What hast: Joab and his brother Abishai, David's nephews, had been very faithful and highly useful to him in his distresses; and, from gratitude and natural affection, he had inadvertently permitted them to assume almost as much ascendancy over him as Abner had over the pusillanimous Ishbosheth. He trusted and feared them too much, and allowed them all the importance they claimed; which had emboldened them, especially Joab, to a high degree of presumption. 2Sa 3:8, 2Sa 3:39, 2Sa 19:5-7; Num 23:11; Joh 18:35