2 Samuel 2:12-32--The Battle of Gibeon

2 Samuel 2:12-32
English Standard Version

The Battle of Gibeon
12 Abner the son of Ner, and the servants of Ish-bosheth the son of Saul, went out from Mahanaim to Gibeon. 13 And Joab the son of Zeruiah and the servants of David went out and met them at the pool of Gibeon. And they sat down, the one on the one side of the pool, and the other on the other side of the pool. 14 And Abner said to Joab, “Let the young men arise and compete before us.” And Joab said, “Let them arise.” 15 Then they arose and passed over by number, twelve for Benjamin and Ish-bosheth the son of Saul, and twelve of the servants of David. 16 And each caught his opponent by the head and thrust his sword in his opponent's side, so they fell down together. Therefore that place was called Helkath-hazzurim, which is at Gibeon. 17 And the battle was very fierce that day. And Abner and the men of Israel were beaten before the servants of David.

18 And the three sons of Zeruiah were there, Joab, Abishai, and Asahel. Now Asahel was as swift of foot as a wild gazelle. 19 And Asahel pursued Abner, and as he went, he turned neither to the right hand nor to the left from following Abner. 20 Then Abner looked behind him and said, “Is it you, Asahel?” And he answered, “It is I.” 21 Abner said to him, “Turn aside to your right hand or to your left, and seize one of the young men and take his spoil.” But Asahel would not turn aside from following him. 22 And Abner said again to Asahel, “Turn aside from following me. Why should I strike you to the ground? How then could I lift up my face to your brother Joab?” 23 But he refused to turn aside. Therefore Abner struck him in the stomach with the butt of his spear, so that the spear came out at his back. And he fell there and died where he was. And all who came to the place where Asahel had fallen and died, stood still.

24 But Joab and Abishai pursued Abner. And as the sun was going down they came to the hill of Ammah, which lies before Giah on the way to the wilderness of Gibeon. 25 And the people of Benjamin gathered themselves together behind Abner and became one group and took their stand on the top of a hill. 26 Then Abner called to Joab, “Shall the sword devour forever? Do you not know that the end will be bitter? How long will it be before you tell your people to turn from the pursuit of their brothers?” 27 And Joab said, “As God lives, if you had not spoken, surely the men would not have given up the pursuit of their brothers until the morning.” 28 So Joab blew the trumpet, and all the men stopped and pursued Israel no more, nor did they fight anymore.

​29 And Abner and his men went all that night through the Arabah. They crossed the Jordan, and marching the whole morning, they came to Mahanaim. 30 Joab returned from the pursuit of Abner. And when he had gathered all the people together, there were missing from David's servants nineteen men besides Asahel. 31 But the servants of David had struck down of Benjamin 360 of Abner's men. 32 And they took up Asahel and buried him in the tomb of his father, which was at Bethlehem. And Joab and his men marched all night, and the day broke upon them at Hebron.

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Abner and the servants of Ish-bosheth went up to a pool at Gibeon and there they sat down and they were met there by Joab and the servants of David.  It seems like this was an arranged meeting from the text or at least that Joab knew that Abner and his men would be there on that time on that day.  They took the opportunity to have a contest that was a fight to the death to see whose soldiers were more skilled.  (Notice here that we don't see either side consulting the LORD before going up to participate in such an event because we'll get an idea at the end that the LORD did not want this to happen).

The rules of the contest were simple.  Twelve from each side were to be chosen and they would be matched up in one-on-one battle.  All twenty-four men quickly stabbed their opponent in the side so that all twenty-four men (twelve from each side) fell down together (a stalemate because all the men of both sides died).  That place received the name Helkath-hazzurim which could mean either "Plot of the Sharp Blades" or "Field of Heroes."  Either way, this little contest between two generals of opposing forces that showed no concern for the lives of those under them, but instead used them to satisfy their desire to kill a few from the other side, even if it meant losing the same number from their side, escalated and would quickly turn into a full-on battle between the men of Abner's forces and the men of Joab's forces.

It seemed Joab's brothers were also there that day, one named Abishai and the other named Asahel.  Asahel was a very fast runner and very agile as well so that he could also see and dodge the attacks of the enemy as he pursued them.  Asahel was in hot pursuit behind Abner, and Abner quickly figured out exactly who was pursuing him since there was no one else that should have been fast enough to keep up with him.  Abner cried out to Asahel to ask him to turn aside either to the right or the left (even if that meant turning aside to attack other men) so that Abner would not have to attack Asahel, for Abner did not want to have to kill any of his brothers from the tribe of Judah that day (we'll see him say so later in the text), but he felt like he would have to kill Asahel to defend himself if Asahel kept on with the pursuit.

Asahel would not give up the pursuit and Abner eventually did strike down Asahel by Abner running the butt of his spear through Asahel's stomach (he didn't use the sharp pointed side), probably hoping to simply hurt, but not kill Asahel, but Asahel was impaled on the butt of the spear. All those who came upon the scene stood still and stopped fighting, that is all except Joab and Abishai the brothers of Asahel.

It seems that Joab and Abishai continued their pursuit of Abner until the sun started to go down.  Only then did Joab and Abishai stop to hear what Joab and all the men of Benjamin who were gathered behind him had to say.  Abner cried out, ​“Shall the sword devour forever? Do you not know that the end will be bitter? How long will it be before you tell your people to turn from the pursuit of their brothers?”  Certainly Joab and Abishai desired to avenge the death of their brother, but how long would they fight and how many would they kill to avenge his death?  Could their ever be enough killing to satisfy them?  Abner brings up a good point that God would not want the tribes to fight against one another and kill each other in this way (civil war), and that there is no end to this which will not be "bitter."  Both sides had taken losses (we'll get the official counts of the losses at the end of the passage).  Joab hears the words and the heart of Abner and tells him that if it were not for his words that day, that Joab and Abishai (and their men) would have pursued Joab and his men until morning--they would have chased them all night without any sleep.  Instead Joab blew the trumpet to sound the end of the battle and everyone on both sides stopped fighting.

Abner and his men went all that night through the Arabah. They crossed the Jordan, and marching the whole morning, they came to Mahanaim (the place where they had started from).  Joab and his soldier returned and when they gathered together to count how many they had lost that day, there were a total of 20 men of Judah who had fall (the twelve contestants, Asahel and seven others).  However, when Abner counted his losses at the end of the day, he had lost a total of 360 men (18 times the losses of Judah).

The men of David found the body of Asahel and buried him in the tomb of his father, which was in Bethlehem (probably meaning that he and David were close relatives).  Joab and his army then marched all day and night until they returned to Hebron where David was reigning from.  Though the casualties on the side of Judah were small compared to those on the side of Israel, I would not have wanted to be the one to make the report to King David about how these 20 men were lost.  This was not the end of the fighting between the house of Saul (which Abner and Ish-bosheth were part of) and the house of David (which it would seem that Joab and Abishai were part of as being from the same small town of Bethlehem at this time should mean that they were close relatives).  God will make it clear which side He is fighting for as the strength of the house of Saul will diminish and the strength of the house of David will increase.  Even Abner will see what's going on eventually and will switch sides in the end.  We'll see that next time.  Don't forget about what happened today though as it will play a central role in the passage we'll study in a couple days.