2 Samuel 2:16
Ver. 16. And they caught everyone his fellow by the head,.... By the hair of his head with his hand:and [thrust] his sword in his fellow's side; which he had in the other;so they fell down together; the twelve on each side, all the twenty four; some think only the twelve on Abner's side fell; but to me it seems that they all fell dead as one man, since they thrust their swords in each other's sides:wherefore that place was called Helkathhazzurim, which [is] in Gibeon; the field of rocks, or of mighty men as strong as rocks, who stood as immovable, and would not give way, but fell and died in the field of battle; the Targum interprets it, the inheritance of the slain. 2 Samuel 2:17Ver. 17. And there was a very sore battle that day,.... When the twenty four men fell together, and no decision could be made thereby, or any triumph on either side, both armies drew up in battle array, and fought very furiously:and Abner was beaten, and the men of Israel, before the servants of David; the army under him had the worst of it, and were routed, and obliged to flee before the army of David under the command of Joab. 2 Samuel 2:18Ver. 18. And there were three sons of Zeruiah there,.... In the battle,Joab, and Abishai, and Asahel; Joab was the general of the array, Abishai was he who went into Saul's host at night, and took away his spear and cruse of water at his head, 1Sa 26:6; and it is for the sake of the third, Asahel, that the account is given, the story of his death being about to be told.And Asahel [was as] light of foot as a wild roe: swiftness of foot, as well as courage, for which this man was famous, 1Ch 11:26; was a very great qualification for a warrior {e}. So Achilles, in Homer {f}, is often said to be swift of foot, and others of his heroes are commended for their swiftness. Harold son of King Canutus, was from his swiftness {g} called Harefoot; as here this man for the same reason is compared to a wild roe, which is a very swift creature, or to one of the roes that were in the field as in the original text. See So 2:7; one sort of which, called "kemas", is said to run as swift as a tempest {h}.{e} Cornel. Nepos, Epaminond. l. 2. {f} podav wkuv, Iliad. 1. lin. 15. {g} Rapin's History of England, vol. 1. p. 128. {h} Aelian. Hist. de Animal, l. 14. c. 14. 2 Samuel 2:19Ver. 19. And Asahel pursued after Abner,.... Ambitious of the glory of taking or slaying the general of the army of Israel; trusting to his swiftness, not considering that the race is not always to the swift, and that he had to do with a veteran soldier, and he a raw young man, though valiant:and in going he turned not to the right hand nor to the left in following Abner; he kept his eye upon him, and pursued him closely, disregarding persons on the right or left he could have made prisoners; but those he neglected, being bent on taking Abner if possible. 2 Samuel 2:20Ver. 20. Then Abner looked behind him,.... Perceiving one at his heels, and making haste up to him.And said, [art] thou Asahel? for it seems he knew him personally, being well acquainted with his family:and he answered, I [am]; so that they were very near to each other, as to discourse together, and be heard and understood by each other. 2 Samuel 2:21Ver. 21. And Abner said unto him,.... Having a respect for him, and consulting his good, and however fearing his brother Joab should he slay him:turn thee aside to thy right or to thy left; he does not advise him to go back, which would have been to his disgrace, having engaged in the pursuit, but to turn to the right or left, as if pursuing some other person and not Abner:and lay thee hold on one of the young men, and take thee his armour; one of the common soldiers, or an attendant on Abner, a young man like himself, whom he might be able to cope with, and take him a prisoner and disarm him, when he was not a match for such an old experienced officer as he was; and this Abner seems to speak as a friend, consulting the young man's safety and his honour too.But, Asahel would not turn aside from following him; fired with the ambition of taking him, and not content with any prey short of him; and perhaps was the more animated by what he said, as supposing it arose from fear of him. 2 Samuel 2:22Ver. 22. And Abner said again to Asahel,.... Being loath to dispatch him:turn thee aside from following me, wherefore should I smite thee to the ground? which was giving him fair warning, and letting him know what he must expect, if he did not desist from his pursuit:how then should I hold up my face to Joab thy brother? the general of David's army, a stout valiant commander, a man of spirit and resentment, whom Abner knew full well, and that should he slay his brother, he would never be friendly with him, or look pleasantly on him; he would never forgive him, but seek ways and means to avenge his blood on him and by this it seems as if Abner was conscious to himself that he was in a wrong cause, that the kingdom was of right David's, and would be his, and he must be obliged to make peace with him; when he should stand in need of Joab as his friend, which he could not expect, if he slew his brother, nor to live in favour and friendship with him hereafter. 