Tinct · Library · 2 Samuel · Chapters · Chapter 2
2 Samuel 2 of 24

2 Samuel 2

Two kingdoms form along a fault line that runs through every later crisis in Israelite history: north and south, tribe against tribe.

Summary

David inquires of the Lord whether to go up to any city of Judah and is directed to Hebron. He goes with his two wives, Ahinoam and Abigail, and with his men and their households. The men of Judah anoint him king over the house of Judah at Hebron. His first diplomatic act as king is to send messengers to the men of Jabesh-gilead, praising them for burying Saul and promising them his favour — a careful outreach to a city that had reason to be loyal to Saul. Simultaneously, on the other side of the fault line, Abner the general makes Ish-bosheth, Saul's surviving son, king over Gilead, the Ashurites, Jezreel, Ephraim, Benjamin, and all Israel. The narrative places the two anointings in swift succession without editorial comment, allowing the structural irony to stand alone.

Abner with the servants of Ish-bosheth and Joab with the servants of David meet at the pool of Gibeon and sit on opposite sides of it. Abner proposes a trial by combat: twelve young men from each side. The twenty-four fight, each seizing his opponent by the head and thrusting his sword in his side, and all die together. The place is named Helkath-hazzurim, the field of flints. Full battle erupts, and Abner's forces are beaten back. Asahel, Joab's younger brother, pursues Abner with great speed; Abner warns him off twice, unwilling to kill Joab's brother. When Asahel refuses to turn away, Abner strikes him with the butt of his spear and the blow goes through his body. The armies disengage at sunset, Abner retreating to Mahanaim, Joab returning to Hebron. The chapter closes with the body count: Joab's side lost nineteen men and Asahel; Abner's side lost three hundred and sixty.

Appears
David Joab
Themes
Civil War Consolidation of Power Tribal Division
All 24 chapters — click to jump
  1. 2 Samuel 1Chapter 1 is the hinge between 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel.
  2. 2 Samuel 2Chapter 2 opens the period of civil war that will occupy much of the first half of the book.
  3. 2 Samuel 3Chapter 3 is one of the most politically complex chapters in the book.
  4. 2 Samuel 4Chapter 4 closes the civil war with a brief, ugly episode.
  5. 2 Samuel 5Chapter 5 is the pivotal chapter of the book's first half.
  6. 2 Samuel 6Chapter 6 is one of the most dramatically charged chapters in 2 Samuel, covering two episodes that frame the ark's arrival in Jerusalem.
  7. 2 Samuel 7Chapter 7 is the theological centre of the entire David narrative and one of the most consequential passages in the Hebrew Bible for later Jewish and Christian thought.
  8. 2 Samuel 8Chapter 8 reads differently from everything around it.
  9. 2 Samuel 9Chapter 9 is the chapter the Court History uses to establish one key dimension of David's character before the crisis arrives.
  10. 2 Samuel 10Chapter 10 establishes the military context of the Bathsheba episode.
  11. 2 Samuel 11Chapter 11 is the turning point of 2 Samuel and one of the most consequential chapters in biblical narrative.
  12. 2 Samuel 12Chapter 12 contains the most famous confrontation in the book.
  13. 2 Samuel 13Chapter 13 is the first fulfilment of Nathan's sentence in chapter 12.
  14. 2 Samuel 14Chapter 14 covers the three years in which David longs for Absalom but will not recall him, and Joab's intervention to change that.
  15. 2 Samuel 15Chapter 15 is the emotional nadir of the first movement of the Absalom crisis.
  16. 2 Samuel 16Chapter 16 covers three encounters as David makes his way out of Jerusalem.
  17. 2 Samuel 17Chapter 17 is the intelligence chapter of the Absalom revolt and turns on a moment of competitive counsel.
  18. 2 Samuel 18Chapter 18 is the emotional climax of 2 Samuel.
  19. 2 Samuel 19Chapter 19 covers David's return to Jerusalem and the political settlements it requires.
  20. 2 Samuel 20Chapter 20 is the coda to the Absalom crisis.
  21. 2 Samuel 21Chapter 21 opens the appendix section of 2 Samuel — chapters 21-24 are not chronological narrative but supplementary materials: two episodes of famine and plague bracketing two poems and two hero lists.
  22. 2 Samuel 22Chapter 22 is an extended psalm, found also as Psalm 18 in the Psalter, which the editors of 2 Samuel have placed near the end of the book as David's retrospective meditation on his life.
  23. 2 Samuel 23Chapter 23 contains two distinct sections.
  24. 2 Samuel 24Chapter 24 is the second appendix episode bracketing the poems of chapters 22-23, and it closes the book on an unexpected note.
← Previous · Chapter 1
2 Samuel 1
Next · Chapter 3 →
2 Samuel 3
The book itself
Summary & story
What 2 Samuel is, why it matters.
Analysis
Themes
Power, consequence, grief, the dynastic promise, and the realism of the prose.
Who's who
David's court
The household of a king who has everything and gives most of it away.

Read Chapter 2 in the reader →