Chapter III
The generals keep their kings occupied
The stories which take up ch.3 occur in vv.6-21 and vv.22-39. They form two halves of a diptych which I could call, for short, 'Abner agens, Abner patiens' in view of the action. In the first half Abner goes over to the other side and takes "all Israel" with him; this transfer of power is the pivot of the Act as a whole. Abner is busy becoming king-maker for the second time. But later, in the second half, he is suddenly reduced to an actantial object: Joab murders him (vv.22-30), David mourns for him (vv.31-39).
§ 1. The great about-turn: Abner goes over to the other side, II Sam.3:6-21 In this story the two camps are unequally represented. All we see of the Judaean side is David whose solid position in Hebron begins to exert a magnetic force. On the other side there are, however, six characters: the reigning son of Saul, a daughter and a concubine, the citizen to whom Michal is married, and especially the strong man and the nation, which is sometimes referred to as "all Israel" and at others consists of "the elders of Israel" and Benjamin.1 This unit is a good example of subject matter and theme not being the same. Whilst the theme only gradually emerges from the details of a patient stylistic and structural analysis, the subject matter can be determined right away. Successively we see three changes take place which together make up the plot. They differ greatly according to nature and level, but flow from each other
1 For the sake of completeness I would like to mention here the remaining characters who are collective: different groups of messengers who journey to and fro, and Abner's twenty man diplomatic mission to Hebron.
67 and order most of the relations between the characters. The first change is that Abner has taken a concubine of Saul, now Ishbosheth's by law, to bed with him. This leads to an enormous row between the king and the general, vv.7-11. Pouring out his wrath upon the trembling Ishbosheth, Abner an nounces change no.2, a veritable land-slide. He announces he is going to hand over Israel to David, and before Ishbosheth's very eyes opens relevant diplomatic relations with Hebron. David is prepared to conclude an agree ment with Abner, but on condition that his wife is returned to him, and so it happens; Abner separates Michal, the princess who married David for love but who was taken away from him by Saul, from her present husband Paltiel and takes her to Hebron, vv.12-16. In vv.17-19 Abner is busy preparing the ground for the political landslide; in 20-21 he is the guest of honour in Hebron and makes a deal with David. The three changes turn almost everything upside down. The conjunctions Rizpah-Ishbosheth, Abner-Ishbosheth, Michal-Paltiel and Israel-Ishbosh eth, are broken up into the same number of disjunctions. The disjunctions David-Michal, David-Abner, and David-Israel are lifted and changed into conjunctions. In the first instance the number of changes suggests the follow ing arrangement of the text: -vv.6-11 Abner and Ishbosheth, breach - vv.12-16 diplomatic relations: Michal is handed over - vv.17-21 Abner working for David This temporary division of the text into three is supported, and at the same time clearly expressed, in a figure which depicts the most relationships and shifts.2 It forms a triangle which should be read anti-clockwise in order to follow the changes:
Ishbosheth /~ Rizpah Michal
Ab(,___ Israel---~-David
The rulers are situated at the points of the triangle, in between them along the sides are the objects of exchange (two ladies and a nation), and they undergo shift. Ishbosheth is the great loser. Yesterday the concubine Rizpah was
2 My thanks are due to Dr. A.S. Rodrigues Pereira, who put me on to the idea of the triangle.
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