When he was removed out of the highway,.... Into the field, and covered over with a cloth, that he could not be seen:
all the people went on after Joab; made no stop at all, knowing nothing of the matter, or what had happened:
to pursue after Sheba the son of Bichri; these were the troops that Amasa had been assembling, which followed one another after him; for Joab and Abishai, with their men, were at Gibeon first.