Abner
From BibleWiki
Meaning: Father of light; i.e., "enlightening"
The son of Ner and uncle of Saul. He was commander-in-chief of Saul's army (1Sam 14:50; 1Sam 17:55; 1Sam 20:25). He first introduced David to the court of Saul after the victory over Goliath (1Sam 17:57). After the death of Saul, David was made king over Judah, and reigned in Hebron. Among the other tribes there was a feeling of hostility to Judah; and Abner, at the head of Ephraim, fostered this hostility in the interest of the house of Saul, whose son Ish-bosheth he caused to be proclaimed king (2 Sam 2:8). A state of war existed between these two kings. A battle fatal to Abner, who was the leader of Ish-boseth's army, was fought with David's army under Joab at Gibeon (2 Sam 2:12). Abner, escaping from the field, was overtaken by Asahel, who was "light of foot as a wild roe," the brother of Joab and Abishai, whom he thrust through with a back stroke of his spear (2 Sam 2:18).
Being rebuked by Ish-bosheth for the impropriety of taking to wife Rizpah, who had been a concubine of King Saul, he found an excuse for going over to the side of David, whom he now professed to regard as anointed by the Lord to reign over all Israel. David received him favourably, and promised that he would have command of the armies. At this time Joab was absent from Hebron, but on his return he found what had happened. Abner had just left the city; but Joab by a stratagem recalled him, and meeting him at the gate of the city on his return, thrust him through with his sword (2 Sam 3:27, 2 Sam 4:12. Comp. 1 Kg 2:5, 1 Kg 2:32). David lamented in pathetic words the death of Abner, "Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel?" (2 Sam 3:33)
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A son of Ner, a cousin of Saul, and commander-in-chief of Saul's army (I Kings xiv, 50: xvii, 55; xxvi, 5, 7, 14). After Saul with three of his sons had fallen at Mount Gelboe, Abner made Isboseth, the fourth son of Saul, king over the whole land of Israel excepting Judea, which adhered to David. For seven years and a half Abner fought for the throne of Isboseth. After his defeat near Gabaon, he was hotly pursued by Asael, brother of Joab, who was David's commander-in-chief, and in self-defense he reluctantly slew his enemy (II Kings ii, 12 sq.). This embittered the hostility between the two factions, since Joab considered himself the avenger ofhis brother Asael. Abner now married Respha, a concubine f Saul, and thus incurred the suspicion of aspiring to the throne. Isboseth remonstrated with the warrior, and the latter became so angry that he made advances to David. David demanded that Abner should first restore to him his wife Michol, daughter of Saul, who had been given to Phaltiel. Abner complied with this condition, and came to a full understanding with David. After his departure Joab, David's commander-in-chief, sent for him, and killed him at the city gate. David bewailed Abner, made Joab walk in mourning-garb before Abner's bier, and on his death-bed enjoined on Solomon to avenge Abner's murder.
—Biblical Data:
According to I Chron. viii. 29-33, and Josephus ("Ant." vi. 6, § 3), an uncle of Saul; while I Sam. xiv. 51 and Josephus ("Ant." vi. 6, § 6) seem to show that he was Saul's cousin. The latter view is regarded as the more probable, although it involves a slight emendation of the Masoretic text in I Sam. xiv. 51 (read "sons" of Abiel instead of "son"). Abner was Saul's captain of the host (I Sam. xiv. 50, xvii. 55). After the fatal battle at Mt. Gilboa, Abner kept all the tribes except Judah faithful to Ishbosheth, then in refuge at Mahanaim. The disastrous battle at the pool of Gibeon (II Sam. ii. 8-30) sealed the fate of Saul's kingdom. Abner, smarting under a malign charge of Ishbosheth (II Sam. iii. 7-11), privately turned over his allegiance and influence with the tribes to David (II Sam. iii. 12-21). Joab, David's captain of the host, through jealousy and out of vengeance for Asahel's death (II Sam. ii. 19-23), treacherously slew Abner (II Sam. iii. 27-30), who was buried, amid royal mourning, in Hebron (II Sam. iii. 33-38). According to a Jewish tradition, Abner was the son of the Witch of En-dor.
