2 Samuel 2 · a question people ask
Didn't Abner know the LORD had chosen David?
Chapter 2 doesn't say what Abner knew, or why he made Ishbosheth king. It tells only what he did (2:8-9). Before this, Saul himself had said to David, "Now, behold, I know that you will surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel will be established in your hand" (1 Samuel 24:20); the book doesn't say whether Abner heard it. In the next chapter Abner speaks of it himself. When he turns against Ishbosheth, he says, "God do so to Abner, and more also, if, as the LORD has sworn to David, I don’t do even so to him" (3:9), "to transfer the kingdom from Saul’s house, and to set up David’s throne over Israel and over Judah, from Dan even to Beersheba" (3:10). And to the elders of Israel he says, "For the LORD has spoken of David" (3:18). The book doesn't say when he came to speak this way.
The verses
“Now Abner the son of Ner, captain of Saul’s army, had taken Ishbosheth the son of Saul and brought him over to Mahanaim. He made him king over Gilead, over the Ashurites, over Jezreel, over Ephraim, over Benjamin, and over all Israel.”
“Now, behold, I know that you will surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel will be established in your hand.”
“God do so to Abner, and more also, if, as the LORD has sworn to David, I don’t do even so to him: to transfer the kingdom from Saul’s house, and to set up David’s throne over Israel and over Judah, from Dan even to Beersheba.””
“Now then do it! For the LORD has spoken of David, saying, ‘By the hand of my servant David, I will save my people Israel out of the hand of the Philistines, and out of the hand of all their enemies.’””