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2 Samuel 2
New English Translation

David is Anointed King

2 Afterward David inquired of the Lord, “Should I go up to one of the cities of Judah?” The Lord told him, “Go up.” David asked, “Where should I go?” The Lord replied,[a] “To Hebron.” 2 So David went up, along with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelite and Abigail, formerly the wife of Nabal the Carmelite. 3 David also brought along the men who were with him, each with his family. They settled in the cities[b] of Hebron. 4 The men of Judah came and there they anointed David as king over the people[c] of Judah.

David was told,[d] “The people[e] of Jabesh Gilead are the ones who buried Saul.” 5 So David sent messengers to the people of Jabesh Gilead and told them, “May you be blessed by the Lord because you have shown this kindness[f] to your lord Saul by burying him. 6 Now may the Lord show you true kindness![g] I also will reward you,[h] because you have done this deed. 7 Now be courageous[i] and prove to be valiant warriors, for your lord Saul is dead. The people of Judah have anointed me as king over them.”

David’s Army Clashes with the Army of Saul

8 Now Abner son of Ner, the general in command of Saul’s army, had taken Saul’s son Ish Bosheth[j] and had brought him to Mahanaim. 9 He appointed him king over Gilead, the Geshurites,[k] Jezreel, Ephraim, Benjamin, and all Israel. 10 Ish Bosheth son of Saul was forty years old when he began to rule over Israel. He ruled two years. However, the people[l] of Judah followed David. 11 David was king in Hebron over the people of Judah for seven-and-a-half years.[m]

12 Then Abner son of Ner and the servants of Ish Bosheth son of Saul went out from Mahanaim to Gibeon. 13 Joab son of Zeruiah and the servants of David also went out and confronted them at the pool of Gibeon. One group stationed themselves on one side of the pool, and the other group on the other side of the pool. 14 Abner said to Joab, “Let the soldiers get up and fight[n] before us.” Joab said, “So be it!”[o]

15 So they got up and crossed over by number: twelve belonging to Benjamin and to Ish Bosheth son of Saul, and twelve from the servants of David. 16 As they grappled with one another, each one stabbed his opponent with his sword and they fell dead together.[p] So that place is called the Field of Flints;[q] it is in Gibeon.

17 Now the battle was very severe that day; Abner and the men of Israel were overcome by David’s soldiers.[r] 18 The three sons of Zeruiah were there—Joab, Abishai, and Asahel. (Now Asahel was as quick on his feet as one of the gazelles in the field.) 19 Asahel chased Abner, without turning to the right or to the left as he followed Abner.

20 Then Abner turned and asked, “Is that you, Asahel?” He replied, “Yes it is!” 21 Abner said to him, “Turn aside to your right or to your left. Capture one of the soldiers[s] and take his equipment for yourself!” But Asahel was not willing to turn aside from following him. 22 So Abner spoke again to Asahel, “Turn aside from following me! I do not want to strike you to the ground.[t] How then could I show[u] my face in the presence of Joab your brother?” 23 But Asahel[v] refused to turn aside. So Abner struck him in the abdomen with the back end of his[w] spear. The spear came out his back; Asahel[x] collapsed on the spot and died there right before Abner.[y] Everyone who came to the place where Asahel fell dead paused in respect.[z]

24 So Joab and Abishai chased Abner. At sunset they came to the hill of Ammah near Giah on the way to the wilderness of Gibeon. 25 The Benjaminites formed their ranks[aa] behind Abner and were like a single army, standing at the top of a certain hill.

26 Then Abner called out to Joab, “Must the sword devour forever? Don’t you realize that this will turn bitter in the end? When will you tell the people to turn aside from pursuing their brothers?” 27 Joab replied, “As surely as God lives, if you had not said this, it would have been morning before the people would have abandoned pursuit[ab] of their brothers.” 28 Then Joab blew the ram’s horn and all the people stopped in their tracks.[ac] They stopped chasing Israel and ceased fighting.[ad] 29 Abner and his men went through the rift valley[ae] all that night. They crossed the Jordan River[af] and went through the whole region of Bitron[ag] and came to Mahanaim.

30 Now Joab returned from chasing Abner and assembled all the people. Nineteen of David’s soldiers were missing, in addition to Asahel. 31 But David’s soldiers had slaughtered the Benjaminites and Abner’s men—in all, 360 men had died! 32 They took Asahel’s body and buried him in his father’s tomb at Bethlehem. Joab and his men then traveled all that night and reached Hebron by dawn.

