King Saul's cousin as well as the commander of his army (1 Sam 14:50). Abner was instrumental in introducing David to Saul immediately after the slaying of Goliath (1 Sam 17:57).
Abner means, appropriately, "Ner is father," since he was the son of Ner; Ner and Kish (Saul's father) were brothers, sons of Abiel (1 Sam 14:51). We know nothing about Ner apart from this; all the other references to him are in the context of identifying his son Abner.
When Saul died, Abner tried to prop up the Saulian dynasty by supporting the claim of Ish-bosheth (Saul's son) to the throne. When—hoping to strengthen his own position of power—Abner began sleeping with Rizpah, Saul's concubine, he was rebuked by Ish-boseth. Offended, Abner left and offered his service to David to "do for David what the Lord promised him on oath and transfer the kingdom from the house of Saul and establish David's throne over Israel and Judah from Dan to Beersheba" (2 Sam 3:6ff).
Though welcomed in David's court, Abner did not live long afterwards. In a previous engagement between David's and Saul's army, Abner had—inspite of all his attempt to avoid it—killed Asahel, the brother of Joab, David's commander (2 Sam 2, esp vv18-25). Devising a strategem to recall Abner from an errant, Joab revenged his brother's death by calling Abner "aside into the gateway, as though to speak with him privately and there . . . stabbed him in the stomach" (2 Sam3: 23-27). So upset was David with the senseless killing, he cursed Joab and his family, and made Joab and his men walk ahead of Abner's funerary procession. Abner's death sent shock-waves through the northern kingdom; soon Ish-boseth was murdered by greedy brigands hoping to find favour with David, and Saul's dynasty was effectively ended. David seemed to have understood the political implications of Abner's murder well enough that he went out of his way to make it clear he had nothing to do with it.
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