2 Samuël 2:32

32 En zij namen Asahel op, en begroeven hem in zijns vaders graf, dat te Bethlehem was. Joab nu en zijn mannen gingen den gansen nacht, dat hun het licht aanbrak te Hebron.

2 Samuël 2:32 Meaning and Commentary

2 Samuel 2:32

And they took up Asahel
From the place where he fell; that is, Joab and Abishai, his brethren, as Josephus F23 relates; after they had buried the dead in the field of battle, they took up him:

and buried him in the sepulchre of his father, which [was in]
Bethlehem:
not in the city of Bethlehem, but without it, on the south side of it; so says Fuller F24,

``southward, i.e. of Bethlehem, we find Asahel's sepulchre, who was buried in the grave of his father.''

What was his father's name is not known, only his mother's name, Zeruiah, is mentioned in Scripture, a sister of David, and daughter of Jesse the Bethlehemite. Bethlehem was sixteen miles from Gibeon, according to Bunting F25.

And Joab and his men went all night;
not the night following the battle, but the night following the next day, after he had been to Bethlehem, and buried his brother there; wherefore, lest David should think it long before he came, he travelled all night:

and they came to Hebron at break of day;
where David was, which, according to the same writer F26, was twenty miles from Bethlehem.


FOOTNOTES:

F23 Antiqu. l. 7. c. 1. sect. 3.
F24 Pisgah-Sight of Palestine, B. 2. c. 14. sect. 21. p. 301.
F25 Travels, ut supra. (p. 145, 146.)
F26 Travels, ut supra. (p. 145, 146.)

2 Samuël 2:32 In-Context

30 Joab keerde ook weder van achter Abner, en verzamelde het ganse volk. En er werden van Davids knechten gemist negentien mannen, en Asahel.
31 Maar Davids knechten hadden van Benjamin en onder Abners mannen geslagen: driehonderd en zestig mannen waren er dood gebleven.
32 En zij namen Asahel op, en begroeven hem in zijns vaders graf, dat te Bethlehem was. Joab nu en zijn mannen gingen den gansen nacht, dat hun het licht aanbrak te Hebron.
The Dutch Staten Vertaling translation is in the public domain.