2 Samuel 3:29

_THOU KNOWEST ABNER THE SON OF NER, THAT HE CAME TO DECEIVE THEE, AND TO KNOW THY GOING OUT AND THY COMING IN, AND TO KNOW ALL THAT THOU DOEST._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

22-39 Judgments are prepared for such scorners as Abner; but Joab, in what he did, acted wickedly. David laid Abner's murder deeply to heart, and in many ways expressed his detestation of it. The guilt of blood brings a curse upon families: if men do not avenge it, God will. It is a sad thing to die like a fool, as they do that any way shorten their own days, and those who make no provision for another world. Who would be fond of power, when a man may have the name of it, and must be accountable for it, yet is hampered in the use of it? David ought to have done his duty, and then trusted God with the issue. Carnal policy spared Joab. The Son of David may long delay, but never fails to punish impenitent sinners. He who now reigns upon the throne of David, has a kingdom of a nobler kind. Whatever He doeth, is noticed by all his willing people, and is pleasing to them....

Verse 2 Samuel 3:29. _LET IT REST ON THE HEAD_] All these verbs may be rendered in the _future_ tense: it _will_ rest on the head of Joab, c. This was a prophetic declaration, which sufficiently showed the displeasure of God against this execrable man....

The curse of David proves that Joab was not justified as blood-revenger or Goel 2 Samuel 3:27 in taking away Abner’s life. THAT LEANETH ON A STAFF - Rather, a crutch. The phrase denotes one lame or infirm. For similar instances of hereditary disease and poverty as a punishment of great sin, see 1 Samuel 2:31, 1Sa 2:36; 2 Kings 5:27; John 9:2....

EXPOSITION 2 SAMUEL 3:1 THERE WAS LONG WAR. As Ishbosheth reigned only two years, and as "the house of Saul" is the phrase used, it seems probable that after Ishbosheth's murder, during the five years before David's election to the throne of all Israel, the house of Saul had some puppet representative at Mahanaim, and some commander in Abner's place. But after the death of this able man matters would go from bad to worse, and, though David probably remained on the defensive, yet the contrast between the peace and good government of Judah and the misery in Israel made all the tribes wish to put an end to a harassing civil war. It is plain, too, that the Philistines, repelled at first by Abner's skill, had again gained the ascendant, and regarded themselves so completely as the rulers of the country, that they resented immediately with summ

LET IT REST ON THE HEAD OF JOAB,.... That is, the blood of Abner, who was the shedder of it; let the guilt of it be charged to him, and let punishment for it be inflicted on him: AND ON ALL HIS FATHER'S HOUSE; on Abishai his brother, and other relations that might be privy to the death of Abner, and advising to it, and ready to assist in it if necessary: AND LET THERE NOT FAIL FROM THE HOUSE OF JOAB; let there be always in his family, and of his seed, one or other of the persons described as follows: ONE THAT HATH AN ISSUE; a gonorrhoea, which was reckoned infamous, and very impure, according to the Jewish law, and rendered persons unfit for society; see Leviticus 15:1; OR THAT IS A LEPER; whose disease was very loathsome and infectious, and shut him out of the company of men; see...

4. ABNER'S DEEDS AND END CHAPTER 3 _ 1. The long war and its results (2 Samuel 3:1)_ 2. David's family (2 Samuel 3:2) 3. Abner's defiant deed (2 Samuel 3:6) 4. Abner and Ish-bosheth (2 Samuel 3:8) 5. Abner's defection to David (2 Samuel 3:12) 6. David's request (2 Samuel 3:13) 7. Abner with David (2 Samuel 3:17)...

David made it clear that he had nothing to do with the murder. He gave Abner honourable burial, and king and people lamented him. The dirge in 2 Samuel 3:33 f. is generally accepted as the work of David....

The Curse of Blood-guiltiness 28. _I and my kingdom are guiltless_ With a strong asseveration David asserts his entire innocence of any complicity in this murder. Neither upon himself personally nor upon "his kingdom," i.e. the royal house, his descendants and successors, could punishment for shedding this innocent blood justly fall. Cp. 1 Kings 2:31-33. For the doctrine of a divine judgment which was certain to fall upon the murderer and his posterity, "visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children," see Genesis 4:11; Deuteronomy 21:6-9; Matthew 23:35. Compare the Greek belief in the avenging Furies wh

LET IT REST ON THE HEAD OF JOAB— Houbigant very properly renders this in the future tense, _but it shall, or will rest upon the head of Joab, and on all his father's house, and there will not fail,_ &c. by which rendering every thing doubtful in the text is removed. The king commanded a general mourning to be made for Abner; and it is remarkable, that the command begins with _Joab._ David wept over Abner, and buried him with all solemnity, himself attending the bier, which was not the custom of kings; and he added a lamentation (2 Samuel 3:33.) which every eye will discern to be truly poetic in the most literal translation, though none have pretended to determine the measure. As dies the criminal, shall _Abner_ die?— Thy hands not bound, Nor to the fetters were thy feet applied: As is their fate that fall Before the faces of the sons of guilt, So art thou fallen....