35. Then they went to console David with food while it was still day. But David swore, “May God do thus to me, and more, if before the sun goes down I eat bread or anything else.”
36. All the people noted this with approval, just as everything the king did met with their approval.
37. So on that day all the people and all Israel came to know that it was not the king’s doing that Abner, son of Ner, was put to death.
38. The king then said to his servants: “Do you not know that a prince, a great man, has fallen today in Israel.
39. Although I am the anointed king, I am weak this day, and these men, the sons of Zeruiah, are too ruthless for me. May the Lord repay the evildoer in accordance with his evil deed.”