Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
2 Samuel 3:17-26
Treachery, Treachery! (2 Samuel 3:17).
In this passage we have an account of double treachery. First we have portrayed the treachery of Abner who, having installed Ish-bosheth as king, callously betrayed him and sought to make Israel turn to David, and then the treachery of Joab who equally callously betrayed David behind his back and called on Abner to return on the pretence that David wanted to see him again, simply in order that he might assassinate him, and that in the face of the fact that he was covered by David's promise of safe conduct. He had little regard for David's honour. This was partly because he wanted revenge for his brother Asahel, but he was an astute politician, and it can hardly be doubted that it was also partly because he feared, probably rightly, that under the new deal it was Abner who would be made commander of the host of all Israel rather than himself.
In contrast David comes out of the episode as an honourable man. He received Abner and gave him hospitality and a guarantee of security, and genuinely meant it and was unaware of what Joab was going to do. Furthermore once the evil deed was done he disassociated himself from it, wrote an open lament, publicly bewailed what had happened to Abner, and announced to the world Abner's true greatness. We might possibly have seen this as feigned (as some do) in order to maintain his reputation were it not for the fact that David's genuine innocence is emphasised by the curse that he put on the house of Joab. That would not have been necessary in order to demonstrate his innocence if his grief been feigned, especially as we must remember that all would believe that it would come about. It was no light thing that he did and furthermore its dire consequences would fall on his own relatives (they would be his sister's seed). Thus we can safely exonerate him from blame. Indeed the one charge that we might make against David was that by his curse he was affecting innocent people in the future simply because of the sin of Joab, for he, like the rest, would consider that the curse would be effective. But we have to remember in this respect that the idea that the sins of the fathers fell on the children was a commonly held one and was seen as being just (such children would probably behave like their fathers), while it should also be remembered that David would believe that all such effects could be avoided by any who turned to God in genuine repentance and faith, a principle on which he built his own life. In the end therefore he would see those affected as bringing it on themselves.
And behind all these dealings we are intended to see that the hand of YHWH was at work. It was not He Who caused the treachery, but He simply took it up and used it in His purpose. David's path would move on smoothly towards the kingship because YHWH was with him, and it would have done so whether there had been treachery or not. In one case the treachery simply speeded the process up, while in the other it merely caused a small blip. It would have been a very different matter if David had been involved in it himself.
Analysis.
a And Abner had communication with the elders of Israel, saying, “In times past you sought for David to be king over you, now then do it; for YHWH has spoken of David, saying, “By the hand of my servant David I will save my people Israel out of the hand of the Philistines, and out of the hand of all their enemies.” And Abner also spoke in the ears of Benjamin, and Abner went also to speak in the ears of David in Hebron all that seemed good to Israel, and to the whole house of Benjamin (2 Samuel 3:17).
b So Abner came to David to Hebron, and twenty men with him. And David made Abner and the men who were with him a feast. And Abner said to David, “I will arise and go, and will gather all Israel to my lord the king, that they may make a covenant with you, and that you may reign over all that your soul desires” (2 Samuel 3:20 a).
c And David sent Abner away, and he went in peace (2 Samuel 3:21 b).
d And, behold, the servants of David and Joab came from a foray, and brought in a great spoil with them, but Abner was not with David in Hebron, for he had sent him away, and he was gone in peace (2 Samuel 3:22).
c When Joab and all the host who were with him were come, they told Joab, saying, “Abner the son of Ner came to the king, and he has sent him away, and he is gone in peace” (2 Samuel 3:23).
b Then Joab came to the king, and said, “What have you done? See, Abner came to you. Why is it that you have sent him away, and he is quite gone? You know Abner the son of Ner, that he came to deceive you, and to know your going out and your coming in, and to know all that you do” (2 Samuel 3:24).
a And when Joab was come out from David, he sent messengers after Abner, and they brought him back from the Cystern of Sirah, but David did not know it (2 Samuel 3:26).
Note than in ‘a' we have described the gross treachery of Abner, and in the parallel the gross treachery of Joab. In ‘b' David honourably receives Abner and his men and gives them hospitality, confident in the genuineness of Abner's proposal, and in the parallel Joab asserts that Abner's proposal and their purpose in coming was totally dishonourable. In ‘c' David sends Abner away with a guarantee of security (‘go in peace'), and in the parallel Joab is informed that David had sent Abner away with a guarantee of security. Centrally in ‘d' David's men return from a raiding expedition with great spoil, while Abner has meanwhile left with a guarantee of security. Note the threefold mention of the guarantee of security which emphasises its completeness and thus makes Joab's treachery doubly heinous.
