2 Samuel 3:26-30

Evangelical Heritage Version

²⁶ Joab left David and sent messengers after Abner. They brought him back from the cistern at Sirah without David’s knowledge. ²⁷ So Abner returned to Hebron, and Joab took him aside into the gatehouse to speak with him. There he stabbed him in the stomach. So Abner was killed because of the blood of Joab’s brother Asahel.

²⁸ Afterward David heard about it and said, “I and my kingdom are guiltless before the Lord forever concerning the blood of Abner son of Ner. ²⁹ May his blood splash down on the head of Joab and on the entire house of his father. May the house of Joab never lack a man who has an oozing sore, who is a leper, who holds a spindle,^[a] who falls by the sword, or who has no bread.”

³⁰ Joab and his brother Abishai killed Abner because he had caused the death of their brother Asahel during the battle at Gibeon.