2 Samuel 2:23Ver. 23. Howbeit, he refused to turn aside,.... Determined on making him his captive if possible.Wherefore Abner, with the hinder end of the spear; he had in his hand, which seems to have had a pike at both ends; so that with the hinder end of it, next to Asahel, he thrust it at him, without turning to him: andsmote him under the fifth [rib]; the place where hang the gall and liver, as the Jewish commentators from their Talmud {i} observe. There are twelve ribs, seven of which are called true ones, and five spurious; if this was the fifth of the seven, the spear must pierce the breast {k}, and strike the seat of life, the heart and lungs; if the fifth from the eighth and first of the spurious ones, then wounding the hypochondria, it must pass to the vital bowels of the abdomen, which seems to be the case here {l}: according to some {m} this is meant of the inferior ribs, which we call the short ribs, and any of these five are called the fifth rib; and Abner must strike him in the right side, because he was behind him, and which stroke must be deadly, because he struck him through the liver:that the spear came out behind him: the thrust was so violent that the spear went through him, and came out at his back:and he fell down and died in the same place; he fell at once, and died on the spot immediately:and it came to pass, [that] as many as came to the place where Asahel fell down and died stood still; that is, such of David's men who were in the pursuit after the Israelites, when they came to the spot, and saw Asahel dead, they had no power to proceed in the pursuit, being so troubled and grieved at the death of him.{i} T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 49. 1. {k} "Transadigit costas, et crates pectoris ensom". Virgil. Aeneod. l. 12. ver. 506. {l} Vid. Scheuchzer. Physic. Sacr. vol. 3. p. 501. {m} Weemse's Portrait of Man, p. 24. 2 Samuel 2:24Ver. 24. Joab also and Abishai pursued after Abner,.... Or rather but Joab, &c. {n}. They stood not still as the rest, but, filled with indignation and resentment, pursued after Abner, to be avenged on him:and the sun went down when they came to the hill of Ammah; a hill by the side of which was a pool of water, as Kimchi thinks, and from thence so called:that [lieth] before Giah; a place near Gibeon, but nowhere after mentioned:by the way of the wilderness of Gibeon; very likely not far from the city from which it had its name.{n} "Autem", V. L. Tiguriue version; "sed", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; so Kimchi. 2 Samuel 2:25Ver. 25. And the children of Benjamin gathered themselves together after Abner,.... Either those that were with him before, who upon the battle were dispersed, but now got together again; or others of that tribe, who, hearing of the defeat of Abner, went out of the several cities after him, to strengthen his hands, and renew the fight with Joab:and became one troop; were united together in a body, and became a regular troop:and stood on the top of an hill; which was some advantage to them, and from whence they could take a view of Joab's army, and observe its motions. 2 Samuel 2:26Ver. 26. Then Abner called to Joab,.... For having now a troop of men with him, he could stop with the greater safety; and being on an hill, and perhaps Joab on one opposite to him, could call to him, so as to be heard:and said, shall the sword devour for ever? slay men, and devour their blood. See Jer 46:10. That he was not thoughtful of, nor concerned about, when he set the young men to fighting before the battle, and called it play to wound and shed the blood of each other; but now the battle going against him, he complains of the devouring sword; and though it had been employed but a few hours, it seemed long to him, a sort of an eternity:knowest thou not that it will be bitterness in the latter end? since it might issue in the death of himself, or of Joab, or of both, as it had in Asahel, or, however, in the death of a multitude of others; and which at last would cause bitter reflection in the prosecutors of the war:how long shall it be then ere thou bid the people return from following their brethren? he pleads relation, that the men of Israel and the men of Judah were brethren; so they were by nation and religion, and therefore should not pursue one another to destruction; but who was the aggressor? It was Abner, that brought his forces against Judah; the men of David acted only on the defensive. 2 Samuel 2:27Ver. 27. And Joab said, as God liveth,.... Which was the form of an oath, swearing by the living God:unless thou hadst spoken; that is, these words in 2Sa 2:14; "let the young men arise and play", that he had not given the challenge to fight:surely then in the morning the people had gone up everyone from following his brother; they would have gone away and never fought at all; they were not desirous of shedding their blood, and following after them to slay them: thus he lays the blame upon Abner, and makes him to be the cause and beginner of the war. Some render the particle by "if", and give the sense, that if he had spoken what he last did sooner, the people would long before this time have desisted from pursuing them; for it was not from a thirst after their blood, and a desire to luke vengeance on them, that they pursued them, but to bring them to submission, and lay down their arms; for they could not in honour retreat until they desired it; but the former sense seems best, and is the general sense of the Jewish commentators. 