Ithra an Israelite. Object. He was an Ishmaelite, 1 Chronicles 2:17. Answ. Not Amasa; but Ithra, or Jether, Amasa's father, is there so called, because he was such, either by his birth from such parents, or by his long habitation among them, or for some other reason now unknown. Compare 2 Samuel 15:18. And Amasa is here called an Israelite, either because he was a proselyte; or in opposition to Joab, who was of the tribe of Judah, as Amasa was of one of the ten tribes; or rather, to intimate, that although he or his parents were called Ishmaelites for some reason, yet as to their extraction they were indeed Israelites; which if Amasa had not been, it is not probable that he could have had so powerful an influence upon the tribe of Judah as he had, 2 Samuel 19:14. That went in to Abigail, i.e. lay with her, whether being first married to her, or not, is uncertain. The daughter of Nahash. Nahash is either another name of Jesse; or rather, the name of Jesse's wife; by whom he had this Abigail, as he had Zeruiah by another wife; so they were sisters by the father, but not by the mother; and Nahash is here named to signify so much.
Related Commentaries of 2 Samuel 17:25
2 Samuel 17:25
25 And Absalom made Amasa captain of the host instead of Joab: which Amasa was a man's son, whose name was Ithra an Israelite, that went in to Abigail the daughter of Nahash, sister to Zeruiah Joab's mother.