Series Introduction: This is a series of articles based on the some of the minor characters in the books of 1 & 2 Samuel in the Bible. On one hand, they are margins in the footnotes of history. On the other hand, these are real people who lived real lives that are too easily passed over.
Abner is my favourite minor character in the ballad of Samuel. Against the incivility of civil war and the desperation of repelling homeland against invasions and incursions, he conducts his role as general of the Saul’s Dynasty on the ‘losing’ side with honour and integrity. Of him, David eulogises: ‘Do you not know that a prince and a great man has fallen this day in Israel?’ (2 Samuel 3:38). Such respect David had for a man who had opposed him for his entire reign.
Who is this man who earns such admiration from his enemies?
Abner is Saul’s cousin — the son of the king’s uncle Abiel (1 Sam 14:51). In Saul’s early exploits, it is his son Jonathan who wields the second sword in Israel (1 Sam 13:22) and who commands a third of his armies (1 Sam 13:2). But at some point in Saul’s reign, it is Abner named as the commander of his army (1 Sam 14:52) — a position he holds for several decades until his death. During his tenure, he leads the armies against countless Philistine incursions, pursues David’s renegade forces, witnesses the Philistines assault that would claim the life of Saul and Jonathan, and the civil war against David’s Israel.
When an anonymous shepherd boy comes to fight Goliath, it is to Abner Saul turns to ask, ‘Abner whose son is this young man?’ (1 Samuel 17:55). As the commander of the army, Abner would know a great many fighting men, but up until this point, David has not enlisted as a soldier.
One builds a picture of Abner as a man who is overwhelmingly loyal to his cousin and king. He stands by his side, sits by his side (1 Sam 20:25), fights by his side (1 Sam 26:5). There are only two men constantly by Saul’s side: his son and heir Jonathan, and Abner.
No doubt this gets increasingly difficult as Saul’s paranoia develops. Saul seems ill-at-ease with his position, and insecure in general, unable to let others receive praise at his expense (1 Samuel 18:8). His attacks on David are censured by his own family. His pursuit of David leads to some ignoble actions, such as the murder of a priesthood, Levites, and an entire town (1 Sam 22:18–19). (Only the Gentile amongst them is willing to commit such an atrocity; it is likely Abner is among those officials who refuse to carry out such an action — 1 Sam 22:17). One wonders what Saul’s officials thought when they saw their king publicly vacillating between public declarations of repentance (1 Sam 24:16–21; 26:21), and then returning to his pursuit of David.
Indeed Abner is loyal to Saul after his death. Although he can see that David has some legitimacy, he remains loyal to his King and his tribe. Instead, he makes Saul’s son Ish-Bosheth king (2 Samuel 2:7-8).
Abner has a reputation as a solder without equal. For this, David calls him to account:
¹⁴ [David] called out to the army and to Abner son of Ner, “Aren’t you going to answer me, Abner?”
Abner replied, “Who are you who calls to the king?”
¹⁵ David said, “You’re a man, aren’t you? And who is like you in Israel? Why didn’t you guard your lord the king? Someone came to destroy your lord the king. ¹⁶ What you have done is not good. As surely as the LORD lives, you and your men deserve to die, because you did not guard your master!”
(1 Samuel 26:14–16)
‘Who is like you?’ is powerful Hebrew rhetoric.¹ David himself addresses God thus in the Psalter (Ps 35:10; c.f. 77:10; 89:9). The rhetorical implication is that this person is without equal. There is no God like God, there is no man like Abner. High praise.
However David uses this to shame Abner; David could easily have assassinated Saul if he were so inclined, and Abner, a soldier without equal in Israel, should have been equal to the task.
Of course, a toe-to-toe battle is quite different to a thief in the night.
In one of few face-to-face battles, Abner defeats Asahel, who is counted as one of David’s finest warriors. A strong man might skewer another with a spear. Saul throws with enough force to impale a spear in a wall. But Abner strikes Asahel with enough force to put the blunt end of a spear all the way through his stomach (2 Sam 2:23).
Abner is an excellent soldier and a life-long general, but he does not make the mistake of thinking violence is always the answer. He’s well aware that, in the civil war, his enemies were once friends, and are still brothers. Abner at first refuses to duel Joab’s brother Asahel, lest he kill him and personally offend Joab (2 Sam 2:22), and only does so when he has no other option. Once it is done, he calls an end to hostilities. He says:
‘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?’ (2 Samuel 2:26).
The travails of war lead men to atrocities and betrayals and desperate acts. It is, in fact, the way Abner will die. But Abner conducts his role as general of the Saul’s Dynasty on the ‘losing’ side with honour and integrity. Unlike many, he is able to see what lies beyond war. He does not reduce the opposition to nameless faces, but remembers who they really are: brothers.
