Abner Kills Joab’s Brother Asahel

¹⁸ Zeruiah’s three sons Joab, Abishai, and Asahel were there. As a runner, Asahel was fast, like one of the wild gazelles. ¹⁹ So Asahel ran straight^[a] after Abner, following him. ²⁰ When Abner looked behind him, he said, “Is that you, Asahel?”

He answered, “I am.”

²¹ Abner told him, “Go off to your right or left after one of the young men and grab some war spoils.” But Asahel would not stop following him, ²² so Abner told Asahel again, “Stop following me. Why should I strike you down? How could I show my face to your brother Joab?”

²³ But Asahel^[b] refused to turn away, so Abner struck Asahel in the abdomen with the butt end of his spear, and the spear protruded through his back. He collapsed to the ground and died where he fell. Everyone gathered round the place where Asahel had collapsed and died, and stood still there.

²⁴ Meanwhile, Joab and Abishai continued to chase Abner. At dusk, as they approached the hill of Ammah that is located near Giah on the way to the Gibeon desert, ²⁵ the descendants of Benjamin rallied around Abner, forming a single military force. They took their stand on top of the hill.

²⁶ Then Abner called out to Joab, “Must the battle sword keep on devouring forever? Don’t you realize that the end result is bitterness? How long will it take for you to order your army^[c] to stop pursuing their own relatives?”

²⁷ Joab answered, “As God lives, if you hadn’t spoken up, by morning my army would have broken off their pursuit of their own relatives.” ²⁸ So Joab sounded his battle trumpet, his entire army stopped pursuing Israel any longer, and they quit fighting.

²⁹ Abner and his army traveled through the Arabah by night, crossed the Jordan, and arrived at Mahanaim after marching all morning. ³⁰ Joab returned from his pursuit of Abner, and when he had mustered his entire army, nineteen of David’s soldiers^[d] were missing besides Asahel. ³¹ Meanwhile, other^[e] soldiers of David had killed 360 of Abner’s men from the tribe of^[f] Benjamin. ³² They retrieved Asahel’s body and buried him in his father’s tomb at Bethlehem. Then Joab and his men marched all night until daybreak and arrived back in Hebron.

²⁷ When Abner returned to Hebron, Joab brought him aside within the gateway to talk to him alone and then stabbed him in the abdomen.^[a] So he died for shedding^[b] the blood of Joab’s^[c] brother Asahel.

³⁰ He said this^[a] because Joab and his brother Abishai murdered Abner after he had killed their brother Asahel in the battle at Gibeon.

²⁴ Among the Thirty were Joab’s brother Asahel, Dodo’s son Elhanan of Bethlehem,

¹⁶ along with their sisters Zeruiah and Abigail.

Zeruiah’s three sons were Abishai, Joab, and Asahel.

²⁶ The elite forces included Asahel (Joab’s brother), Dodo’s son Elhanan from Bethlehem,

⁷ Joab’s brother Asahel was fourth for the fourth month, assisted^[a] by his son Zebadiah, with 24,000 soldiers in his division.