2 Samuel 3:31-39

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 ¹  behind the funeral bier. 3:32 So they buried Abner in Hebron. The king cried loudly ²  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 ³  were not bound,

and your feet were not put into irons.

You fell the way one falls before criminals.”

All the people ⁴  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 ⁵  if I taste bread or anything whatsoever before the sun sets!”

3:36 All the people noticed this and it pleased them. ⁶  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. ⁷ 

3:38 Then the king said to his servants, “Do you not realize that a great leader ⁸  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! ⁹  May the Lord punish appropriately the one who has done this evil thing!” ¹⁰ 

[3:31]  ¹ tn Heb “was walking.”

[3:32]  ² tn Heb “lifted up his voice and wept.” The expression is a verbal hendiadys.

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

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

[3:35]  ⁵ tn Heb “Thus God will do to me and thus he will add.”

[3:36]  ⁶ tn Heb “it was good in their eyes.”

[3:37]  ⁷ tn Heb “from the king.”

[3:38]  ⁸ tn Heb “a leader and a great one.” The expression is a hendiadys.

[3:39]  ⁹ tn Heb “are hard from me.”

[3:39]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “May the Lord repay the doer of the evil according to his evil” (NASB similar).