2 Samuel 3:24

24 So Joab went to the king and said to him, "What have you done? Abner came to you - why did you let him go like that?

2 Samuel 3:24 Meaning and Commentary

2 Samuel 3:24

Then Joab came to the king
To the apartment where he was; perhaps he was told the above at his first entering into the king's palace, by some in waiting, before he came to the king, which filled him with wrath, so that he came to him in a passion:

and said to him, what hast thou done?
which was very insolent in a subject to say to his prince:

behold, Abner came unto thee;
I have been credibly informed of it, and am assured it is a fact which cannot be denied; he represents it as if he had done a wrong thing to admit him to come to him; but perhaps the great fault was that he had let him go:

why [is] it [that] thou hast sent him away, and he is quite gone?
or "going, [is] gone" F5; is clean gone off, when he ought to have been laid hold on as a traitor, and put in irons.


FOOTNOTES:

F5 (Kwlh Klyw) "et abiit eundo", Pagninus, Montanus.

2 Samuel 3:24 In-Context

22 Later on Joab and David's other officials returned from a raid, bringing a large amount of loot with them. Abner, however, was no longer there at Hebron with David, because David had sent him away with a guarantee of safety.
23 When Joab and his men arrived, he was told that Abner had come to King David and had been sent away with a guarantee of safety.
24 So Joab went to the king and said to him, "What have you done? Abner came to you - why did you let him go like that?
25 He came here to deceive you and to find out everything you do and everywhere you go. Surely you know that!"
26 After leaving David, Joab sent messengers to get Abner, and they brought him back from Sirah Well; but David knew nothing about it.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.