Person
Abner
Mentioned in 53 verses across 4 books, first in 1 Samuel 14:50. The verses below are the ones linked to this person (the Theographic dataset, with our sourced corrections).
In the Bible
All 9 verses in 1 Samuel, in Bible order. Text from the Berean Standard Bible; verse numbers follow the KJV.
1 Samuel
- 1 Samuel 14:50
His wife’s name was Ahinoam daughter of Ahimaaz. The name of the commander of his army was Abner, the son of Saul’s uncle Ner.
- 1 Samuel 14:51
Saul’s father Kish and Abner’s father Ner were sons of Abiel.
- 1 Samuel 17:55
As Saul had watched David going out to confront the Philistine, he said to Abner the commander of the army, “Abner, whose son is this young man?” “As surely as you live, O king,” Abner replied, “I do not know.”
- 1 Samuel 17:57
So when David returned from killing the Philistine, still holding his head in his hand, Abner took him and brought him before Saul.
- 1 Samuel 20:25
He sat in his usual place by the wall, opposite Jonathan and beside Abner, but David’s place was empty.
- 1 Samuel 26:5
Then David set out and went to the place where Saul had camped. He saw the place where Saul and Abner son of Ner, the general of his army, had lain down. Saul was lying inside the inner circle of the camp, with the troops camped around him.
- 1 Samuel 26:7
That night David and Abishai came to the troops, and Saul was lying there asleep in the inner circle of the camp, with his spear stuck in the ground by his head. And Abner and the troops were lying around him.
- 1 Samuel 26:14
And David shouted to the troops and to Abner son of Ner, “Will you not answer me, Abner?” “Who calls to the king?” Abner replied.
- 1 Samuel 26:15
So David said to Abner, “You are a man, aren’t you? And who in Israel is your equal? Why then did you not protect your lord the king when one of the people came to destroy him?
Dictionary
From Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897), as attached to this record by Theographic. The entry is for the name and can describe more than one person who bore it. Easton wrote in 1897, and some of his views are now debated.
Read Easton’s entry
Father of light; i.e., “enlightening”, the son of Ner and uncle of Saul. He was commander-in-chief of Saul’s army (1 Sam. 14:50; 17:55; 20:25). He first introduced David to the court of Saul after the victory over Goliath (1 Sam. 17:57). After the death of Saul, David was made king over Judah, and reigned in Hebron. Among the other tribes there was a feeling of hostility to Judah; and Abner, at the head of Ephraim, fostered this hostility in the interest of the house of Saul, whose son Ish-bosheth he caused to be proclaimed king (2 Sam. 2:8). A state of war existed between these two kings. A battle fatal to Abner, who was the leader of Ish-boseth’s army, was fought with David’s army under Joab at Gibeon (2 Sam. 2:12). Abner, escaping from the field, was overtaken by Asahel, who was “light of foot as a wild roe,” the brother of Joab and Abishai, whom he thrust through with a back stroke of his spear ([2 Sam. 2](/2sam#2Sam.2): 18-32).
Being rebuked by Ish-bosheth for the impropriety of taking to wife Rizpah, who had been a concubine of King Saul, he found an excuse for going over to the side of David, whom he now professed to regard as anointed by the Lord to reign over all Israel. David received him favourably, and promised that he would have command of the armies. At this time Joab was absent from Hebron, but on his return he found what had happened. Abner had just left the city; but Joab by a stratagem recalled him, and meeting him at the gate of the city on his return, thrust him through with his sword (2 Sam. 3:27, 31-39; 4:12. Comp. 1 Kings 2:5, 32). David lamented in pathetic words the death of Abner, “Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel?” (2 Sam. 3:33-38.)