2 Samuel 3:22 - Meaning and Application

We have here the account of Abner’s murder by Joab, and of David’s deep grief and anger over it.

Joab first insulted David for dealing with Abner. He had been away on military duty when Abner was with David, chasing a troop, either of Philistines or of Saul’s men. When Joab returned, he was told that Abner had just left and that David had spoken kindly with him (2 Samuel 3:22, 2 Samuel 3:23). Joab had every reason to trust David’s wisdom and accept his decision, since David was a good man and guided by God in all he did. Yet Joab acted as if he had the same authority over David’s cause that Abner had over Ish-bosheth’s. He rebuked David to his face as if David had acted foolishly (2 Samuel 3:24, 2 Samuel 3:25). He was really saying, “Why did you send him away? You could have held him as a prisoner. He came as a spy and will surely betray you.” It is hard to say whether Joab’s boldness or David’s patience is more surprising.

David gave no answer, not because he feared Joab, as Ish-bosheth feared Abner (2 Samuel 3:11), but because he despised Joab’s rudeness. It may also be that Joab did not even wait for a reply.

Then Joab acted far more treacherously. He sent for Abner to come back, and under the false claim of a private talk, he cruelly killed him with his own hand. Joab used David’s name as part of the cover for this plan, pretending he had further instructions for Abner, though David knew nothing about it (2 Samuel 3:26). Abner meant no harm, so he had no fear. He returned honestly to Hebron, and when he found Joab waiting at the gate, he turned aside with him to speak privately. In doing so, he seems to have forgotten what he had once said after killing Asahel, Joab’s brother: “How can I ever face Joab your brother?” (2 Samuel 2:22). There Joab murdered him (2 Samuel 3:27), and Abishai seems to have known about the plot and helped in it, ready to support his brother if needed (2 Samuel 3:30). For that reason, the blame falls on both Joab and Abishai, though only God fully knows the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

In this matter, one thing is certain: the Lord was right. Abner had once resisted David in malice and against his own conscience. He had also shamefully turned away from Ish-bosheth and betrayed him, claiming concern for God and Israel, but really acting from pride, revenge, and a refusal to be controlled. God would not use such a bad man, even in so good a cause as bringing Israel together. Judgments are ready for scorners like Abner.

But Joab was also clearly wrong, and what he did was wicked. David was a man after God’s own heart, yet he could not have people around him, even in the highest offices, who were after his own heart. Many a good king, and many a good master, has had to make use of bad men.

First, the excuse for Joab’s act was unfair. Abner had indeed killed Joab’s brother Asahel, and Joab and Abishai claimed to be avenging that blood (2 Samuel 3:27, 2 Samuel 3:30). But Abner had killed Asahel in open war. Abner had challenged the fight, Joab had accepted it, and Joab himself had killed many of Abner’s men. Abner acted in self-defense, and only after giving fair warning, which Asahel would not accept. Even then, Abner did it reluctantly. Joab, by contrast, shed the blood of war in time of peace (1 Kings 2:5).

Second, Joab’s deeper motive made the sin worse. Joab was now commander of David’s army, but if Abner came into David’s service, Abner might be favored above him because he was older and more experienced in war. Joab could not bear the thought of a rival, even if it cost him more bloodshed.

Third, he did it in a treacherous way, pretending to speak peacefully with Abner (Deuteronomy 27:24). If he had challenged him openly, he would at least have acted like a soldier. But to murder him in secret was the act of a coward. His words were smoother than oil, yet they were drawn swords (Psalm 55:21). He later did the same thing to Amasa (2 Samuel 20:9, 2 Samuel 20:10).

Fourth, it was a serious insult and injury to David. David was already treating with Abner, and Joab knew it. Abner was then in David’s service, so by striking Abner, Joab was really striking at David himself.

