A good man dies (revenge killing)

I wonder what the time span is between Moses pronouncing the Ten Commandments and David’s time?  I seem to recall one of the ten was: Thou shalt not kill!!!  Somebody said the Israelites took it to mean, in practice, “Thou shalt not kill an Israelite.”

(Looked up the time thing – Moses c. 1250 BC; David in II Samuel c. 1000 BC.)

Chapter 3 has Joab and his brother Abishai slaying Abner (remember we thought he had a good attitude even though he was in Saul’s family’s camp?) because he had slain their brother.  Sounds like “A life for a life.”  The only probable Bible verse I found for the origin of this saying is Deut. 19:21, “And thine eye shall not pity; but life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.”  The page heading for this is, “Laws which are to be observed in war.”  Like the Ten Commandments, these laws were given by Moses. 

We could get confused about the law/laws!

I wonder if the Israelis of to-day rely on Moses’ rules of war?

Anyway, David and “all the people” mourned for Abner.  For verses 33, 34, Moffatt's Bible translation offers: 

The king also sang this dirge for Abner:

    Was this how Abner had to die,

    as dies a godless wretch?

    Your hands no man did tie,

    more chained your feet!-and

      then,

    as godless wretch

    you fell to ruthless men!

The New Revised Standard Version also puts the words in to verse form, and notes, “The Hebrew term rendered fool in English Bibles refers to someone who commits a serious breach of society’s norms; ….David’s point is that Abner is a prince and a great man (v. 38) and should not have suffered the ignominious death of an outcast lacking the protection of society.”

NRSV of the dirge -

   Should Abner die as a fool dies?

   Your hands were not bound,

        your feet were not fettered;

   as one falls before the wicked

        you have fallen.

Joyce Voysey