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Texts -- 2 Samuel 2:1-24 (NET)

Context
David is Anointed King
2:1 Afterward David inquired of the Lord , “Should I go up to one of the cities of Judah ?” The Lord told him, “Go up .” David asked , “Where should I go ?” The Lord replied , “To Hebron .” 2:2 So David went up, along with his two wives , Ahinoam the Jezreelite and Abigail , formerly the wife of Nabal the Carmelite . 2:3 David also brought along the men who were with him, each with his family . They settled in the cities of Hebron . 2:4 The men of Judah came and there they anointed David as king over the people of Judah . David was told , “The people of Jabesh Gilead are the ones who buried Saul .” 2:5 So David sent messengers to the people of Jabesh Gilead and told them, “May you be blessed by the Lord because you have shown this kindness to your lord Saul by burying him. 2:6 Now may the Lord show you true kindness ! I also will reward you, because you have done this deed . 2:7 Now be courageous and prove to be valiant warriors , for your lord Saul is dead . The people of Judah have anointed me as king over them.”
David’s Army Clashes with the Army of Saul
2:8 Now Abner son of Ner , the general in command of Saul’s army , had taken Saul’s son Ish-bosheth and had brought him to Mahanaim . 2:9 He appointed him king over Gilead , the Geshurites , Jezreel , Ephraim , Benjamin , and all Israel . 2:10 Ish-bosheth son of Saul was forty years old when he began to rule over Israel . He ruled two years . However , the people of Judah followed David . 2:11 David was king in Hebron over the people of Judah for seven and a half years . 2:12 Then Abner son of Ner and the servants of Ish-bosheth son of Saul went out from Mahanaim to Gibeon . 2:13 Joab son of Zeruiah and the servants of David also went out and confronted them at the pool of Gibeon . One group stationed themselves on one side of the pool , and the other group on the other side of the pool . 2:14 Abner said to Joab , “Let the soldiers get up and fight before us.” Joab said , “So be it!” 2:15 So they got up and crossed over by number : twelve belonging to Benjamin and to Ish-bosheth son of Saul , and twelve from the servants of David . 2:16 As they grappled with one another , each one stabbed his opponent with his sword and they fell dead together . So that place is called the Field of Flints ; it is in Gibeon . 2:17 Now the battle was very severe that day ; Abner and the men of Israel were overcome by David’s soldiers . 2:18 The three sons of Zeruiah were there – Joab , Abishai , and Asahel . (Now Asahel was as quick on his feet as one of the gazelles in the field .) 2:19 Asahel chased Abner , without turning to the right or to the left as he followed Abner . 2:20 Then Abner turned and asked , “Is that you , Asahel ?” He replied , “Yes it is!” 2:21 Abner said to him, “Turn aside to your right or to your left . Capture one of the soldiers and take his equipment for yourself!” But Asahel was not willing to turn aside from following him. 2:22 So Abner spoke again to Asahel , “Turn aside from following me! I do not want to strike you to the ground . How then could I show my face in the presence of Joab your brother ?” 2:23 But Asahel refused to turn aside . So Abner struck him in the abdomen with the back end of his spear . The spear came out his back; Asahel collapsed on the spot and died there right before Abner. Everyone who now comes to the place where Asahel fell dead pauses in respect . 2:24 So Joab and Abishai chased Abner . At sunset they came to the hill of Ammah near Giah on the way to the wilderness of Gibeon .

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Expository Notes on the Bible (Constable)