—In Rabbinical Literature:
Son of the Witch of En-dor (Pirḳe R. El. xxxiii.), and the hero par excellence in the Haggadah (Yalḳ., Jer. 285; Eccl. R. on ix. 11; Ḳid. 49b). Conscious of his extraordinary strength, he exclaimed: "If I could only catch hold of the earth, I could shake it" (Yalḳ. l.c.)—a saying which parallels the famous utterance of Archimedes, "Had I a fulcrum, I could move the world." According to the Midrash (Eccl. R. l.c.) it would have been easier to move a wall six yards thick than one of the feet of Abner, who could hold the Israelitish army between his knees. Yet when his time came ( (image) ), Joab smote him. But even in his dying hour, Abner seized his foe like a ball of thread, threatening to crush him. Then the Israelites came and pleaded for Joab's life, saying: "If thou killest him we shall be orphaned, and our women and all our belongings will become a prey to the Philistines." Abner answered: "What can I do? He has extinguished my light" (has wounded me fatally). The Israelites replied: "Entrust thy cause to the true judge [God]." Then Abner released his hold upon Joab and fell dead to the ground (Yalḳ. l.c.).
His One Sin.
The rabbis agree that Abner deserved this violent death, though opinions differ concerning the exact nature of the sin that entailed so dire a punishment on one who was, on the whole, considered a "righteous man" (Gen. R. lxxxii. 4). Some reproach him that he did not use his influence with Saul to prevent him from murdering the priests of Nob (Yer. Peah, i. 16a; Lev. R. xxvi. 2; Sanh. 20a)—convinced as he was of the innocence of the priests and of the propriety of their conduct toward David, Abner holding that as leader of the army David was privileged to avail himself of the Urim and Thummim (I Sam. xxii. 9-19). Instead of contenting himself with passive resistance to Saul's command to murder the priests (Yalḳ., Sam. 131), Abner ought to have tried to restrain the king. Others maintain that Abner did make such an attempt, but in vain, and that his one sin consisted in that he delayed the beginning of David's reign over Israel by fighting him after Saul's death for two years and a half (Sanh. l.c.). Others, again, while excusing him for this—in view of a tradition founded on Gen. xlix. 27, according to which there were to be two kings of the house of Benjamin—blame Abner for having prevented a reconciliation between Saul and David on the occasion when the latter, in holding up the skirt of Saul's robe (I Sam. xxiv. 11), showed how unfounded was the king's mistrust of him. Saul was inclined to be pacified; but Abner, representing to him that David might have found the piece of the garment anywhere—possibly caught on a thorn—prevented the reconciliation (Yer. Peah, l.c., Lev. R. l.c., and elsewhere). Moreover, it was wrong in Abner to permit Israelitish youths to kill one another for sport (II Sam. ii. 14-16). No reproach, however, attaches to him for the death of Asahel, since Abner killed him in self-defense (Sanh. 49a).
It is characteristic of the rabbinical view of the Bible narratives that Abner, the warrior pure and simple, is styled "Lion of the Law" (Yer. Peah, l.c.), and that even a specimen is given of a halakic discussion between him and Doeg as to whether the law in Deut. xxiii. 3 excluded Ammonite and Moabite women from the Jewish community as well as men. Doeg was of the opinion that David, being descended from the Moabitess Ruth, was not fit to wear the crown, nor even to be considered a true Israelite; while Abner maintained that the law affected only the male line of descent. When Doeg's dialectics proved more than a match for those of Abner, the latter went to the prophet Samuel, who not only supported Abner in his view, but utterly refuted Doeg's assertions (Midr. Sam. xxii.; Yeb. 76b et seq.).
One of the most prominent families (Ẓiẓit ha-Kesat) in Jerusalem in the middle of the first centuryof the common era claimed descent from Abner (Gen. R. xcviii.).
