2 Samuel 20:14

“And he went through all the tribes of Israel, etc.] That is, Sheba the son of Bichri, last mentioned, (<102013>2 Samuel 20:13), who passed through all the tribes of Israel to get as many to be of his party as he could, and to be proclaimed their king; or finding himself pursued, he passed on as fast as he could from place to place, through all the tribes, until at length he fixed for safety in a place later named; though Josephus f340 understands this of Joab pursuing Sheba through all the tribes of Israel with the forces under him; and to this sense the Syriac and Arabic versions, and so R. Isaiah interprets it; but the first sense is more generally received, that Sheba is meant, who…”

“JOAB PURSUES SHEBA UNTO ABEL. (Sa2 20:14-15) he went through all the tribes of Israel unto Abel--beating up for recruits. But there the prompt marches of Joab overtook and hemmed him in by a close siege of the place.”

“Abel - More commonly called 2 Samuel 20:15 “Abel-Beth-maachah” to distinguish it from other places of the name of “Abel” (a grassy plain). It is represented by the modern Abil-el-Kamh, a Christian village on the northwest of lake Huleh, the ancient Merom. Compare 2 Chronicles 16:4, “Abel-maim,” Abel by the water. And all the Berites - What this means is utterly unknown. Many approve of the reading of the Latin Version, connecting it with what follows: “And all the choice young men mustered and followed him.” return to 'Top of Page'”

“He - Sheba, who marched from tribe to tribe to stir them up to sedition. Abel - Unto Abel - beth - maachah, as this place is called here in the Hebrew text, Sa2 20:15, to distinguish it from other Abels; and to signify, that this was that Abel which was in the northern border of Canaan towards that part of Syria called Maachah, Sa2 10:8. Berites - Such as lived in the city, or territory of Beeroth of Benjamin, Jos 18:25, who being of the same tribe, if not city with Sheba, adhered to him, and followed him through all the tribes of Israel. They - The tribes of Israel; that is, a considerable number of them; as might well be expected, when the discontents were so high and general. 2 Kings (2…”

“20:14 Abel-beth-maacah was in the northernmost region of Israelite territory, four miles west of the city of Dan.”

“Abel: Or rather, probably, Abel of Beth-Maachah, as in the next verse. It appears, from Joab having marched "through all the tribes of Israel," to have been situated in the northern confines of the land of Israel, and in the half tribe of Manasseh, east of Jordan, as that was the situation of Maachah, to which it belonged. This agrees with the situation of the Abila which Eusebius and Jerome place between Paneas, or Cesarea Philippi, and Damascus. Josephus says it was a fortified city, and a metropolis of the Israelites; and also that it belonged to the ten tribes, having been taken from the king of Damascus. Kg1 15:20; Kg2 15:29; Ch2 16:4 Berites: Jos 18:25, Beeroth 2 Kings (2 Samuel) 20:15”