2-samuel 20:14

Unto Abel - This is supposed to have been the capital of the district called Abilene in St. Luke's Gospel, Luke 3:1.

Beth-maachah - Is supposed to have been in the northern part of the Holy Land, on the confines of Syria, and probably in the tribe of Naphtali.

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."

20:14 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, ver. 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, 10:8 .Berites - Such as lived in the city, or territory of Beeroth of Benjamin, 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.