2 Samuel 2:12-32

5. The conflict between Abner and Joab 2:12-32

Travelers can visit the pool of Gibeon today. It lies about three miles northwest of Gibeah.

"The pool is a cylindrical shaft thirty-seven feet in diameter and thirty-five feet deep. Its five-feet-wide spiral stairway, which winds downward around the inside wall of the pool in a clockwise direction, continues below the floor level to an additional depth of forty-five feet." [Note: Youngblood, p. 825.]

There the forces of Ish-bosheth and David met for a peace conference (2 Samuel 2:13). Abner broke off the peace talks, however, by suggesting that the two sides determine which of them would win in a battle by champions (cf. 1 Samuel 17). [Note: See F. Charles Fensham, "The Battle Between the Men of Joab and Abner as a Possible Ordeal by Battle?" Vetus Testamentum 20:3 (July 1970):356-57.] Twelve soldiers from each side (2 Samuel 2:15), perhaps representing each of the twelve tribes, engaged in hand-to-hand combat to decide the leadership of the nation. The fight was a draw, so the battle between the two armies escalated. Joab’s men finally got the upper hand. Abner warned Asahel twice to stop pursuing him and to fight with someone he might be able to defeat (2 Samuel 2:21-22). He evidently wanted to avoid a blood feud with Joab’s family that might go on for generations. Nevertheless Asahel kept pushing Abner who finally killed him rather than simply knocking him out. It is unclear whether Abner turned to face Asahel and slew him with the butt end of his spear, or slew him with his back toward Asahel as he ran from him, or stopped suddenly and Asahel ran into the butt end of Abner’s spear. [Note: Anderson (p. 45) preferred the first option, A. R. S. Kennedy (Samuel, p. 201) the second, and H. W. Hertzberg (I & II Samuel: A Commentary, p. 252) the third.]

"’Every man’ who ’stopped when he came’ to the place where Asahel had died (2 Samuel 2:23) does not refer to travelers or others who stop to pay their respects, as many commentators believe (e.g., Baldwin, Hertzberg), but to David’s men, Asahel’s pursuers, who stand transfixed in horror at the death of a fallen comrade . . ." [Note: Youngblood, p. 826. Cf. 20:12.]

Many of David’s soldiers stopped, but Joab and Abishai continued to pursue Abner. The other soldiers from Benjamin, Saul and Abner’s tribe, rallied around Abner, and the hostility climaxed when they took a stand to defend themselves on a hilltop (2 Samuel 2:25). Abner tried to call a truce (2 Samuel 2:26), but Joab correctly blamed him for starting the conflict in the first place (2 Samuel 2:27; cf. 2 Samuel 2:14). Joab agreed to the truce, however, and both armies went home. Abner’s side lost 360 soldiers in this fight, and 19 of Joab’s men died.

This incident accounts for the personal hostility that later resulted in Abner’s death and the disintegration of Ish-bosheth’s throne. Note that David played no part in it. God worked through Joab and Abner to place His anointed on the throne of all Israel. This passage shows how hostilities between the two factions in Israel escalated, as they often do in modern nations, neighborhoods, and families. First, the opposing parties stopped talking (2 Samuel 2:12). Next, they started fighting (2 Samuel 2:13). Then, Asahel kept pushing (2 Samuel 2:23). Finally, Abner insisted on defending himself (2 Samuel 2:23).