2 Samuel 2:18-32 ▼

18 And were there three the sons of Zeruiah, Joab and Abishai and Asahel. And Asahel was as fleet of foot as one of the gazelles that are in the field.

19 And Asahel pursued after Abner, and he did not stretch in going to the right hand or to the left from following Abner.

20 And Abner looked behind him and said, “Is this you, Asahel?” And He answered, “It is I.”

21 And Abner said to him, “Stretch aside to your right hand or to your left, and lay hold on one of the young men, and take for yourself his armor.” And Asahel would not turn aside from after him.

22 And Abner added again in saying to Asahel, “Turn aside from following me. Why should I strike you to the ground? And how could I lift up my face unto Joab your brother?”

23 And he refused to turn aside. And Abner struck him with the back of the spear in the stomach, and the spear came out of his back, and he fell down there and died under him. And it came to pass that all who came to the place where Asahel fell down and died, they stood still.

24 And Joab and Abishai pursued after Abner, and the sun was going down, and they came to the hill of Ammah which is upon the face of Giah by the way of the Wilderness of Gibeon.

25 And the sons of Benjamin gathered together behind Abner, and they became one unit and took their stand on top of a certain hill.

26 And Abner called to Joab and said, “Shall the sword forever devour? Do you not know that it will be bitter in the end? And until when will you not say to the people to turn from after their brothers?”

27 And Joab said, “God lives, for unless you had spoken, surely then by the morning all the people would have pulled back from after their brothers.”

28 And Joab blew on the shofar, and all the people stood still and pursued no more after Israel, and they did not continue anymore to fight.

29 And Abner and his men went on through the Arabah all that night, and they passed over the Jordan and marched all morning, and they entered Mahanaim.

30 And Joab returned from pursuing Abner, and he gathered together all the people. And there were missing from the servants of David nineteen men, and Asah-el.

31 And the servants of David had struck down from Benjamin, even from the men of Abner, three hundred and sixty men who died.

32 And they took up Asahel and buried him in the tomb of his father that was in Bethlehem. And Joab and his men marched all night, and at daybreak they came to Hebron.