Add parallel Print Page Options

26 Joab then left David and sent messengers to catch up with Abner, asking him to return. They found him at the well of Sirah and brought him back, though David knew nothing about it. 27 When Abner arrived back at Hebron, Joab took him aside at the gateway as if to speak with him privately. But then he stabbed Abner in the stomach and killed him in revenge for killing his brother Asahel.

28 When David heard about it, he declared, “I vow by the Lord that I and my kingdom are forever innocent of this crime against Abner son of Ner. 29 Joab and his family are the guilty ones. May the family of Joab be cursed in every generation with a man who has open sores or leprosy[a] or who walks on crutches[b] or dies by the sword or begs for food!”

30 So Joab and his brother Abishai killed Abner because Abner had killed their brother Asahel at the battle of Gibeon.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 3:29a Or or a contagious skin disease. The Hebrew word used here can describe various skin diseases.
  2. 3:29b Or who is effeminate; Hebrew reads who handles a spindle.

Joab Strikes Abner

26 Then Joab came out from David and sent messengers after Abner, and they brought him back from the well of Sirah; but David did not know it. 27 So when Abner returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside into the middle of the gate to speak with him privately, and there (A)he struck him in the belly so that he died on account of the blood of Asahel his brother. 28 Afterward David heard it, so he said, “I and my kingdom are innocent before Yahweh forever of the blood of Abner the son of Ner. 29 (B)May it whirl on the head of Joab and on all his father’s house; and may (C)one who has a discharge, or who is a leper, or who takes hold of a spindle, or who falls by the sword, or who lacks bread not be cut off from the house of Joab.” 30 So Joab and Abishai his brother killed Abner (D)because he had put their brother Asahel to death in the battle at Gibeon.

Read full chapter