Page:02.BCOT.KD.HistoricalBooks.A.vol.2.EarlyProphets.djvu/832

 Josephus (Ant. vii. 1, 5), it was twenty stadia from Hebron, and called Βησιρά.

Verse 27
When he came back, Joab “took him aside into the middle of the gate, to talk with him in the stillness,” i.e., in private, and there thrust him through the body, so that he died “for the blood of Asahel his brother,” i.e., for having put Asahel to death (2Sa 2:23).

Verses 28-30
When David heard this, he said, ''“I and my kingdom are innocent before Jehovah for ever of the blood of Abner. Let it turn (חוּל, to twist one's self, to turn or fall, irruit) upon the head of Joab and all his father's house ''(or so-called family)! Never shall there be wanting (יכּרת אל, let there not be cut off, so that there shall not be, as in Jos 9:23)in the house of Joab one that hath an issue (vid., Lev 15:2),and a leper, and one who leans upon a stick (i.e., a lame person or cripple; פּלך, according to the lxx σκυτάλη, a thick round staff), and who falls by the sword, and who is in want of bread,” The meaning is: May God avenge the murder of Abner upon Joab and his family, by punishing them continually with terrible diseases, violent death, and poverty. To make the reason for this fearful curse perfectly clear, the historian observes in 2Sa 3:30, that Joab and his brother Abishai had murdered Abner, “because he had slain their brother Asahel at Gibeon in the battle” (2Sa 2:23). This act of Joab, in which Abishai must have been in some way concerned, was a treacherous act of assassination, which could not even be defended as blood-revenge, since Abner had slain Asahel in battle after repeated warnings, and only for the purpose of saving his own life. The principal motive for Joab's act was the most contemptible jealousy, or the fear lest Abner's reconciliation to David should diminish his own influence with the king, as was the case again at a later period with the murder of Amasa (2Sa 20:10).

Verses 31-39
2Sa 3:31-39David's mourning for Abner's death. - 2Sa 3:31, 2Sa 3:32. To give a public proof of his grief at this murder, and his displeasure at the crime in the sight of all the nation, David commanded Joab, and all the people with him (David), i.e., all his courtiers, and the warriors who returned with Joab, to institute a public mourning for the deceased, by tearing their clothes, putting on sackcloth, i.e., coarse hairy mourning and penitential clothes, and by a funeral dirge for Abner; i.e., he commanded them to walk in front of Abner's bier mourning