The Living Bible (98 page)

2 Samuel
2

David then asked the Lord, “Shall I move back to Judah?”

    
And the Lord replied, “Yes.”

    
“Which city shall I go to?”

    
And the Lord replied, “Hebron.”

    
²
 So David and his wives—Ahinoam from Jezreel and Abigail the widow of Nabal from Carmel—
³
 and his men and their families all moved to Hebron.
⁴
 Then the leaders of Judah came to David and crowned him king of the Judean confederacy.

    
When David heard that the men of Jabesh-gilead had buried Saul,
⁵
 he sent them this message: “May the Lord bless you for being so loyal to your king and giving him a decent burial.
⁶
 May the Lord be loyal to you in return and reward you with many demonstrations of his love! And I too will be kind to you because of what you have done.
⁷
 And now I ask you to be my strong and loyal subjects, now that Saul is dead. Be like the tribe of Judah who have appointed me as their new king.”

    
⁸
 But Abner, Saul’s commander-in-chief, had gone to Mahanaim to crown Saul’s son Ish-bosheth as king.
⁹
 His territory included Gilead, Ashuri, Jezreel, Ephraim, the tribe of Benjamin, and all the rest of Israel.
^10-11
 Ish-bosheth was forty years old at the time. He reigned in Mahanaim for two years; meanwhile, David was reigning in Hebron and was king of the Judean confederacy for seven and a half years.

    
¹²
 One day General Abner led some of Ish-bosheth’s troops to Gibeon from Mahanaim,
¹³
 and General Joab (the son of Zeruiah) led David’s troops out to meet them. They met at the pool of Gibeon, where they sat facing each other on opposite sides of the pool.
¹⁴
 Then Abner suggested to Joab, “Let’s watch some sword play between our young men!”

    
Joab agreed,
¹⁵
 so twelve men were chosen from each side to fight in mortal combat.
¹⁶
 Each one grabbed his opponent by the hair and thrust his sword into the other’s side, so that all of them died. The place has been known ever since as Sword Field.

    
¹⁷
 The two armies then began to fight each other, and by the end of the day Abner and the men of Israel had been defeated by Joab
*
and the forces of David.
¹⁸
 Joab’s brothers, Abishai and Asahel, were also in the battle. Asahel could run like a deer,
¹⁹
 and he began chasing Abner. He wouldn’t stop for anything, but kept on, single-minded, after Abner alone.

    
²⁰
 When Abner looked behind and saw him coming, he called out to him, “Is that you, Asahel?”

    
“Yes,” he called back, “it is.”

    
²¹
 “Go after someone else!” Abner warned. But Asahel refused and kept on coming.

    
²²
 Again Abner shouted to him, “Get away from here. I could never face your brother Joab if I have to kill you!”

    
²³
 But he refused to turn away, so Abner pierced him through the belly with the butt end of his spear. It went right through his body and came out his back. He stumbled to the ground and died there, and everyone stopped when they came to the place where he lay.

    
²⁴
 Now Joab and Abishai set out after Abner. The sun was just going down as they arrived at Ammah Hill near Giah, along the road into the Gibeon Desert.
²⁵
 Abner’s troops from the tribe of Benjamin regrouped there at the top of the hill,
²⁶
 and Abner shouted down to Joab, “Must our swords continue to kill each other forever? How long will it be before you call off your people from chasing their brothers?”

    
²⁷
 Joab shouted back, “I swear by God that even if you hadn’t spoken, we would all have gone home tomorrow morning.”
²⁸
 Then he blew his trumpet and his men stopped chasing the troops of Israel.

    
²⁹
 That night Abner and his men retreated across the Jordan Valley, crossed the river, and traveled all the next morning until they arrived at Mahanaim.
³⁰
 Joab and the men who were with him returned home, too, and when he counted his casualties, he learned that only nineteen men were missing, in addition to Asahel.
³¹
 But three hundred and sixty of Abner’s men (all from the tribe of Benjamin) were dead.
³²
 Joab and his men took Asahel’s body to Bethlehem and buried him beside his father; then they traveled all night and reached Hebron at daybreak.

2 Samuel
3

That was the beginning of a long war between the followers of Saul and of David. David’s position now became stronger and stronger, while Saul’s dynasty became weaker and weaker.

