However he refused to turn aside: therefore Abner with the blunt end of the spear struck him under the fifth rib, so that the spear came out behind him; and he fell down there, and died in the same place: and it came to pass, that as many as came to the place where Asahel fell down and died stood still.
Read Chapter 2
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Stroke, (aversa.) Hebrew, "with the hinder end of the spear, under the fifth rib. "Septuagint, "in the loin."
But when the easily angered so attack others that it is impossible to shun them, they should not be smitten with open rebuke but sparingly with a certain respectful forbearance. We shall prove this better by citing the example of Abner. Scripture has it that when Asahel attacked him with vehement and inconsiderate haste, Abner said to Asahel, “Go off and do not follow me, lest I be obliged to strike you to the ground.… But he refused to listen to him, and would not turn aside. Therefore, Abner struck him with his spear, with a back stroke in the groin, and thrust him through, and he died.” Of whom, then, did Asahel serve as a type, but of those who are driven headlong in a violent access of frenzy? Such people, when under the impulse of a like frenzy, are the more cautiously to be shunned, the more carried away they are in their madness. Therefore, too, Abner, who in our language is termed “lamp of the father,” fled: that is to say, if the teacher, whose tongue symbolizes the heavenly ...
