Pointless Battle - 2nd Samuel 2

There are two things that happen in chapter 2 and they both really have to do with David and Saul’s youngest son vying for the kingship over all of Israel. David asks God, presumably through the Urim and Thummim, where he should go, and the answer is to Hebron in the land of Judah. So he took his wives there and the men of that city “anointed David king over the house of Judah.” The men also tell David that the people in the city of Jabesh-Gilead had taken Saul’s body. TB says that this Jabesh-Gilead was technically aligned with the northern kingdom of Israel but pretty isolated because they were part of the massacred when the whole battle against Benjamin, so they were aligned but loyalty was thin. So David reaches out to them and praises them for taking Saul’s body. TB says that this was a bid to see if they would switch loyalties from the northern kingdom to David in the south.

It seems like there is some contradictory information in verses 8-11, which says that Abner crowned Saul’s 4th son king over the northern kingdom and he was king for 2 years, and that David was king in the south for 7 ½ years. We know that both. Men were king around the same time so how was Saul’s son’s reign 5 ½ years shorter than David’s when they ruled at the same time. TB says that what the consensus is among Hebrew scholars is that while David was crowned king in the south immediately, Abner had to do some work convincing the northern kingdoms to support Saul’s son and unify them under his leadership and that process took about 5 ½ years. So David was crowned in the south, then Abner went campaigning in the north and it took 5 ½ years to get enough support to crown the son in the north and then he was king for 2 years and we don’t know what happened to him just yet. Well I mean we do, but we haven’t covered that in the story.

The second event in chapter 2 is really kind of an eye roller for me because it just seems so stupid and such a waste of life, but it starts a serious problem among some of the important players here. David’s men are campaigning for him in the south and Abner is working for Saul’s son with his men in the north and all these men just happen to converge at a watering hole called the pool of Gibeon at the same time. Of course egos are inflated and there’s a lot of bravado stupidness going on and so, I assume to prevent an all out battle, Abner suggests that they each select their 12 best men who will fight as their champions and squash the beef that way, kind of like what happened with David and Goliath. So they agree and both sides select their 12 best fighters who battle each other to the death to see which side is better. I look at this situation and can’t help but think this is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. Take the morality out of the whole thing, the right or wrong of it, and just ask “why would I risk the lives of my best fighters to inflate our own egos?” Even if I win, I would surely have lost some of by best fighters and what position does that put me in tactically? Like where it their forethought here? Honestly, couldn’t be me.

Guess what happens? All 24 men die, the best fighters from each side are ALL killed, there is no winner and now a full battle breaks out and eventually David’s forces win and Abner’s men start to retreat. There just so happens to be 3 brothers involved in this fight and the youngest, surely eager to prove himself, runs super fast after Abner. Abner sees that he’s being pursued and calls to this young boy that it’s not worth it to fight him, that he should just take some armor as a trophy from one of the younger soldiers that fell and leave Abner alone. This youngest brother makes the classic mistake of not being wary of an old man in a profession where men die young and picks up his pace, just sure that he’s going to be the one to kill Abner, take his armor and be the hero. He’s coming at him quick and Abner again tells him to back off because this is going to end badly for him, but the kid just won’t listen. Apparently Abner had done something to his spear where he had the metal part on one end, then he sharpened the back end to a point and when the kid almost reached him, Abner reached up the non-business end of his spear and stabbed this kid right in the ribs and it came out the back side and he died.

Abner knows that it’s going to be a problem when this kid’s brothers find him dead so he retreats with his men to a hilltop, and once the brothers and the rest of the troops catch up to them, Abner is surrounded by his men so the brothers couldn’t get to him without shedding a lot of blood. They are at a stand off and there’s nothing but death waiting for all sides. Finally someone swallows their ego and Abner calls out to Joab who is the leader of David’s men and also the oldest brother of the kid who Abner killed, and says that there’s only death waiting here if they don’t stop. Joab calls back that Abner was the one who suggested the fight to begin with, which is a cop out because Joab could have just as easily said “no thanks, we’re good” but he didn’t so he’s just as much at fault for this whole mess as Abner is. But Joab does agree to a ceasefire type of arrangement and so Abner takes his men and walks home. In the aftermath, Joab had 20 dead men, including his brother, and I assume that included the 12 who fought initially, and Abner had 360 dead men, a significantly greater loss, and a decisive victory for David’s men.

They buried the dead youngest brother and thus started a blood feud between Joab and Abner and my question about this whole thing is “why?” Like honestly. I was in the army, I went to Iraq, I know how so many of these men are but the ego play is just outrageous and I don’t understand it. What a reckless disregard for life, and again, taking the morality of it out, what a complete waste of resources in the loss of such great fighters. This incident damaged both sides combat effectiveness and for pretty much no reason. There was a lot of this during GWOT, reckless, dangerous missions that resulted in the loss of life and serious injuries for no reason other than to make the commanders look good or because higher up people would not listen to reason, or in other words, their egos got in the way and it’s just such a tragedy all the way around.