2 Samuel 3:27–39

²⁷So when Abner returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside into the middle of the gate to speak with him privately, and there ^ahe struck him in the belly so that he died on account of the blood of Asahel his brother.

²⁸Afterward when David heard it, he said, “I and my kingdom are innocent before the Lord forever of the blood of Abner the son of Ner.

²⁹“^aMay it ¹fall on the head of Joab and on all his father’s house; and may there not fail from the house of Joab ^bone who has a discharge, or who is a leper, or who takes hold of a distaff, or who falls by the sword, or who lacks bread.”

³⁰So Joab and Abishai his brother killed Abner ^abecause he had put their brother Asahel to death in the battle at Gibeon.

David Mourns Abner

³¹Then David said to Joab and to all the people who were with him, “^aTear your clothes and gird on sackcloth and lament before Abner.” And King David walked behind the bier.

³²Thus they buried Abner in Hebron; and the king lifted up his voice and wept at ^athe grave of Abner, and all the people wept.

^33aThe king chanted a lament for Abner and said,

“Should Abner die as a fool dies?

³⁴“Your hands were not bound, nor your feet put in fetters;

As one falls before the ¹wicked, you have fallen.”

And all the people wept again over him.

³⁵Then all the people came ^ato ¹persuade David to eat bread while it was still day; but David vowed, saying, “^bMay God do so to me, and more also, if I taste bread or anything else ^cbefore the sun goes down.”

³⁶Now all the people took note of it, and it ¹pleased them, just as everything the king did ²pleased all the people.

³⁷So 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.

³⁸Then the king said to his servants, “Do you not know that a prince and a great man has fallen this day in Israel?

³⁹“I am ^aweak today, though anointed king; and these men ^bthe sons of Zeruiah are too difficult for me. ^cMay the Lord repay the evildoer according to his evil.”