³⁷ So all the people and all Israel understood on that day that it had not been the desire of the king to put Abner the son of Ner to death. ³⁸ Then the king said to his servants, “Do you not know that a leader and a great man has fallen in Israel this day? ³⁹ And I am ^(A)weak today, though anointed king; and these men, ^(B)the sons of Zeruiah, are too difficult for me. ^(C)May the Lord repay the evildoer in proportion to his evil.”