Question 1

What argument did Abner use to persuade Israel’s elders to accept David as king (2 Samuel 3:17-18)?

Accepted Answer

Abner reminded Israel’s elders that they had wanted David as their king for some time already. Now they should act, because the LORD had said that through David His servant He would rescue Israel from the Philistines and every other enemy (3:17-18). Abner also talked with Benjamin, Saul’s own tribe (3:19). When the tribes later came to David, they recalled a related word from the LORD, that David would shepherd Israel (5:2), and the promise of rescue from the Philistines came true as David defeated them and later subdued them (8:1).

Question 2

On what basis did Abner urge Israel’s elders to transfer their allegiance to David (2 Samuel 3:17-18)?

Accepted Answer

Abner appeals both to the elders’ earlier desire for David and, decisively, to the LORD’s word that through His servant David He would save Israel from the Philistines and all its enemies (3:17-18). A related divine word, that David would shepherd Israel, is recalled when the tribes come to Hebron (5:2), and the promised rescue from the Philistines comes true as David defeats and finally subdues them (8:1). Abner even wins over Benjamin, Saul’s tribe (3:19).

Question 3

How did David send Abner off after the feast at Hebron (2 Samuel 3:20-21)?

Accepted Answer

Abner came to Hebron with twenty men, and David hosted a banquet for them. Abner offered to rally the whole nation to enter a covenant with David, so that David could rule over everything he desired, and David let him leave in peace (3:20-21). The narrator repeats three times that Abner went in peace (3:21-23), stressing that the king let him leave unharmed and in good faith. That makes what happens next all the more serious: Joab killed Abner in a time of peace (1 Kings 2:5), without David’s knowledge (1 Kings 2:32).

Question 4

On what terms did David dismiss Abner after their meeting at Hebron (2 Samuel 3:21)?

Accepted Answer

David feasts Abner and his twenty men and dismisses him in peace to gather Israel into covenant with the king (3:20-21). The threefold repetition that Abner went in peace (3:21-23) underlines David’s good faith and sets up the treachery to follow, which 1 Kings 2:5 calls killing in peacetime, done without David’s knowledge (1 Kings 2:32).

Question 5

How did Abner respond to Ish-bosheth’s accusation (2 Samuel 3:8-10)?

Accepted Answer

Abner was furious. He reminded Ish-bosheth how loyal he had been to Saul’s family and then swore to carry out the LORD’s own oath to David: to take the kingdom away from Saul’s family and establish David’s throne over both Judah and Israel, from Dan in the far north to Beersheba in the far south (3:8-10). Ish-bosheth was too afraid of Abner to answer him (3:11). Abner’s own words show that he knew God had promised the kingdom to David (1 Samuel 15:28; 28:17), even though he had set up Ish-bosheth against that promise. God’s purpose moves forward even through a proud man’s anger, for people plan their way but the LORD directs their steps (Proverbs 16:9).

Question 6

What oath did Abner take in response to Ish-bosheth’s rebuke (2 Samuel 3:8-10)?

Accepted Answer

Enraged, Abner swears to accomplish the LORD’s oath to David: to move the kingdom away from Saul’s house and establish David’s throne over all Israel and Judah (3:9-10), and Ish-bosheth is too afraid to reply (3:11). Abner thus confesses knowledge of the divine oath announced in 1 Samuel 15:28 and 28:17 while having worked against it. God’s decree is accomplished through a wounded man’s anger, his steps directed by the LORD though he plans his own course (Proverbs 16:9).

Question 7

How did David respond when he heard that Abner had been killed (2 Samuel 3:28-29)?

Accepted Answer

David declared that he and his kingdom would always be free of guilt before the LORD for Abner’s blood, and he called for that guilt to fall on Joab and his father’s family, with a curse that Joab’s house would never lack someone afflicted, crippled, killed, or hungry (3:28-29). The law sought to keep Israel free of the guilt of innocent blood (Deuteronomy 19:10). David did not punish Joab himself at this time; years later Solomon dealt with Joab and so removed from David’s house the innocent blood Joab had shed (1 Kings 2:31-33).

Question 8

What was David’s first public response to the news of Abner’s death (2 Samuel 3:28-29)?

Accepted Answer

David solemnly declares himself and his kingdom free of guilt before the LORD regarding Abner’s blood and calls the bloodguilt down on Joab’s house with a curse (3:28-29). The concern is the guilt of innocent blood that the law sought to purge from the land (Deuteronomy 19:10). David does not execute Joab now; Solomon later does, removing the innocent blood from David’s house (1 Kings 2:31-33).

Question 9

How does the narrator sum up the long war between Saul’s dynasty and David’s (2 Samuel 3:1)?

Accepted Answer

The conflict between the two royal families lasted a long time, but its direction was clear: David kept growing stronger while Saul’s family kept growing weaker (3:1). The text later gives the reason for David’s rise: God, the LORD of Hosts, was present with him (5:10). This had been true even while Saul lived, when the LORD stood with David and had left Saul (1 Samuel 18:12). The kingdom was moving toward the man God had chosen, step by step.

