“King David Wept”
“King David Wept”
Blessings folk!
The previous verses could make David look rather callous related to Abner’s death.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Read.
Watch who we see in the balance of the account.
Watch how David reacts.
2Sa 3:31-39
Then David said to Joab and to all the people who were with him,
“Tear your clothes and gird on sackcloth and lament before Abner.”
And King David walked behind the bier.
Thus they buried Abner in Hebron;
and the king lifted up his voice and wept at the grave of Abner, and all the people wept.
The king chanted a lament for Abner and said,
“Should Abner die as a fool dies?
“Your hands were not bound, nor your feet put in fetters;
As one falls before the wicked, you have fallen.”
And all the people wept again over him.
Then all the people came to persuade David to eat bread while it was still day;
but David vowed, saying, “May God do so to me, and more also,
if I taste bread or anything else before the sun goes down.”
Now all the people took note of it, and it pleased them,
just as everything the king did pleased all the people.
So all the people and all Israel understood that day that it had not been the will of the king to put Abner the son of Ner to death.
Then the king said to his servants,
“Do you not know that a prince and a great man has fallen this day in Israel?
“I am weak today, though anointed king; and these men the sons of Zeruiah are too difficult for me. May the LORD repay the evildoer according to his evil.”
David commanded that all the people…
- tear your clothes
- gird on sackcloth
- lament before Abner
He called for the people to lament Abner.
This included Joab - the one who killed Abner!
David walked in the funeral procession.
He lifted up his voice.
He wept
He chanted a lament for Abner.
He states that Abner had fallen “as one falls before the wicked”.
David called Abner wicked in front of all.
The people were worried about David.
They sought to persuade him to eat.
He refused.
He would not eat until the sun went down…the day ended.
Then the people…all of Israel…understood that it was not the will of David that Abner die.
David declared that Abner was a prince, a great man.
David then acknowledged that he was “weak” (refusing nourishment) that day because of these men…the sons of Zeruiah…they were being very difficult…Joab, Abishai, Asahel.
The plot and political intrigues continue…
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