Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
David is anointed king in Hebron over the tribe of Judah, while for the other eleven tribes Abner, verse 8, makes Ishbosheth, Saul's son, king. Then, verse 14, Abner and Joab engage in a duel through twelve soldiers on each side, and then in a full-scale battle, in which the Joabites are victorious; Asahel, pursuing Abner, verse 19, is pierced by his spear. Finally Joab, at Abner's request not to drive him and his men to desperation — which is dangerous for the victor — sounds the retreat.
Vulgate Text: 2 Kings 2:1-32
1. Therefore after these things David consulted the Lord, saying: Shall I go up to one of the cities of Judah? And the Lord said to him: Go up. And David said: Where shall I go up? And He answered him: To Hebron. 2. So David went up, and his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelite and Abigail, the wife of Nabal of Carmel; 3. and also the men who were with him, David brought each one with his household, and they dwelt in the towns of Hebron. 4. And the men of Judah came and there anointed David to reign over the house of Judah. And David was told that the men of Jabesh Gilead had buried Saul. 5. So David sent messengers to the men of Jabesh Gilead, and said to them: Blessed be you of the Lord, who have shown this kindness to your lord Saul, and buried him. 6. And now may the Lord repay you with kindness and faithfulness; and I also will repay you this favor, because you have done this thing. 7. Let your hands be strengthened, and be valiant men; for although your lord Saul is dead, yet the house of Judah has anointed me king over them. 8. But Abner the son of Ner, commander of Saul's army, took Ishbosheth the son of Saul and led him around through the camps, 9. and made him king over Gilead, and over the Geshurites, and over Jezreel, and over Ephraim, and over Benjamin, and over all Israel. 10. Ishbosheth the son of Saul was forty years old when he began to reign over Israel, and he reigned two years; but the house of Judah alone followed David. 11. And the number of days that David reigned in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months. 12. And Abner the son of Ner, and the servants of Ishbosheth the son of Saul, went out from the camp to Gibeon. 13. And Joab the son of Zeruiah and the servants of David went out and met them by the pool of Gibeon. And when they had come together, they sat down facing each other, these on one side of the pool, and those on the other. 14. And Abner said to Joab: Let the young men arise and compete before us. And Joab answered: Let them arise. 15. So they arose and crossed over, twelve in number from Benjamin, on the side of Ishbosheth the son of Saul, and twelve from the servants of David. 16. And each one seized his opponent by the head and thrust his sword into the other's side, and they fell together: and that place was called the Field of the Mighty, in Gibeon. 17. And the battle was very fierce that day; and Abner and the men of Israel were routed by the servants of David. 18. Now there were three sons of Zeruiah there: Joab, and Abishai, and Asahel; and Asahel was as swift of foot as one of the gazelles that dwell in the forests. 19. And Asahel pursued Abner, and he did not turn to the right or to the left from pursuing Abner. 20. Then Abner looked behind him and said: Are you Asahel? He answered: I am. 21. And Abner said to him: Turn aside to your right or to your left, and seize one of the young men, and take his spoils for yourself. But Asahel would not cease from pressing him. 22. And Abner spoke again to Asahel: Turn aside, do not follow me, lest I be compelled to strike you to the ground, and I will not be able to lift up my face to Joab your brother. 23. But he refused to listen and would not turn aside; so Abner struck him with the butt of his spear in the groin, and pierced him through, and he died in that same place; and all who passed through the place where Asahel had fallen and died, stopped. 24. But as Joab and Abishai were pursuing the fleeing Abner, the sun went down, and they came to the Hill of the Aqueduct, which is opposite the valley of the road of the desert in Gibeon. 25. And the sons of Benjamin gathered to Abner, and forming themselves into one wedge, they stood on the top of a certain hill. 26. And Abner called out to Joab and said: Will your sword rage until total destruction? Do you not know that desperation is dangerous? How long will you not tell the people to stop pursuing their brothers? 27. And Joab said: As the Lord lives, if you had spoken, the people would have withdrawn this morning from pursuing their brother. 28. So Joab sounded the trumpet, and the whole army halted, and they pursued Israel no further, nor did they engage in battle. 29. And Abner and his men marched through the plains all that night, and crossed the Jordan, and traversing all of Beth-horon they came to the camp. 30. And Joab, returning and leaving off from Abner, gathered all the people; and nineteen men of David's servants were missing, besides Asahel. 31. But the servants of David had struck down three hundred and sixty of Benjamin and of the men who were with Abner, who also died. 32. And they took Asahel and buried him in the sepulcher of his father in Bethlehem; and Joab and the men who were with him marched all night, and at dawn they arrived in Hebron.
