ABNER
24
ABOMINATION"
blood-feud with Joab, for whom he seems to have en- tertained a sincere respect, entreated Asahel to desist from the pursuit ; but finding that he was still fol- lowed, and that his life was in danger, he at length ran his pursuer through the body by a back thrust with the pointed heel of his spear (2 Sam. ii, 18-32). This put a strife of blood between the two foremost men in all Israel (after David); for the law of honor, which had from times before the law prevailed among the Hebrews, and which still prevails in Arabia, ren- dered it the conventional duty of Joab to avenge the blood of his brother upon the person by whom he had been slain. See Blood-revexge.
As time went on Abner had occasion to feel more strongly that he was himself not only the chief, but the only remaining prop of the house of Saul ; and this conviction, acting upon a proud and arrogant spirit, led him to more presumptuous conduct than even the mildness of the feeble Ishbosheth could suf- fer to pass without question. See Absalom ; Adoxi- jaii. He took to his own harem a woman named Rizpah, who had been a concubine-wife of Saul (2 Sam. iii, 7 sq.). This act, from the ideas connected with the harem of a deceased king (comp. Josephus, Apion, i, 15 ; Herod, iii, 68), was not only a great im- propriety, but was open to the suspicion of a political design, which Abner may very possibly have enter- tained. See Harem. A mild rebuke from the nom- inal king, however, enraged him greatly; and he plainly declared that he would henceforth abandon his cause and devote himself to the interests of David. To excuse this desertion to his own mind, he then and on other occasions avowed his knowledge that the son of Jesse had been appointed by the Lord to reign over all Israel ; but he appears to have been unconscious that this avowal exposed his previous conduct to more censure than it offered excuse for his present. He, however, kept his word with Ishbosheth. After a tour, during which he explained his present views to the elders of the tribes which still adhered to the house of Saul, he repaired to Hebron with authority to make certain overtures to David on their behalf (2 Sam. iii, 12 sq.). He was received with great at- tention and respect ; and David even thought it pru- dent to promise that he should still have the chief command of the armies when the desired union of the two kingdoms took place (De Pacto Bavidis ct Abneri, in the Crit. *S'ac. Thes. Nov. i, G51). The political ex- pediency of this engagement is very clear, and to that expediency the interests and claims of Joab were sac- rilieed. That distinguished personage happened to be absent from Hebron on service at the time, but he re- turned just as Aimer had left the city. He speedily understood what had passed; and his dread of the su- perior influence which such a man as Abner might es- tablish with David (see Josephus, Ant. vii, 1, 5) quickened his remembrance of the vengeance which his brother's blood required. His purpose was prompt- ly formed. Unknown to the king, but apparently in his name, he sent a message after Abner to call him back ; and as he returned, Joab met him at the gate, and, leading him aside as it' to confer peaceably and privately with him, suddenly thrust his sword into his body. B.C. 1046. The lamentations of David, the public mourning which he ordered, and the funeral honors which were paid to the remains of Abner (2 Sam. iv, 12 i, the king himself following the bier as chief mourner, exonerated him in public opinion from having been privy to this assassination (2 Sam. iii, 31- 39; comp. 1 Kings ii, 5, 32). As for Joab, his privi- lege as a blood-avenger must to a great extent have justified his treacherous act in the opinion of the peo- ple; and that, together with his inriuenee with the army, screened him from punishment. See JoAB.
David's short but emphatic lament over Abner (2 Sam. iii, 83, 84) may be rendered, with strict ad- herence to the form of the original (.see Ewald, Bic/i-
ter des alten Bundes, i, 99 ; comp. Lowth, Heb. Poetry, xxii), as follows :
A3 a villain dies, should Abner die? Thy hands not bound, And thy feet not brought into fetters; As one falls before the sons of malice, fellest thou ! As to the sense of the words, J. D. Michaelis (Ueber- setzung des alten Test.) saw that the point of this in- dignant, more than sorrowful, lament, lies in the mode in which Abner was slain. Joab professed to kill him "for the blood of Asahel, his brother" (2 Sam. iii, 27). But if a man claimed his brother's blood ;.t the hand of his murderer, the latter (even if he fled to the altar for refuge, Exod. xxi, 14) would have been delivered up (bound, hand and foot, it is assumed) to the avenger of blood, who would then possess a legal right to slay him. Now Joab not only had no title to claim the right of the Gael, as Asahel was killed under justifying circumstances (2 Sam. ii, 19); but, while pretending to exercise the avenger's right, he took a lawless and private mode of satisfaction, and commit- ted a murder. Hence David charged him, in allusion to this conduct, with "shedding the blood of war in peace" (1 Kings ii, 5) ; and hence he expresses him- self in this lament, as if indignant that the noble Ab- ner, instead of being surrendered with the formalities of the law to meet an authorized penalty, was treach- erously stabbed like a worthless fellow by the hands of an assassin. — Kitto, s. v. See Homicide.