David begins his reign over Judah
2
📚And it came about after this that David inquired 📖 of the LORD, saying, “Shall I go up to any of the cities of Judah?”And the LORD said to him, “Go up”.
And David said, “Where shall I go up?”
And he said, “To Hebron 📖”.
2 📚So David went up there, and his two wives also, Ahinoam from Jezreel and Abigail, Nabal’s wife, from Carmel. 3 📚And David took along his men who were with him, each man with his household; and they lived in the towns of Hebron. 4 📚And the men of Judah came and there they anointed David king 📖 over the house of Judah. And they told David, saying that the men of Jabesh-Gilead 📖 were the ones who buried Saul.
5 📚And David sent messengers to the men of Jabesh-Gilead and said to them, “May you be blessed by the LORD, because you have showed this kindness to your lord, to Saul, and have buried him. 6 📚And now the LORD show kindness and faithfulness to you. And I too will repay you for this kindness, because you have done this thing. 7 📚Therefore now let your hands be strong and be valiant, for your master Saul is dead, and also the house of Judah has anointed me king over them”.
2:5-7 David was trying to unite the whole country behind him, beginning with the people of Jabesh who had been strong supporters of Saul.⚜
War with Abner
8 📚But Abner the son of Ner, the commander of Saul’s army, took Ish-bosheth, the son of Saul, and brought him over to Mahanaim, 9 📚and made him king over Gilead and over the Ashurites and over Jezreel and over Ephraim and over Benjamin and over all Israel.
2:8-9 Abner was Saul’s close relative – 1 Sam 14:50-51. We are not told here that Abner sought God’s will in this. David was God’s man to be king of all Israel and Abner knew it – 2 Sam 3:9-10. It seems Abner was playing power-politics, and putting family connections ahead of God’s will. This caused trouble then, and it will cause trouble now.⚜
10 Saul’s son Ish-bosheth was forty years old when he began to reign over Israel, and he reigned two years. But the house of Judah followed David. 11 📚And the time that David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months.
12 📚And Abner the son of Ner, and the servants of Ish-bosheth the son of Saul, went out from Mahanaim to Gibeon.
2:12 Mahanaim was east of the Jordan River, Gibeon was west of the river in the territory of Benjamin.⚜
13 📚And Joab the son of Zeruiah and the servants of David went out, and they all met by the pool of Gibeon. And they sat down, the one group on the one side of the pool, and the other on the other side of the pool.
2:13 Joab was David’s nephew (1 Chron 2:13-16). He was a very capable general of David’s army, but a hard and bloodthirsty man (2 Sam 3:27; 18:14; 20:9-10).⚜
14 📚And Abner said to Joab, “Let the young men now get up and have a contest in front of us”. And Joab said, “Let them get up”.
2:14 This suggestion perhaps meant they should try to settle their differences by letting representatives of each side fight. Compare 1 Sam 17:8-10.⚜
15 Then they got up and went over by count, twelve from Benjamin, which belonged to Ish-bosheth the son of Saul, and twelve of the servants of David. 16 And each of them took hold of his opponent’s head, and thrust his sword into his opponent’s side. So they fell down together. Therefore that place was called Helkath Hazzurim 📖. It is in Gibeon.
2:15-16 The fight between these representatives resulted in the death of all of them, and so nothing was settled between the two factions.⚜
17 📚And there was a very severe battle 📖 that day, and Abner and the men of Israel were defeated by the servants of David.
18 📚And there were three sons of Zeruiah 📖 there, Joab and Abishai and Asahel. And Asahel was as light on his feet as a wild gazelle. 19 📚And Asahel pursued Abner, and did not turn to the right or to the left from following Abner. 20 Then Abner looked behind him, and said, “Are you Asahel?” And he answered, “I am”.
21 📚And Abner said to him, “Turn aside to your right or to your left, and seize one of the young men and take his armour”. But Asahel would not turn aside from following him.
22 📚And once more Abner said to Asahel, “Turn aside from following me. Why should I strike you to the ground? Then how could I hold up my face to your brother Joab?”
23 📚However he refused to turn aside, so Abner struck him in the stomach with the butt end of the spear, so that the spear came out at his back. And he fell down there and died in the same place. And it came about that everyone who came to the place where Asahel fell and died stood still.
2:21-23 Abner knew that further trouble would result if he killed Asahel. In fact it resulted in Abner’s own death (2 Sam 3:27).⚜
24 Joab and Abishai also pursued Abner, and the sun went down when they came to the hill of Ammah, that lies before Giah by the way of the wilderness of Gibeon. 25 And the children of Benjamin gathered together behind Abner and became one band and stood on the top of a hill.
26 📚Then Abner called to Joab, and said, “Will the sword devour forever? Don’t you know that it will result in bitterness in the end? How long will it be then, before you order the people to return from following their brethren?”
2:26 Abner was trying to avert civil war between the tribes. He was a more peaceable man than Joab. It was he who suggested the representative combat to settle their differences (v 14), and he who later made overtures of peace to David (2 Sam 3:12). But his action in vs 8,9 was the real source of this trouble.⚜
27 📚And Joab said, “As God lives, unless you had spoken, surely then in the morning each one of the people would have gone up from following his brother”.
28 So Joab blew a trumpet, and all the people stood still and did not pursue Israel any more or fight any more.
29 📚And Abner and his men walked all that night through the plain 📖, and crossed the Jordan and went through the whole of Bithron 📖 and came to Mahanaim.
30 And Joab returned from following Abner. And when he had gathered all the people together, nineteen men of David’s servants and Asahel were missing. 31 📚But the servants of David had struck down many of Benjamin, and of Abner’s men, so that three hundred and seventy men died. 32 📚And they took up Asahel and buried him in the tomb of his father, which was in Bethlehem. And Joab and his men went all night, and came to Hebron at break of day.