Verse 1: David Consulted the Lord
1. DAVID CONSULTED THE LORD — through the Urim, namely through Abiathar the high priest wearing the Breastplate, in which were the Urim and Thummim, as I have often said.
TO HEBRON. — God commands David to go to Hebron, because there, says Procopius, the Patriarchs had lived and were buried, and Hebron was then the capital of the tribe of Judah; so that David might be consecrated king there, and having been consecrated there, he might easily be accepted as king by the whole tribe.
Verse 3: They Dwelt in the Towns of Hebron
3. AND THEY DWELT IN THE TOWNS OF HEBRON — namely in the cities neighboring Hebron and dependent upon it, which are elsewhere called daughter cities.
Verse 4: The Men of Judah Anointed David
4. AND THE MEN OF JUDAH CAME AND ANOINTED DAVID THERE — as one of their own tribe; for they preferred David, being of their own tribe, to reign, rather than Ishbosheth the son of Saul, who was from the tribe of Benjamin. For they knew that the patriarch Jacob had assigned the kingdom to the tribe of Judah, Genesis chapter 49, verse 10. They knew moreover that David had long since been anointed by Samuel as king, and had won so many and so great victories over the enemies: for which reason many from other tribes, deserting Ishbosheth, went over to David, whose number is recorded in I Chronicles chapter 12.
Verse 6: May the Lord Repay You with Kindness
6. AND NOW MAY THE LORD REPAY YOU WITH KINDNESS AND FAITHFULNESS. — In Hebrew, piety and fidelity, so that just as you showed both to your lord King Saul in recovering and burying his body, so may God repay you with both, and show Himself pious and merciful as well as faithful in rewarding your virtue. Note: Mercy and truth signify every work of virtue, both the free (such as mercy) and the obligatory (such as truth), that is, equity, fidelity, and justice.
Verse 8: Abner Makes Ishbosheth King
8. BUT ABNER THE SON OF NER, COMMANDER OF SAUL'S ARMY (and his cousin; for Ner, Abner's father, was the brother of Kish, who was Saul's father), TOOK ISHBOSHETH THE SON OF SAUL AND LED HIM AROUND THROUGH THE CAMPS. — In Hebrew it is מחנים Machanaim, that is, camps, as our Translator and the Septuagint render it. But the Chaldeans, Serarius, and Vatablus take Machanaim as a proper name of the place where Jacob saw the camps of Angels defending him against Esau, and therefore called the place Machanaim, that is "camps," Genesis chapter 32, verse 2, as though in the same place — being so famous and sacred — Ishbosheth was anointed as king by Abner to win popular favor for him: hence he also established the royal seat there, says Josephus.
Verse 9: King over Gilead and All Israel
9. AND HE MADE HIM KING OVER GILEAD, AND OVER THE GESHURITES, ETC., AND OVER ALL ISRAEL. — For Gessuri, the Hebrews, Septuagint, and Chaldean read Assuri. Geshur was a region across the Jordan in the territory of the Manassites, but the Manassites could not prevail over the Canaanites dwelling in Geshur: hence David took plunder from Geshur, treating it as an enemy of Israel, as we heard in book I, chapter 27, verse 8, and from there he took the daughter of the king, whom he made his wife, and from her he fathered Absalom, who consequently, after killing his brother Amnon, fleeing his father David's anger, betook himself to the king of Geshur as to his maternal grandfather, as we shall hear in chapter III, verse 3, and chapter 13, verse 37. Therefore Ishbosheth became king of Geshur in name only, not in reality.
AND OVER ISRAEL — that is, over the remaining eleven tribes. Here therefore the division and schism of the kingdom of Israel took place. For David was made king of the tribe of Judah, and Ishbosheth of the remaining eleven; hence later this schism was renewed under Rehoboam, David's grandson; for the tribe of Judah alone adhered to him, while the other tribes chose Jeroboam as their king. The former was called the kingdom of Judah, the latter the kingdom of Israel, the common name being appropriated to the larger portion of the tribes.
