moun-tains; Da-vid was king there seven years and six months. He had six sons born to him in He-bron. The names of three of them were, Am-non, Ab-sa-lom, and A-do-ni-jah.

For five years and a half there was war be-tween the house of Da-vid and the house of Saul; but as God was on the side of Da-vid, Da-vid grew stronger and strong-er, and the house of Saul weak-er and weak-er. Ab-ner be-came, day by day, more am-bi-tious; and at last Ish-bo-sheth quar-rel-ed with him. Ab-ner was ve-ry an-gry, and told Ish-bo-sheth that he should leave him and go o-ver to the side of Da-vid. Ish-bo-sheth fear-ed Ab-ner and could not an-swer him an-o-ther word.

pro

Then Ab-ner sent to Da-vid and mis-ed to bring all Is-ra-el o-ver to his

side, if he would be friends with him. Da-vid made con-di-tions which Abner a-greed to. Then Ab-ner persuad-ed the chief men of Is-ra-el that Da-vid was their right-ful king. He told them that the Lord had cho-sen Da-vid to rule o-ver them. Ab-ner was rea-dy to o-bey God when it suited his own ends. He came to Da-vid to He-bron, and brought twen-ty men with him. Da-vid made them a feast, and then sent them a-way in peace. Jo-ab was not there at the time. When he re-turn-ed, and was told of what Da-vid had done, he was ve-ry an-gry. Per-haps he was jea-lous because Da-vid had made a league with Ab-ner with-out ask-ing his ad-vice, and be-cause he thought that, if Ab-ner came he should no long-er be the first man in Da-vid's ar-my. At all e-vents he

hat-ed Ab-ner, be-cause he had kill-ed his bro-ther A-sa-hel. He said to David, "What hast thou

it that thou hast sent

done? why is Ab-ner a-way?

Thou know-est Ab-ner that he came to de-ceive thee, and to find out all that thou do-est."

Jo-ab went out and sent mes-sengers af-ter Ab-ner to bring him back. Da-vid knew no-thing a-bout it. Abner came, think-ing that king Da-vid had sent for him. Jo-ab was wait-ing for him at the gate of He-bron. When he came up he took him by the hand, and led him a-side as if he had a word to say to him; in-stead of which he thrust his sword through Ab-ner's body, kill-ing him in the same way that Ab-ner had kill-ed A-sa-hel.

God has said, "Who-so shed-deth man's blood, by man shall his blood

be shed," but al-though Ab-ner was a wick-ed man he did not de-serve to die for A-sa-hel; he had not kill-ed him be-cause he hat-ed him, but in or-der to save his own life in war. Jo-ab there-fore was not o-bey-ing God, but pleas-ing his own cru-el heart: he was a mur-der-er him-self.

Da-vid was griev-ed when he heard of the death of Ab-ner. He lift-ed up his hands to God and said, that God knew he had no part in the deed, and there-fore he hop-ed that God would not let him and his king-dom suf-fer for it."Let the guilt," he said, "rest on the head of Jo-ab and on his fa-mily." Da-vid or-der-ed Jo-ab and all the peo-ple to mourn for Ab-ner, and to go be-fore his bo-dy to the bu-ri-al. King Da-vid him-self fol-low-ed the bier; and, when he saw Ab-ner laid in

the grave at He-bron, he lift-ed up his voice and wept; and he spoke out words of la-men-ta-tion, say-ing, that Ab-ner had not died for his own sin, but had fall-en by the hand of wicked men. The peo-ple saw Da-vid weep-ing, and they al-so wept for Abner. Af-ter the fu-ne-ral the peo-ple tri-ed to per-suade Da-vid to eat; but he would not taste food the whole of that day. He wish-ed to show his peo-ple that he griev-ed for the murder of Ab-ner. "They all took no-tice of it, and it pleas-ed them; for whatso-e-ver the king did pleas-ed all the peo-ple."

We know not if Da-vid was right in not pu-nish-ing Jo-ab. Jo-ab and A-bi-sha-i his bro-ther had great power a-mong the sol-diers; they had al-so been very faith-ful to Da-vid when