When Saul's son Ishbosheth heard that Abner had been killed in Hebron, he was afraid, and all the people of Israel were alarmed.
I will attack him while he is tired and discouraged. He will be frightened, and all his men will run away. I will kill only the king
The commander of Saul's army, Abner son of Ner, had fled with Saul's son Ishbosheth across the Jordan to Mahanaim.
When Abner arrived in Hebron, Joab took him aside at the gate, as though he wanted to speak privately with him, and there he stabbed him in the stomach. And so Abner was murdered because he had killed Joab's brother Asahel.
Then the people who had been living in the land tried to discourage and frighten the Jews and keep them from building.
They were trying to frighten us into stopping work. I prayed, “But now, God, make me strong!”
Everyone's hands will hang limp, and everyone's courage will fail.
Give strength to hands that are tired and to knees that tremble with weakness.
The king of Babylonia hears the news, and his hands hang limp. He is seized by anguish, by pain like a woman in labor.
“We have heard the news,” say the people of Jerusalem, “and our hands hang limp; we are seized by anguish and pain like a woman in labor.
The time is coming when they will say to Jerusalem, “Do not be afraid, city of Zion! Do not let your hands hang limp!