“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.”
My Notes
What Does 2 Samuel 3:27 Mean?
2 Samuel 3:27 records one of the coldest murders in the Old Testament — and every detail is designed to show the calculation behind the violence. "And when Abner was returned to Hebron" — vayyashov Avner Chevron. Abner — Saul's former general, the most powerful military figure in Israel after David — had just made peace with David (v. 21). He'd committed to bring all Israel under David's kingship. He left David's presence in peace (v. 21: "and he went in peace"). The reconciliation was genuine, political, and consequential.
"Joab took him aside in the gate to speak with him quietly" — vayyatteyhu Yo'av el-tokh hashsha'ar leddabber itto bashsheli. Joab — David's general — intercepted Abner at the gate. Took him aside — vayyatteyhu, drew him away, diverted him from the public space. To speak quietly — bashsheli, in private, in confidence, under the pretense of a confidential conversation. The setup was social: let me talk to you privately. The private conversation was a trap.
"And smote him there under the fifth rib, that he died" — vayyakkeyhu sham hachomesh vayyamot. Under the fifth rib — the same anatomical strike point where Abner himself had killed Joab's brother Asahel (2:23). The location of the wound is deliberate: Joab killed Abner in the same spot Abner killed Asahel. The revenge was symmetrical down to the wound.
"For the blood of Asahel his brother" — bedamey Asa'el achiv. The motive: blood revenge. Asahel's death demanded retribution under the ancient blood-feud system. But the killing was illegitimate: Abner had killed Asahel in battle (a lawful context), while Joab killed Abner through deception during peacetime. The revenge perverted justice by pretending to be justice.
David's response (vv. 28-29): "I and my kingdom are guiltless... let it rest on the head of Joab." David publicly disowned the murder — but he didn't punish Joab. The political cost was too high. The general was too valuable. And the injustice lingered for decades until David's deathbed instruction to Solomon: "let not his hoar head go down to the grave in peace" (1 Kings 2:6).
Reflection Questions
- 1.Have you been 'drawn aside to speak quietly' by someone whose intimacy was a trap?
- 2.How does Joab's precise revenge (same wound location) expose the lie that calculated retaliation is the same as justice?
- 3.What does David's failure to punish Joab — knowing it was wrong but politically costly — teach about delayed justice?
- 4.Where are you postponing a just action because the political or relational cost feels too high?
Devotional
He drew him aside. To speak quietly. And then he killed him.
The murder of Abner is the anatomy of betrayal by false intimacy. Joab used the posture of private conversation — the body language of trust, the tone of confidence, the physical closeness that says: I need to tell you something personal — as the setup for an assassination. The gate was a public space. Joab drew him into the private space. And the private space was where the knife was waiting.
The symmetry was surgical: under the fifth rib. The exact spot where Abner killed Joab's brother Asahel. The wound that took Asahel's life was replicated in the wound that took Abner's. Joab's revenge was precise enough to mirror the original death — as if mathematical accuracy made the murder just. It didn't. Asahel died in battle. Abner died in a peace negotiation. The contexts were completely different. The revenge was completely unjust.
David knew. He disowned it publicly. He cursed Joab's line (v. 29). He mourned Abner genuinely (v. 31-34). But he didn't punish Joab. The general was too powerful, too useful, too embedded in the military structure David depended on. The justice David knew was right was the justice David couldn't afford politically. And the unpunished murder festered for the rest of David's reign — a debt that was finally assigned to Solomon to collect (1 Kings 2:5-6).
The verse warns about two things simultaneously: the person who draws you aside to speak quietly might be drawing you to your death. And the leader who knows justice is required but delays it for political reasons creates a debt that someone else will eventually have to pay.
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
And when Abner was returned to Hebron,.... Alone, and not the twenty men with him; not to David's court, but just to the…
And smote him there - Joab feared that, after having rendered such essential services to David, Abner would be made…
We have here an account of the murder of Abner by Joab, and David's deep resentment of it.
I. Joab very insolently fell…
in the gate Lit. into the midst of the gate, the space between the inner and outer gateways. But the publicity of the…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture