33. And the king, mourning and lamenting Abner, said: "By no means has Abner died the way that cowards usually die.
34. Your hands are not bound, and your feet are not weighed down with fetters. But just as men often fall before the sons of iniquity, so you have fallen." And while repeating this, all the people wept over him.
35. And when the entire multitude had arrived to take food with David, while it was still broad daylight, David swore, saying, "May God do these things to me, and may he add these other things, if I taste bread or anything else before the sun sets."
36. And all the people heard it, and everything that the king did in the sight of the entire people was pleasing to them.
37. And every common person, and all of Israel, realized on that day that the killing of Abner, the son of Ner, had not been done by the king.
38. The king also said to his servants: "Could you be ignorant that a leader and a very great man has fallen today in Israel?
39. But I am still tender, and yet anointed king. And these men of the sons of Zeruiah are too harsh for me. May the Lord repay whoever does evil in accord with his malice."