2 Samuel 2:29

2Sa 2:29 And Abner and his men walked all that night through the plain, and passed over Jordan, and went through all Bithron, and they came to Mahanaim.

Ver. 29. And went through all Bithron,] i.e., Through the separate or divided country: sundered from Canaan by the river Jordan, as Junius rendereth it. They went back to Mahanaim, by weeping cross. Dubia est Martis alea, nec raro utrique parti noxia.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Sa_2:29

And Abner and his men walked all that night through the plain.

The cost of success

We would remind ourselves of such events in order that we may see what has been accomplished by military discipline, by the subordination of merely personal whims and desires. Even conquerors have no easy time in life. We think of success, of triumph, of coronation, but we forget that before these things, and as necessary to them, there must be discipline, suffering, loss, trial of every kind. We read with glowing hearts the accounts of explorers, discoverers, adventurers, who have gone into regions unknown and undreamed of; and here, again, we forget the night watchings, the night marchings, the continual perils and difficulties of the road. Self-denial is not confined to Christian experience. Whoever would be great in any department or relation of life must over know the pain of self-mortification--must, in other words, achieve the mastery himself--must, so to say, stand upon himself in an attitude of triumph. (J. Parker, D. D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2:29 Abner was wise to put as much distance as possible between his troops and Joab’s forces, recognizing that their desire for blood vengeance could overpower the truce.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Or, wilderness.

Or, to the tents.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 29. They came to Mahanaim.] So they returned to the place whence they set out. See 2Sa 2:12. This was the commencement of the civil wars between Israel and Judah, and properly the commencement of the division of the two kingdoms, through which both nations were deluged with blood.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(29) Through the plain (or the Arabah).—The wilderness of Gibeon lay to the east of the town, and Abner’s flight had thus carried him towards the Jordan. He now passed up the valley of the Jordan (which the word here used generally designates), and, crossing at a ford, went “through all Bithron to Mahanaim.” Bithron is evidently the name of a district on the east of the Jordan, but is not further known.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

29. walked all that night] Fearing a renewal of hostilities they made good their retreat at once.

through the plain] The Arâbâh, or “desert tract which extends along the valley of the Jordan from the Dead Sea to the Lake of Gennesareth, now called by the Arabs El-Ghor.” Stanley, Sinai and Pal. p. 487.

through all Bithron] Probably, as the name (derived from a root meaning to cut) implies, some ravine, or district intersected by ravines, between the Jordan and Mahanaim.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And Abner and his men walked all that night through the plain,.... The plain of Jordan. He marched with his men all night, lest Joab should return, and pursue him, and take vengeance on him for the death of his brother:

and passed over Jordan; at one of the fords of it:

and went through all Bithron; the name of a province or country, as Jarchi, called so perhaps from its being separated from the rest of the tribes of Israel by the river Jordan; some think the mountains of Bether were in this country, Sol 2:17. From Gibeon, where the battle was fought, to Bithron, according to Bunting (o), was twenty eight miles, the which he says was in the tribe of Gad, twenty eight miles from Jerusalem northeastward, lying between Dibon and Jordan:

and they came to Mahanaim: from whence they came, and where they had left Ishbosheth, Sa2 2:8. From Bithron to this place, according to the same writer (p), was sixteen miles.

(o) Travels, &c. p. 145, 146. (p) Ibid.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Through the plain - See 1Sa 23:24. Bithron is unknown. From the expression all (the) Bithron, it seems likely that it is a tract of country, intersected by ravines lying on the east side of Jordan.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Beth-horon. Septuagint, "the extended plain." Hebrew Bithrun, (Haydock) or the country towards the Jordan. (Calmet) --- Thus the battle ended in his disgrace; (Haydock) and many from all Israel began to flock to the standard of David, 1 Paralipomenon xii. 22. (Tirinus)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Bithron; otherwise called the mountains of Bether, Son 2:17, which were beyond Jordan; or some other country now not known by that name, which is the case of hundreds of places.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

29. Through the plain — The valley of the Jordan.

Bithron — Literally, the broken or divided place. As no locality bearing this name is ever afterwards mentioned, and the Hebrew word has the article — all the Bithron — it probably designates not a single place, but the broken and intersected region beyond the Jordan through which one must pass in order to go from the river to Mahanaim.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And Abner and his men walked all that night. At the end of the chapter we learn that Joab did the same. Each army had about twenty-six miles to march, and the night was less exhausting for a long walk than the day. As soon, then, as Abner saw Joab and his men occupied with the removal of Asahel"s body, he withdrew from the hill of Ammah, and, passing through the Arabah, or plain of Jordan, crossed the river by the same ford which he had used when starting on his unfortunate errand, and so returned home. The phrase, all Bithron, shows that this was a district, but nothing more of it is known.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Abner proceeded with his troops through the Arabah, i.e., the valley of the Jordan, marching the whole night; and then crossing the river, went through the whole of Bithron back to Mahanaim. Bithron is a district upon the eastern side of the Jordan, which is only mentioned here. Aquila and the Vulgate identify it with Bethhoron; but there is no more foundation for this than for the suggestion of Thenius, that it is the same place as Bethharam, the later Libias, at the mouth of the Nahr Hesbn (see at Num 32:36). It is very evident that Bithron is not the name of a city, but of a district, from the fact that it is preceded by the word all, which would be perfectly unmeaning in the case of a city. The meaning of the word is a cutting; and it was no doubt the name given to some ravine in the neighbourhood of the Jabbok, between the Jordan and Mahanaim, which was on the north side of the Jabbok.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

The Bisron. The name of a region.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.