¹⁶ For David had said to him, “Your blood be on your own head.^(A) Your own mouth testified against you when you said, ‘I killed the Lord’s anointed.’”

²⁸ Later, when David heard about this, he said, “I and my kingdom are forever innocent^(A) before the Lord concerning the blood of Abner son of Ner. ²⁹ May his blood^(B) fall on the head of Joab and on his whole family!^(C) May Joab’s family never be without someone who has a running sore^(D) or leprosy^[a] or who leans on a crutch or who falls by the sword or who lacks food.”

¹¹ How much more—when wicked men have killed an innocent man in his own house and on his own bed—should I not now demand his blood^(A) from your hand and rid the earth of you!”

¹² So David gave an order to his men, and they killed them.^(B) They cut off their hands and feet and hung the bodies by the pool in Hebron. But they took the head of Ish-Bosheth and buried it in Abner’s tomb at Hebron.