2 Samuel 3:20

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex) 2 Samuel 3:20 appears in the Hebrew Old Testament. The text above is from the Westminster Leningrad Codex. Each word links to its Strong’s number, a concise gloss, and parsing drawn from the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible morphology. Click any word for its full Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB) entry.
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2 Samuel 3:20 (World English Bible). Public Domain. Lemma interlinear Bible study tool, https://lemma.gebible.app/v/2-samuel/3/20.

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English Translation
So Abner came to David to Hebron, and twenty men with him. David made Abner and the men who were with him a feast.
World English Bible · Public Domain
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Compare translations 3

The same verse in 3 English versions, stacked beneath the original-language interlinear above. Click any original word for its lexicon entry.

Each is an independent rendering of the whole verse — the interlinear is not word-aligned to these translations.

Highlighted words mark where these versions differ — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment.

  • World English Bible Public Domain
    So Abner came to David to Hebron, and twenty men with him. David made Abner and the men who were with him a feast.
  • King James Version Public Domain
    So Abner came to David to Hebron, and twenty men with him. And David made Abner and the men that were with him a feast.
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
    And Abner came to David Hebron, and with him 20 men. And David made a feast for Abner and for the men who with him.

unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult).

Versions to compare (up to 4)

3 of 4 selected

Show all 18 translations

Every available English version of this verse, each an independent rendering of the whole verse.

  • World English Bible Public Domain
    So Abner came to David to Hebron, and twenty men with him. David made Abner and the men who were with him a feast.
  • Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
    When Abner and twenty of his men came to David at Hebron, David held a feast for them.
  • Majority Standard Bible Public Domain
    When Abner and twenty of his men came to David at Hebron, David held a feast for them.
  • King James Version Public Domain
    So Abner came to David to Hebron, and twenty men with him. And David made Abner and the men that were with him a feast.
  • American Standard Version (1901) Public Domain
    So Abner came to David to Hebron, and twenty men with him. And David made Abner and the men that were with him a feast.
  • Revised Version (1885) Public Domain
    So Abner came to David to Hebron, and twenty men with him. And David made Abner and the men that were with him a feast.
  • Geneva Bible (1599) Public Domain
    So Abner came to Dauid to Hebron, hauing twentie men with him, and Dauid made a feast vnto Abner, and to the men that were with him.
  • Douay-Rheims (1899) Public Domain
    And he came to David in Hebron with twenty men: and David made a feast for Abner, and his men that came with him.
  • Young's Literal Translation Public Domain
    and Abner cometh in unto David, to Hebron, and with him twenty men, and David maketh for Abner, and for the men who `are' with him, a banquet.
  • Literal Standard Version CC BY-SA 4.0
    and Abner comes to David, to Hebron, and twenty men [are] with him, and David makes a banquet for Abner and for the men who [are] with him.
  • Unlocked Literal Bible CC BY-SA 4.0
    When Abner and twenty of his men arrived in Hebron to see David, David had a feast prepared for them.
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
    And Abner came to David Hebron, and with him 20 men. And David made a feast for Abner and for the men who with him.
  • Darby Bible Public Domain
    So Abner came to David to Hebron, and twenty men with him. And David made Abner and the men that were with him a repast.
  • World Messianic Bible Public Domain
    So Abner came to David to Hebron, and twenty men with him. David made Abner and the men who were with him a feast.
  • Webster's Bible Public Domain
    So Abner came to David in Hebron, and twenty men with him: and David made Abner and the men that were with him, a feast.
  • Free Bible Version CC BY-SA 4.0
    Abner came with twenty of his men to see David at Hebron, and David prepared a feast for them.
  • Bible in Basic English Public Domain
    So Abner, with twenty men, came to Hebron, to David. And David made a feast for Abner and the men who were with him.
  • JPS Tanakh (1917) Public Domain
    So Abner came to David to Hebron, and twenty men with him. And David made Abner and the men that were with him a feast.

