2 Samuel 2:27

27 Joab answered, "It's a good thing you spoke up. If you hadn't, the men would have kept on chasing their fellow Israelites until morning. And that's just as sure as God is alive."

2 Samuel 2:27 Meaning and Commentary

2 Samuel 2:27

And Joab said, as God liveth
Which was the form of an oath, swearing by the living God:

unless thou hadst spoken;
that is, these words in ( 2 Samuel 2:14 ) ; "let the young men arise and play", that he had not given the challenge to fight:

surely then in the morning the people had gone up everyone from
following his brother;
they would have gone away and never fought at all; they were not desirous of shedding their blood, and following after them to slay them: thus he lays the blame upon Abner, and makes him to be the cause and beginner of the war. Some render the particle by "if", and give the sense, that if he had spoken what he last did sooner, the people would long before this time have desisted from pursuing them; for it was not from a thirst after their blood, and a desire to luke vengeance on them, that they pursued them, but to bring them to submission, and lay down their arms; for they could not in honour retreat until they desired it; but the former sense seems best, and is the general sense of the Jewish commentators.

2 Samuel 2:27 In-Context

25 The men of Benjamin gathered in a group around Abner. They took their stand on top of a hill.

26 Abner called out to Joab, "Do you want our swords to keep on killing us off? Don't you know that all of this fighting will end in bitter feelings? How long will it be before you order your men to stop chasing their fellow Israelites?"

27 Joab answered, "It's a good thing you spoke up. If you hadn't, the men would have kept on chasing their fellow Israelites until morning. And that's just as sure as God is alive."

28 So Joab blew a trumpet. All of the men stopped. They didn't chase Israel anymore. They didn't fight anymore either.

29 All that night Abner and his men marched through the Arabah Valley. They went across the Jordan River. They kept on going through the whole Bithron. Finally, they came to Mahanaim.