Joab is not such an honourable man. He fights on the ‘winning’ side, but is not above subterfuge and assassination. He will never forgive Abner for killing his brother. More on him anon.
It is unsurprising that such a man as Abner has a high position in the realm. He had been Saul’s right-hand man for decades. Meanwhile the king, Ish-Bosheth, seems callow and inept, or at least unwise.
It’s hard to read what happens in 2 Samuel 3, but it is pivotal both for Abner and Saul’s short-lived dynasty.
⁶ While there was war between the house of Saul and the house of David, Abner was making himself strong in the house of Saul. ⁷ Now Saul had a concubine whose name was Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah. And Ish-bosheth said to Abner, “Why have you gone in to my father’s concubine?”
Verse 6 is a statement of fact. Abner consolidates power.
Verse 7, however, is Ish-Bosheth’s accusation. ‘Gone in’ is Hebrew sexual euphemism. We do not know if it actually happened. The ethics in this scenario are grey: Rizpah would be a widow so to modern morality it seems permissible. But sleeping with a king’s concubines is a political power play which we will see again in Samuel. David’s son Absolom publicly sleeps with his father’s concubines to declare to all he has usurped the throne (2 Samuel 16:20–23).
Did it actually happen, or does Ish-Bosheth see his power being eroded and seek to maintain some vestige of power?
Whether Abner’s indignation is at being falsely accused or being caught out, he declares his tribal affiliation to Saul’s son:
‘To this day I keep showing steadfast love to the house of Saul your father, to his brothers, and to his friends, and have not given you into the hand of David.’
- 2 Samuel 3:8
Nevertheless, this signals the beginning of the end of Ish-Bosheth’s reign.
Abner brokers peace with David (2 Sam 3:12), negotiates and agreement with the rest of Israel (2 Sam 3:17), and conveys these agreements to David (2 Sam 3:20–21). Even murder cannot half the peace process: Abner’s work is finished when the tribes of Israel come to David and acknowledge him as king (2 Sam 5:1).
But Abner does not get to see that day come. His sins find him, as does the vengeful blade of Asahel’s brother Joab. Both Joab and Abishai murder Joab in cold blood, as peace talks are underway (2 Sam 3:27, 30).²
Every death is a personal tragedy. But this is also a political one. The murder of the highest official in Ish-Bosheth’s court could easily fragment peace talks. David does his utmost to allay concerns and holds a state funeral for Abner.
But we know David. Although men around him may be prone to subterfuge and realpolitik, David wears his heart on his sleeve. He tears his clothes for the death of Saul, and for Jonathan, and for Abner. He dances like a fool with devotion to God (2 Samuel 6:14). Abner’s funeral is politically necessary to unite Israel (2 Sam 3:37), but is it unlikely David’s words are disingenuous.
David’s public lament is thus:
³³ And the king lamented for Abner, saying,
“Should Abner die as a fool dies?
³⁴ Your hands were not bound; your feet were not fettered;
as one falls before the wicked you have fallen.”
-2 Samuel 3:33–34.
But his words in private to his servants:
³⁸ And the king said to his servants, “Do you not know that a prince and a great man has fallen this day in Israel?
- 2 Samuel 3:38.
Abner was a great man, and a prince of Israel. A loyal soldier without equal in the kingdom. He was no saint, but he had his own virtues too.
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Endnotes:
¹ Walter Brueggeman writes powerfully about this phrase (which in Hebrew is: מִ֤י כָמוֹ֙ךָ):
“The statement of incomparability comes early and yet is the most sweeping generalisation, we may regard it as the most poignant spine and leitmotif of all Israel’s testimony concerning Yahweh…
The question is usually in a context where it functions as an astonished certitude…No one, no god, is like Yahweh.”
- Brueggemann, Theology of the Old Testament (Fortress, 1997), 139–140.
It occurs in Exodus 15:11, which is thought to be one of Israel’s earliest theological confessions. How remarkable that David, the Psalmist who uses it of God, also uses it of Abner!
² Joab, however, sees his day come. Although Joab survives David’s rule, David’s last instruction to his successor Solomon is to have Joab ‘dealt with’:
⁵ …you also know what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me, how he dealt with the two commanders of the armies of Israel, Abner the son of Ner, and Amasa the son of Jether, whom he killed, avenging in time of peace for blood that had been shed in war, and putting the blood of war on the belt around his waist and on the sandals on his feet.
⁶ Act therefore according to your wisdom, but do not let his gray head go down to Sheol in peace.-1 Kings 2:5–6
Justice in the Israel’s history comes around, even though it take generations.
