C. F. Keil and Franz Delitzsch on 1 Chronicles 2:16-17

1Ch 2:16-17

The sisters of David have become known through their heroic sons. Zeruiah is the mother of the heroes of the Davidic history, Abishai, Joab, and Asahel (cf. 1Sa 26:6; 2Sa 2:18; 2Sa 3:39; 2Sa 8:16, and elsewhere). Their father is nowhere mentioned, “because their more famous mother challenged the greater attention” (Berth.). Abigail was, according to 2Sa 17:25, the daughter of Nahash, a sister of Zeruiah, and so was only a half-sister of David, and was the mother of Amasa the captain of the host, so well known on account of his share in the conspiracy of Absalom; cf. 2Sa 17:25; 2Sa 19:14, and 2Sa 20:10. His father was Jether, or Jithra, the Ishmaelite, who in the Masoretic text of 2Sa 17:25 is called, through a copyist’s, error, היּשׂראלי instead of היּשׁמעאלי; see comm. on passage.