Fifth, the murder was made worse by the place where it happened. Joab killed Abner in the gate, out in public and without shame. The gate was the place of judgment and public gathering, so this was a direct insult to justice, to the magistrates, and to the crowd. It was the act of a man who feared neither God nor people and thought himself beyond all control. Worse still, Hebron was a Levite city and a city of refuge.

David deeply felt this terrible crime and showed his hatred for it in several ways. First, he cleared himself and his kingdom from any guilt in Abner’s blood. He wanted no one to think Joab had acted with David’s secret approval, especially since Joab went unpunished for so long. So David solemnly appealed to God: “I and my kingdom are guiltless before the Lord forever” (2 Samuel 3:28). It is a comfort to be able to say, when something evil is done, that we had no part in it. “We have not shed this blood” (Deuteronomy 21:7). Even if people blame us or suspect us, our own hearts need not accuse us.

Second, David called down the curse on Joab and his house (2 Samuel 3:29). “Let it rest on Joab’s head. Let the blood cry out against him, and let God’s judgment follow him. Let the guilt come on his children and grandchildren, through some inherited illness or other trouble. If the punishment is delayed, let it last longer when it comes. Let his descendants carry a mark, such as a discharge or leprosy, that shuts them out from society. Let them become beggars, cripples, or die young, so people will say, ‘He is one of Joab’s family.’” This shows that bloodguilt brings a curse on families. If people do not punish it, God will, and he may allow the guilt to remain for the children. Still, it would have been better if David had firmly punished the murderer himself instead of mainly speaking this passionate curse on his descendants.

Third, David called on everyone present, even Joab himself, to mourn Abner’s death (2 Samuel 3:31). “Tear your clothes and mourn before Abner,” meaning before his bier, as Abraham is said to have mourned before his dead wife (Genesis 23:2, Genesis 23:3). David gave the reason for such sincere and solemn mourning later, saying that a prince and a great man had fallen that day in Israel (2 Samuel 3:38).

His loyalty to Saul, his position as commander, the value he had to the kingdom, and the great services he had already given were enough to call him a prince and a great man. David could not honestly call him a saint or even a good man, so he did not try. Instead, he said what was true and gave Abner the honor he deserved, even though Abner had once been his enemy, by calling him a prince and a great man.

Such a man had fallen in Israel, and he had fallen on the very day he was doing his best work, the day when he could have been most useful for peace and the good of the nation, and could be least spared. Let everyone mourn this. The humbling change that death brings to all people should be mourned, especially when it comes to princes and great men. How small and weak death makes those who once made themselves feared among the living. But we are especially bound to grieve for useful men who die in the middle of their usefulness, when there is the greatest need for them. A public loss should be every person’s grief, because everyone shares in it. In this way David made sure that honor was paid to the memory of a worthy man, so that others would be encouraged.

Joab, David’s commander and Abner’s murderer, in particular should mourn it, though he had less heart and more reason than anyone else to do so. If he could be brought to do it sincerely, it would show repentance for killing Abner. If he only did it outwardly, as is likely, it was still a kind of penalty laid on him, a present lessening of his punishment. If he has not yet paid for the murder with his blood, let him at least begin to pay with tears. Perhaps Joab submitted to this without much resistance now that he had gotten what he wanted. Now that Abner is on the bier, it does not matter in what splendor he lies. Let him be honored as a dead man, if only he is no longer alive.

David himself followed the body as chief mourner, and he spoke at the grave. He walked behind the bier (2 Samuel 3:31) and wept at the grave (2 Samuel 3:32). Though Abner had been his enemy, and might not have become a fully loyal friend, he had been a brave man in battle and could have done great service in the public councils at this critical time. So David forgot former quarrels and truly mourned his fall. What he said at the grave brought fresh tears to everyone there, when they thought they had already cried enough (2 Samuel 3:33, 2 Samuel 3:34): “Died Abner as a fool dies?” He speaks as one troubled that Abner was tricked out of his life, that such a great man, so known for skill and courage, should be deceived by a show of friendship, struck by surprise, and die like a fool. The wisest and strongest men have no defense against treachery.