Footnotes

  1. 2 Samuel 2:1 tn Heb “he said.” The referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity and for stylistic reasons.
  2. 2 Samuel 2:3 tc The expression “the cities of Hebron” is odd; we would expect the noun to be in the singular, if used at all. Although the Syriac Peshitta has the expected reading “in Hebron,” the MT is clearly the more difficult reading and should probably be retained here.
  3. 2 Samuel 2:4 tn Heb “house.”
  4. 2 Samuel 2:4 tn Heb “and they told David.” The subject appears to be indefinite, allowing one to translate the verb as passive with David as subject.
  5. 2 Samuel 2:4 tn Heb “men.”
  6. 2 Samuel 2:5 tn Or “loyalty.”
  7. 2 Samuel 2:6 tn Or “loyalty and devotion.”
  8. 2 Samuel 2:6 tn Heb “will do with you this good.”
  9. 2 Samuel 2:7 tn Heb “let your hands be strong.”
  10. 2 Samuel 2:8 sn The name Ish Bosheth means in Hebrew “man of shame.” It presupposes an earlier form such as Ish Baal (“man of the Lord”), with the word “baal” being used of Israel’s God. But because the Canaanite storm god was named “Baal,” that part of the name was later replaced with the word “shame.”
  11. 2 Samuel 2:9 tc The MT here reads “the Ashurite,” but this is problematic if it is taken to mean “the Assyrian.” Ish Bosheth’s kingdom obviously was not of such proportions as to extend to Assyria. The Syriac Peshitta and the Vulgate render the word as “the Geshurite,” while the Targum has “of the house of Ashur.” We should probably emend the Hebrew text to read “the Geshurite.” The Geshurites lived in the northeastern part of the land of Palestine.
  12. 2 Samuel 2:10 tn Heb “house.”
  13. 2 Samuel 2:11 tn Heb “And the number of the days in which David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months.”
  14. 2 Samuel 2:14 tn Heb “play.” What is in view here is a gladiatorial contest in which representative groups of soldiers engage in mortal combat before the watching armies. Cf. NAB “perform for us”; NASB “hold (have NRSV) a contest before us”; NLT “put on an exhibition of hand-to-hand combat.”
  15. 2 Samuel 2:14 tn Heb “let them arise.”
  16. 2 Samuel 2:16 tn Heb “and they grabbed each one the head of his neighbor with his sword in the side of his neighbor and they fell together.”
  17. 2 Samuel 2:16 tn The meaning of the name “Helkath Hazzurim” (so NIV; KJV, NASB, NRSV similar) is not clear. BHK relates the name to the Hebrew term for “side,” and this is reflected in NAB “the Field of the Sides”; the Greek OT revocalizes the Hebrew to mean something like “Field of Adversaries.” Cf. also TEV, NLT “Field of Swords”; CEV “Field of Daggers.”
  18. 2 Samuel 2:17 tn Heb “servants.” So also elsewhere.
  19. 2 Samuel 2:21 tn Heb “young men.” So also elsewhere.
  20. 2 Samuel 2:22 tn Heb “Why should I strike you to the ground?”
  21. 2 Samuel 2:22 tn Heb “lift.”
  22. 2 Samuel 2:23 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Asahel) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  23. 2 Samuel 2:23 tn Heb “the.” The article functions here as a possessive pronoun.
  24. 2 Samuel 2:23 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Asahel) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  25. 2 Samuel 2:23 tn Heb “him”; the referent (Abner) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  26. 2 Samuel 2:23 tn Heb “and they stand.”
  27. 2 Samuel 2:25 tn Heb “were gathered together.”
  28. 2 Samuel 2:27 tn The Hebrew verb נַעֲלָה (naʿalah) used here is the Niphal perfect third person masculine singular of עָלָה (ʿalah, “to go up”). In the Niphal this verb “is used idiomatically, of getting away from so as to abandon…especially of an army raising a siege…” (see S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, 244).
  29. 2 Samuel 2:28 tn Heb “stood.”
  30. 2 Samuel 2:28 tn Heb “they no longer chased after Israel and they no longer fought.”
  31. 2 Samuel 2:29 sn The rift valley is a large geographic feature extending from Galilee to the Gulf of Aqaba. Here only a section of the Jordan Valley is in view.
  32. 2 Samuel 2:29 tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.
  33. 2 Samuel 2:29 tn Heb “and they went, all the Bitron.” The meaning of the Hebrew word “Bitron,” which is used only here in the OT, is disputed. The translation above follows BDB 144 s.v. בִּתְרוֹן in taking the word to be a proper name of an area east of the Jordan. A different understanding was advocated by W. R. Arnold, who took the word to refer to the forenoon or morning; a number of modern scholars and translations have adopted this view (cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV, CEV, NLT). See W. R. Arnold, “The Meaning of בתרון,” AJSL 28 (1911-1912): 274-83 and HALOT 167 s.v. In this case one could translate “and they traveled all morning long.”
Close DARBY

2 Samuel 2
Darby Translation

2 And it came to pass after this that David inquired of Jehovah, saying, Shall I go up into one of the cities of Judah? And Jehovah said to him, Go up. And David said, Whither shall I go up? And he said, Unto Hebron.

