But David’s soldiers had slaughtered the Benjaminites and Abner’s men – in all, 360 men had died!

Joab son of Zeruiah was general in command of ¹  the army; Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud was secretary;

So King David had him brought ¹  from the house of Makir son of Ammiel in ²  Lo Debar.

They brought ¹  it with the ark of God up from the house of Abinadab on the hill. Ahio was walking in front of the ark,

Then Absalom sent spies through all the tribes of Israel who said, “When you hear the sound of the horn, you may assume ¹  that Absalom rules in Hebron.”

Two years later Absalom’s sheepshearers were in Baal Hazor, ¹  near Ephraim. Absalom invited all the king’s sons.

After four ¹  years Absalom said to the king, “Let me go and repay my vow that I made to the Lord while I was in Hebron.

Now Saul’s son Jonathan had a son who was crippled in both feet. He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan arrived from Jezreel. His nurse picked him up and fled, but in her haste to get away, he fell and was injured. ¹  Mephibosheth was his name.

Absalom had made Amasa general in command of the army in place of Joab. (Now Amasa was the son of an Israelite man named Jether, who had married ¹  Abigail the daughter of Nahash and sister of Zeruiah, Joab’s mother.)

The Gibeonites said to him, “We ¹  have no claim to silver or gold from Saul or from his family, ²  nor would we be justified in putting to death anyone in Israel.” David asked, ³  “What then are you asking me to do for you?”

He received honor from ¹  the thirty warriors, though he was not one of the three elite warriors. David put him in charge of his bodyguard.

I grind them as fine as the dust of the ground; I crush them and stomp on them like clay ¹  in the streets.

When Abner returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside at the gate as if to speak privately with him. Joab then stabbed him ¹  in the abdomen and killed him, avenging the shed blood of his brother Asahel. ² 

Then Absalom happened to come across David’s men. Now as Absalom was riding on his ¹  mule, it ²  went under the branches of a large oak tree. His head got caught in the oak and he was suspended in midair, ³  while the mule he had been riding kept going.

King David went in, sat before the Lord, and said, “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my family, ¹  that you should have brought me to this point?

They took Asahel’s body and buried him in his father’s tomb at Bethlehem. ¹  Joab and his men then traveled all that night and reached Hebron by dawn.

At the time of ¹  the harvest three ²  of the thirty leaders went down to ³  David at the cave of Adullam. A band of Philistines was camped in the valley of Rephaim.

Absalom would then say, “If only they would make me ¹  a judge in the land! Then everyone who had a judicial complaint ²  could come to me and I would make sure he receives a just settlement.”

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.)

Now Joab returned from chasing Abner and assembled all the people. Nineteen of David’s soldiers were missing, in addition to Asahel.