2 Samuel 3:31

_AND DAVID SAID TO JOAB, AND TO ALL THE PEOPLE THAT WERE WITH HIM, REND YOUR CLOTHES, AND GIRD YOU WITH SACKCLOTH, AND MOURN BEFORE ABNER. AND KING DAVID HIMSELF FOLLOWED THE BIER._ Rend your clothes, and gird you with sackcloth - an outer garment of coarse haircloth, worn by mourners. It was commonly nothing more than a large square piece of cloth wrapped round the person, and fastened at the waist by a girdle. David's sorrow was sincere and profound; and he took occasion to give it public expression by the funeral honours he appointed for Abner. KING DAVID HIMSELF FOLLOWED THE BIER - a sort of wooden frame, partly resembling a coffin and partly a hand-barrow....

22-39 Judgments are prepared for such scorners as Abner; but Joab, in what he did, acted wickedly. David laid Abner's murder deeply to heart, and in many ways expressed his detestation of it. The guilt of blood brings a curse upon families: if men do not avenge it, God will. It is a sad thing to die like a fool, as they do that any way shorten their own days, and those who make no provision for another world. Who would be fond of power, when a man may have the name of it, and must be accountable for it, yet is hampered in the use of it? David ought to have done his duty, and then trusted God with the issue. Carnal policy spared Joab. The Son of David may long delay, but never fails to punish impenitent sinners. He who now reigns upon the throne of David, has a kingdom of a nobler kind. Whatever He doeth, is noticed by all his willing people, and is pleasing to them....

Verse 2 Samuel 3:31. _DAVID SAID TO JOAB_] He commanded him to take on him the part of a principal mourner....

EXPOSITION 2 SAMUEL 3:1 THERE WAS LONG WAR. As Ishbosheth reigned only two years, and as "the house of Saul" is the phrase used, it seems probable that after Ishbosheth's murder, during the five years before David's election to the throne of all Israel, the house of Saul had some puppet representative at Mahanaim, and some commander in Abner's place. But after the death of this able man matters would go from bad to worse, and, though David probably remained on the defensive, yet the contrast between the peace and good government of Judah and the misery in Israel made all the tribes wish to put an end to a harassing civil war. It is plain, too, that the Philistines, repelled at first by Abner's skill, had again gained the ascendant, and regarded themselves so completely as the rulers of the country, that they resented immediately with summ

AND DAVID SAID TO JOAB, AND TO ALL THE PEOPLE THAT [WERE] WITH HIM,.... To his whole court, Joab being present: for he did not flee, nor was he laid hold on in order to be brought to justice; which shows how great his power was, and that he was too hard for David, as in 2 Samuel 3:39; however this he did, he enjoined his whole court, and Joab also, to express public mourning on this account: REND YOUR CLOTHES AND GIRD YOU WITH SACKCLOTH; which were expressions of mourning used on various occasions, and on account of the dead, and which with the Heathens were carried to a greater excess, even to the tearing of their flesh, AND MOURN BEFORE ABNER; before his corpse, as carried to the grave, when it was usual to make great lamentations: see Acts 8:2; and King Davi

4. ABNER'S DEEDS AND END CHAPTER 3 _ 1. The long war and its results (2 Samuel 3:1)_ 2. David's family (2 Samuel 3:2) 3. Abner's defiant deed (2 Samuel 3:6) 4. Abner and Ish-bosheth (2 Samuel 3:8) 5. Abner's defection to David (2 Samuel 3:12) 6. David's request (2 Samuel 3:13) 7. Abner with David (2 Samuel 3:17)...

David made it clear that he had nothing to do with the murder. He gave Abner honourable burial, and king and people lamented him. The dirge in 2 Samuel 3:33 f. is generally accepted as the work of David....

BIER. Hebrew. _mittah,_. bed; See 2 Samuel 4:7, and compare Exodus 8:3. The poor man's couch by day was his bed by night, and sometimes his bier....

David's lamentation for Abner 31. _gird you with sackcloth_ The practice of wearing garments of the coarse dark hair-cloth used for making sacks as a sign of mourning was very ancient (Genesis 37:34). In cases of extreme grief or humiliation they were worn next the skin, but ordinarily outside the usual tunic. _mourn before Abner_ Preceding the bier in the funeral procession....

DISCOURSE: 310 THE DEATH OF ABNER 2 Samuel 3:31. _And David said to Joab, and to all the people that were with him, Rend your clothes, and gird you with sackcloth, and mourn before Abner. And king David himself followed the bier. And they buried Abner in Hebron; and the king lifted up his voice, and wept at the grave of Abner; and all the people wept. And the king lamented over Abner, and said, Died Abner as a fool dieth? Thy hands were not bound, nor thy feet put into fetters: as a man falleth before wicked men, so fellest thou. And all the people wept again over him._ AFTER the death of Saul, David was anointed king in Hebron: but still he reigned over one tribe only; for Abner had prevailed on the other eleven tribes to adhere still to the house of Saul, and to make Ishbosheth, the son of Saul, their king. From the disinterestedness and forbearance which David mani