Bikri was a Benjamite known as the father of Sheba, the man who led a rebellion against King David after Absalom's revolt. Bikri himself plays no direct role in the story, but his name is linked to his son Sheba's uprising, which threatened to split David's kingdom. Sheba is repeatedly referred to as "Sheba son of Bikri" in 2 Samuel.
1Now there happened to be there a scoundrel named Sheba son of Bichri, a Benjaminite. He sounded the ram's horn and cried out: "We have no share in David, no inheritance in the son of Jesse! To your tents, Israel!"
2So all the men of Israel deserted David and followed Sheba son of Bichri. But the men of Judah stayed loyal to their king, all the way from the Jordan to Jerusalem.
6David said to Abishai, "Sheba son of Bichri will do us more harm than Absalom did. Take your lord's servants and pursue him, or he will find fortified cities for himself and escape us."
15Joab's forces came and besieged him in Abel Beth Maacah. They threw up a siege ramp against the city, and it stood level with the outer wall, and all the troops with Joab were battering the wall to bring it down.
A wise woman in Abel-Beth-Maachah negotiated with Joab and persuaded the city's inhabitants to behead Sheba son of Bichri, throwing his head over the wall so that the rebellion ended.
17He came near, and the woman asked, "Are you Joab?" "I am," he answered. She said to him, "Listen to the words of your servant." "I am listening," he said.
19I am one of the peaceable and faithful in Israel. Yet you are trying to destroy a city that is a mother in Israel. Why would you swallow up the LORD's inheritance?"
21That is not the case. But a man from the hill country of Ephraim, Sheba son of Bichri by name, has lifted his hand against the king, against David. Hand over that one man, and I will withdraw from the city." The woman said to Joab, "His head will be thrown to you over the wall."
22Then the woman went to all the people with her wise counsel, and they cut off the head of Sheba son of Bichri and threw it out to Joab. He sounded the ram's horn, and his men dispersed from the city, each to his own tent. And Joab returned to the king in Jerusalem.