36. All the people took note of it and it pleased them, just as everything the king did pleased all the people.
37. So all the people and all Israel understood that day that it was not the king’s will to kill Abner son of Ner.
38. Then the king said to his soldiers, “Don’t you realize that a prince and a great man has fallen in Israel today?
39. So today I am vulnerable, even though anointed king. These men, the sons of Zeruiah, are too hard for me to handle. May Adonai reward the evildoer according to his wickedness.”