⁵ So David arose and came to the place where Saul had encamped. And David saw the place where Saul lay, and ^(A)Abner the son of Ner, the commander of his army. Now Saul lay within the camp, with the people encamped all around him.

⁵⁵ When Saul saw David going out against the Philistine, he said to ^(A)Abner, the commander of the army, “Abner, ^(B)whose son is this youth?”

And Abner said, “As your soul lives, O king, I do not know.”

²⁰ So David rose early in the morning, left the sheep with a keeper, and took the things and went as Jesse had commanded him. And he came to the camp as the army was going out to the fight and shouting for the battle.

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

^39 (A)Ner begot Kish, Kish begot Saul, and Saul begot Jonathan, Malchishua, Abinadab, and Esh-Baal.

³³ And the king sang a lament over Abner and said:

Then all the people wept over him again.

³⁵ And when all the people came ^(B)to persuade David to eat food while it was still day, David took an oath, saying, ^(C)“God do so to me, and more also, if I taste bread or anything else ^(D)till the sun goes down!” ³⁶ Now all the people took note of it, and it pleased them, since whatever the king did pleased all the people. ³⁷ For all the people and all Israel understood that day that it had not been the king’s intent to kill Abner the son of Ner. ³⁸ Then the king said to his servants, “Do you not know that a prince and a great man has fallen this day in Israel?

²⁷ Now when Abner had returned to Hebron, Joab ^(A)took him aside in the gate to speak with him privately, and there ^[a]stabbed him ^(B)in the stomach, so that he died for the blood of ^(C)Asahel his brother.

⁷ And Saul had a concubine, whose name was ^(A)Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah. So Ishbosheth said to Abner, “Why have you ^(B)gone in to my father’s concubine?”

⁸ Then Abner became very angry at the words of Ishbosheth, and said, “Am I ^(C)a dog’s head that belongs to Judah? Today I show loyalty to the house of Saul your father, to his brothers, and to his friends, and have not delivered you into the hand of David; and you charge me today with a fault concerning this woman?

Ishbosheth Made King of Israel

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

Israel and Judah at War

¹² Now Abner the son of Ner, and the servants of Ishbosheth the son of Saul, went out from Mahanaim to ^(G)Gibeon.