2 Samuel 3:6

THE RIFT BETWEEN ABNER AND ISHBOSHETH

"While there was war between the house of Saul and the house of David, Abner was making himself strong in the house of Saul. Now Saul had a concubine whose name was Rizpah, the daughter of Ahiah; and Ishbosheth said to Abner, "Why have you gone in to my father's concubine"? Then Abner was very angry over the words of Ishbosheth, and said, "Am I a dog's head of Judah? This day I keep showing loyalty to the house of Saul your father, to his brothers, and to his friends, and have not given you into the hand of David; and yet you charge me today with a fault concerning a woman. God do so to Abner and more also, if I do not accomplish for David what the Lord has sworn to him, to transfer the kingdom from the house of Saul and set up the throne of David over Israel and over Judah, from Dan to Beersheba" And Ishbosheth could not answer Abner another word, because he feared him."

This paragraph, along with what has been written earlier, identifies Abner as, "Not only the founder but the grave-digger of the kingdom of Ishbosheth."[7]

"Why have you gone in to my father's concubine?" (2 Samuel 3:7). "It was the exclusive right of the successor to the throne to cohabit with the concubines of the deceased king."[8] Right here is the full explanation of why it is stated in 2 Samuel 2:10 that Ishbosheth reigned only two years. Afterward and until Abner's defection to David the real king and ruler of northern Israel was no one else but Abner. Ishbosheth, although nominally king, was no such thing. "He would soon show the nominal king who was the real master."[9]

Although Abner pretended to miss the point of Ishbosheth's objection, "He was not stupid enough really to have missed it, but he pretended to treat the objection as a criticism made on moral grounds."[10]

"A concubine whose name was Rizpah" (2 Samuel 3:7). We shall meet with this noble woman again in 2 Samuel 3:21.

"What the Lord has sworn (to David) to transfer the kingdom ... and set up the throne of David" (2 Samuel 3:9). These words of Abner, like those of Saul and Jonathan at an earlier date, acknowledge explicitly that all of them knew that it was God's will for David to succeed Saul."[11] In this light, the shameful criminality of Abner in setting up Ishbosheth appears extremely wicked. The following is an accurate comment on Abner's behavior:

"With the utmost arrogance and insolence he lets Ishbosheth know that he had raised him up and that he could put him down and that he would indeed do so. He knew that God willed that David should have the kingdom, but Abner opposed it with all his might from a principle of ambition, but now he will comply with God's will from a principle of revenge, under cover of some regard for God's will, which was but a pretence."[12]