go on:

he removed Amasa out of the highway into the field;
which was adjoining to it:

and cast a cloth upon him;
that the body might not be seen:

when he saw that everyone that came by him stood still;
and so retarded the people in their march, to prevent which he took the above method, and it was a very prudent one.

2 Samuel 20:12 In-Context

10 But `Amasa took no heed to the sword that was in Yo'av's hand: so he struck him therewith in the body, and shed out his bowels to the ground, and didn't strike him again; and he died. Yo'av and Avishai his brother pursued after Sheva the son of Bikhri.

11 There stood by him one of Yo'av's young men, and said, He who favors Yo'av, and he who is for David, let him follow Yo'av.

12 `Amasa lay wallowing in his blood in the midst of the highway. When the man saw that all the people stood still, he carried `Amasa out of the highway into the field, and cast a garment over him, when he saw that everyone who came by him stood still.

13 When he was removed out of the highway, all the people went on after Yo'av, to pursue after Sheva the son of Bikhri.

14 He went through all the tribes of Yisra'el to Hevel, and to Beit-Ma`akha, and all the Beri`i: and they were gathered together, and went also after him.