2 Samuel 2:24-28

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. 2:25 The Benjaminites formed their ranks ¹  behind Abner and were like a single army, standing at the top of a certain hill.

2:26 Then Abner called out to Joab, “Must the sword devour forever? Don’t you realize that this will turn bitter in the end? When will you tell the people to turn aside from pursuing their brothers?” 2:27 Joab replied, “As surely as God lives, if you had not said this, it would have been morning before the people would have abandoned pursuit ²  of their brothers!” 2:28 Then Joab blew the ram’s horn and all the people stopped in their tracks. ³  They stopped chasing Israel and ceased fighting. ⁴ 

[2:25]  ¹ tn Heb “were gathered together.”

[2:27]  ¹ tn The Hebrew verb נַעֲלָה (na’alah) used here is the Niphal perfect 3rd person masculine singular of עָלָה (’alah, “to go up”). In the Niphal this verb “is used idiomatically, of getting away from so as to abandon…especially of an army raising a siege…” (see S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, 244).

[2:28]  ¹ tn Heb “stood.”

[2:28]  ² tn Heb “they no longer chased after Israel and they no longer fought.”