8 However, Abner (Ner’s son) who’d been Sha’ul’s army commander had taken Sha’ul’s son Iysh-Boshet[fn] across to Mahanayim 9 and declared him to be king over Gilead, and over the Asherites and Yezreel, and over Efraim and Benyamin, and over all of Israel. 10 Iysh-Boshet was forty years old when he started to rule over the Israelis, and he ruled them for two years.

But the tribe of Yehudah was loyal to David 11 and he ruled them for seven and a half years.

12 One day Abner left Mahanayim with some of Iysh-Boshet’s servants and went to Gibeon, 13 but Yoav (Tseruyah’s son, traditionally called ‘Joab’ in English) took some of David’s servants and went and confronted them at the Gibeon pool—one group on each side of the pool. 14 Then Abner said to Yoav, “Let’s get some of these young warriors to fight it out in front of us.”

“Sounds good to me,” said Yoav.

15 So they stood up and counted off twelve representing Benyamin and Sha’ul’s son Iysh-Boshet and twelve from David’s servants. 16 Each of them grabbed his opponent’s head and then thrust his sword into his side, so they both fell down dead together. So that place in Gibeon was named ‘Helkat-Hatsurim’ (meaning ‘Field of Daggers’).

17 That led on to a very intense battle that day, but Abner and the Israeli men were defeated by David’s servants. 18 Tseruyah’s three sons were there: Yoav, Avishay, and Asahel, (Asahel was a fast runner—like a wild antelope.) 19 and Asahel chased after Abner and wouldn’t give up. 20 Abner turned and said, “Is that you, Asahel?”

“Yes, it’s me,” he answered.

21 “I’m warning you: Stop chasing me and go after someone else instead,” Abner called back. But Asahel wouldn’t give up 22 so Abner tried again, “Stop chasing me! You’ll force me to kill you, then how could I face your brother Yoav?” 23 But Asahel wouldn’t give up so Abner thrust the butt end of his spear into his stomach and it went right through and came out his back. He fell to the ground and died there, and when the others caught up, they stopped there.

24 But Yoav and Abishai kept going after Abner. As the sun was setting, they came to the Ammah hill (east of Giah, along the road to the wilderness near Gibeon) 25 and the Benyamites lined up behind Abner as an coordinated unit there on top of the hill. 26 Abner called out to Yoav, “Are we just going to keep killing each other? Don’t you know that the only result can be more bitterness? How long will you go on before you command your people to stop killing their cousins?”

27 “As God lives,” Yoav replied, “if you hadn’t said that, then surely it would have been morning before they would have pulled back from the chase.” 28 So Yoav had a trumpet blown and his men stopped fighting and pursing the Israelis.

29 Then Abner and his men walked all that night through the Jordan river plain, then crossed the river and walked all morning until they got back to Mahanayim.

30 When Yoav had assembled them all and counted them, only Asahel and nineteen others had been killed in the battle, 31 although they had killed 360 of Abner’s Benyamite warriors. 32 They retrieved Asahel’s body and buried it in his father’s tomb in Beyt-Lehem. Then they walked all night and got back to Hebron at first light.

3 Neverthless the war between Sha’ul’s and David’s followers dragged on and on, but overall, David’s side had more wins than the followers of Iysh-Boshet.