Question 10

What summary does the narrator give of the protracted war between the two royal houses (2 Samuel 3:1)?

Accepted Answer

The narrator compresses the conflict into a single trajectory: David strengthening, Saul’s dynasty declining (3:1). The reason is given in 5:10: the LORD of Hosts was present with David, continuing the pattern established in 1 Samuel 18:12. God’s chosen king rises by divine providence, not by David’s seizing the throne.

Question 11

What did Ish-bosheth accuse Abner of doing (2 Samuel 3:7)?

Accepted Answer

During the war Abner was steadily making himself stronger within Saul’s family (3:6). Saul had left behind a concubine, a secondary wife, named Rizpah, and Ish-bosheth asked Abner why he had slept with her (3:7). The text does not say whether the charge was true. What it shows is the balance of power: Abner was the man who had made Ish-bosheth king (2:8-9) and had long commanded Saul’s army (1 Samuel 14:50), and the accusation set off his fury in the verses that follow.

Question 12

With what did Ish-bosheth charge Abner (2 Samuel 3:7)?

Accepted Answer

Against the background of Abner consolidating his power in Saul’s house (3:6), Ish-bosheth charges him with taking Rizpah, Saul’s concubine (3:7). The narrator does not say whether the charge was true. The real issue is power: the kingmaker (2:8-9), Saul’s longtime commander (1 Samuel 14:50), will not tolerate rebuke from the king he installed.

Question 13

When Joab returned and heard about Abner’s visit, what did he claim Abner had really come to do (2 Samuel 3:24-25)?

Accepted Answer

Joab came back from a raid with plunder and learned that Abner had just left in peace. He confronted the king and rebuked him: why had David let Abner go? Joab claimed that Abner had come to deceive David and to learn all his movements and plans (3:22-25). The narrator has already shown Abner’s real purpose, to bring Israel over to David (3:12, 21). Joab then had messengers bring Abner back, but David did not know it (3:26; 1 Kings 2:32). The reason the narrator gives for what Joab did next is not spying but Asahel, the brother Abner had killed (2:22; 3:27).

Question 14

According to Joab, what had Abner really come to Hebron to do (2 Samuel 3:25)?

Accepted Answer

Joab accuses Abner of coming to deceive David and gather intelligence (3:24-25), though the narrative has made Abner’s purpose of bringing Israel to David plain (3:12, 21). Joab then recalls Abner without David’s knowledge (3:26; 1 Kings 2:32). The narrator locates Joab’s real motive elsewhere, in the blood of Asahel (2:22; 3:27).

Question 15

According to the narrator, why did Joab and Abishai kill Abner (2 Samuel 3:27, 30)?

Accepted Answer

Once Abner was back in Hebron, Joab drew him aside in the gate, pretending he wanted a private word, and killed him there (3:27). The narrator gives the reason twice: it was for the blood of Asahel, Joab’s brother, and Joab and Abishai murdered him because Abner had struck down Asahel when the armies fought at Gibeon (3:27, 30). Asahel, however, had died in open battle after Abner warned him twice to turn back (2:21-23). David later charged Joab with killing in a time of peace as revenge for blood shed in war (1 Kings 2:5). The text calls it murder, and shedding innocent blood is among the things the LORD hates (Proverbs 6:16-17).

Question 16

What motive does the narrator assign to Joab and Abishai for killing Abner (2 Samuel 3:27, 30)?

Accepted Answer

Joab draws Abner aside in the gate under pretense of private conversation and kills him (3:27). The narrator twice names the motive: blood vengeance for Asahel (3:27, 30). Yet Asahel fell in battle after repeated warnings (2:21-23), which is why David later indicts Joab for avenging wartime blood in peacetime (1 Kings 2:5). The narrator’s word is murder, the shedding of innocent blood the LORD detests (Proverbs 6:16-17).

Question 17

In his brief lament, what did David say about how Abner died (2 Samuel 3:33-34)?

Accepted Answer

David commanded Joab and everyone present to rip their garments, wear sackcloth, a rough cloth worn in mourning, and mourn for Abner. The king himself followed the bier in the procession and wept aloud at the tomb in Hebron (3:31-32). His short lament asked whether Abner should die like a senseless man: his hands had not been tied and his feet had not been chained, as a prisoner’s would be, yet he fell as one falls before wicked men (3:33-34). The people wept even more. David had honored Saul and Jonathan with a lament too (1:17). The wicked hands were Joab’s: Solomon later said Joab killed a man who was both better and more just than he was (1 Kings 2:32).

Question 18

What does David’s lament for Abner say about the manner of his death (2 Samuel 3:33-34)?

