20Then Abner looked back and said, "Is this you, Asael?" He said, "I."

21Then Abner said to him, "Turn to the right hand or to the left, and choose for yourself one of the youths and take his arms." But Asahel would not leave him.

22Abner said again to Asael, "Leave me alone, lest I throw you to the ground. then with what face shall I come to Joab thy brother?

23[And where does it happen? return to your brother Joab.] But he did not want to lag behind. Then Abner, turning his spear, struck him in the stomach; the spear went through him, and he fell there and died on the spot. All those who passed through the place where Asahel fell and died stopped.

24And Joab and Abishai pursued Abner. The sun had gone down when they came to the hill of Amma, which is opposite Giach, on the road to the wilderness of Gibeon.

25So the Benjamites gathered around Abner, and formed one army, and stood on the top of a certain hill.

26Abner called to Joab and said, "Shall he devour the sword forever?" Or don't you know that the consequences will be sorrowful? And how long wilt thou not tell men to cease persecuting their brethren?

27Then Joab said, "As God lives!" If you had not spoken otherwise, men would have ceased to persecute their brethren in the morning.

28So Joab blew the trumpet, and all the people stopped, and they pursued Israel no more. The battle stopped.

29And Abner and his men went through the plain all that night, and crossed the Jordan, and passed through all Bitron, and came to Mahanaim.

30So Joab returned from the pursuit of Abner, and gathered together all the people, and nineteen of David's servants were missing besides Asahel.

31And David's servants smote the Benjamites and the men of Abner. three hundred and sixty of them fell.

32Then they took Asahel and buried him in his father's tomb in Bethlehem. And Joab and his men went all night, and at dawn he came to Hebron.

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