2 Samuel 20:4

4 And the king saith unto Amasa, `Call for me the men of Judah [in] three days, and thou, stand here,'

2 Samuel 20:4 Meaning and Commentary

2 Samuel 20:4

Then said the king to Amasa
Whom he had promised to make general of his army, ( 2 Samuel 19:13 ) ; and by the following order declared him such:

assemble me the men of Judah within three days;
which was done by the sound of the trumpet, or by the proclamation of a herald; it seems that the men of Judah, who attended David to Jerusalem, were gone to their respective cities and places of abode, or there would have been no occasion for such a summons; though it is strange they should, when the men of Israel appeared so inclinable to a new rebellion:

and be thou here present;
to take the command of them.

2 Samuel 20:4 In-Context

2 And every man of Israel goeth up from after David, after Sheba son of Bichri, and the men of Judah have cleaved to their king, from the Jordan even unto Jerusalem.

3 And David cometh in unto his house at Jerusalem, and the king taketh the ten women-concubines -- whom he had left to keep the house, and putteth them in a house of ward, and sustaineth them, and unto them he hath not gone in, and they are shut up unto the day of their death, in widowhood living.

4 And the king saith unto Amasa, `Call for me the men of Judah [in] three days, and thou, stand here,'

5 and Amasa goeth to call Judah, and tarrieth beyond the appointed time that he had appointed him;

6 and David saith unto Abishai, `Now doth Sheba son of Bichri do evil to us more than Absalom; thou, take the servants of thy lord, and pursue after him, lest he have found for himself fenced cities, and delivered himself [from] our eye.'