Study Desk

Then David said to Joab and all the people with him, "Tear your clothes and put on sackcloth and walk in mourning in front of Abner." King David himself walked behind the bier.

They buried Abner in Hebron, and the king wept aloud at Abner's tomb. All the people wept also.

The king sang this lament for Abner: "Should Abner have died as the lawless die?

Your hands were not bound, your feet were not fettered. You fell as one falls before wicked men." And all the people wept over him again.

Then they all came and urged David to eat something while it was still day; but David took an oath, saying, "May God deal with me, be it ever so severely, if I taste bread or anything else before the sun sets!"

All the people took note and were pleased; indeed, everything the king did pleased them.

So on that day all the people and all Israel knew that the king had no part in the murder of Abner son of Ner.

Then the king said to his men, "Do you not realize that a prince and a great man has fallen in Israel this day?

And today, though I am the anointed king, I am weak, and these sons of Zeruiah are too strong for me. May the LORD repay the evildoer according to his evil deeds!"