2 Samuel 2:28Ver. 28. So Joab blew a trumpet,.... Or caused one to be blown as a signal of a retreat:and all the people stood still, and pursued after Israel no more; as soon as they heard the trumpet sound, the meaning of which they understood, they stepped at once, and left off their pursuit:neither fought they any more; that day, and perhaps no pitched battle afterwards; for none we read of, though the war continued after this a long time, and there might be often skirmishes, which greatly weakened Abner's party. See 2Sa 3:1. 2 Samuel 2:29Ver. 29. And Abner and his men walked all that night through the plain,.... The plain of Jordan. He marched with his men all night, lest Joab should return, and pursue him, and take vengeance on him for the death of his brother:and passed over Jordan; at one of the fords of it:and went through all Bithron; the name of a province or country, as Jarchi, called so perhaps from its being separated from the rest of the tribes of Israel by the river Jordan; some think the mountains of Bether were in this country, So 2:17. From Gibeon, where the battle was fought, to Bithron, according to Bunting {o}, was twenty eight miles, the which he says was in the tribe of Gad, twenty eight miles from Jerusalem northeastward, lying between Dibon and Jordan:and they came to Mahanaim: from whence they came, and where they had left Ishbosheth, 2Sa 2:8. From Bithron to this place, according to the same writer {p}, was sixteen miles.{o} Travels, &c. p. 145, 146. {p} Ibid. 2 Samuel 2:30Ver. 30. And Joab returned from following Abner,.... It being in his commission from David to shed as little blood as he could:and when he had gathered all the people together; who had been pursuing the Israelites, some one way and some another:there lacked of David's servants nineteen men, and Asahel; who is particularly mentioned, because a very honourable man, valiant and courageous, a relation of David, and brother of Joab the general, and the loss of him was greater than all the rest. This has made some think that the twelve men of the servants of David were not killed in the duel, or otherwise there must be but seven slain in the battle; though that is not more strange than that in the battle with Midian not one should be slain, and, yet a terrible slaughter was made of the Midianites, Nu 31:1. So in a sharp battle between the Spartans and Arcadians, ten thousand of the latter were slain, and not one of the former {q}. Stilicho killed more than an hundred thousand of the army of Rhadagaisus, king of the Goths, without losing one of his own men, no, not so much as one wounded, as Austin affirms {r}. At the battle of Issus the Persians lost an hundred ten thousand men, and Alexander not two hundred {s}. Julius Caesar killed in the three camps of Juba, Scipio, and Labienus, ten thousand men, with the loss of fifty men only {t}. After these instances, not only the case here, but that between the Israelites and Midianites, cannot be thought incredible, for the sake of which the above are produced. This account, according to Josephus {u}, was taken the day following.{q} Diodor. Sic. l. 15. p. 383. {r} De civilate Dei, l. 5. c. 23. {s} Curtius, l. 3. c. 11. {t} Hirtius de Bello African. c. 86. {u} Antiqu. l. 7. c. 1. sect. 3. 2 Samuel 2:31Ver. 31. But the servants of David had smitten of Benjamin, and Abner's men,.... Of those of the tribe of Benjamin that joined him, and of those that he brought with him from Mahanaim; so many of them were smitten, as appeared by their bodies lying on the field of battle,[so that] three hundred and threescore men died; the number of the slain on each side was very unequal. 2 Samuel 2:32Ver. 32. And they took up Asahel,.... From the place where he fell; that is, Joab and Abishai, his brethren, as Josephus {w} relates; after they had buried the dead in the field of battle, they took up him:and buried him in the sepulchre of his father, which [was in] Bethlehem: not in the city of Bethlehem, but without it, on the south side of it; so says Fuller {x},"southward, i.e. of Bethlehem, we find Asahel's sepulchre, who was buried in the grave of his father.''What was his father's name is not known, only his mother's name, Zeruiah, is mentioned in Scripture, a sister of David, and daughter of Jesse the Bethlehemite. Bethlehem was sixteen miles from Gibeon, according to Bunting {y}.And Joab and his men went all night; not the night following the battle, but the night following the next day, after he had been to Bethlehem, and buried his brother there; wherefore, lest David should think it long before he came, he travelled all night:and they came to Hebron at break of day; where David was, which, according to the same writer {z}, was twenty miles from Bethlehem.{w} Antiqu. l. 7. c. 1. sect. 3. {x} Pisgah-Sight of Palestine, B. 2. c. 14. sect. 21. p. 301. {y} Travels, ut supra. (p. 145, 146.) {z} Travels, ut supra. (p. 145, 146.)
John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.