2 Samuel 2:30

30 And when Abner was left, Joab turned again, and gathered together all his people; and ten men and nine, besides Asahel, failed of the servants of David. (And when Joab left off pursuing Abner, he returned, and gathered together all his people; and he found that nineteen of David's men, besides Asahel, were missing.)

2 Samuel 2:30 Meaning and Commentary

2 Samuel 2:30

And Joab returned from following Abner
It being in his commission from David to shed as little blood as he could:

and when he had gathered all the people together;
who had been pursuing the Israelites, some one way and some another:

there lacked of David's servants nineteen men, and Asahel;
who is particularly mentioned, because a very honourable man, valiant and courageous, a relation of David, and brother of Joab the general, and the loss of him was greater than all the rest. This has made some think that the twelve men of the servants of David were not killed in the duel, or otherwise there must be but seven slain in the battle; though that is not more strange than that in the battle with Midian not one should be slain, and, yet a terrible slaughter was made of the Midianites, ( Numbers 31:1-54 ) . So in a sharp battle between the Spartans and Arcadians, ten thousand of the latter were slain, and not one of the former ^F17. Stilicho killed more than an hundred thousand of the army of Rhadagaisus, king of the Goths, without losing one of his own men, no, not so much as one wounded, as Austin affirms ^F18. At the battle of Issus the Persians lost an hundred ten thousand men, and Alexander not two hundred ^F19. Julius Caesar killed in the three camps of Juba, Scipio, and Labienus, ten thousand men, with the loss of fifty men only {t}. After these instances, not only the case here, but that between the Israelites and Midianites, cannot be thought incredible, for the sake of which the above are produced. This account, according to Josephus ^F21, was taken the day following.

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FOOTNOTES:

F17 Diodor. Sic. l. 15. p. 383.
F18 De civilate Dei, l. 5. c. 23.
F19 Curtius, l. 3. c. 11.
F20 Hirtius de Bello African. c. 86.
F21 Antiqu. l. 7. c. 1. sect. 3.

2 Samuel 2:30 In-Context

28 And Joab sounded with a clarion, and all the host stood still; and they pursued no further Israel, neither began battle. (And then Joab sounded with a trumpet, and all the army stood in place; and they no longer pursued the men of Israel, and the fighting ceased.)

29 And Abner and his men went (from) thence by the field places of Moab in all that night, and they passed [over] Jordan; and when all Bithron was compassed, they came to the castles. (And Abner and his men went from there through the fields of Moab all that night, and then they crossed over the Jordan River; and when all Bithron had been traversed, they came to Mahanaim.)

30 And when Abner was left, Joab turned again, and gathered together all his people; and ten men and nine, besides Asahel, failed of the servants of David. (And when Joab left off pursuing Abner, he returned, and gathered together all his people; and he found that nineteen of David's men, besides Asahel, were missing.)

31 Forsooth the servants of David smited of Benjamin, and of the men that were with Abner, three hundred men and sixty, which also were dead. (But David's men struck and killed three hundred and sixty of the Benjaminites, and of Abner's men.)

32 And they took Asahel, and buried him in the sepulchre of his father in Bethlehem. And Joab, and the men that were with him, went in all that night, and in that morrowtide they came into Hebron (and in the morning they came to Hebron).