But Abner son of Ner, commander of Saul’s army, had taken Ishbaal son of Saul and brought him over to Mahanaim.
The name of Saul’s wife was Ahinoam daughter of Ahimaaz. And the name of the commander of his army was Abner son of Ner, Saul’s uncle;
when Jacob saw them he said, “This is God’s camp!” So he called that place Mahanaim.
Ner became the father of Kish, Kish of Saul, Saul of Jonathan, Malchishua, Abinadab, and Esh-baal;
David called to the army and to Abner son of Ner, saying, “Abner! Will you not answer?” Then Abner replied, “Who are you who calls to the king?”
When Saul saw David go out against the Philistine, he said to Abner, the commander of the army, “Abner, whose son is this young man?” Abner said, “As your soul lives, O king, I do not know.”
Out of the tribe of Gad: Ramoth in Gilead with its pasturelands, the city of refuge for the slayer, Mahanaim with its pasturelands,
Therefore let your hands be strong and be valiant, for Saul your lord is dead, and the house of Judah has anointed me king over them.”
Abner and his men traveled all that night through the Arabah; they crossed the Jordan, and, marching the whole forenoon, they came to Mahanaim.
While there was war between the house of Saul and the house of David, Abner was making himself strong in the house of Saul.
Then David came to Mahanaim, while Absalom crossed the Jordan with all the men of Israel.
Of the Benjaminites, the kindred of Saul, three thousand, of whom the majority had continued to keep their allegiance to the house of Saul.
Jacob sent messengers before him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom,
And the king said to his servants, “Do you not know that a prince and a great man has fallen this day in Israel?
Of the Ephraimites, twenty thousand eight hundred, mighty warriors, notables in their ancestral houses.