⁵ Then David rose and came to the place where Saul had encamped. And David saw the place where Saul lay, with ^(A)Abner the son of Ner, the commander of his army. Saul was lying within ^(B)the encampment, while the army was encamped around him.

⁵⁵ As soon as Saul saw David go out against the Philistine, he said to Abner, ^(A)the commander of the army, “Abner, ^(B)whose son is this youth?” And Abner said, ^(C)“As your soul lives, O king, I do not know.”

²⁰ And David rose early in the morning and left the sheep with a keeper and took the provisions and went, as Jesse had commanded him. And he came to ^(A)the encampment as the host was going out to the battle line, shouting the war cry.

⁵⁰ And the name of Saul's wife was Ahinoam the daughter of Ahimaaz. ^(A)And the name of the commander of his army was Abner the son of Ner, ^(B)Saul's uncle. ^51 (C)Kish was the father of Saul, and Ner the father of Abner was the son of ^(D)Abiel.

^39 (A)Ner fathered Kish, Kish fathered Saul, Saul fathered Jonathan, Malchi-shua, Abinadab, and Eshbaal.

³³ And the king ^(A)lamented for Abner, saying,

And all the people wept again over him. ³⁵ Then all the people came ^(D)to persuade David to eat bread while it was yet day. But David swore, saying, ^(E)“God do so to me and more also, if I taste bread or anything else ^(F)till the sun goes down!” ³⁶ And all the people took notice of it, and it pleased them, as everything that the king did pleased all the people. ³⁷ So all the people and all Israel understood that day that it had not been the king's will to put to death Abner the son of Ner. ³⁸ And the king said to his servants, “Do you not know that a prince and a great man has fallen this day in Israel?

²⁷ And when Abner returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside into the midst of the gate to speak with him privately, ^(A)and there he struck him ^(B)in the stomach, so that he died, for the blood of Asahel his brother.

⁷ Now Saul had a concubine whose name was ^(A)Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah. And Ish-bosheth said to Abner, ^(B)“Why have you gone in to my father's concubine?” ⁸ Then Abner was very angry over the words of Ish-bosheth and said, “Am I ^(C)a dog's head of Judah? To this day I keep showing steadfast love to the house of Saul your father, to his brothers, and to his friends, and have not given you into the hand of David. And yet you charge me today with a fault concerning a woman.

Ish-bosheth Made King of Israel

⁸ But ^(A)Abner the son of Ner, commander of Saul's army, took Ish-bosheth the son of Saul and brought him over to ^(B)Mahanaim, ⁹ and he made him king over Gilead and the Ashurites and Jezreel and Ephraim and Benjamin and all Israel. ¹⁰ Ish-bosheth, Saul's son, was forty years old when he began to reign over Israel, and he reigned two years. But the house of Judah followed David. ^11 (C)And the time that David was king in Hebron over ^(D)the house of Judah was seven years and six months.

The Battle of Gibeon

¹² Abner the son of Ner, and the servants of Ish-bosheth the son of Saul, went out from Mahanaim to Gibeon.