2 Samuel 3:24-39

3:24 So Joab went to the king and said, “What have you done? Abner ¹  has come to you! Why would you send him away? Now he’s gone on his way! ²  3:25 You know Abner the son of Ner! Surely he came here to spy on you and to determine when you leave and when you return ³  and to discover everything that you are doing!”

3:26 Then Joab left David and sent messengers after Abner. They brought him back from the well of Sirah. (But David was not aware of it.) 3:27 When Abner returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside at the gate as if to speak privately with him. Joab then stabbed him ⁴  in the abdomen and killed him, avenging the shed blood of his brother Asahel. ⁵ 

3:28 When David later heard about this, he said, “I and my kingdom are forever innocent before the Lord of the shed blood of Abner son of Ner! 3:29 May his blood whirl over ⁶  the head of Joab and the entire house of his father! ⁷  May the males of Joab’s house ⁸  never cease to have ⁹  someone with a running sore or a skin disease or one who works at the spindle ¹⁰  or one who falls by the sword or one who lacks food!”

3:30 So Joab and his brother Abishai killed Abner, because he had killed their brother Asahel in Gibeon during the battle.

3:31 David instructed Joab and all the people who were with him, “Tear your clothes! Put on sackcloth! Lament before Abner!” Now King David followed ¹¹  behind the funeral bier. 3:32 So they buried Abner in Hebron. The king cried loudly ¹²  over Abner’s grave and all the people wept too. 3:33 The king chanted the following lament for Abner:

“Should Abner have died like a fool?

3:34 Your hands ¹³  were not bound,

and your feet were not put into irons.

You fell the way one falls before criminals.”

All the people ¹⁴  wept over him again. 3:35 Then all the people came and encouraged David to eat food while it was still day. But David took an oath saying, “God will punish me severely ¹⁵  if I taste bread or anything whatsoever before the sun sets!”

3:36 All the people noticed this and it pleased them. ¹⁶  In fact, everything the king did pleased all the people. 3:37 All the people and all Israel realized on that day that the killing of Abner son of Ner was not done at the king’s instigation. ¹⁷ 

3:38 Then the king said to his servants, “Do you not realize that a great leader ¹⁸  has fallen this day in Israel? 3:39 Today I am weak, even though I am anointed as king. These men, the sons of Zeruiah, are too much for me to bear! ¹⁹  May the Lord punish appropriately the one who has done this evil thing!” ²⁰ 

[3:24]  ¹ tn Heb “Look, Abner.”

[3:24]  ² tc The LXX adds “in peace.”

[3:25]  ³ tn Heb “your going out and your coming in.” The expression is a merism. It specifically mentions the polar extremities of the actions but includes all activity in between the extremities as well, thus encompassing the entirety of one’s activities.

[3:27]  ⁴ tn Heb “and he struck him down there [in] the stomach.”

[3:27]  ⁵ tn Heb “and he [i.e., Abner] died on account of the blood of Asahel his [i.e., Joab’s] brother.”

[3:29]  ⁶ tn Heb “and may they whirl over.” In the Hebrew text the subject of the plural verb is unexpressed. The most likely subject is Abner’s “shed blood” (v. 28), which is a masculine plural form in Hebrew. The verb חוּל (khul, “whirl”) is used with the preposition עַל (’al) only here and in Jer 23:19; 30:23.

[3:29]  ⁷ tc 4QSam^a has “of Joab” rather than “of his father” read by the MT.

[3:29]  ⁸ tn Heb “the house of Joab.” However, it is necessary to specify that David’s curse is aimed at Joab’s male descendants; otherwise it would not be clear that “one who works at the spindle” refers to a man doing woman’s work rather than a woman.

[3:29]  ⁹ tn Heb “and may there not be cut off from the house of Joab.”

[3:29]  ¹⁰ tn The expression used here is difficult. The translation “one who works at the spindle” follows a suggestion of S. R. Driver that the expression pejoratively describes an effeminate man who, rather than being a mighty warrior, is occupied with tasks that are normally fulfilled by women (S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, 250-51; cf. NAB “one unmanly”; TEV “fit only to do a woman’s work”; CEV “cowards”). But P. K. McCarter, following an alleged Phoenician usage of the noun to refer to “crutches,” adopts a different view. He translates the phrase “clings to a crutch,” seeing here a further description of physical lameness (II Samuel [AB], 118). Such an idea fits the present context well and is followed by NIV, NCV, and NLT, although the evidence for this meaning is questionable. According to DNWSI 2:915-16, the noun consistently refers to a spindle in Phoenician, as it does in Ugaritic (see UT 468).

[3:31]  ¹¹ tn Heb “was walking.”

[3:32]  ¹² tn Heb “lifted up his voice and wept.” The expression is a verbal hendiadys.

[3:34]  ¹³ tc The translation follows many medieval Hebrew manuscripts and several ancient versions in reading “your hands,” rather than “your hand.”

[3:34]  ¹⁴ tc 4QSam^a lacks the words “all the people.”

[3:35]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Thus God will do to me and thus he will add.”

[3:36]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “it was good in their eyes.”

[3:37]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “from the king.”

[3:38]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “a leader and a great one.” The expression is a hendiadys.

[3:39]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “are hard from me.”

[3:39]  ²⁰ tn Heb “May the Lord repay the doer of the evil according to his evil” (NASB similar).