2 Samuel 2:27
And Joab said, As God liveth, unless thou hadst spoken, surely then in the morning the people had gone up every one from following his brother. And Joab said, As God liveth, unless thou hadst spoken, surely then in the morning the people had gone up every one from following his brother.
David was already reigning at Hebron, yet he did not come into the kingdom peaceably because Saul's son with his army still sought to hold it by force. In that contest Joab declared on oath that his men would have kept on pursuing their Israelite brothers until morning if Abner had not spoken to stop the fighting.
The saying stands within the record of 2 Samuel 2-4 setting forth the causes that brought David to be made king over all Israel. That record traces the lingering warfare between Judah and Israel in which David proved continually victorious, alongside the inability of Ish-bosheth to unite the broken fragments of the kingdom and the low condition of religion. It then follows Abner's break with Ish-bosheth after the charge of treachery against him and his overtures to David, together with David's recovery of Michal as a hold upon the northern people. It closes with the murders of Abner and Ish-bosheth, both openly repudiated by David, leaving only Jonathan's lame son, while behind all these political movements lay God's purpose to bring David to the throne.