^2:1Afterward David inquired of the Lord, “Should I go up to one of the cities of Judah?” The Lord told him, “Go up.” David asked, “Where should I go?” The Lord replied,¹ “To Hebron.” ^2:2So David went up, along with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelite and Abigail, formerly the wife of Nabal the Carmelite. ^2:3David also brought along the men who were with him, each with his family. They settled in the cities² of Hebron. ^2:4The men of Judah came and there they anointed David as king over the people³ of Judah.

David was told,⁴ “The people⁵ of Jabesh Gilead are the ones who buried Saul.” ^2:5So David sent messengers to the people of Jabesh Gilead and told them, “May you be blessed by the Lord because you have shown this kindness⁶ to your lord Saul by burying him. ^2:6Now may the Lord show you true kindness!⁷ I also will reward you,⁸ because you have done this deed. ^2:7Now be courageous⁹ and prove to be valiant warriors, for your lord Saul is dead. The people of Judah have anointed me as king over them.”

David’s Army Clashes with the Army of Saul

^2:8Now Abner son of Ner, the general in command of Saul’s army, had taken Saul’s son Ish-bosheth¹⁰ and had brought him to Mahanaim. ^2:9He appointed him king over Gilead, the Geshurites,¹¹ Jezreel, Ephraim, Benjamin, and all Israel. ^2:10Ish-bosheth son of Saul was forty years old when he began to rule over Israel. He ruled two years. However, the people¹² of Judah followed David. ^2:11David was king in Hebron over the people of Judah for seven and a half years.¹³

^2:12Then Abner son of Ner and the servants of Ish-bosheth son of Saul went out from Mahanaim to Gibeon. ^2:13Joab son of Zeruiah and the servants of David also went out and confronted them at the pool of Gibeon. One group stationed themselves on one side of the pool, and the other group on the other side of the pool. ^2:14Abner said to Joab, “Let the soldiers get up and fight¹⁴ before us.” Joab said, “So be it!”¹⁵

^2:15So they got up and crossed over by number: twelve belonging to Benjamin and to Ish-bosheth son of Saul, and twelve from the servants of David. ^2:16As they grappled with one another, each one stabbed his opponent with his sword and they fell dead together.¹⁶ So that place is called the Field of Flints;¹⁷ it is in Gibeon.

^2:17Now the battle was very severe that day; Abner and the men of Israel were overcome by David’s soldiers.¹⁸^2:18The 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.) ^2:19Asahel chased Abner, without turning to the right or to the left as he followed Abner.

^2:20Then Abner turned and asked, “Is that you, Asahel?” He replied, “Yes it is!” ^2:21Abner said to him, “Turn aside to your right or to your left. Capture one of the soldiers¹⁹ and take his equipment for yourself!” But Asahel was not willing to turn aside from following him. ^2:22So Abner spoke again to Asahel, “Turn aside from following me! I do not want to strike you to the ground.²⁰ How then could I show²¹ my face in the presence of Joab your brother?” ^2:23But Asahel²² refused to turn aside. So Abner struck him in the abdomen with the back end of his²³ spear. The spear came out his back; Asahel²⁴ collapsed on the spot and died there right before Abner.²⁵ Everyone who now comes to the place where Asahel fell dead pauses in respect.²⁶

^2:24So Joab and Abishai chased Abner. At sunset they came to the hill of Ammah near Giah on the way to the wilderness of Gibeon. ^2:25The Benjaminites formed their ranks²⁷ behind Abner and were like a single army, standing at the top of a certain hill.

^2:26Then Abner called out to Joab, “Must the sword devour forever? Don’t you realize that this will turn bitter in the end? When will you tell the people to turn aside from pursuing their brothers?” ^2:27Joab replied, “As surely as God lives, if you had not said this, it would have been morning before the people would have abandoned pursuit²⁸ of their brothers!” ^2:28Then Joab blew the ram’s horn and all the people stopped in their tracks.²⁹ They stopped chasing Israel and ceased fighting.³⁰^2:29Abner and his men went through the Arabah all that night. They crossed the Jordan River³¹ and went through the whole region of Bitron³² and came to Mahanaim.