Moreover, Abulensis, Serarius, and others excuse Ishbosheth from tyranny and usurpation of the kingdom, on the grounds that it was owed to him by hereditary right: for although David had been anointed by Samuel as king, nevertheless that anointing was secret and not authentically published, so that Ishbosheth was not bound to believe anyone and to yield his father's kingdom to David. Hence David in chapter IV, verse 11, calls him an innocent man, and avenged his murder. Similarly they excuse Abner, whose death David likewise avenged by the death of Joab; for otherwise Abner would have gravely sinned in procuring the kingdom for Ishbosheth, if he had known it was given to David by God; indeed if he had later learned this, he could not lawfully have supported and defended Ishbosheth as king, but should have advised him to yield the kingdom to David. Moreover, it is a fable of R. Solomon that when the people wanted David as king, Abner proved that the kingdom was owed to Ishbosheth from Genesis 35:18, where Jacob names the son called Benoni (son of sorrow) by Rachel dying in childbirth, Benjamin, that is, son of the right hand. For the right hand is the symbol of the king and the kingdom; and Ishbosheth and Saul were descended from Benjamin, but David from Judah.
Verse 10: He Reigned Two Years
10. AND HE REIGNED TWO YEARS. — Hence R. Solomon and the Hebrews in Seder Olam chapter XIII hold that Ishbosheth reigned only two years, so that after those years, when he was killed, the eleven tribes were without a king for five and a half years, at the end of which they made David their king.
But it is more true that Ishbosheth reigned as many years in Israel as David reigned in Judah, namely seven and a half years; for when Ishbosheth died, David immediately succeeded him in the kingdom, and reigned over both Judah and all the other tribes. Hence Josephus also states that the eleven tribes, immediately after the killing of Ishbosheth, chose David as their king. Therefore when it says here that Ishbosheth reigned two years, understand: peacefully and quietly, before he provoked David to war; for he did this after two years, as is narrated in verse 12. Moreover, this war on both sides lasted five and a half years until the death of Ishbosheth; hence in chapter III, verse 1, it says: "There was a long conflict between the house of Saul and the house of David," that is, between Ishbosheth and David.
Verse 14: Let the Young Men Compete
14. AND ABNER SAID TO JOAB: LET THE YOUNG MEN (warlike youths) ARISE AND COMPETE BEFORE US. — Let them compete with a military game and a duel, that is, let them duel among themselves. For a duel presents to curious spectators the appearance of a game and an entertaining spectacle: and so at Rome, the fights of gladiators dueling in the amphitheater were presented to the people as games. Again, a duel is called a game because in it the duelists show how skilled they are in the gladiatorial art, which nobles practice as a game, and by practicing learn. So Vatablus. Third, because Abner meant this duel not so much for victory as for a military exhibition, namely to show that his soldiers were stronger than the soldiers of David and Joab. So Josephus. Fourth, because this duel was like a skirmish and a prelude to a general battle and engagement, which immediately followed, as is clear from what follows; and perhaps, says Serarius, it was like a kind of divinatory omen of victory, such as the Germans used to employ of old, as Cornelius Tacitus reports in his book On the Customs of the Germans: "There is," he says, "also another observation of auspices by which they test the outcomes of serious wars. From the nation with which they are at war, they match a captive however obtained against a champion of their own people, each with his native weapons; the victory of one or the other is taken as a forecast."
Moreover, Abner sinned, both because, wishing to display his own and Ishbosheth's kingdom's strength, he was the first to provoke Joab to a duel and battle, and so by just judgment of God he was defeated and routed in the same; Joab also sinned, but less so, because he consented to the duel and battle, and to the unjust death of those who would be killed in it; for no just cause for war had yet preceded, such as damages or injuries inflicted by Abner or Ishbosheth. For it is not lawful to wage war except for a just and grave cause. So says Abulensis. If however Abner had first attacked Joab, Joab could lawfully, indeed should, have defended himself and his king David, and repelled force with force: but Abner did not do this.
Verse 16: Each One Seized His Opponent by the Head
16. AND EACH ONE SEIZED HIS OPPONENT BY THE HEAD. — Josephus, Rabanus, and Angelomus restrict "each one" to those who were on Joab's side, for they say each of these seized the head of his counterpart, that is, his antagonist from Abner's side, and ran them through, so that the Joabites were safe and victorious, while the Abnerites alone were all slain. But others generally take "each one" as it sounds, and refer it to both Abnerites and Joabites, so that all to a man were slain, and on both sides they fell by mutual wounds. Such was the Cadmean battle. For the Poets fable that Cadmus, son of Agenor and founder of Thebes, when he had seen his companions killed by the dragon, sowed the dragon's teeth, from which men arose who slew each other with mutual blows.
Verse 17: A Fierce Battle
17. AND A BATTLE BROKE OUT. — See, here the duel passes into a fierce total war; hence the duel was, as I said, like a game and a prelude to it.
