21. After the feast, Abner said, “Your Majesty, let me leave now and bring Israel here to make an agreement with you. You'll be king of the whole nation, just as you've been wanting.”David told Abner he could leave, and he left without causing any trouble.
22. Soon after Abner had left Hebron, Joab and some of David's soldiers came back, bringing a lot of things they had taken from an enemy village.
23. Just after they arrived, someone told Joab, “Abner visited the king, and the king let him go. Abner even left without causing any trouble.”
24. Joab went to David and said, “What have you done? Abner came to you, and you let him go. Now he's long gone!
25. You know Abner—he came to trick you. He wants to find out how strong your army is and to know everything you're doing.”
26. Joab left David, then he sent some messengers to catch up with Abner. They brought him back from the well at Sirah, but David did not know anything about it.
27. When Abner returned to Hebron, Joab pretended he wanted to talk privately with him. So he took Abner into one of the small rooms that were part of the town gate and stabbed him in the stomach. Joab killed him because Abner had killed Joab's brother Asahel.
28. David heard how Joab had killed Abner, and he said, “I swear to the Lord that I am completely innocent of Abner's death!
29. Joab and his family are the guilty ones. I pray that Joab's family will always be sick with sores and other skin diseases. May they all be cowards, and may they die in war or starve to death.”
30. Joab and his brother Abishai killed Abner because he had killed their brother Asahel in the battle at Gibeon.
31. David told Joab and everyone with him, “Show your sorrow by tearing your clothes and wearing sackcloth! Walk in front of Abner's body and cry!”David walked behind the stretcher on which Abner's body was being carried.
32. Abner was buried in Hebron, while David and everyone else stood at the tomb and cried loudly.
33. Then the king sang a funeral song about Abner:Abner, why should youhave died like an outlaw?
34. No one tied your handsor chained your feet,yet you died as a victimof murderers.Everyone started crying again.