2 Samuel 20:18

Then she spake, saying, They were wont to speak in old time, saying, They shall surely ask [counsel] at Abel: and so they ended [the matter].

Ver. 18. They shall surely ask counsel at Abel,] q.d., You need not take scorn to take my counsel, since I was born and bred at Abel, the common oracle of the whole country, and so famous for wisdom, as some places are for folly, a that people came from all parts to take advice there; the men of Abel were so well seen in b the laws. Most interpreters think that in these words, read according to the margin, she had respect to Deuteronomy 20:10,11, and blamed Joab that he had not first made proposals of peace: therefore in the next verse she saith in the name of her city, "I am one of those which are peaceable," i.e., which will not refuse the offer and order of peace.

a Baeotum in patria, crassoque sub aere natus. Brabanti quo magis senescunt eo magis stultescunt. - Erasm.

b [Saw so well into.]