The text says it twice in two verses: Abner 22"had gone in peace" and 23"has gone in peace." David has sent him away with a treaty in hand, and all Israel is about to follow the king. Then Joab comes home from a raid and hears the news. He tells David that Abner came as a spy, but the text has already named what drives him. Abner killed his brother Asahel. Joab sends messengers after Abner without David's knowledge, and Abner turns back.
Joab 27"took him aside into the midst of the gate to speak with him privately." Joab chose his hour well. The treaty was fresh, the city was calm, and Abner had no reason to look over his shoulder. A private word between two men is what safety sounds like, and Joab turns it into the trap. Hebron was a city of refuge, set aside so that an avenger could not simply cut down a man accused of killing. Abner had killed Asahel in battle, after warning him twice to turn back. Joab killed him in peacetime, in a city built to stop exactly this. Every safeguard Israel had against blood feuds, Joab walked around.
David could not punish him. He cursed Joab's house, ordered everyone to mourn, walked behind the bier, and wept aloud at the grave. When the people begged him to eat, he fasted until sundown, and all Israel understood the king had not wanted this death. Then came the lament, with a word for fool that echoes Nabal's name. Nabal died refusing David help. Abner died bringing it. But David also says the hard part: 39"I was gentle today, though anointed king. These men, the sons of Zeruiah, are more severe than I." The anointed king could not touch his own general. David holds God's promise of the throne and the loyalty of the nation, and still some power in his kingdom sits outside his hands, in the sons of Zeruiah.
Justice waited decades. On his deathbed David told Solomon not to "let his gray head go down to Sheol in peace" (1 Kings 2:6). Peace again. After Joab backed a rival to Solomon, he fled to the tent of the LORD and "caught hold of the horns of the altar." When Benaiah ordered him out, Joab answered, "No, I will die here" (1 Kings 2:28, 30). The man who killed in peacetime, in a city of refuge, died holding an altar, and Solomon named Abner and Amasa as the reason (1 Kings 2:32). For David's house, Solomon said, "there shall be peace from the LORD forevermore" (1 Kings 2:33).
If you carry a wrong you cannot fix, this passage lets you name it and wait. David called the killing what it was, mourned the man, and admitted what he could not do. Then he left the rest with the God who repays. Waiting can be an act of faith.
Prayer
Father, you saw what happened in that gate, and you saw where it ended. Give us David's honesty about the wrongs we cannot yet correct, and the patience to leave them with you. Thank you that justice is safe in your hands, even when it is slow. In Jesus' name, amen.