ZERUIAH . The mother of David’s officers Abishai, Joab, and Asahel, who are always referred to as ‘sons of Zerulah.’ The father’s name is never mentioned, and he may have died early; or the mother may have been so remarkable a woman that her husband’s name was not preserved; or we have a survival of the ancient custom of tracing kinship through the female line.
In 1 Chronicles 2:16 Zeruiah and Abigail are called ‘sisters of the sons of Jesse,’ but in 2 Samuel 17:25 Abigail is called the daughter of Nahash. It seems more probable that for Nahash in 2 Samuel 17:25 we ought to read Jesse , than that Jesse’s wife had previously been married to Nahash the Ammonite. According to this view, Zeruiah would be the daughter of Jesse and sister of David.
W. F. Boyd.
Complete and trustworthy, Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible is a thorough reference (5,915 entries) for all readers of the Bible. For nearly a century, lay people and scholars alike have valued the authoritative contents and the convenient format of this one-volume work.Wikipedia
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