Daily Bread

¹² Abner son of Ner, together with the men of Ish-Bosheth son of Saul, left Mahanaim and went to Gibeon.^{(A) 13} Joab^(B) son of Zeruiah and David’s men went out and met them at the pool of Gibeon. One group sat down on one side of the pool and one group on the other side.

¹⁴ Then Abner said to Joab, “Let’s have some of the young men get up and fight hand to hand in front of us.”

“All right, let them do it,” Joab said.

¹⁵ So they stood up and were counted off—twelve men for Benjamin and Ish-Bosheth son of Saul, and twelve for David. ¹⁶ Then each man grabbed his opponent by the head and thrust his dagger^(C) into his opponent’s side, and they fell down together. So that place in Gibeon was called Helkath Hazzurim.^[a]

¹⁷ The battle that day was very fierce, and Abner and the Israelites were defeated^(D) by David’s men.^(E)

¹⁸ The three sons of Zeruiah^(F) were there: Joab,^(G) Abishai^(H) and Asahel.^(I) Now Asahel was as fleet-footed as a wild gazelle.^{(J) 19} He chased Abner, turning neither to the right nor to the left as he pursued him. ²⁰ Abner looked behind him and asked, “Is that you, Asahel?”

“It is,” he answered.

²¹ Then Abner said to him, “Turn aside to the right or to the left; take on one of the young men and strip him of his weapons.” But Asahel would not stop chasing him.

²² Again Abner warned Asahel, “Stop chasing me! Why should I strike you down? How could I look your brother Joab in the face?”^(K)

²³ But Asahel refused to give up the pursuit; so Abner thrust the butt of his spear into Asahel’s stomach,^(L) and the spear came out through his back. He fell there and died on the spot. And every man stopped when he came to the place where Asahel had fallen and died.^(M)

²⁴ But Joab and Abishai pursued Abner, and as the sun was setting, they came to the hill of Ammah, near Giah on the way to the wasteland of Gibeon. ²⁵ Then the men of Benjamin rallied behind Abner. They formed themselves into a group and took their stand on top of a hill.

²⁶ Abner called out to Joab, “Must the sword devour^(N) forever? Don’t you realize that this will end in bitterness? How long before you order your men to stop pursuing their fellow Israelites?”

²⁷ Joab answered, “As surely as God lives, if you had not spoken, the men would have continued pursuing them until morning.”

²⁸ So Joab^(O) blew the trumpet,^(P) and all the troops came to a halt; they no longer pursued Israel, nor did they fight anymore.

²⁹ All that night Abner and his men marched through the Arabah.^(Q) They crossed the Jordan, continued through the morning hours^[b] and came to Mahanaim.^(R)

³⁰ Then Joab stopped pursuing Abner and assembled the whole army. Besides Asahel, nineteen of David’s men were found missing. ³¹ But David’s men had killed three hundred and sixty Benjamites who were with Abner. ³² They took Asahel and buried him in his father’s tomb^(S) at Bethlehem. Then Joab and his men marched all night and arrived at Hebron by daybreak.