Rizpah. — The name of this woman is associated with her strong and tender grief over the loss of her sons, recorded in 2 Samuel 21:8-11.
Wherefore hast thou gone in? — The harem of an Eastern monarch was considered as the property of his successor, and therefore the taking of a woman belonging to it as the assertion of a claim to the throne. (See 2 Samuel 12:8; 2 Samuel 16:21; 1 Kings 2:22.) It is not probable that Abner had any such design, since he was exerting himself to maintain Ish-bosheth on the throne. But the king appears to have so regarded the act, as it is this implied charge of treachery that so greatly rouses the anger of Abner. The name of Ish-bosheth has dropped out of the Hebrew text, but appears in a few MSS., and is rightly restored in all the versions.