Asahel pursued after Abner. — Asahel, the youngest of the three nephews of David, took part in the battle with his elder brothers, and well knowing how completely the cause of Ish-bosheth depended upon Abner, pertinaciously sought him out in the pursuit. His great fleetness enabled him to overtake Abner and, coming behind him, endanger his life. Abner was unwilling to injure him, and only after remonstrating with him, and urging him to seek the spoil of some warrior more nearly his equal (2 Samuel 2:20-22), did he unwillingly slay him “with the hinder end of his spear.” The spears were sharpened at the “hinder end” for the purpose of sticking them into the ground (1 Samuel 26:7). Abner’s reluctance to kill Asahel may have been partly on account of his extreme youth, but was chiefly through dread of the vengeance of Joab (2 Samuel 2:22). “The fifth rib” here, and wherever else it occurs (2 Samuel 3:27; 2 Samuel 4:6; 2 Samuel 20:10), should be translated abdomen.
2 Samuel 2:19
19 And Asahel pursued after Abner; and in going he turned not to the right hand nor to the left from following Abner.