²⁷ When Abner returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside to the middle of the gate to speak with him in private. Then he struck him in the stomach there and he died, for he had shed the blood of Asahel his brother.^{[a] 28} When David heard this afterwards, he said: “I and my kingdom are innocent before Yahweh^[b] forever for the blood of Abner the son of Ner. ²⁹ May the blood come down on the head of Joab and all the house of his father. May the house of Joab never lack^[c] one with a bodily discharge or one with leprosy or one who grasps the distaff or one who falls by the sword or one who is lacking food.”