Literal Standard Version (2020), Covenant Press — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). Unlocked Literal Bible (unfoldingWord) — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult). Free Bible Version, Dr. Jonathan Gallagher — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org).

Word by word

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מִשְׁתֶּֽה
mishteh
H4960
“feast”
Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute
Part of Speech
Noun
Type
Common
Gender
Masculine
Number
Singular
State
Absolute
Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H8354

TWOT: 2477c

feast, drink, banquet - feast, banquet - drink
  1. וַיָּבֹ֨א bôwʼ H935 “and · to enter” Conjunction + Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
  2. אַבְנֵ֤ר ʼAbnêr H74 “Abner” Noun, Proper
  3. אֶל ʼêl H413 “to” Preposition
  4. דָּוִד֙ Dâvid H1732 “David” Noun, Proper
  5. חֶבְר֔וֹן Chebrôwn H2275 “Hebron” Noun, Proper
  6. וְאִתּ֖וֹ ʼêth H854 “and · with · him” Conjunction + Preposition + Suffix, Personal, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
  7. עֶשְׂרִ֣ים ʻesrîym H6242 “twenty” Adjective, Cardinal number, Both, Plural, Absolute
  8. אֲנָשִׁ֑ים ʼîysh H376 “men” Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Absolute
  9. וַיַּ֨עַשׂ ʻâsâh H6213 “and · to do” Conjunction + Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
  10. דָּוִ֧ד Dâvid H1732 “David” Noun, Proper
  11. לְאַבְנֵ֛ר ʼAbnêr H74 “to/for · Abner” Preposition + Noun, Proper
  12. וְלַאֲנָשִׁ֥ים ʼîysh H376 “and · to/for · men” Conjunction + Preposition + Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Absolute
  13. אֲשֶׁר ʼăsher H834 “which” Particle, Relative
  14. אִתּ֖וֹ ʼêth H854 “with · him” Preposition + Suffix, Personal, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular

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 →

15
words
11
distinct lemmas
Historical
section

Shared distinctive vocabulary

מִשְׁתֶּֽה feast H4960 occurs in 43 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

  • 2 verbs
  • 8 nouns
  • 1 adjective
  • 3 prepositions
  • 1 particle

Verb forms

  • וַיָּבֹ֨א Qal · Sequential Imperfect
  • וַיַּ֨עַשׂ Qal · Sequential Imperfect

Repetition

Words recur within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

  • אַבְנֵ֤ר Abner H74 ×2
  • דָּוִד֙ David H1732 ×2
  • אֲנָשִׁ֑ים man H376 ×2
  • וְאִתּ֖וֹ with H854 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 24 words from the Hebrew and 26 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 15 Hebrew tokens and 24 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.

Cross-references

3

Topical passages linked to 2 Samuel 3:20 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

  • Genesis 26:30 He made them a feast, and they ate and drink.
  • Genesis 31:54 Jacob offered a sacrifice in the mountain, and called his relatives to eat bread. They ate bread, and stayed all night in the mountain.
  • Esther 1:3 in the third year of his reign, he made a feast to all his princes and his servants; the power of Persia and Media, the nobles and princes of the provinces, being before him;

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

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 3:20 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַיָּבֹ֨א אַבְנֵ֤ר אֶל דָּוִד֙ חֶבְר֔וֹן וְאִתּ֖וֹ עֶשְׂרִ֣ים אֲנָשִׁ֑ים וַיַּ֨עַשׂ דָּוִ֧ד לְאַבְנֵ֛ר וְלַאֲנָשִׁ֥ים אֲשֶׁר אִתּ֖וֹ מִשְׁתֶּֽה

So Abner came to David to Hebron, and twenty men with him. David made Abner and the men who were with him a feast.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX 2 Samuel 3:20 Septuagint · lemma form

καί ἔρχομαι αβεννηρ πρός δαυίδ εἰς χεβρων καί μετά αὐτός εἴκοσι ἀνήρ καί ποιέω δαυίδ ὁ αβεννηρ καί ὁ ἀνήρ ὁ μετά αὐτός πότος

And Abenner came to David to Chebron, and with him twenty men: and David made for Abenner and his men with him a banquet of wine.

