שמואל ב, פרק ב׳, פסוק כ״ז

When a sudden call is made to halt the violence on the battlefield, the response is a sharp deflection of blame. Answering Abner's plea to end the fighting, Joab places the full responsibility for the day's bloodshed squarely on Abner's shoulders. The primary approach among commentators is that Joab makes it clear he had no prior intention of starting a war, accusing his rival of being the sole instigator of the conflict.

The commentators present two main ways to understand Joab's sharp response. The most widely accepted view reads his words as a direct accusation about how the day began. Joab points an accusing finger, stating that if Abner had not spoken up earlier that morning to suggest a deadly exhibition match between their young men, the war would never have broken out. Had that initial challenge never been issued, the soldiers would have peacefully withdrawn from their very first meeting. Every man would have simply gone his own way, and no blood would have been shed [רש״י, רד״ק, מצודת דוד, מלבי״ם, ביאור שטיינזלץ, אברבנאל, מצודת ציון].

Conversely, another interpretive approach views Joab's reply not as a reflection on the morning's initial challenge, but rather as a reaction to Abner's current request for a truce. According to this perspective, Joab is saying that if Abner had only spoken these words of peace earlier in the day, the pursuit would have ended immediately. This view highlights that Joab continued to chase Abner purely out of a sense of honor, rather than a desire for revenge or spoils of war. Therefore, the moment Abner finally asked to resolve the conflict, Joab willingly accepted, sounded the horn to halt his troops, and peacefully turned back [רש״י, רד״ק, אברבנאל].