(28) The rest of the people.--Joab proposes a general muster of the remaining forces of Israel, either because additional force was actually needed for the capture of the citadel, or simply to carry out the formal capturing of the city by David in person.

12:26-31 To be thus severe in putting the children of Ammon to slavery was a sign that David's heart was not yet made soft by repentance, at the time when this took place. We shall be most compassionate, kind, and forgiving to others, when we most feel our need of the Lord's forgiving love, and taste the sweetness of it in our own souls.Now therefore gather the rest of the people together,.... The rest of the soldiers in the land of Israel, and come to Rabbah:

and encamp against the city; invest it in form:

and take it; upon a surrender or by storm; for it could not hold out long:

lest I take the city, and it be called after my name; so great a regard had Joab, though an ambitious man, to the fame and credit of David his king: so Craterus (a) at the siege of Artacacna, being prepared to take it, waited the coming of Alexander, that he might have the honour of it.

(a) Curt. Hist. l. 6. c. 6.