2 Sam. 2:18-32
18 The three sons of Zeruiah were there, Joab, Abishai, and Asahel. Now Asahel was as swift of foot as a wild gazelle. 19Asahel pursued Abner, turning neither to the right nor to the left as he followed him. 20Then Abner looked back and said, ‘Is it you, Asahel?’ He answered, ‘Yes, it is.’ 21Abner said to him, ‘Turn to your right or to your left, and seize one of the young men, and take his spoil.’ But Asahel would not turn away from following him. 22Abner said again to Asahel, ‘Turn away from following me; why should I strike you to the ground? How then could I show my face to your brother Joab?’ 23But he refused to turn away. So Abner struck him in the stomach with the butt of his spear, so that the spear came out at his back. He fell there, and died where he lay. And all those who came to the place where Asahel had fallen and died, stood still.
24 But Joab and Abishai pursued Abner. 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. 25The Benjaminites rallied around Abner and formed a single band; they took their stand on the top of a hill. 26Then Abner called to Joab, ‘Is the sword to keep devouring for ever? Do you not know that the end will be bitter? How long will it be before you order your people to turn from the pursuit of their kinsmen?’ 27Joab said, ‘As God lives, if you had not spoken, the people would have continued to pursue their kinsmen, not stopping until morning.’ 28Joab sounded the trumpet and all the people stopped; they no longer pursued Israel or engaged in battle any further.
29 Abner and his men travelled all that night through the Arabah; they crossed the Jordan, and, marching the whole forenoon, they came to Mahanaim. 30Joab returned from the pursuit of Abner; and when he had gathered all the people together, there were missing of David’s servants nineteen men besides Asahel. 31But the servants of David had killed of Benjamin three hundred and sixty of Abner’s men. 32They took up Asahel and buried him in the tomb of his father, which was at Bethlehem. Joab and his men marched all night, and the day broke upon them at Hebron.
Blog Discussion Question: What do you think. Should Joab have given up the pursuit?
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4 comments:
It appears with yesterdays reading that the men of Abner and the men of Joab were pretty evenly mattched even if Joab won the initial battle. Today Joab is shown that his men domminated the battles with far less loss than abners men. Joab must have felt some pitty on abner or maby Joab did not want a civil war amongst bothers as Abner had asked.
I'm catching up on reading, so I haven't been blogging for awhile. But, I did want to comment on yesterday's observation PJ. That was really interesting about the roots of the name. I've reread the first 17 chapters of Samuel several times lately and I've found that you have to know ch. 15/16 to really understand the rest of Samuel. It lays the foundation for all of Saul's problems. If you haven't read the beginning of Samuel, I urge you to do so. Also, as I was reading, ch 17, I remembered PJ said that David did not kill Goliath with the stone. So I went back and read the blog from April 14. I believe the bloggers saw it accurately when they said it was a second killing with the sword. Also, do you really think we've become less barbaric? People are beheaded all the time in the mid eastern countries as well as having fingers/toes cut off, eyes gouged out and on and on. And isn't a roadside bomb just as barbaric. We or at least some cultures have not moved forward at all. Remember, we're talking about war in the old testament, just as we are in a war today in which if you do not follow the ways of the radical isalamists, you just might lose your head. Think about it!
Agreed Gabriel....there's plenty of barbarianism in our world....it can sometimes make it's way out of our hearts, too.
Militarily, who knows if he should have given up the chase...but remember, this was "family"....when family fights someone has to "give up" so that healing can happen.
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