Chapter 3
1 There was a long war between the house of Saul and the house of David. And David grew stronger and stronger, while the house of Saul became weaker and weaker. [2Sa 3:1 ESV]
2022 - It doesn't really tell us how long this went on, but long enough for David to have six sons, each with a different mother, while he lived in relative safety as King of Judah - but only Judah - in Hebron. There had to be ongoing military operations also during this time - that's what a war is about. So for years at least, you had Jews killing Jews, and civil war.
As the war drags on, Ish-bosheth accuses Abner of consorting with one of Saul's concubines. It is not clear whether Abner did so, but he is angry at being accused, and in his anger tells Ish-bosheth that he, Abner, is now going to help David be King. Ish-bosheth is afraid of him, and does nothing. Abner has become the real head of Israel. MSB says that a man going into the dead King's concubine is like saying "I am the true heir to the kingdom". So by doing this, Abner was elevating himself from commander of the army to a contender for rule over the kingdom. Abner is ambitious, and is gaining in power, and is being an open challenger to Ish-bosheth. Further, he tells Ish-bosheth that were it not for him (Abner), Ish-bosheth would not be king anyway. When Ish-bosheth confronts Abner with the things he has been doing, Abner gets angry, and swears that he is now switching sides and will help David remove Ish-bosheth from the thrown. Seems quite rash. With David on the throne, Abner will have a stronger man to contend with for the throne he is after.
2022 - This verse shows Abner's real feelings:
8 Then Abner was very angry over the words of Ish-bosheth and said, "Am I a dog's head of Judah? To this day I keep showing steadfast love to the house of Saul your father, to his brothers, and to his friends, and have not given you into the hand of David. And yet you charge me today with a fault concerning a woman. [2Sa 3:8 ESV]. He loves the house of Saul, but he is specific about just exactly who he loves in that house: Saul's brothers and Saul's friends....and by the way, I have protected you too, even though I don't include you in those I love. Pretty sure Abner is guilty as charged. He's barking pretty loud. And then he promises to commit treason and put Ishbosheth off the throne and put David there instead. But he doesn't just kill Ish. He stomps out to go and "leverage" his services to King David.
Abner contacts David and says that he can deliver Israel to him if David will covenant with him, and not with Ish-bosheth. David agrees, but puts a stip on it. Abner must bring Michal, Saul's daughter and David's wife whom Saul gave to another, with him.
2022 - Why did David require this? Some kind of tying loose ends now that he is king? Some guy out there somewhere in Israel is sleeping with King David's first wife. Yes, put that way, this needed to be corrected.
Then David contacts Ish-bosheth, asking that Michal be sent to him. Ish-bosheth takes her from her "husband" and sends her, with her husband crying behind her all the way. Abner sends the husband home.
(So Abner knows that David contacted Ish-bosheth directly also concerning Michal.)
Abner and twenty men come to meet David at Hebron. Abner says he will bring all of Benjamin and Israel under David's rule. He leaves in peace.
Joab and some raiders arrive. Joab is upset that David let Abner leave in peace, and says Abner was just spying on David. Joab and Abner both seem discontented with their roles in their respective kingdoms, and they both seem to think they are in charge of their kings, instead of the other way around. We will see Joab's ambitions even more plainly later.
In secret, Joab sends men after Abner and they bring him back. Joab kills him by striking him in the stomach, as Abner had killed Asahel, Joab's brother (though Asahel had several chances to just leave Abner alone.)
When David hears of it, he pronounces the following curse on the house of Joab:
29 May it fall upon the head of Joab and upon all his father's house, and may the house of Joab never be without one who has a discharge or who is leprous or who holds a spindle or who falls by the sword or who lacks bread!" [2Sa 3:29 ESV]
Seems to me that pronouncing a curse like this on your commander, and then keeping that commander around, would be a horrible idea. Better to execute him for his crime...except that killing the one who killed your brother was not a crime but an obligation...
David orders Judah to bury Abner with honors, and mourns for him until sundown. David says this about Abner:
33 And the king lamented for Abner, saying, "Should Abner die as a fool dies? 34 Your hands were not bound; your feet were not fettered; as one falls before the wicked you have fallen." And all the people wept again over him. [2Sa 3:33-34 ESV]
2022 - These moves by David were, at least in part, to persuade those that Abner had persuaded in Israel and Benjamin that David did not at all condone what Joab had done to Abner. David knows that they may see this as treachery on David's part, and so withdraw their promised support for him as their King. They might go back to Ishbosheth, and the war would have continued. So David made a great show of honoring Abner, though it was in fact Abner that put Ishbosheth on the throne to start with, and it was Abner that has been conducting the war against David. The risk for David is in antagonizing his own general, Joab, just when he needs him most!
2024 - Abner was no saint. He is already in trouble for "going in" to Saul's concubine, which we shall see later, when Solomon becomes King, is a way of indirectly claiming a right to the throne that Ishbosheth occupied. He is acting the traitor to Ish. Abner is not a good man, not really. Joab is not a good man either, as we shall see as time passes. A big deal was made of the fact that Abner urged Asahel repeatedly to just leave him alone, but Asahel continued, and he died for his persistence. Perhaps in the eyes of David, this made Abner an honorable man...but he was all that honorable. This incident, with Joab embarrassing the King before the whole country by killing a man who'd gone from David in peace, is the beginning of a very testy relationship between the King and his commanding general. It all gets resolved when Solomon becomes King, and Joab dies like a coward.