^2:30Now Joab returned from chasing Abner and assembled all the people. Nineteen of David’s soldiers were missing, in addition to Asahel. ^2:31But David’s soldiers had slaughtered the Benjaminites and Abner’s men—in all, 360 men had died! ^2:32They took Asahel’s body and buried him in his father’s tomb at Bethlehem.³³ Joab and his men then traveled all that night and reached Hebron by dawn.

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Footnotes

1 Heb “he said.” The referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity and for stylistic reasons.
2 The expression “the cities of Hebron” is odd; we would expect the noun to be in the singular, if used at all. Although the has the expected reading “in Hebron,” the is clearly the more difficult reading and should probably be retained here.
3 Heb “house.”
4 Heb “and they told David.” The subject appears to be indefinite, allowing one to translate the verb as passive with David as subject.
5 Heb “men.”
6 Or “loyalty.”
7 Or “loyalty and devotion.”
8 Heb “will do with you this good.”
9 Heb “let your hands be strong.”
10 The name Ish-bosheth means in Hebrew “man of shame.” It presupposes an earlier form such as Ish-baal (“man of the Lord”), with the word “baal” being used of Israel’s God. But because the Canaanite storm god was named “Baal,” that part of the name was later replaced with the word “shame.”
11 The here reads “the Ashurite,” but this is problematic if it is taken to mean “the Assyrian.” Ish-bosheth’s kingdom obviously was not of such proportions as to extend to Assyria. The renders the word as “the Geshurite,” while the has “of the house of Ashur.” We should probably emend the Hebrew text to read “the Geshurite.” The Geshurites lived in the northeastern part of the land of Palestine.
12 Heb “house.”
13 Heb “And the number of the days in which David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months.”
14 Heb “play.” What is in view here is a gladiatorial contest in which representative groups of soldiers engage in mortal combat before the watching armies. Cf. “perform for us”; “hold (have ) a contest before us”; “put on an exhibition of hand-to-hand combat.”
15 Heb “let them arise.”
16 Heb “and they grabbed each one the head of his neighbor with his sword in the side of his neighbor and they fell together.”
17 The meaning of the name “Helkath Hazzurim” (so ; , , similar) is not clear. relates the name to the Hebrew term for “side,” and this is reflected in “the Field of the Sides”; the Greek OT revocalizes the Hebrew to mean something like “Field of Adversaries.” Cf. also , “Field of Swords”; “Field of Daggers.”
18 Heb “servants.” So also elsewhere.
19 Heb “young men.” So also elsewhere.
20 Heb “Why should I strike you to the ground?”
21 Heb “lift.”
22 Heb “he”; the referent (Asahel) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
23 Heb “the.” The article functions here as a possessive pronoun.
24 Heb “he”; the referent (Asahel) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
25 Heb “him”; the referent (Abner) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
26 Heb “and they stand.”
27 Heb “were gathered together.”
28 The Hebrew verb נַעֲלָה (na’alah) used here is the Niphal perfect 3rd person masculine singular of עָלָה (’alah, “to go up”). In the Niphal this verb “is used idiomatically, of getting away from so as to abandon … especially of an army raising a siege …” (see S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, ).
29 Heb “stood.”
30 Heb “they no longer chased after Israel and they no longer fought.”
31 The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.
32 Heb “and they went, all the Bitron.” The meaning of the Hebrew word “Bitron,” which is used only here in the OT, is disputed. The translation above follows 144 בִּתְרוֹן in taking the word to be a proper name of an area east of the Jordan. A different understanding was advocated by W. R. Arnold, who took the word to refer to the forenoon or morning; a number of modern scholars and translations have adopted this view (cf. , , , , ). See W. R. Arnold, “The Meaning of בתרון,” 28 (1911–1912): 274–83. In this case one could translate “and they traveled all morning long.”
33 For location see ; ; ; .