²⁷ When Abner returned to Hebron, Joab pulled him aside to the middle of the gateway, as if to speak to him privately, and there Joab stabbed him in the stomach. So Abner died in revenge for the death of Asahel,^[a] Joab’s brother.^(A)

²⁸ David heard about it later and said: “I and my kingdom are forever innocent before the Lord concerning the blood of Abner son of Ner. ²⁹ May it hang over Joab’s head and his father’s whole house, and may the house of Joab never be without someone who has a discharge or a skin disease,^(B) or a man who can only work a spindle,^[b] or someone who falls by the sword or starves.”