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there came: 1 Samuel 26:8

Reciprocal: Daniel 4:19 - My Lord Matthew 26:40 - What

And David said to Abner, [art] not thou a [valiant] man?.... Or a man u, a man of great fame for courage and valour, a man of great authority, who had the next post in the army under Saul, but had not behaved like a man, worthy of his character and office:

and who [is] like to thee in Israel? none that bare so great a name, or was in so high an office, who therefore should have been careful to have acted according to both:

wherefore then hast thou not kept thy lord the king? took care to have set a guard about his person while he slept; which perhaps was neglected through a contempt of David and his men, as being in no fear of them:

for there came one of the people in to destroy the king thy lord; that is, there had been one in the camp that night, who had entered there with that view to have destroyed him, had he an opportunity, and which did offer; this was true of Abishai, who no doubt went down with David into the camp with that intent, though David did not, and therefore he says, "one of the people", not more; for though two went in, only one with that view: David observes to them the danger the king was in, his carefulness of him to preserve his life, to whom only it was owing, and the negligence of Abner, and those under his command.

u איש "vir", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Tigurine version, Piscator.

This incidental testimony to Abner’s great eminence as a warrior is fully borne out by David’s dirge at Abner’s death 2 Samuel 3:31-34, 2 Samuel 3:38, as well as by his whole history. At the same time David’s bantering tone in regard to Abner, coupled with what he says in 1 Samuel 26:19, makes it proable that David attributed Saul’s persecution of him in some degree to Abner. Abner would be likely to dread a rival in the young conqueror of Judah (compare 2 Samuel 2:8).