So Joab went to the king and said, “What have you done? Abner ¹  has come to you! Why would you send him away? Now he’s gone on his way! ² 

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.)

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!

David instructed Joab and all the people who were with him, “Tear your clothes! Put on sackcloth! Lament before Abner!” Now King David followed ¹  behind the funeral bier.

They were also in charge of everything dedicated by Samuel the prophet, ¹  Saul son of Kish, Abner son of Ner, and Joab son of Zeruiah; Shelomith and his relatives were in charge of everything that had been dedicated.

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 ¹  and to discover everything that you are doing!”

But Asahel ¹  refused to turn aside. So Abner struck him in the abdomen with the back end of his ²  spear. The spear came out his back; Asahel ³  collapsed on the spot and died there right before Abner. ⁴  Everyone who now comes to the place where Asahel fell dead pauses in respect. ⁵ 

So David set out and went to the place where Saul was camped. David saw the place where Saul and Abner son of Ner, the general in command of his army, were sleeping. Now Saul was lying in the entrenchment, and the army was camped all around him.

These words of Ish-bosheth really angered Abner and he said, “Am I the head of a dog that belongs to Judah? This very day I am demonstrating ¹  loyalty to the house of Saul your father and to his relatives ²  and his friends! I have not betrayed you into the hand of David. Yet you have accused me of sinning with this woman today! ³ 

So David issued orders to the soldiers and they put them to death. Then they cut off their hands and feet and hung them ¹  near the pool in Hebron. But they took the head of Ish-bosheth ²  and buried it in the tomb of Abner ³  in Hebron. ⁴ 

May the Lord punish him for the blood he shed; ¹  behind my father David’s back he struck down and murdered with the sword two men who were more innocent and morally upright than he ²  – Abner son of Ner, commander of Israel’s army, and Amasa son of Jether, commander of Judah’s army.

David said to Abner, “Aren’t you a man? After all, who is like you in Israel? Why then haven’t you protected your lord the king? One of the soldiers came to kill your lord the king.

“You know what Joab son of Zeruiah did to me – how he murdered two commanders of the Israelite armies, Abner son of Ner and Amasa son of Jether. ¹  During peacetime he struck them down like he would in battle; ²  when he shed their blood as if in battle, he stained his own belt and the sandals on his feet. ³ 

Joab son of Zeruiah and the servants of David also went out and confronted them at the pool of Gibeon. One group stationed themselves on one side of the pool, and the other group on the other side of the pool.

Ner was the father of Kish, and Kish was the father of Saul. Saul was the father of Jonathan, Malki-Shua, Abinadab, and Eshbaal. ¹ 

Your hands ¹  were not bound, and your feet were not put into irons. You fell the way one falls before criminals.” All the people ²  wept over him again.