2 Samuel 3:23

3:22-39 Judgments are prepared for such scorners as Abner; but Joab, in what he did, acted wickedly. David laid Abner's murder deeply to heart, and in many ways expressed his detestation of it. The guilt of blood brings a curse upon families: if men do not avenge it, God will. It is a sad thing to die like a fool, as they do that any way shorten their own days, and those who make no provision for another world. Who would be fond of power, when a man may have the name of it, and must be accountable for it, yet is hampered in the use of it? David ought to have done his duty, and then trusted God with the issue. Carnal policy spared Joab. The Son of David may long delay, but never fails to punish impenitent sinners. He who now reigns upon the throne of David, has a kingdom of a nobler kind. Whatever He doeth, is noticed by all his willing people, and is pleasing to them.

When Joab and all the host that was with him were come,.... To Hebron, or rather to David's court; for their coming to the city is before mentioned; this must be understood not of the whole army, of all the common soldiers, but of the chief officers, who with Joab came to court, to wait upon David, and report their success: they told Joab, saying, Abner the son, of Ner came to the king; some of the courtiers informed him of it, who knew it would not be very agreeable to him: and he hath sent him away, and he is gone in peace: instead of seizing him, and laying him in a prison as his enemy, he has let him go with all the marks of friendship and good will.

23 . with the hinder end of the spear ] Abner defended himself in this way with a view to disable rather than kill Asahel. But the butt-end of the spear, pointed or shod with iron to be stuck in the ground ( 1 Samuel 26:7 ; Hom. Il. X. 153), dealt a fatal blow. under the fifth rib ] The E. V. follows the Jewish commentators in thus rendering a word which occurs in three other passages of this book ( 2 Samuel 3:27 , 2 Samuel 4:6 , 2 Samuel 20:10 ) and nowhere else. In the belly is however the more probable meaning. stood still ] Riveted to the spot with awe and grief, mourning the untimely fate of the young hero. Cp. ch. 2 Samuel 20:12 .

When Joab learned. Lit. they told him) that Abner had been with David, and he had sent him away again, he went to David to reproach him for having done so. "What hast thou done? Behold, Abner came to thee; why then hast thou sent him away, and he is gone quite away?" i.e., so that he could go away again without being detained (for this meaning of the inf. abs., see Ewald, 280, b.). "Thou knowest (or more correctly as a question, Dost thou know?) Abner, the son of Ner, that he came to persuade thee (i.e., to make thee certain of his intentions), and to learn thy going out and in (i.e., all thine undertakings), and to learn all that thou wilt do" (i.e., all thy plans). Joab hoped in this way to prejudice David against Abner, to make him suspected as a traitor, that he might then be able to gratify his own private revenge with perfect impunity.

Uriah the Hittite is well known from 2 Samuel 11:3 . "Thirty and seven in all." This number is correct, as there were three in the first class ( 2 Samuel 23:8-12 ), two in the second ( 2 Samuel 23:18-23 ), and thirty-two in the third (vv. 24-39), since 2 Samuel 23:34 contains three names according to the amended text.