2 Samuel 3:8 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Then was Abner very wroth He accounted his merits so great, and was become so haughty, that he thought he might do any thing without reprehension; and said, Am I a dog's head? So contemptible a person that thou thinkest it a disgrace to thy family for me to have intercourse with thy father's concubine. Whether Abner was guilty of the crime laid to his charge or not, does not appear; nor what ground Ish-bosheth had for the suspicion. But, however it was, it would have been prudent in him to have connived at it for the present, considering how much it was his interest not to dis-oblige Abner. And if the thing was false, and his jealousy groundless, it was very disingenuous and ungrateful to entertain unjust surmises of one who had ventured his all for him, and was certainly the best friend he had in the world. Who against Judah do show kindness unto the house of Saul Is this my recompense for the kindness I have shown to thee and thy father's house, and the good services I have done you? He magnifies his service with this, that it was against Judah, the tribe on which the crown was settled, and which would certainly have it at last. So that in supporting the house of Saul he acted both against his conscience and against his interest, for which he deserved a better requital than this. And yet, probably, he would not have been so zealous for the house of Saul, if he had not thereby gratified his own ambition, and hoped to find his own account in it. That thou chargest me with a fault concerning this woman? That is, either that thou accusest me falsely concerning this matter; or that thou canst not wink at so small a fault (for so he esteemed it) as conversation with this woman, who, whatsoever she formerly was, is now so impotent and inconsiderable that she can neither serve nor disserve thy cause.