¹⁸ The three sons of Zeruiah were there, Joab, Abishai, and Asahel. Now Asahel was as swift of foot as a wild gazelle. ¹⁹ Asahel pursued Abner, turning neither to the right nor to the left as he followed him. ²⁰ Then Abner looked back and said, ‘Is it you, Asahel?’ He answered, ‘Yes, it is.’ ²¹ Abner said to him, ‘Turn to your right or to your left, and seize one of the young men, and take his spoil.’ But Asahel would not turn away from following him. ²² Abner said again to Asahel, ‘Turn away from following me; why should I strike you to the ground? How then could I show my face to your brother Joab?’ ²³ But he refused to turn away. So Abner struck him in the stomach with the butt of his spear, so that the spear came out at his back. He fell there, and died where he lay. And all those who came to the place where Asahel had fallen and died, stood still.

²⁴ But Joab and Abishai pursued Abner. As the sun was going down they came to the hill of Ammah, which lies before Giah on the way to the wilderness of Gibeon. ²⁵ The Benjaminites rallied around Abner and formed a single band; they took their stand on the top of a hill. ²⁶ Then Abner called to Joab, ‘Is the sword to keep devouring for ever? Do you not know that the end will be bitter? How long will it be before you order your people to turn from the pursuit of their kinsmen?’ ²⁷ Joab said, ‘As God lives, if you had not spoken, the people would have continued to pursue their kinsmen, not stopping until morning.’ ²⁸ Joab sounded the trumpet and all the people stopped; they no longer pursued Israel or engaged in battle any further.

²⁹ Abner and his men travelled all that night through the Arabah; they crossed the Jordan, and, marching the whole forenoon,^[a] they came to Mahanaim. ³⁰ Joab returned from the pursuit of Abner; and when he had gathered all the people together, there were missing of David’s servants nineteen men besides Asahel. ³¹ But the servants of David had killed of Benjamin three hundred and sixty of Abner’s men. ³² They took up Asahel and buried him in the tomb of his father, which was at Bethlehem. Joab and his men marched all night, and the day broke upon them at Hebron.

²⁷ When Abner returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside in the gateway to speak with him privately, and there he stabbed him in the stomach. So he died for shedding^[a] the blood of Asahel, Joab’s^[b] brother.

³⁰ So Joab and his brother Abishai murdered Abner because he had killed their brother Asahel in the battle at Gibeon.

²⁴ Among the Thirty were Asahel brother of Joab; Elhanan son of Dodo of Bethlehem;

¹⁶ and their sisters were Zeruiah and Abigail. The sons of Zeruiah: Abishai, Joab, and Asahel, three.

²⁶ The warriors of the armies were Asahel brother of Joab, Elhanan son of Dodo of Bethlehem,

⁷ Asahel brother of Joab was fourth, for the fourth month, and his son Zebadiah after him; in his division were twenty-four thousand.