Sister of David, and mother of his famous generals, Joab, Abishai, and Asahel, 1Ch 2:16. Her husband is unknown.

stricken of the Lord, David's sister, and the mother of Abishai, Joab, and Asahel (1Ch 2:16), who were the three leading heroes of David's army, and being his nephews, they were admitted to the closest companionship with him.

Mother of Abishai (called so from Ishai = Jesse), Joab, and Asahel, "the sons of Zeruiah"; sister of Abigail and of the sons of Jesse (1Ch 2:13-17). The father of her three sons is nowhere mentioned, because their more famous mother challenged the greater attention. Josephus preserves a tradition that he was named Souri (Ant. 7:1, Section 3). Nahash was father of Zeruiah and Abigail. (See NAHASH.) At his death their mother married Jesse, by whom she bore David (2Sa 17:25; 1Ch 2:16). Therefore Zeruiah and Abigail are called "David's (half) sisters," but not Jesse's daughters.

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 1Ch 2:16 Zeruiah and Abigail are called 'sisters of the sons of Jesse,' but in 2Sa 17:25 Abigail is called the daughter of Nahash. It seems more probable that for Nahash in 2Sa 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.

Zerui'ah

Described with Abigail as 'sisters of the sons of Jesse.' They may have been half-sisters (Abigail was the daughter of Nahash, 2Sa 17:25). Zeruiah had three sons, Joab, Abishai, and Asahel, the leaders of David's army; but it is not stated who was her husband. David declared, after the murder of Abner, that the sons of Zeruiah were too hard for him. 1Sa 26:6; 2Sa 2:13,18; 16:9-10; etc.

Zeru'iah

(balsam), the mother of the three leading heroes of David's army --Abishai, Joah and Asahel-- known as the "sons of Zeruiah." Of Zeruiah's husband there is no mention in the Bible. (B.C. before 1046.)