And Abner sent messengers to David on his behalf,.... On his own account, and not on the account of Ishbosheth, or the people of Israel; but to obtain terms for himself, or in his own name, as representing him and standing in his stead; or secretly, as Kimchi explains it, unknown to Ishbosheth, or the people of Israel. The Targum is,"out of his place;''he sent them from the place where he was, from Mahanaim:
saying, whose is the land? the land of Israel, is it not thine, David? verily it is; to whom does it belong but unto thee, to whom the Lord has given it? not to any of Saul's posterity: this he ordered the messengers to say in the first place, in order to ingratiate himself to David, an…
Keil & Delitzsch on 2 Samuel 3:6–end
Decline of the House of Saul. - Sa2 3:6-11. Abner's quarrel with Ishbosheth. - During the war between the house of Saul and the house of David, Abner adhered firmly to the house of Saul, but he appropriated one of Saul's concubines to himself. When Ishbosheth charged him with this, he fell into so violent a rage, that he at once announced to Ishbosheth his intention to hand over the kingdom to David. Abner had certainly perceived the utter incapacity of Ishbosheth for a very long time, if not from the very outset, and had probably made him king after the death of Saul, merely that he might save himself from the necessity of submitting to David, and might be able to rule in Ishbosheth's name,…
Read the whole note in the consoleRashi on 2 Samuel 3:12
In his behalf saying. From his place to say, We shall keep this [oath] by the One Who made the world.
By He Who [posseses] the land. [This is] language [used for] an oath, By He Who [posseses] the land. Another interpretation: "Below him," [Avner] mentioned his name first in the message letter and afterwords he mentioned Dovid's name and that is why he was punished. [This is what] he wrote: From me, Avner, the general of Yisroel to Dovid, the king of Yisroel, peace salutation.
To He who [deserves] the land. To whom the kingdom is proper for him, I am sending to him "saying, Enact a convenant, etc."
Henry, Jamieson-Fausset-Brown, Clarke, Gill, Calvin and Keil & Delitzsch are in the public domain; Tyndale Open Study Notes © Tyndale House Publishers, CC BY-SA 4.0 — all from the Free Use Bible API (bible.helloao.org). Rashi: the Rosenbaum & Silbermann Pentateuch (public domain) and the Judaica Press and Metsudah Tanakh (CC BY), via Sefaria. Spurgeon's Treasury of David: public domain (lyteword's markdown edition, CC0).
