2 Samuel 3:24-39 - Joab Assassinates Abner

²⁴ Then Joab came to the king and said, “What have you done? Behold, Abner came to you; why did you send him away, so that he is already gone? ²⁵ You know Abner the son of Ner, that he [only] came to deceive you [with flattering words] and to learn of your going out and coming in, and to find out what you are doing.” ²⁶ When Joab left David, he sent messengers after Abner, and they brought him back from the well of Sirah; but David knew nothing [about Joab’s action]. ²⁷ So when Abner returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside to the middle of the gate to speak to him privately, and there he struck Abner in the abdomen so that he died, to avenge the blood of Asahel, Joab’s brother.

²⁸ Afterward, when David heard of it, he said, “I and my kingdom are forever innocent before the Lord of the blood of Abner the son of Ner. ²⁹ Let the guilt fall on the head of Joab and on all his father’s house (family); and may there never disappear from the house of Joab one who suffers with a discharge or one who is a leper or one who walks with a crutch [being unfit for war], or one who falls by the sword, or one who lacks food.” ³⁰ So Joab and Abishai his brother murdered Abner because he had killed their brother Asahel in the battle at Gibeon.

³¹ Then David said to Joab and to all the people with him, “Tear your clothes, put on sackcloth, and mourn before Abner.” And King David walked behind the bier.

³² They buried Abner in Hebron; and the king raised his voice and wept at the grave of Abner, and all the people wept. ³³ And the king sang a dirge (funeral song) over Abner and said,“Should Abner [the great warrior] die as a fool dies?
³⁴
“Your hands were not bound, nor your feet put in fetters;
As a man falls before the wicked, so you have fallen.”And all the people wept again over him.

³⁵ All the people came to urge David to eat food while it was still day; but David took an oath, saying, “May God do so to me, and more also, if I taste bread or anything else before the sun sets.” ³⁶ And all the people took notice of it and it pleased them, just as everything that the king did pleased all the people. ³⁷ So all the people and all Israel understood that day that it had not been the will of the king to put Abner the son of Ner to death.

³⁸ Then the king said to his servants, “Do you not know that a prince and a great man has fallen this day in Israel? ³⁹ Today I am weak, though anointed king; these men, the sons of Zeruiah, are too difficult for me. May the Lord repay the evildoer [Joab] in accordance with his wickedness!”