And Abner sent messengers to David on his behalf, saying, Whose is the land? saying also, Make thy league with me, and, behold, my hand shall be with thee, to bring about all Israel unto thee.
Abner sent messengers to David on his behalf, х tachtaayw (H8478)] - instead of him. [The Septuagint renders the clause as: kai apesteilen Abenneer angelous pros Dauid eis Thailam, and Abner despatched messengers to Thailam, Telaim or Telem (see the note at 1 Samuel 15:4).] But there is nothing in the present Hebrew text corresponding to the last two words; and though Telem was within the range of David's former marauding expeditions, he was now permanently settled in Hebron. Though Abner's language implied a secret conviction that, in supporting Ish-bosheth, he had been labouring to frustrate the divine purpose of conferring the sovereignty of the kingdom on David, this acknowledgment was no justification either of the measure he was now adopting or of the motives that prompted it. Nor does it seem possible to uphold the full integrity and honour of David's conduct in entertaining his secret overtures for undermining Ish-bosheth, except we take into account the divine promise of the kingdom, and his belief that the secession of Abner was a means designed by Providence for accomplishing it. The demand for the restoration of his wife Michal was perfectly fair; but David's insisting on it at that particular moment, as an indispensable condition of his entering into any treaty with Abner, seems to have proceeded, not so much from a lingering attachment to her, as from an expectation that his possession of that princess would incline some adherents of the house of Saul as from an expectation that his possession of that princess would incline some adherents of the house of Saul to be favourable to his cause.