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)

1

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.

  1. Targum Jonathan Prophets (Joshua–Malachi)
    וַאֲתָא אַבְנֵר לְוַת דָוִד לְחֶבְרוֹן וְעִמֵיהּ עַסְרִין גַבְרַיָא וַעֲבַד דָוִד לְאַבְנֵר וּלְגַבְרַיָא דְעִמֵיהּ מִשְׁתַּיָא:

    (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 3:20 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 3:20 So Abner came to David to Hebron, and twenty men with him. And David made Abner and the men that [were] with him a feast.

Ver. 20. And David made Abner … a feast] Which some think was not so well done, and the end of this transaction was tragic. {a}

{a} Pellican. Martyr.

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.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(20) Twenty men.—These were doubtless representative men, selected by Abner from Israel and Benjamin to accompany him and confirm his report. The feast which David made for them is not to be understood of mere conviviality, but of a solemn sacrificial feast, such as was customary in ancient times in connection with important negotiations. (See Gen_26:30; Gen_31:54; 1Ki_3:15.)

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

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

20. twenty men with him] They formed the official escort sent by Ish-bosheth to convey Michal back to David, but were in all probability privy to the secret purpose of Abner’s visit.

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.

John Gill's Exposition

So Abner came to David to Hebron, and twenty men with him,.... Before he went privately to him, and conferred with him, but now, having gained so many of the Israelites in favour of David, he appeared more publicly and brought perhaps some of the principal of the nation with film, to join in the league and covenant to be made:

and David made Abner and the men that were with him a feast; not only in honour to them, as great personages, especially Abner, and as expressive of reconciliation; but as a token of the covenant they were entering into, and for the confirmation of it; it being usual to have feasts when covenants were made; see Gen 26:28.

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

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Twenty men - These were doubtless his official suite as Ish-bosheth’s envoy to conduct Michal to David, but privy and consenting to his intrigue with David. It is remarkable that not a word should be said about the meeting of David and Michal.

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

Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

Feast, through joy at the reception of his wife, and of such good news. (Menochius)

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

Which in those times was customary when persons entered into covenant. See Gen 26:30; 31:44,46.

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

20. Twenty men with him — To guard his person and confirm his words. What was the basis of the league between them, and what it all comprehended and provided for, we are not told.

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

Twenty men with him. These, we may feel sure, were not common soldiers, but chieftains selected from those elders who were on David"s side; and, though the honourable escort of Michal was the pretext, yet Ishbosheth must have felt sure that more was intended. Most of them, however, would join Abner on the road, especially those who represented Benjamin and the western tribes. On arriving at Hebron they were honourably received, and, after a feast, they settled the conditions on which David was to be made king of all Israel; and Abner then departed in peace, after giving the assurance that all the tribes would now gladly assemble, and by solemn compact and covenant make David their king. The terms of the league, and the conditions agreed upon for Ishbosheth, are not mentioned, because upon Abner"s death the whole plan fell to the ground, and David had to wait for many years before his hopes were fulfilled. But we gather from this covenant and 2Sa_5:3 (where see note) that the early kings of Israel were not absolute monarchs.

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 15 words (11 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is mishteh (“feast”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

  1. What does “feast” (mishteh) contribute to the verse as a whole?
  2. Genesis 19:3 shares the word «feast» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
  3. “Abner” occurs 2× in this one verse. What is the effect of the repetition?
  4. These translations render this verse differently; the difference is in the English rendering, not the original. What questions does that raise?
  5. The verb «וַיָּבֹ֨א» is Qal Sequential Imperfect. How does its form color the action?
  6. Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

Reading settings

Reading text

Shown beneath each verse's original-language words.

Old Testament
Old Testament edition

Read the OT as the Masoretic Hebrew (MT) or the Greek Septuagint (LXX).

English shown for the Greek Septuagint (in the Hebrew ↔ Greek comparison).

Comparing translations? Open the Compare panel on any verse page to stack up to four side by side.