2 Samuel 2:8-12

David’s Army Clashes with the Army of Saul

2:8 Now Abner son of Ner, the general in command of Saul’s army, had taken Saul’s son Ish-bosheth ¹  and had brought him to Mahanaim. 2:9 He appointed him king over Gilead, the Geshurites, ²  Jezreel, Ephraim, Benjamin, and all Israel. 2:10 Ish-bosheth son of Saul was forty years old when he began to rule over Israel. He ruled two years. However, the people ³  of Judah followed David. 2:11 David was king in Hebron over the people of Judah for seven and a half years. ⁴ 

2:12 Then Abner son of Ner and the servants of Ish-bosheth son of Saul went out from Mahanaim to Gibeon.

2 Samuel 3:7-8

3:7 Now Saul had a concubine named Rizpah daughter of Aiah. Ish-bosheth ⁵  said to Abner, “Why did you have sexual relations with ⁶  my father’s concubine?” ⁷ 

3:8 These words of Ish-bosheth really angered Abner and he said, “Am I the head of a dog that belongs to Judah? This very day I am demonstrating ⁸  loyalty to the house of Saul your father and to his relatives ⁹  and his friends! I have not betrayed you into the hand of David. Yet you have accused me of sinning with this woman today! ¹⁰ 

2 Samuel 3:27

3:27 When Abner returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside at the gate as if to speak privately with him. Joab then stabbed him ¹¹  in the abdomen and killed him, avenging the shed blood of his brother Asahel. ¹² 

2 Samuel 3:33-38

3:33 The king chanted the following lament for Abner:

“Should Abner have died like a fool?

3:34 Your hands ¹³  were not bound,

and your feet were not put into irons.

You fell the way one falls before criminals.”

All the people ¹⁴  wept over him again. 3:35 Then all the people came and encouraged David to eat food while it was still day. But David took an oath saying, “God will punish me severely ¹⁵  if I taste bread or anything whatsoever before the sun sets!”

3:36 All the people noticed this and it pleased them. ¹⁶  In fact, everything the king did pleased all the people. 3:37 All the people and all Israel realized on that day that the killing of Abner son of Ner was not done at the king’s instigation. ¹⁷ 

3:38 Then the king said to his servants, “Do you not realize that a great leader ¹⁸  has fallen this day in Israel?

[2:8]  ¹ sn The name Ish-bosheth means in Hebrew “man of shame.” It presupposes an earlier form such as Ish-baal (“man of the Lord”), with the word “baal” being used of Israel’s God. But because the Canaanite storm god was named “Baal,” that part of the name was later replaced with the word “shame.”

[2:9]  ² tc The MT here reads “the Ashurite,” but this is problematic if it is taken to mean “the Assyrian.” Ish-bosheth’s kingdom obviously was not of such proportions as to extend to Assyria. The Syriac Peshitta renders the word as “the Geshurite,” while the Targum has “of the house of Ashur.” We should probably emend the Hebrew text to read “the Geshurite.” The Geshurites lived in the northeastern part of the land of Palestine.

[2:10]  ³ tn Heb “house.”

[2:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “And the number of the days in which David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months.”

[3:7]  ⁵ tc The Hebrew of the MT reads simply “and he said,” with no expressed subject for the verb. It is not likely that the text originally had no expressed subject for this verb, since the antecedent is not immediately clear from the context. We should probably restore to the Hebrew text the name “Ish-bosheth.” See a few medieval Hebrew mss, Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, and Vulgate. Perhaps the name was accidentally omitted by homoioarcton. Note that both the name Ishbosheth and the following preposition אֶל (’el) begin with the letter alef.

[3:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “come to”; KJV, NRSV “gone in to”; NAB “been intimate with”; NIV “sleep with.”

[3:7]  ⁷ sn This accusation against Abner is a very serious one, since an act of sexual infringement on the king’s harem would probably have been understood as a blatant declaration of aspirations to kingship. As such it was not merely a matter of ethical impropriety but an act of grave political significance as well.

[3:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “I do.”

[3:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “brothers.”

[3:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and you have laid upon me the guilt of the woman today.”

[3:27]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and he struck him down there [in] the stomach.”

[3:27]  ¹² tn Heb “and he [i.e., Abner] died on account of the blood of Asahel his [i.e., Joab’s] brother.”

[3:34]  ¹³ tc The translation follows many medieval Hebrew manuscripts and several ancient versions in reading “your hands,” rather than “your hand.”

[3:34]  ¹⁴ tc 4QSam^a lacks the words “all the people.”

[3:35]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Thus God will do to me and thus he will add.”

[3:36]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “it was good in their eyes.”

[3:37]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “from the king.”

[3:38]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “a leader and a great one.” The expression is a hendiadys.