Accepted Answer

David orders public mourning, follows the bier, and weeps at the tomb (3:31-32). His brief lament insists that Abner died not as a bound criminal, hands unbound and feet unfettered, but as a victim of wicked men (3:33-34), an implicit indictment of the killers; Solomon later says Joab killed a man both better and more just than he was (1 Kings 2:32). As with his lament over Saul and Jonathan (1:17), David leads the nation in grief, and the people weep with him (3:34).

Question 19

What condition did David set before he would meet with Abner (2 Samuel 3:13)?

Accepted Answer

Abner offered to make a covenant, a binding agreement, and win the whole nation over to David. David agreed, but on one condition: Abner must not come to him without Michal, Saul’s daughter (3:12-13). She had loved David and become his wife in Saul’s day (1 Samuel 18:20), but Saul later handed her to another man while David was a fugitive (1 Samuel 25:44). At David’s request Ish-bosheth had her taken from Paltiel, her husband, who followed her weeping as far as Bahurim until Abner told him to go back (3:14-16). The text reports this plainly without explaining David’s motives.

Question 20

What precondition did David attach to his covenant with Abner (2 Samuel 3:13)?

Accepted Answer

David accepts Abner’s offer of a covenant but requires that Michal, Saul’s daughter, be returned (3:13). She had been David’s wife (1 Samuel 18:20) before Saul gave her to Palti (1 Samuel 25:44). Ish-bosheth complies, and the narrator records the grief of her husband Paltiel, who follows her weeping until Abner sends him home (3:15-16). The text narrates the episode without evaluating David’s motives.

Question 21

What did David’s fasting and mourning convince the whole nation of (2 Samuel 3:35-37)?

Accepted Answer

The people pressed David to eat before nightfall, but he swore he would taste nothing until sunset (3:35), just as he had gone without food until evening when mourning Saul and Jonathan (1:12). The people saw it and approved, as they approved of all that the king did. That day the soldiers and the whole nation understood that David had not been behind Abner’s killing (3:36-37). This matched the truth: Joab had acted without David’s knowledge (1 Kings 2:32).

Question 22

What conclusion did the people and the whole nation draw from David’s conduct after Abner’s death (2 Samuel 3:36-37)?

Accepted Answer

David’s oath-bound fast until sunset (3:35), echoing his mourning for Saul (1:12), persuades the soldiers and the whole nation that David had no hand in Abner’s killing (3:36-37). The conclusion was correct: Joab acted without David’s knowledge (1 Kings 2:32). David’s integrity is publicly vindicated at a politically critical moment.

Question 23

True or False: The sons David fathered while reigning in Hebron included Absalom and Adonijah, each of whom later tried to make himself king (2 Samuel 3:2-5).

Accepted Answer

This is true. While David reigned at Hebron, he fathered six sons by six different wives, including Absalom, his third, and Adonijah, his fourth (3:2-5). Absalom would later declare himself king at Hebron in a revolt against his father (15:10), and Adonijah would try to seize the throne near the end of David’s life (1 Kings 1:5). The narrator records David’s many wives without approving them; the law had warned that Israel’s king was not to multiply wives, lest his heart be led astray (Deuteronomy 17:17). The growing household that marked David’s strength would also bring him great sorrow.

Question 24

True or False: Absalom and Adonijah, both of whom later grasped at the throne, were among the sons David fathered while reigning in Hebron (2 Samuel 3:2-5).

Accepted Answer

This is true. The Hebron list of six sons by six wives includes Absalom and Adonijah (3:2-5). Absalom later revolts and has himself proclaimed king at Hebron (15:10), and Adonijah exalts himself as king at the end of David’s life (1 Kings 1:5). The narrator reports David’s polygamy without endorsing it, against the backdrop of Deuteronomy 17:17, which forbade the king to multiply wives; the strength of David’s house will become a source of grief within it.

Question 25

What did David say about Zeruiah’s sons after Abner’s death (2 Samuel 3:38-39)?

Accepted Answer

David told his servants that a great leader and prince had fallen in Israel that day. Though he was anointed king, he said he was weak that day, and Zeruiah’s sons, Joab and Abishai, were too fierce for him; he prayed that the LORD would repay the evildoer as his evil deserved (3:38-39). David left the reckoning to God, who says vengeance is His (Romans 12:19), and his prayer matches his psalm asking God to repay evildoers for their deeds (Psalm 28:4). The text is honest that David did not act against Joab at this point. Near the end of his life he charged Solomon to deal with Joab for this very killing (1 Kings 2:5-6).

Question 26

How did David characterize his position regarding Zeruiah’s sons (2 Samuel 3:38-39)?

Accepted Answer

David honors Abner as a great prince, confesses that though anointed he is weak and Zeruiah’s sons are too severe for him, and commits the evildoer to the LORD’s repayment (3:38-39). This leaves vengeance with God (Romans 12:19; compare Psalm 28:4), though the text does not hide that David took no action against Joab then; he leaves the matter to Solomon at the end of his life (1 Kings 2:5-6).

2 Samuel 3 Study Notes: Abner Joins David and Is Murdered

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