2 So David went up thither, and his two wives also, Ahinoam the Jizreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite.

3 And his men that were with him did David bring up, every man with his household; and they dwelt in the cities of Hebron.

4 And the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah. And they told David, saying, It is the men of Jabesh-Gilead that have buried Saul.

5 And David sent messengers to the men of Jabesh-Gilead, and said to them, Blessed be ye of Jehovah, that ye have shewn this kindness to your lord, to Saul, and have buried him!

6 And now Jehovah shew kindness and faithfulness to you; and I also will requite you this good, because ye have done this thing.

7 And now let your hands be strong, and be ye valiant; for your master Saul is dead, and also the house of Judah have anointed me king over them.

8 And Abner the son of Ner, captain of Saul's host, took Ishbosheth the son of Saul, and brought him over to Mahanaim;

9 and made him king over Gilead, and over the Asshurites, and over Jizreel, and over Ephraim, and over Benjamin, and over all Israel.

10 Ishbosheth Saul's son was forty years old when he began to reign over Israel, and he reigned two years. However, the house of Judah followed David.

11 And the time that David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months.

12 And Abner the son of Ner, and the servants of Ishbosheth the son of Saul, went out from Mahanaim to Gibeon.

13 And Joab the son of Zeruiah, and the servants of David, went out. And they met together by the pool of Gibeon; and they sat down, these on the one side of the pool, and those on the other side of the pool.

14 And Abner said to Joab, Let the young men now arise and make sport before us. And Joab said, Let them arise.

15 And they arose and went over by number, twelve for Benjamin, and for Ishbosheth the son of Saul, and twelve of the servants of David.

16 And they caught every one his fellow by the head, and [thrust] his sword in his fellow's side, and they fell down together. And that place was called Helkath-hazzurim, which is by Gibeon.

17 And the battle that day was very severe; and Abner and the men of Israel were routed before the servants of David.

18 And there were three sons of Zeruiah there, Joab, and Abishai, and Asahel. Now Asahel was swift of foot, as one of the gazelles that are in the field.

19 And Asahel pursued after Abner; and in going he turned not to the right hand nor to the left from behind Abner.

20 Then Abner looked behind him, and said, Art thou Asahel? And he said, I am.

21 And Abner said to him, Turn thee aside, to thy right hand or to thy left, and lay hold of one of the young men, and take for thyself his armour. But Asahel would not turn aside from following him.

22 And Abner said again to Asahel, Turn thee aside from following me: why should I smite thee to the ground? how then should I hold up my face to Joab thy brother?

23 But he refused to turn aside; therefore Abner with the hinder end of the spear smote him in the belly, so that the spear came out behind him; and he fell down there, and died in the same place. And it came to pass, that as many as came to the place where Asahel fell down and died stood still.

24 And Joab and Abishai pursued after Abner; and the sun went down when they came to the hill of Ammah, which is before Giah on the way to the wilderness of Gibeon.

25 And the children of Benjamin gathered themselves together after Abner, and became one troop, and stood on the top of a hill.

26 And Abner called to Joab, and said, Shall the sword devour for ever? knowest thou not that it will be bitterness in the latter end? and how long shall it be ere thou bid the people return from following their brethren?

27 And Joab said, [As] God liveth, unless thou hadst spoken, surely then in the morning the people had gone up every one from following his brother.

28 And Joab blew the trumpet, and all the people stood still, and pursued after Israel no more, neither did they fight any more.

29 And Abner and his men walked all that night through the plain, and passed over the Jordan, and went through all Bithron, and they came to Mahanaim.

30 And Joab returned from following Abner, and gathered all the people together; and there lacked of David's servants nineteen men, and Asahel.

31 And the servants of David had smitten of Benjamin, and of Abner's men, three hundred and sixty men, who had died.

32 And they took up Asahel, and buried him in the sepulchre of his father, which was in Bethlehem. And Joab and his men went all night, and they came to Hebron at break of day.

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