‘ And Abner had communication with the elders of Israel, saying, “In times past you sought for David to be king over you, now then do it; for YHWH has spoken of David, saying, “By the hand of my servant David I will save my people Israel out of the hand of the Philistines, and out of the hand of all their enemies.” '
Having decided that he had had enough of Ish-bosheth, Abner treacherously turned his attention to the task of supplanting him. This tends to reveal that his pretended loyalty to the house of Saul had been a sham. With Saul dead and Ish-bosheth seemingly recalcitrant, all his attention was now clearly on how he could revenge himself against Ish-bosheth and achieve the highest status for himself. (It is quite possible that he did not know of Ish-bosheth's fear of him and thought that he might try to get rid of him. Alternately he might have considered that being commander of the combined forces of Israel and Judah, which he would demand in return for the support that he gave, offered him a much better opportunity for glory and wealth than being the commander of a relatively weak Israel). So he sent communications to the elders of Israel suggesting to them that as they had always really wanted David as king over them, now was the time to act to bring it about. For, he pointed out, as they all knew, that was what YHWH had promised. But we may ask, how did he know that that was how they felt? It possibly suggests that in the five years prior to his achieving Ish-bosheth's coronation he had had to constantly argue against just such desires in order to maintain Ish-bosheth's position. Now he was becoming a turncoat and treacherously urging them to take up the opposite position merely because he was offended at his treatment by Ish-bosheth.
Even more insidious was his method of doing this, for he piously called on the promises of YHWH concerning David as though his only concern was to please YHWH, when previously we know from his own confession that he had been deliberately acting against YHWH's will in maintaining the rights of Ish-bosheth. He was a blatant religious hypocrite.
“By the hand of my servant David I will save my people Israel out of the hand of the Philistines, and out of the hand of all their enemies.” There is no reference elsewhere to this specific promise, but there is no doubt that the elders would see it as soundly based on what YHWH had declared or revealed in the past, for it had undoubtedly been made clear in the past that YHWH had raised David up to be the scourge of the Philistines (1 Samuel 16:13; 1 Samuel 17:46; 1Sa 17:54; 1 Samuel 18:6; 1 Samuel 18:27; 1Sa 18:30; 1 Samuel 19:8; 1 Samuel 23:5), and all would undoubtedly have seen his promises concerning David's future kingship as indicating that he would be their God-given deliverer against both the Philistines and all their enemies (1 Samuel 16:1; 1 Samuel 16:13). That was why you had a king. Furthermore the expectations expressed in 1 Samuel 23:17; 1 Samuel 24:20 must surely themselves have mainly arisen as a result of prophetic pronouncements (possibly from Nathan or Gad), or at the very least as a result of expectations expressed among the people who saw it as something determined by YHWH. Thus the idea that YHWH had purposed that David be king over all Israel must have been very widespread.
‘ And Abner also spoke in the ears of Benjamin, and Abner went also to speak in the ears of David in Hebron all that seemed good to Israel, and to the whole house of Benjamin.'
We might have seen the differentiation between Israel and Benjamin here as simply indicating Abner's close associations with that tribe because it was the tribe of his and Saul's family were it not for the fact that later, at the time of the division of the kingdoms, Benjamin will side with Judah (1 Kings 12:21; 2 Chronicles 11:12). This therefore suggest that the Benjaminites, who were renowned as fierce and skilled fighters, had a proud spirit of independence and, in a similar way to Judah, did not like just being lumped in with ‘all Israel'. It may well have arisen over what they saw as their unjust treatment by the tribes in Judges 20-21. Abner, who was well aware of this, therefore negotiated with them separately, and pointed out how all the other tribes felt. Then having established what he saw as a satisfactory position he sought out David in Hebron. As far as he was concerned he had successfully staged a treacherous coup against Ish-bosheth.
‘ So Abner came to David to Hebron, and twenty men with him. And David made Abner and the men who were with him a feast.'
Whatever David thought privately about Abner's behaviour he was wise enough to recognise that he was the only one who could really speak for Israel, and that without him Ish-bosheth's position would be untenable. Thus he the more readily entered into negotiations with him. Unlike Abner he owed nothing to Ish-bosheth who was still in a state of ‘non-recognition' towards him..
So on Abner arriving with twenty men, no doubt already having been given the promise of safe conduct, David welcomed them and made a feast for them. As both were aware, such hospitality was the guarantee of peaceful intent. To have eaten together if there had been any intentions of hostilities, would have been contrary to the recognised etiquette obtaining among powerful leaders, and would have been something which was treated very seriously and seen as disgraceful.
‘ And Abner said to David, “I will arise and go, and will gather all Israel to my lord the king, that they may make a covenant with you, and that you may reign over all that your soul desires.” And David sent Abner away, and he went in peace.'
