J is for Joab

J. Joab, who heard Benaiah cackle
before he was slain in the Tabernacle.

Portia: Amid the political intrigue of King David's and King Solomon's courts is the story of Joab and Benaiah: "Solomon sent Benaiah son of Jehoiada, saying, 'Go, strike Joab down.' So Benaiah came to the tent of the Lord and said to him, 'The king commands, "Come out." But he said, 'No, I will die here.' Then Benaiah brought the king word again, saying, 'Thus said Joab, and thus he answered me.' The king replied to him, 'Do as he has said, strike him down and bury him; and thus take away from me and from my father's house the guilt for the blood that Joab shed without cause.'"

 Portia: The cartoon which accompanies this story in Gruesome and Gorey Bible Stories is an homage to the Family Circus comic strip. In the strip, writer/artist Bil Keane used dotted lines to trace the travels and activity of the children in the family. There's also a nod to the Family Circus "gremlins," "Not Me," "Ida Know," "Nobody," "O. Yeah! and "Just B. Cause."


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