Discovery Box2 Samuel 3:19-28 
Context3:19 Then Abner spoke privately 1 with the Benjaminites. Abner also went to Hebron to inform David privately 2 of all that Israel and the entire house of Benjamin had agreed to. 3 3:20 When Abner, accompanied by twenty men, came to David in Hebron, David prepared a banquet for Abner and the men who were with him. 3:21 Abner said to David, “Let me leave so that I may go and gather all Israel to my lord the king so that they may make an agreement 4 with you. Then you will rule over all that you desire.” So David sent Abner away, and he left in peace.
3:22 Now David’s soldiers 5 and Joab were coming back from a raid, bringing a great deal of plunder with them. Abner was no longer with David in Hebron, for David 6 had sent him away and he had left in peace. 3:23 When Joab and all the army that was with him arrived, Joab was told: “Abner the son of Ner came to the king; he sent him away, and he left in peace!”
3:24 So Joab went to the king and said, “What have you done? Abner 7 has come to you! Why would you send him away? Now he’s gone on his way! 8 3:25 You know Abner the son of Ner! Surely he came here to spy on you and to determine when you leave and when you return 9 and to discover everything that you are doing!”
3:26 Then Joab left David and sent messengers after Abner. They brought him back from the well of Sirah. (But David was not aware of it.) 3:27 When Abner returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside at the gate as if to speak privately with him. Joab then stabbed him 10 in the abdomen and killed him, avenging the shed blood of his brother Asahel. 11
3:28 When David later heard about this, he said, “I and my kingdom are forever innocent before the Lord of the shed blood of Abner son of Ner!
1 tn Heb “into the ears of.”
2 tn Heb “also Abner went to speak into the ears of David in Hebron.”
3 tn Heb “all which was good in the eyes of Israel and in the eyes of all the house of Benjamin.”
4 tn After the cohortatives, the prefixed verbal form with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose or result.
5 tn Heb “And look, the servants of David.”
6 tn Heb “he”; the referent (David) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
7 tn Heb “Look, Abner.”
8 tc The LXX adds “in peace.”
9 tn Heb “your going out and your coming in.” The expression is a merism. It specifically mentions the polar extremities of the actions but includes all activity in between the extremities as well, thus encompassing the entirety of one’s activities.
10 tn Heb “and he struck him down there [in] the stomach.”
11 tn Heb “and he [i.e., Abner] died on account of the blood of Asahel his [i.e., Joab’s] brother.”
