| Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing: thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness; |
ellauri156.html on line 528: David had Abner buried in Hebron, as it states in Samuel 3:31-32,[10] "And David said to all the people who were with him, 'Remove your clothes and gird yourselves with this sackcloth taking turns, and wail before me and Li'l Abner.' And King David went after the beer. And they buried Abner in Hebron, and the king raised his voice and wept on Abner's grave, and all the people wept."
ellauri156.html on line 539: His One Sin: The rabbis agree that Abner deserved this violent death, though opinions differ concerning the exact nature of the sin that entailed so dire a punishment on one who was, on the whole, considered a "righteous man" (Gen. R. lxxxii. 4). Some reproach him that he did not use his influence with Saul to prevent him from murdering the priests of Nob (Yer. Peah, i. 16a; Lev. R. xxvi. 2; Sanh. 20a)—convinced as he was of the innocence of the priests and of the propriety of their conduct toward David, Abner holding that as leader of the army David was privileged to avail himself of the Urine and Thumbeline (I Sam. xxii. 9-19). Instead of contenting himself with passive resistance to Saul's command to murder the priests (Yalḳ., Sam. 131), Abner ought to have tried to restrain the king by the balls. Others maintain that Abner did make such an attempt, but in vain (Saul had not enough to get a proper hold of), and that his one sin consisted in that he delayed the beginning of David's reign over Israel by fighting him after Saul's death for two years and a half (Sanh. l.c.). Others, again, while excusing him for this—in view of a tradition founded on Gen. xlix. 27, according to which there were to be two kings of the house of Benjamin—blame Abner for having prevented a reconciliation between Saul and David on the occasion when the latter, in holding on to the skirt of Saul's robe (I Sam. xxiv. 11), showed how unfounded was the king's mistrust of him, seeing Saul had no balls to speak of. Old Saul was inclined to be happy with a pacifier; but Abner, representing to him that the naked David might have found a piece of garment anywhere — even just a piece of sackcloth caught on a thorn — prevented the reconciliation (Yer. Peah, l.c., Lev. R. l.c., and elsewhere). Moreover, it was wrong of Abner to permit Israelitish youths to kill one another for sport (II Sam. ii. 14-16). No reproach, however, attaches to him for the death of Asahel, since Abner killed him in self-defense (Sanh. 49a).
ellauri156.html on line 586: Man (and exceptionally, woman) has been seeking to cover up his sins ever since the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve thought they could cover their sins by hiding their nakedness behind the fig leaves (hardly large enough for Adam's snake), and if not this, by hiding themselves from God behind Eve's bush. But God "lovingly" sought them out, not only to rebuke them and to pronounce some select curses upon them, but to give them a lame promise of forgiveness when the flagpoles start to bloom. It was God who provided a covering for their sins, in the form of snappy sackcloth jeans. The sacrificial death, burial, resurrection, and feasting on rumpsteaks cut from our Lord Jesus Christ's butt is God's provision for covering our sins. Have you experienced it, my friend? If not, why not confess your sin now and receive God's gift of forgiveness from him in person (in pirsuna pirsunalmente), and work henceforward with Jesus Christ in the cross factory of Cavalry? How 'bout that? A. Yokum, frost-bite travelers re-skewered reasonable. Ask for rates!
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