Verse 18: Asahel Was a Very Swift Runner
18. NOW ASAHEL WAS A VERY SWIFT RUNNER. — Josephus says that Asahel was so swift that he surpassed not only men but even horses in running, such as are still found in Ireland and India. St. Bachiarius, epistle On the Lapsed: "Asahel," he says, "is said by Scripture to be swift as a deer, because, I believe, the purity of his undefiled body had granted him the gift of swiftness; for the body which is corrupted weighs down the soul, Wisdom 9:15." And he infers this purity of Asahel from the fact that he is compared with a deer, as he reads it: "He was swift," he says, "as a deer, that is, one who not only avoided the snares of the enemy by keenness of mind, but also became the slayer of serpents, that is, of opposing vices." For the deer excels in keenness of sight, and wages perpetual enmity with serpents.
Tropologically, the Asahels are those who run eagerly to any and all offices of charity, such as was Cardamas, whom St. Paul, epistle 5 to Amandus, comparing to Asahel, credits with the feet of deer. "For he has been placed," he says, "in the ministry of so great a charity, that in freedom he serves, in old age he runs about, and he prefers to spend the rest of his well-earned retirement in the labor of pilgrimage rather than in a domestic seat; because he shuns treading the paths of the lazy, strewn with thorns, lest it be turned into hardship, while the thorn of wretched anxiety pierces him from the unfruitful leisure of inertia. And so he leaps forth, undaunted, to run the course, lest to him, wasting time in sluggish idleness, the poverty that attends the lazy should meet him like a swift runner."
Verse 23: Abner Struck Asahel with His Spear
23. SO ABNER STRUCK HIM WITH THE BUTT OF HIS SPEAR IN THE GROIN. — In Hebrew, in the fifth, namely rib, where the liver and gall bladder are located. Tropologically, Asahel represents those who are too fervent, rash, and furious, who must be restrained not directly but indirectly and obliquely; for as St. Gregory says, Part III of the Pastoral Rule, Admonition 17, and from him Angelomus and Eucherius: "To strike with the point of the spear (directly) is to confront someone with the force of open rebuke; but to strike a pursuer with the butt of the spear is to touch the furious person gently with certain words and, as it were, to overcome him by sparing him. And Asahel immediately fell, because agitated minds, when they feel they are being spared and yet are touched in their inmost parts by the reasonableness of the responses under a calm exterior, immediately fall from the position they had taken up."
Hence Abner in Hebrew means the same as "father's lamp," which is the prudence of one who corrects gently and mildly.
Verse 26: Desperation Is Dangerous
26. DO YOU NOT KNOW THAT DESPERATION IS DANGEROUS? — For desperate soldiers fight most fiercely, either to conquer, or if conquered, not to die unavenged, but to sell their lives dearly to the enemy: therefore from desperation hope of victory is born, indeed desperation is often the cause of victory. Accordingly, illustrious commanders and the desperate have this principle: Do not fight with one in despair. For the fleeing enemy, lay a golden bridge. So Tryphon, after killing Jonathan, did not dare to attack his few desperate companions. For "those who had been pursuing them, seeing that the matter was one of life and death for them, turned back," 1 Maccabees 12:15. Nor did Lysias with his many soldiers dare to attack Judas Maccabeus with his few men. Hear Scripture in the same book, chapter 4, verse 35: "But Lysias, seeing the flight of his men, and the boldness of the Jews, and that they were prepared either to live or to die bravely, departed to Antioch and gathered soldiers, so that reinforced they might come again to Judea." We have often seen similar things in the wars of the Netherlands. Vegetius gives the reason, book III On Military Affairs chapter 21: "From desperation," he says, "boldness grows; and when there is no hope, fear takes up arms. And therefore the celebrated saying of Scipio is praised, who said that a way for the enemy to flee must be provided." Curtius says well, book IV: "Whoever has scorned death escapes it; it overtakes the most timid." And again, book V: "Necessity sharpens cowardice, and often desperation is the cause of hope." Add Seneca the philosopher, book II Natural Questions chapter 59: "There is no more deadly enemy," he says, "than one whom straits make bold; and we are always seized far more violently by necessity than by courage." Justin, book XX of his History, narrates that fifteen thousand Locrians defeated a hundred thousand Crotonians, and adds the reason: "Because," he says, "having lost hope of victory, they conspired to meet a determined death; and so great an ardor from desperation seized each one, that they thought themselves victorious if they did not die unavenged. But while they sought to die honorably, they won gloriously." Hence that verse of Virgil, book II of the Aeneid:
"The only safety for the vanquished is to hope for no safety."
And that Sallustian saying: "Most severe are the bites of provoked necessity."