2 Samuel 3:26-4:7

Common English Bible

²⁶Joab left David and sent messengers after Abner. They brought him back from the well at Sirah, but David didn’t know anything of this. ²⁷When Abner returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside next to^[a] the gate to speak with him in private. But instead Joab stabbed Abner in the stomach, and he died for shedding the blood of Asahel, Joab’s brother.

²⁸When David heard about this later, he said, “I and my kingdom are forever innocent before the Lord concerning the shedding of the blood of Abner, Ner’s son. ²⁹May it fall upon the head of Joab and his entire family tree! May Joab’s family never be without someone with a discharge or a skin disease,^[b] someone who uses a crutch,^[c] someone who dies by the sword, or someone who is hungry!”

³⁰So that is how Joab and his brother Abishai murdered Abner, because he killed their brother Asahel in the battle at Gibeon.

³¹Then David ordered Joab and all the troops who were with him, “Tear your clothes and put on funeral clothes! Mourn for Abner!” King David himself walked behind the body. ³²They buried Abner in Hebron. The king wept loudly at Abner’s grave. All the troops cried too. ³³Then the king sang this funeral song^[d] for Abner:

“Should Abner have died like a fool dies?
³⁴Your hands weren’t bound,
    your feet weren’t chained,
    but you have fallen
    like someone falls before the wicked.”
Then the troops cried over Abner again.

³⁵Then all the soldiers came to urge David to eat something while it was still day, but David swore, “May God deal harshly with me and worse still if I eat bread or anything else before the sun goes down.” ³⁶All the troops took notice of this and were pleased by it. Indeed, everything that the king did pleased them. ³⁷So on that day all the troops and all Israel knew that it wasn’t the king’s idea to kill Abner, Ner’s son.

³⁸The king told his soldiers, “Don’t you know that a prince and a great man in Israel has fallen today? ³⁹And today, though I am the anointed king, I am weak. These men, Zeruiah’s sons, are too strong for me.^[e] May the Lord repay the one who does evil according to the evil they did!”

Ishbosheth murdered

4 When Ishbosheth,^[f] Saul’s son, heard that Abner had died in Hebron, he lost his courage,^[g] and all Israel was alarmed. ²Saul’s son had two men who led the raiding parties—one was named Baanah and the other Rechab. Both were sons of Rimmon, a Benjaminite from Beeroth. (Beeroth was considered part of Benjamin. ³The people of Beeroth had fled to Gittaim and even now live there as immigrants.)

⁴Now Saul’s son Jonathan had a boy whose feet were crippled. He was only 5 years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel, and so his nurse snatched him up and fled. But as she hurried to get away, he fell and was injured. His name was Mephibosheth.^[h]

⁵Rechab and Baanah, the sons of Rimmon from Beeroth, set out and reached Ishbosheth’s house at the heat of the day, right when he was lying down, taking an afternoon rest. ⁶They went straight into his house, as if getting wheat,^[i] and they stabbed him in the stomach. Then Rechab and his brother Baanah escaped. ⁷They had entered the house while Ishbosheth was lying on the bed in his bedroom. After they stabbed him and killed him, they cut off his head, took it, and traveled all night through the wilderness.

Footnotes

2 Samuel 3:27 LXX; MT to the middle of
2 Samuel 3:29 Traditionally leprosy, a term used for several different skin diseases
2 Samuel 3:29 Or who holds a spindle
2 Samuel 3:33 Or lament
2 Samuel 3:39 Or more ruthless than me; DSS (4QSam^a) lacks this clause.
2 Samuel 4:1 Heb lacks Ishbosheth; LXX, DSS (4QSam^a) Mephibosheth; cf 4:4 and the note at 2 Sam 2:8.
2 Samuel 4:1 Or his hands grew weak
2 Samuel 4:4 Called Merib-baal in 1 Chron 8:34; 9:40. See the note at 2 Sam 2:8.
2 Samuel 4:6 Heb uncertain