AMASAI

a-ma'-si (`amasay, perhaps rather to be read `ammishay; so Wellhausen, IJG, II, 24, n.2):

(1) A name in the genealogy of Kohath, son of Elkanah, a Levite of the Kohathite family (compare 1 Chronicles 6:25; 2 Chronicles 29:12).

(2) Chief of the captains who met David at Ziklag and tendered him their allegiance. Some have identified him with Amasa and others with Abishai, who is called Abshai in 1 Chronicles 11:20 m (compare 1 Chronicles 18:12). The difficulty is that neither Amasa nor Abishai occupied the rank of the chief of thirty according to the lists in 2 Samuel 23 and 1 Chronicles 11, the rank to which David is supposed to have appointed into (compare 1 Chronicles 12:18).

(3) One of the trumpet-blowing priests who greeted David when he brought back the Ark of the Covenant (compare 1 Chronicles 15:24).

From the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Edited by James Orr, published in 1939 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.