2 Samuel 3:24

Joab Assassinates Abner

24 Then Joab came to the king and said, "What have you done? Abner came here to you? Why have you dismissed him that he {actually went away}?

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.

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FOOTNOTES:

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

2 Samuel 3:24 In-Context

22 And look, the servants of David and Joab came from the raid, and they brought much plunder with them. But Abner was not with David at Hebron, for he had dismissed him, and he had gone in peace.

23 When Joab and all the army that [was] with him came, they told Joab, "Abner the son of Ner came to the king, and he sent him away, and he left in peace."

24 Then Joab came to the king and said, "What have you done? Abner came here to you? Why have you dismissed him that he {actually went away}?

25 You know that Abner the son of Ner came to deceive you. He came to learn about your going out and coming [in] and to know all which you [are] doing."

26 Then Joab went out from David, and he sent messengers after Abner, and they brought him back from Bor Hasirah, but David did not know [it].

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "and he went going"