The result of their negotiations was that Abner promised that he would go and gather all Israel together (i.e. its elders) so that they could come to David with a view to making a covenant with him, a covenant which would include his appointment as king over them. We are not told what concessions were made to Abner but it seems very probable that he was in turn assured that he would be made commander of the joint forces, being second only to David, thus in effect fulfilling David's compact with Jonathan (1 Samuel 23:17). This is not certain, however, for David's present commander was ‘family', and family was often the safest option as far as loyalty was concerned. On the other hand David was becoming a little disenamoured of Joab, and Abner would certainly have wanted something in return. (As usual the writer was not interested in the details of the treaty as such. He was interested in what it meant for David).
The promise that David could then reign over all that his soul desired may reflect Abner's view of David rather than the correct one. We cannot doubt that David wanted to reign over all Israel, because that was what YHWH had promised him, and that he was even prepared to peacefully work to that end, but we never have any indication of his desire to force the issue, or of any great desire for it. He was content to receive whatever YHWH committed to him and await YHWH's good time. That was what made him so spiritually outstanding. Not to understand this would be to reflect more on us than on him.
All being satisfactorily concluded, David then sent Abner away to fulfil his promises, and guaranteed him continual safe conduct (‘he went in peace'). The fact that this is emphasised three times (2 Samuel 3:21) indicates how important the breach of this safe conduct would be seen to be.
‘ And, behold, the servants of David and Joab came from a foray, and brought in a great spoil with them, but Abner was not with David in Hebron, for he had sent him away, and he was gone in peace.
Meanwhile David's nephew and general Joab (2 Samuel 2:12) had been away on a raiding expedition with David's men, and they now arrived back bringing great booty. But it was too late for them to be able to meet up with Abner, for Abner was no longer there having been sent off by David with a guarantee of safe conduct.
‘ When Joab and all the host who were with him were come, they told Joab, saying, “Abner the son of Ner came to the king, and he has sent him away, and he is gone in peace.” '
On their arrival someone informed Joab of Abner's visit and of the fact that he had been sent away with the guarantee of safe conduct. We do not know how much else they would tell him for they would probably not have been privy to the king's negotiations, but we can be sure that Joab would have recognised that it must have been to do with Israel and Judah coming to terms, and he would no doubt also have had his spies in crucial places. But he was also a very suspicious man who saw others (especially generals) as being like himself, and thus to his mind any approach by Abner could only really have been in order to sound out Judah's strength. After all, the last time that he had spoken to him had been when he was on the run after a hard fought battle. Why then should he think that his attitude had changed? Thinking in terms of how he would have thought himself he would have considered that Abner was seething with a desire for revenge.
‘ Then Joab came to the king, and said, “What have you done? See, Abner came to you. Why is it that you have sent him away, and he is quite gone? You know Abner the son of Ner, that he came to deceive you, and to know your going out and your coming in, and to know all that you do.” '
So seeing himself as a little craftier than his pious uncle David, he came to the king and asked him what he had done. Here he had had Abner in his power and he had sent him away with safe conduct, so that how he was out of reach. How foolish. Was he not aware that Abner's real reason for coming had been to sound out his defences? Did he not realise that on his visit the experienced Abner would have picked up a lot of useful information about both their strong and weak points?
We must assume that David told him at least a little of the reason for Abner's visit, but it is clear that the suspicious Joab was not convinced (or at least pretended not to be) as we can tell from his next step. If David was foolish enough to let the fish slip out of the net, Abner would discover that Joab was made of different mettle..
‘ And when Joab was come out from David, he sent messengers after Abner, and they brought him back from the Cystern of Sirah, but David did not know it.'
So as soon as he had come out from his audience with David, he sent messengers after Abner calling on him to return. These messengers caught up with Abner and his men at the cystern of Sirah, which is probably the modern Ayin Sarah, one and a half miles (two and a half kilometres) from Hebron. Abner was clearly in no hurry and he and his men were no doubt taking advantage of the opportunity to replenish their water supplies. After all he had David's promise of safe conduct, and whatever he thought privately about David, he was content that he was an honourable man. He had not reckoned on Joab acting on his own authority, for ‘David did not know it'.
That this was an act of great treachery cannot be doubted. Joab was well aware that Abner had been given safe conduct by David, and that such safe conduct was sacred. Only the most evil of kings would breach such a safe conduct. Furthermore he was taking advantage of his position as David's general with the specific aim of doing so, for he knew perfectly well that Abner would see him as acting as David's representative. It is actually very difficult to assess whose treachery was the greater, Abner's towards Ish-bosheth or Joab's towards David. Both were inexcusable, the one arising from vanity and ambition, the other arising from a desire for vengeance and ambition. It says much for David that the treacherous Abner never even smelled a whiff of treachery. Had he known the true circumstances how differently he would have acted.