ESV Global Study Bible :: Footnotes for 2 Samuel 2

2 Sam 2:1–5:5 Judah makes David its king. Saul’s general Abner, however, seeks to restore Saul’s kingdom with Saul’s son Ish-bosheth as king. During the struggle between the two kingdoms, Abner, who has decided to go with David, is killed by David’s commander Joab. Later, Ish-bosheth is killed by two of his own men, but David executes them for murder. With no candidate for king in the house of Saul, all of Israel unites to anoint the hero David as king. There are many cases of Israelites’ shedding the blood of fellow Israelites, and this is tragic, but the narrator holds David innocent in each case, and thus he is qualified to be king over all Israel.

2 Sam 2:1–3 Saul is no longer pursuing David, and David’s home base of Ziklag has burned. After inquiring of the Lord, David moves to the Hebron area with his family and men. Hebron was the most important city of southern Judah. It was not far from Bethlehem.

2 Sam 2:4 Rather than seeking a relative of Saul (from the tribe of Benjamin, 1 Sam. 9:1), the people of Judah choose one of their own, the hero David, as king. He was also chosen by the Lord (1 Sam. 16:1–23).

2 Sam 2:4b–7 See 1 Sam. 31:11–13. David seems to be presenting himself as Saul’s successor and suggesting that Jabesh-gilead should enter into a treaty relationship with Judah. He is moved by their faithfulness toward Saul and wants to reward them.

2 Sam 2:8–9 Abner tries to continue Saul’s kingdom, on a reduced scale. From these verses and 3:9, it appears that Abner, not Ish-bosheth, was actually in charge. Mahanaim, a city on the Jabbok River, was apparently the capital of Gilead. The fact that the capital had to be in Transjordan suggests the weakness of Ish-bosheth’s reign. Gilead and the Ashurites and Jezreel refers to the northern and Transjordanian part of the country. Ephraim and Benjamin refers to the central and main part. Ish-bosheth did not necessarily have real control over all this area; the Philistines apparently were in the Jezreel Valley (1 Sam. 31:7). All Israel is a summary description of the area just mentioned.

2 Sam 2:10–11 For a time, there are two kings in the land of Israel.

2 Sam 2:12 Gibeon is about 6 miles (9.7 km) north-northwest of Jerusalem. The “pool” (v. 13) is probably the huge round cistern cut into the rock on its north side (compare Jer. 41:12).

2 Sam 2:13 This marks the first appearance of Joab the son of Zeruiah, though Abishai was referred to as his brother in 1 Sam. 26:6. Joab was commander over the army (2 Sam. 8:16). He appears frequently in 2 Samuel, often in a major role. Since Abner knows him and his brothers well (2:20–22), Joab probably came to Saul’s court soon after David’s rise to prominence. He was one of the three sons of David’s sister Zeruiah (1 Chron. 2:16), so he was David’s nephew (2 Sam. 2:18).

2 Sam 2:19 Asahel was one of David’s mighty warriors, “one of the thirty” (23:24; see also 1 Chron. 11:26).

2 Sam 2:23 Abner, an experienced warrior, apparently stopped suddenly, thrusting his spear backward so forcefully that it went right through Asahel’s body as he ran into it.

2 Sam 2:28 Here, as in 18:16 and 20:22, Joab uses a trumpet to summon an army and mark the end of fighting after a victory.

2 Sam 2:29 The Arabah is part of the Jordan Valley rift south of the Dead Sea.