  • "Chapters 23 and 24 are two of the brightest chapters in the book of Numbers. Scores of wonderful things are said about Israel, mainly prophetical. The dark sins of the past were forgotten; only happy deliverance from Egypt w...
  • The Book of Samuel covers the period of Israel's history bracketed by Samuel's conception and the end of David's reign. David turned the kingdom over to Solomon in 971 B.C.3David reigned for 40 and one-half years (2 Sam. 2:11...
  • The basic theme in Samuel, that blessing, and in particular fertility of all kinds, follows from faithful commitment to God's revealed will, continues in this section. However another major motif now becomes more prominent. W...
  • The Elah Valley is an S-shaped valley just south of the Sorek Valley. It runs east and west parallel to it. Socoh stood to the east and Azekah to the west. Archaeologists have not yet located Ephes-dammim. Gath was 7 miles to...
  • We have already seen that Jonathan was a man of faith and courage (14:1-15). Jonathan found a soul brother in David, a man who committed himself to trusting and obeying God as he did. This common purpose on the deepest level ...
  • David's words and actions convicted Saul of his actions (v. 17), and the king wept tears of remorse (v. 16). He referred to David as his "son"(v. 16), as David had earlier called Saul his "father"(v. 11). Saul confessed David...
  • David also distributed some of the war plunder to the elders of Judah.293He evidently did so because he viewed the booty as coming from the enemies of all Judah, even the enemies of the Lord (v. 26). He may have also done thi...
  • God had announced that Saul would deliver His people from the hand of the Philistines (9:16). However, Saul frustrated God's purpose by not following the Lord faithfully. Consequently the Philistines got the better of Saul an...
  • (Continued from notes on 1 Samuel)V. David's triumphs chs. 1-8A. The beginning of David's kingdom 1:1-3:51. David's discovery of Saul and Jonathan's deaths ch. 12. David's move to Hebron 2:1-4a3. David's overtures to Jabesh-g...
  • The first 20 chapters of 2 Samuel are divisible into four units each of which ends with a list of names that is four verses long (1:1-3:5; 3:6-5:16; 5:17-8:18; 9:1-20:26).2The first two units conclude with lists of David's so...
  • The present section begins with Yahweh's destruction of Saul's line and ends with a summary of David's fecundity. In the middle we find the record of David's anointing as king over Judah (2:1-7). In 1:1-3:5 we see the Israeli...
  • "Without doubt this portion [of 2 Samuel, i.e., chapters 2-8] forms the crux of the book. Here the fertility motif reaches a peak. The thesis of the author--that Israel is blessed with fertility when the nation (and the epito...
  • "The much later crisis of I Kings 12 suggests that the Davidic hold on the north is never deeply established. In our chapter we are given two episodes of David's attentiveness to the north. One (vv. 4b-7) is a peaceable act o...
  • David's overtures to the Jabesh-gileadites were very important. Saul's commander-in-chief and cousin, Abner, was working to install Saul's youngest son, Ish-bosheth (called Eshbaal in 1 Chron. 9:39), as his father's successor...
  • Travelers can visit the pool of Gibeon today. It lies about three miles northwest of Gibeah."The pool is a cylindrical shaft thirty-seven feet in diameter and thirty-five feet deep. Its five-feet-wide spiral stairway, which w...
  • The first verse in this chapter summarizes 2:8-32. The point of the remaining verses is that during the seven and one-half years that David ruled Judah he grew stronger because God was blessing him.33David resorted to further...
  • The writer also documented God's blessing on David in this record of how David wisely unified the nation of Israel and became the leader of all 12 tribes."The story of how David became king of all Israel follows, in most esse...
  • "Saul the king is dead, Jonathan the heir apparent is dead, Abinadab and Malki-Shua (two of Jonathan's brothers) are dead (1 Sam 31:2), Abner the commander of the army is dead--and no other viable claimants or pretenders cont...
  • In 1004 B.C. David became king of all Israel and Judah.50This was his third anointing (cf. 1 Sam. 16:13; 2 Sam. 2:4). The people acknowledged David's previous military leadership of all Israel as well as God's choice of him t...
  • "As the story of David's accession to kingship over Judah (1:1-3:5) parallels that of his accession to the throne of Israel (3:6-5:16), each concluding with a list of his sons (3:2-5; 5:13-16), so the account of his powerful ...
  • The promises Yahweh made to David here are an important key to understanding God's program for the future.God rejected David's suggestion that he build a temple for the Lord and gave three reasons. First, there was no pressin...
  • "From the religious heights of chapter 7 we descend again to the everyday world of battles and bloodshed in chapter 8. The military action picks up where the story left off at the end of chapter 5."130Chapter 8 evidently desc...
  • Chapters 9-20 contrast with chapters 2-8 in that this later section is negative whereas the earlier one was positive. It records failure; the former records success. Compare the similar narrative of Saul's triumphs (1 Sam. 7-...
  • While Joab was continuing to subdue the Ammonites the following spring by besieging Rabbah (modern Amman, the capital of Jordan; cf. 10:7), David was residing in Jerusalem (11:1). By mentioning the fact that normally kings le...
  • This is the central unit of chapters 5-20, and its central focus is the judgment that Hushai's advice was better than Ahithophel's (17:14). This advice is the pivot on which the fortunes of David swung in his dealings with Ab...
  • "With Joab's return to the king in Jerusalem, the grand symphony known as the Court History of David reaches its conclusion for all practical purposes (at least as far as the books of Samuel are concerned . . .). The last fou...
  • Achtemeier, Paul J., and Elizabeth Achtemeier. The Old Testament Roots of Our Faith. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1979.Ackerman, James S. "Knowing Good and Evil: A Literary Ananysis of the Court History in 2 Samuel 9-20 and ...
  • Aharoni, Yohanan. "The Building Activities of David and Solomon."Israel Exploration Journal24:1(1974):13-16.Aharoni, Yohanan, and Michael Avi-Yonahl. The Macmillan Bible Atlas. Revised ed., New York: Macmillan Publishing Co.,...
  • The reader would expect that Isaiah would inveigh against Assyria since it was the most threatening enemy in his day and since he referred to it many times in earlier chapters. However, he did not mention Assyria in this sect...
  • 3:21 The Lord could hear, in the future, the Israelites weeping and praying in repentance on the hilltops, where they had formerly committed spiritual adultery (v. 2). They would finally realize that they had perverted their ...
  • 40:13-14 One of the remaining Judean princes, Johanan (cf. v. 8), asked Gedaliah if he was aware that the king of Ammon had encouraged another one of the Judean princes, Ishmael (cf. v. 8), to assassinate him. Baalis, the Amm...
  • 41:4-5 Two days after Gedaliah's murder, before the news of it had spread, 80 religious pilgrims came down from the old towns of Shechem, Shiloh, and Samaria in northern Israel on their way to Jerusalem. Their dress and other...
  • Chapter 8 not only contains two major messages from the Lord (vv. 1-17, 18-23) but 10 minor messages, "a decalogueof divine words,"155that make up the two major ones. "Thus says the Lord"introduces each of these minor message...

Expositions Of Holy Scripture (Maclaren)

  • 2 Samuel 2:1-11The last stage of David's wanderings had brought him to Ziklag, a Philistine city. There he had been for over a year, during which he had won the regard of Achish, the Philistine king of Gath. He had, at Achish...
  • In 2 Samuel 2:8-11. Abner, Saul's cousin, who had been in high position when the stripling from Bethlehem fought Goliath, was not capable of the self-effacement involved in acquiescing in David's accession, though he knew tha...
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