2 Samuel 2:24-32

International Standard Version

²⁴ Meanwhile, Joab and Abishai continued to chase Abner. At dusk, as they approached the hill of Ammah that is located near Giah on the way to the Gibeon desert, ²⁵ the descendants of Benjamin rallied around Abner, forming a single military force. They took their stand on top of the hill.

²⁶ Then Abner called out to Joab, “Must the battle sword keep on devouring forever? Don’t you realize that the end result is bitterness? How long will it take for you to order your army^[a] to stop pursuing their own relatives?”

²⁷ Joab answered, “As God lives, if you hadn’t spoken up, by morning my army would have broken off their pursuit of their own relatives.” ²⁸ So Joab sounded his battle trumpet, his entire army stopped pursuing Israel any longer, and they quit fighting.

²⁹ Abner and his army traveled through the Arabah by night, crossed the Jordan, and arrived at Mahanaim after marching all morning. ³⁰ Joab returned from his pursuit of Abner, and when he had mustered his entire army, nineteen of David’s soldiers^[b] were missing besides Asahel. ³¹ Meanwhile, other^[c] soldiers of David had killed 360 of Abner’s men from the tribe of^[d] Benjamin. ³² They retrieved Asahel’s body and buried him in his father’s tomb at Bethlehem. Then Joab and his men marched all night until daybreak and arrived back in Hebron.