The sons of David born in Hebron
1There was war for a long time between the family of Saul and the family of David, but David's men got stronger and Saul's group of men became smaller. 2There were 6 sons who were born for David in Hebron. The first son was Amnon. His mother's name was Ahinoam and she came from Jezreel. 3The 2nd son was Kileab. His mother was Abigail. She had been the wife of Nabal of Carmel before. The 3rd son was Absalom. His mother was Maakah, the daughter of King Talmai of Geshur. 4The 4th son was Adonijah, and his mother was Haggith. The 5th son was Shephatiah, and his mother was Abital. 5The 6th son was Ithream. His mother was David's wife Eglah. These were the sons of David who were born in Hebron.
Abner comes over to David's men
6While Saul and David's men were making war, Abner became an important person in the family of Saul. 7Saul had a concubine. Her name was Rizpah, and she was the daughter of Aiah. Ish-Bosheth asked Abner: ‘Why do you sleep with my father's concubine?’
8Abner became very angry because Ish-Bosheth had said that. Abner answered: ‘Do you think that I want to fight against you and help the people of Judah? I have stayed with your father Saul's family, with his brothers and his friends, and I have protected you against David. Why are you angry with me? Why do you say that I have done something wrong with this woman? 9-10The Lord promised David that he will be king_of_Israel and Judah and that he will rule over the whole land, from the town of Dan to the town of Beersheba. I want God to punish me if I do not help this to happen. Then there will be no king from the family of Saul.’
11Ish-Bosheth was so afraid of Abner that he did not say a word. 12Abner immediately sent a message to David, saying: ‘The whole land belongs to you. If you make an agreement with me, I will help you to be king over all of Israel.’ 13David answered and said: ‘Yes, I will make an agreement with you, but I ask one thing of you: You must bring Michal, daughter of Saul, with you. If you do not bring her with you, then you must not come to me.’
14David also sent a message to Saul's son Ish-Bosheth. He said: ‘You must give my wife Michal to me. I have killed 100 Philistines to get her.’ 15Ish-Bosheth sent someone to take Michal away from her husband Paltiel, son of Laish. 16Her husband walked with her and he cried all the way to the town of Bahurim. Then Abner told him to go back. He turned_around and went back home. 17Abner told the leaders_of_Israel: ‘For a long time you wanted David to be your king. Now you must make him your king. Because the Lord said to David:
18“I will save my people the Israelites
from the Philistines and from all their enemies.
My servant David will do it.” ’
19Abner also talked to the Benjamin people. Then he went to David in Hebron and told him what the Israelites and the Benjamin tribe wanted to do. 20When Abner and the 20 men who were with him came to David in Hebron, David had a feast for Abner and the men with him. 21Then Abner said to David: ‘I want to go now and get all the leaders_of_Israel together here with you, Your_Majesty, so that they can make an agreement with you. Then you will be king of all the people of Israel. I know you want to be their king.’
David said Abner could go and no one tried to stop Abner.
Joab kills Abner
22But Joab and David's soldiers were away when Abner came. They had gone to attack enemies and they came back later. They had a lot of plunder that they had taken from them. Abner was no longer in Hebron because David said he could go and no one tried to stop him. 23When Joab and his men came into Hebron, someone told Joab that Abner, son of Ner, had been there with the king and that the king had said he could go away and no one had tried to stop him.
24Joab went to the king and asked him: ‘What have you done? Abner came to you and you said he could go. Why? 25You know Abner, son of Ner. He came here to deceive you and to look at what is happening here and what you are doing.’
26After Joab had gone to the king, he sent a message to Abner asking him to come back. He came back from the water-well at Sirah. David did not know about this. 27When Abner came back to Hebron, Joab said he wanted to talk to him alone at the gate. But then Joab stabbed Abner in his stomach and killed him. He did it because Abner had killed Asahel, Joab's brother. 28When they told David about this, he said: ‘The Lord will always know that my family and I did nothing wrong. We did not kill Abner, son of Ner. 29I pray that the Lord will punish Joab and his family for this murder. I pray that there will always be people in the family of Joab who will have open sores or who will have leprosy or who will be crippled or die in war or from hunger.’
30So Joab and his brother Abishai killed Abner because Abner had killed their brother Asahel in the war at Gibeon. 31-32David told Joab and all the men with him: ‘You must tear your clothes and put on sack-cloth. You must mourn for Abner.’
They buried Abner in Hebron. King David walked behind the people who carried Abner's body. The king cried loudly at Abner's tomb and all the men cried with him. 33The king sang this lament for Abner. He said:
‘Why did Abner die like a fool dies?
34No one tied up your hands,
and no one tied up your feet with chains.
But you died like someone who dies
when bad people kill him.’
All the people cried over Abner again. 35It was still daytime and the people asked David to eat some food. But David said: ‘The Lord can punish me if I eat or drink anything before the sun goes down.’
36All the people saw what David did and they said it was good. The people always said the things that the king did were good. 37All David's men and all the Israelites knew and they were sure that it was not the king who had killed Abner, son of Ner. 38The king said to his men: ‘You must know that it was an important_leader who has died in the land_of_Israel today. 39I am the anointed king, but I am weak. Joab and Abishai, the sons of Zeruiah, are too strong for me. I pray that God will punish them for what they did.’