    
²
 Several sons were born to David while he was at Hebron. The oldest was Amnon, born to his wife Ahinoam.
³
 His second son, Chileab, was born to Abigail, the widow of Nabal of Carmel. The third was Absalom, born to Maacah, the daughter of King Talmai of Geshur.
⁴
 The fourth was Adonijah, who was born to Haggith. Then Shephatiah was born to Abital, and
⁵
 Ithream was born to Eglah.

    
⁶
 As the war went on, Abner became a very powerful political leader among the followers of Saul.
⁷
 He took advantage of his position by sleeping with one of Saul’s concubines, a girl named Rizpah. But when Ish-bosheth accused Abner of this,
⁸
 Abner was furious.

    
“Am I a Judean dog to be kicked around like this?” he shouted. “After all I have done for you and for your father by not betraying you to David, is this my reward—to find fault with me about some woman?
^9-10
 May God curse me if I don’t do everything I can to take away the entire kingdom from you, all the way from Dan to Beersheba, and give it to David, just as the Lord predicted.”

    
¹¹
 Ish-bosheth made no reply, for he was afraid of Abner.

    
¹²
 Then Abner sent messengers to David to discuss a deal—to surrender the kingdom of Israel to him in exchange for becoming commander-in-chief of the combined armies of Israel and Judah.

    
¹³
 “All right,” David replied, “but I will not negotiate with you unless you bring me my wife Michal, Saul’s daughter.”
¹⁴
 David then sent this message to Ish-bosheth: “Give me back my wife Michal, for I bought her with the lives of one hundred Philistines.”

    
¹⁵
 So Ish-bosheth took her away from her husband Palti.
*
¹⁶
 He followed along behind her as far as Behurim, weeping as he went. Then Abner told him, “Go on home now.” So he returned.

    
¹⁷
 Meanwhile, Abner consulted with the leaders of Israel and reminded them that for a long time they had wanted David as their king.

    
¹⁸
 “Now is the time!” he told them. “For the Lord has said, ‘It is David by whom I will save my people from the Philistines and from all their other enemies.’”

    
¹⁹
 Abner also talked to the leaders of the tribe of Benjamin; then he went to Hebron and reported to David his progress with the people of Israel and Benjamin.
²⁰
 Twenty men accompanied him, and David entertained them with a feast.

    
²¹
 As Abner left, he promised David, “When I get back I will call a convention of all the people of Israel, and they will elect you as their king, as you’ve so long desired.” So David let Abner return in safety.

    
²²
 But just after Abner left, Joab and some of David’s troops returned from a raid, bringing much loot with them.
²³
 When Joab was told that Abner had just been there visiting the king and had been sent away in peace,
^24-25
 he rushed to the king, demanding, “What have you done? What do you mean by letting him get away? You know perfectly well that he came to spy on us and that he plans to return and attack us!”

    
²⁶
 Then Joab sent messengers to catch up with Abner and tell him to come back. They found him at the well of Sirah and he returned with them; but David knew nothing about it.
²⁷
 When Abner arrived at Hebron, Joab took him aside at the city gate as if to speak with him privately; but then he pulled out a dagger and killed him in revenge for the death of his brother Asahel.

    
²⁸
 When David heard about it he declared, “I vow by the Lord that I and my people are innocent of this crime against Abner.
²⁹
 Joab and his family are the guilty ones. May each of his children be victims of cancer, or be lepers, or be sterile, or die of starvation, or be killed by the sword!”

    
³⁰
 So Joab and his brother, Abishai, killed Abner because of the death of their brother, Asahel, at the battle of Gibeon.

    
³¹
 Then David said to Joab and to all those who were with him, “Go into deep mourning for Abner.” And King David accompanied the bier to the cemetery.
³²
 They buried Abner in Hebron. And the king and all the people wept at the graveside.

    
^33-34
 “Should Abner have died like a fool?” the king lamented.

    
“Your hands were not bound,

    
Your feet were not tied—

    
You were murdered—

    
The victim of a wicked plot.”

    
And all the people wept again for him.
^35-36
 David had refused to eat anything the day of the funeral, and now everyone begged him to take a bite of supper. But David vowed that he would eat nothing until sundown. This pleased his people, just as everything else he did pleased them!
³⁷
 Thus the whole nation, both Judah and Israel, understood from David’s actions that he was in no way responsible for Abner’s death.

    
³⁸
 And David said to his people, “A great leader and a great man has fallen today in Israel;
³⁹
 and even though I am God’s chosen king, I can do nothing with these two sons of Zeruiah. May the Lord repay wicked men for their wicked deeds.”