Bible Strands
2 Samuel 3:27
When Abner returned to Hebron, Joab pulled him aside into the gateway, as if to speak to him privately, and there Joab stabbed him in the stomach. So Abner died on account of the blood of Joab’s brother Asahel.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Joab acts upon Abner in Hebron immediately after Abner’s secret return from the well of Sirah, a moment when King David remains unaware of the retrieval.
The words — וַ/יַּטֵּ֤/הוּ (va/i.ya.Te./hu) translates as "and he turned him aside," and תּ֣וֹךְ (Tokh) means "the middle of," describing Joab's deliberate movement of Abner into the center of the gateway.
The thread — The text records Joab's secret strike in Hebron, which later reappears as a parallel to his killing of Amasa (2 Samuel 20:9), draws David's retrospective condemnation (1 Kings 2:5), and fulfills the warning against striking a neighbor in secret (Deuteronomy 27:24).
Why it lands — It requires readers to separate a leader's public declarations of innocence from the private violence executed by his subordinates, exposing how political survival often masks personal vengeance.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And when Abner was returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside in the gate to speak with him quietly, and smote him there under the fifth rib, that he died, for the blood of Asahel his brother.
Cross-references
- 2 Samuel 20:9 “Are you well, my brother?” Joab asked Amasa. And with his right hand Joab grabbed Amasa by the beard to kiss him.
- 1 Kings 2:5 Moreover, you know what Joab son of Zeruiah did to me—what he did to Abner son of Ner and Amasa son of Jether, the two commanders of the armies of Israel. He killed them in peacetime to avenge the blood of war. He stained with the blood of war the belt around his waist and the sandals on his feet.
- Deuteronomy 27:24 ‘Cursed is he who strikes down his neighbor in secret.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’
- 1 Kings 2:32 The LORD will bring his bloodshed back upon his own head, for without the knowledge of my father David he struck down two men more righteous and better than he when he put to the sword Abner son of Ner, commander of Israel’s army, and Amasa son of Jether, commander of Judah’s army.
- 2 Samuel 2:19 and he chased Abner, not turning to the right or to the left in his pursuit.
- Jeremiah 41:2 Then Ishmael son of Nethaniah and the ten men who were with him got up and struck down Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, with the sword, killing the one whom the king of Babylon had appointed to govern the land.
- Jeremiah 41:6 And Ishmael son of Nethaniah went out from Mizpah to meet them, weeping as he went. When Ishmael encountered the men, he said, “Come to Gedaliah son of Ahikam.”