Saul is dead, but the kingdom does not simply fall to David. Judah crowns him at Hebron; Abner props up Saul’s surviving son Ish-bosheth on a rival throne, and for seven years the two houses grind against each other — “David waxed stronger and stronger, and the house of Saul waxed weaker and weaker.” It ends not in a battle but in two murders: Abner cut down in the gate by Joab, and Ish-bosheth killed in his bed. David mourns both and avenges both. The throne comes to him with clean hands.
A study in 2 Samuel 2-4 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 9 min read
Long War Between The Two Houses
“Now there was long war between the house of Saul and the house of David: but David waxed stronger and stronger, and the house of Saul waxed weaker and weaker.”
2 Samuel 3:1
Judah anoints David at Hebron; Abner, Saul’s old commander, takes Ish-bosheth across the Jordan to Mahanaim and makes him king over everyone else. Abner knew perfectly well that God had chosen David — he simply was not willing to serve under the man he had spent years helping Saul hunt. So Israel gets seven years of avoidable war, driven by one man’s wounded pride.
“Abner knew that David had been appointed by the Lord to the throne of Israel, but having so long hunted and pursued him, he was not now willing that the son of Jesse should succeed to the kingdom over which Saul had reigned.”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 698
Shall The Sword Devour For Ever
“Abner with the hinder end of the spear smote him under the fifth rib, that the spear came out behind him; and he fell down there, and died in the same place… Then Abner called to Joab, and said, Shall the sword devour for ever? knowest thou not that it will be bitterness in the latter end?”
2 Samuel 2:23-26
At the pool of Gibeon, Abner kills Joab’s young brother Asahel — in self-defence, having warned him off twice — and plants a blood feud that will cost Abner his own life. By evening Abner is pleading for the killing to stop: “shall the sword devour for ever?” He is right, and he is the last man with any standing to say it, since he started the war. Civil war is easy to begin and very hard to switch off.
Died Abner As A Fool Dieth
“And when Abner was returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside in the gate to speak with him quietly, and smote him there under the fifth rib, that he died, for the blood of Asahel his brother… And the king lamented over Abner, and said, Died Abner as a fool dieth? Thy hands were not bound, nor thy feet put into fetters: as a man falleth before wicked men, so fellest thou.”
2 Samuel 3:27-34
Abner finally defects to David, is welcomed, and is sent away in peace — and Joab murders him in the gate, half in revenge for Asahel, half to remove a rival. David is furious and powerless: “I am this day weak, though anointed king; and these men the sons of Zeruiah be too hard for me.” He cannot punish Joab, so he does the one thing he can — he makes the whole army mourn, walks behind the coffin himself, and pronounces over the grave a lament that is really an indictment.
“David’s magnanimous recognition of one who had been his bitter enemy won the confidence and admiration of all Israel.”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 700
Wicked Men Have Slain A Righteous Person
“As the LORD liveth, who hath redeemed my soul out of all adversity, When one told me, saying, Behold, Saul is dead, thinking to have brought good tidings, I took hold of him, and slew him in Ziklag… How much more, when wicked men have slain a righteous person in his own house upon his bed? shall I not therefore now require his blood of your hand, and take you away from the earth?”
2 Samuel 4:9-11
Two of Ish-bosheth’s own officers behead him in his sleep and bring the head to Hebron expecting thanks. David gives them the same verdict he gave the Amalekite: he has no use for a throne handed to him by murder. He calls the helpless Ish-bosheth “a righteous person” and executes the assassins. Every rung David could have climbed by someone else’s crime, he refuses. The kingdom, when it finally comes, is not stained.
