Strange Story: II Samuel 2 One-on-one times twelve

King Saul had recently been killed in battle, his son, Ish-Bosheth, had been made king over the most of Israel, and David had been made king over Judah. The country was divided and many people lived in fear of the civil war hung in the air like a dark storm cloud. The army of Ish-Boshet, led by Abner, met the army of David, led by Joab. However, the troops were reluctant about starting a civil war and were not anxious to fight against their own countrymen. Plus neither group could claim that the other had wronged them in some way. So key members of each army sat down on opposite sides of a large pool called the pool of Gibeon. We don’t know how long they sat there in a nonaggressive manner before Abner suggested that they have some of the young men get up and “laugh at, make sport of, and mock” one another. Sometimes the word is rendered “play.” In this case this term seems to have referred to a special type of one-on-one contest between individuals from each side. It probably started with each one trash talking his opponent. Joab agreed, so they each chose twelve men.

I think the purpose of this competition was to get their respective armies in the mood to fight. I also think both generals knew this contest would likely start a full-fledged civil war but that is what each general wanted so that their king could establish himself without any competition.

It appears that Abner had a very specific type of contest in mind and Joab knew exactly what he meant. Usually one-on-one combat started with the weapon of choice in the fighters’ hands as they approached each other from a number of feet away, name-calling and taunting as they came. This one-on-one contest was different in that they started out with each one grasping the other’s beard so he could not get away, but no weapon could be in their hand at that point. As each one held the other man’s beard and looked him in the eye with noses and foreheads touching, we can be sure they were taunting and mocking each other, just as the Hebrew word Abner had used indicates. Then, at the giving of a signal, each would pull out his weapon and stab the other – hoping to be fast enough to not be stabbed.

Therefore, this was more a contest of speed than a contest of strength.

This type of contest usually ended with no survivors, and that was the outcome on this particular day.

But the name-calling and seeing some of their friends get killed got all the soldiers in the mood to fight, so they went at it. By the way, David’s men won that battle, and he kept his rule of Judah until several years later when he became king over all of Israel.

The reason I relate this cringe-worthy story is to show that there were rules that had to be followed in order for this to be played out the way it is described. If one-on-one combat were always a free-for-all with no rules, no one would let an opponent get close enough to grab hold of his beard. There would be bloodshed before the beard was even touched. In this case everyone knew the rules and followed the plan as designed. My guess is that if anyone grabbed his weapon before the signal was given, his punishment was certain death, so everyone knew such cheating was not worth trying. I repeat, everyone knew the rules and followed them, even though this situation was different than most other hand-to-hand combat.