2 Samuel 2:8-17

Legacy Standard Bible

Ish-bosheth Made King over Israel

⁸ Now ^(A)Abner the son of Ner, commander of Saul’s army, had taken ^[a]Ish-bosheth the son of Saul and brought him over to ^(B)Mahanaim. ⁹ And he made him king over ^(C)Gilead, over the ^(D)Ashurites, over ^(E)Jezreel, over Ephraim, and over Benjamin, even over all Israel. ¹⁰ Ish-bosheth, Saul’s son, was forty years old when he became king over Israel, and he was king for two years. The house of Judah, however, followed David. ^11 (F)And the ^[b]time that David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months.

Abner Defeated Before David

¹² Now Abner the son of Ner, went out from Mahanaim to ^(G)Gibeon with the servants of Ish-bosheth the son of Saul. ¹³ And ^(H)Joab the son of Zeruiah and the servants of David went out and met ^[c]them by the pool of Gibeon; and they sat down, ^[d]one on the one side of the pool and ^[e]the other on the other side of the pool. ¹⁴ Then Abner said to Joab, “Now let the young men arise and ^[f](I)hold a contest before us.” And Joab said, “Let them arise.” ¹⁵ So they arose and went over by count, twelve for Benjamin and Ish-bosheth the son of Saul, and twelve of the servants of David. ¹⁶ And each one of them seized his ^[g]opponent by the head and thrust his sword in his ^[h]opponent’s side; so they fell down together. Therefore that place was called ^[i]Helkath-hazzurim, which is in Gibeon. ¹⁷ And that day the battle was very severe, and ^(J)Abner and the men of Israel were ^[j]defeated before the servants of David.