2 Samuel 3:11

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

He could not answer Abner another word, because he feared him.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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אַבְנֵ֖ר

ʼAbnêr

H74

“Abner”

Noun, Proper

Appears 63× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at 1 Samuel 14:50

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H1 and H5216

TWOT: None

Abner = "my father is a lamp" - Saul's cousin and army captain, treacherously slain by Joab

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

9: words
8: distinct lemmas
Historical: section

Grammatical profile

3 verbs
2 nouns
1 adverb
3 particles

Verb forms

יָכֹ֣ל Qal · Perfect
לְהָשִׁ֥יב Hiphil · Infinitive Construct
מִיִּרְאָת֖וֹ Qal · Infinitive Construct

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 11 words from the Hebrew and 14 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 9 Hebrew tokens and 13 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew 2 Samuel 3:11 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וְלֹֽא יָכֹ֣ל ע֔וֹד לְהָשִׁ֥יב אֶת אַבְנֵ֖ר דָּבָ֑ר מִיִּרְאָת֖וֹ אֹתֽוֹ

He could not answer Abner another word, because he feared him.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX 2 Samuel 3:11 Septuagint · lemma form

καί οὐ δύναμαι ἔτι μεμφιβοσθε ἀποκρίνω ὁ αβεννηρ ῥῆμα ἀπό ὁ φοβέω αὐτός

And Jebosthe could not any longer answer Abenner a word, because he feared him.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Jonathan Prophets (Joshua–Malachi)

וְלָא יָכִיל עוֹד לַאֲתָבָא יַת אַבְנֵר פִּתְגָמָא מִדְדָחֵל יָתֵיהּ:

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Jonathan — Aramaic: “Mikraot Gedolot” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “London "Chaldee Paraphrase," 1871” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on 2 Samuel 3:11 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

2Sa 3:11 And he could not answer Abner a word again, because he feared him.

Ver. 11. And he could not answer Abner a word.] Wherein he showed himself to be no less timorous than timerarious. And the truth is he was overpowered and overawed by Abner.

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.

Joseph Benson's Commentary

2Sa 3:11. He could not answer Abner a word — Being thunderstruck with so unexpected a declaration. If he had had the spirit of a man, especially of a prince, he might have answered him, that his merits were the aggravation of his crimes; that he would not be served by so ill a man, and that he doubted not but he should do well enough without him. But he was conscious to himself of his own weakness, and therefore said not a word, lest he should make a bad matter worse.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Tyndale Open Study Notes

Tyndale Open Resources

3:11 didn’t dare say another word: Ishbosheth’s silence speaks loudly of his weakness as a ruler. Abner, who had installed him as king (2:8-9), was the real power behind Ishbosheth’s reign.

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 11. He could not answer Abner a word] Miserable is the lot of a king who is governed by the general of his army, who may strip him of his power and dignity whenever he pleases! Witness the fate of poor Charles I. of England and Louis XVI. of France. Military men, above all others, should never be intrusted with any civil power, and should be great only in the field.

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

John Gill's Exposition

And he could not answer Abner a word again,.... That is, he would not, he durst not; otherwise, if it was fact he charged him with, he could have insisted on the truth of it, and aggravated the crime and scandal of it; and observed it to him, that the kindness he had shown him was no excuse for it; but such things, though he would, he durst not say:

because he feared him; he had the army at his command, and could dethrone him when he pleased; and it has been the fate of greater men than Ishbosheth to be awed by their generals, and even David himself; see Sa2 3:39.

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

Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

Him. And no wonder; since even David could not repress the insolence of his chief commander, ver. 39. So Otho "had not yet sufficient authority to hinder the perpetration of crimes." (Tacitus, Hist. i.)

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).

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

He could not answer Abner, because he durst not provoke Abner further, lest he should really execute what he supposed as yet he only threatened. Because he feared him, as having a greater interest in, and power with, both the army and the rest of the people, than himself had.

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

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

Daniel D. Whedon

11. He could not answer Abner — “Miserable,” says Clarke, “is the lot of the king who is governed by the general of his army.” Ishbosheth was silenced and terrified at the fierce wrath of Abner, and his solemn oath to revolt and go over to David.

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

The Pulpit Commentary

He could not answer Abner. Though the reply was one of open treason, and was spoken with violence, yet Ishbosheth did not venture to bring the matter to an issue. Perhaps he looked round upon his officers to see if any would take his side, and, when all were silent, he was too feeble to dare to order the arrest and trial of his too powerful captain.

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

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

2 Samuel, in the Historical, opens this verse with 9 words (8 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is ʼAbnêr (“Abner”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “Abner” (ʼAbnêr) shape what this verse is saying?
These translations render this verse differently; the difference is in the English rendering, not the original. What questions does that raise?
The verb «יָכֹ֣ל» is Qal Perfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Joseph Benson's Commentary read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

This verse counts 9 Hebrew ↔ 13 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 9 words in this verse.
8 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 9 words in this verse.