2 Samuel 3:8

_THEN WAS ABNER VERY WROTH FOR THE WORDS OF ISHBOSHETH, AND SAID, AM I A DOG'S HEAD, WHICH AGAINST JUDAH DO SHEW KINDNESS THIS DAY UNTO THE HOUSE OF SAUL THY FATHER, TO HIS BRETHREN, AND TO HIS FRIENDS, AND HAVE NOT DELIVERED THEE INTO THE HAND OF DAVID, THAT THOU CHARGEST ME TO DAY WITH A FAULT CONCERNING THIS WOMAN?_ Am I a dog's head? - i:e., a very dog; a proverbial form of expression, denoting a low, despicable character; and, impelled by revenge, determined to transfer all the weight of his influence to the opposite party. He evidently set a full value on his services, and seems to have lorded it over his weak nephew in a haughty, overbearing manner....

7-21 Many, like Abner, are not above committing base crimes, who are too proud to bear reproof, or even the suspicion of being guilty. While men go on in sin, and apparently without concern, they are often conscious that they are fighting against God. Many mean to serve their own purposes; and will betray those who trust them, when they can get any advantage. Yet the Lord serves his own designs, even by those who are thus actuated by revenge, ambition, or lust; but as they intend not to honour him, in the end they will be thrown aside with contempt. There was real generosity both to Michal and to the memory of Saul, in David's receiving the former, remembering probably how once he owed his life to her affection, and knowing that she was separated from him partly by her father's authority. Let no man set his heart on that which he is not entitled to. If any disagreement has separated hus...

Verse 2 Samuel 3:8. AM _I A DOG'S HEAD_] Dost thou treat a man with indignity who has been the only prop of thy tottering kingdom, and the only person who could make head against the house of David?...

The words against Judah are very obscure. If the text be correct, the words would seem to be Ish-bosheth’s, who in his anger had charged Abner with being a vile partisan of Judah: Abner retorts, “Am I (as you say) a dog’s head which belongeth to Judah, or on Judah’s side! This day I show you kindness, etc., and this day thou chargest me with a fault, etc.”...

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

THEN WAS ABNER VERY WROTH FOR THE WORDS OF ISHBOSHETH,.... If false he had a good deal of reason for it; and if true, he thought he deserved better at his hands, than to be reproved for and upbraided with what he might think was a very small fault, and might easily be connived at, and especially in one that had been so serviceable to him: AND SAID, [AM] I A DOG'S HEAD; such a mean, vile, contemptible person with thee, as if no better than a dog, and as useless and as unserviceable as a dead dog, the head of a dog cut off; see 1 Samuel 24:14 2 Samuel 9:8; or am I esteemed and to be treated as a head of dogs, a keeper of a pack of hounds, and not as a general of the armies of Israel? so Jarchi and others; but it seems rather to respect the filthy nature of a dog, that will couple with any

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)...

2 SAMUEL 3:6 TO 2 SAMUEL 4:12. QUARREL BETWEEN ABNER AND ISHBAAL. TREACHERY OF ABNER. DEATH OF ABNER, AND OF ISHBAAL (J)._ Cf_. p. 286. 2 SAMUEL 3:6. Abner went in to Rizpah, Saul's concubine; an act of _lè se majesté,_ as the harem of a king was the property of his successor (2 Samuel 12:8; 2 Samuel 16:22). He met Ishbaal's remonstrances with contemptuous and indignant anger. Was he, to whom the house of Saul owed so much, to be treated like a dog, on account of a trifling matter about a woman? He would soon show the nominal

FAULT. Hebrew. _avon,_ iniquity. See App-44....

Quarrel between Abner and Ish-bosheth 6. _made himself strong_ Or, SHEWED HIMSELF STRONG. Ish-bosheth was evidently weak and incapable, a mere puppet in the hands of Abner, who had made himself the mainstay of Saul's house, partly from his family connexion, partly with a view to secure the greatest amount of influence, possibly with the hope of eventually becoming king himself. At length foreseeing the impossibility of continuing a successful opposition to David's growing power, he took the opportunity of a quarrel with Ish-bosheth to make such overtures to David as might secure him favourable terms and an influential position....