To see Abner, who thought himself the main support on which Israel’s great affairs turned, and who was able, in his own view, to tip the balance of a shaky government, with his mind full of plans and hopes, made a fool of by a low rival and suddenly falling as a victim to ambition and jealousy, takes the shine off human glory. It should make us lose confidence in worldly greatness. “Do not trust in princes” (Psalm 146:3, Psalm 146:4). Instead, let us make sure of what cannot be tricked away from us. A man may lose his life and everything dear to him, and all his wisdom, care, and integrity may not stop it. But there is something no thief can break in to steal. This shows how much more we depend on God’s providence, his watchful care, than on our own prudence for the keeping of our lives and comforts. If God did not hold bad men in check through their consciences, how quickly the weak and innocent would become easy prey to the strong and merciless, and even the wisest would die like fools.

Or David speaks as one insisting that Abner did not bring this death on himself. “Died Abner as a fool dies? No, he did not die as a criminal, traitor, or felon who has forfeited his life to public justice. His hands were not tied and his feet were not bound, as criminals are. He did not fall before righteous judges under a lawful sentence. Instead, as an innocent man falls before wicked men, thieves, and robbers, so you fell.” The Septuagint, the ancient Greek translation, reads, “Died Abner as Nabal died?” Nabal died as he lived, like a fool, but Abner’s death was the kind that might have happened to the wisest and best man in the world. He did not throw away his life, as Asahel did when he kept rushing onto the spear after warning. Abner was struck by surprise. It is a sad thing to die like a fool, as those do who shorten their own days, and even more those who make no preparation for the world to come.

David fasted all that day and would not be persuaded to eat until night (2 Samuel 3:35). It was the custom for great mourners to avoid food for a time, as in (2 Samuel 1:12; 1 Samuel 31:13). So it would have been very wrong to turn a house of mourning into a house of feasting. This respect David showed to Abner pleased the people greatly, and it convinced them that David had no part in the murder (2 Samuel 3:36, 2 Samuel 3:37). He was eager to avoid even the suspicion of it, so that Joab’s wicked act would not make him hated, as Simeon and Levi’s cruelty had made Jacob hated (Genesis 34:30). On this occasion it is said that whatever the king did pleased all the people. This shows both David’s good will toward them and their good opinion of him. He tried to please them in everything and carefully avoided what might offend them. They, in turn, thought everything he did was well done. When people are willing to please one another and easy to please, every relationship becomes more peaceful.

David also grieved that he could not safely bring the murderers to justice (2 Samuel 3:30). His kingdom was still young, and a small shake could have brought it down. Joab’s family had great influence, and they were bold and dangerous. To make them his enemies at that moment might have had bad results. These sons of Zeruiah, Joab and his brothers, were too strong for David, too powerful for the law to reach. So, though the law says the blood of a murderer should be shed by man, by the magistrate (Genesis 9:6), David, as it were, bore the sword in vain. As a private man, he left them to God’s judgment: “The Lord will repay the evildoer according to his wickedness.”

This is a loss to David’s greatness, because he was anointed king, yet he was kept in fear by his own subjects, and some of them were too strong for him. Who would covet power, when a man may have the title and the burden of power, and still be blocked from using it? It is also a loss to David’s goodness. He should have done his duty and trusted God with the outcome. “Let justice be done, though the heavens fall.” If the law had dealt with Joab, perhaps the murders of Ishbosheth, Amnon, and others would have been prevented. It was worldly policy and cruel pity that spared Joab. Righteousness supports the throne and will never shake it.

David only gave Joab a delay, not a full pardon. On his deathbed, David left it to Solomon to punish Joab for Abner’s blood. Solomon, who was better suited to use the sword of justice because he had no need to use the sword of war, was the one to carry out that judgment.

Evil keeps after sinners and will catch up with them in the end. David later gave preference to Abner’s son, Jaasiel (1 Chronicles 27:21).