²⁵ The children of Benjamin gathered themselves together after Abner, and became one band, and stood on the top of a hill. ²⁶ Then Abner called to Joab, and said, “Shall the sword devour forever? Don’t you know that it will be bitterness in the latter end? How long will it be then, before you ask the people to return from following their brothers?”

²⁷ Joab said, “As God^[a] lives, if you had not spoken, surely then in the morning the people would have gone away, and not each followed his brother.”