2 Samuel 3:23

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex) 2 Samuel 3:23 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 3:23 (World English Bible). Public Domain. Lemma interlinear Bible study tool, https://lemma.gebible.app/v/2-samuel/3/23.

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English Translation
When Joab and all the host who was with him had come, they told Joab, saying, Abner the son of Ner came to the king, and he has sent him away, and he is gone in peace.
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
    When Joab and all the host who was with him had come, they told Joab, saying, Abner the son of Ner came to the king, and he has sent him away, and he is gone in peace.
  • King James Version Public Domain
    When Joab and all the host that was with him were come, they told Joab, saying, Abner the son of Ner came to the king, and he hath sent him away, and he is gone in peace.
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
    And Joab and all of the army that with him came, and they declared to Joab, saying, “Abner, the son of Ner, came to the king, and he sent him away, and he went in peace.”

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
    When Joab and all the host who was with him had come, they told Joab, saying, Abner the son of Ner came to the king, and he has sent him away, and he is gone in peace.
  • Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
    When Joab and all his troops arrived, he was informed, “Abner son of Ner came to see the king, who sent him on his way in peace.”
  • Majority Standard Bible Public Domain
    When Joab and all his troops arrived, he was informed, “Abner son of Ner came to see the king, who sent him on his way in peace.”
  • King James Version Public Domain
    When Joab and all the host that was with him were come, they told Joab, saying, Abner the son of Ner came to the king, and he hath sent him away, and he is gone in peace.
  • American Standard Version (1901) Public Domain
    When Joab and all the host that was with him were come, they told Joab, saying, Abner the son of Ner came to the king, and he hath sent him away, and he is gone in peace.
  • Revised Version (1885) Public Domain
    When Joab and all the host that was with him were come, they told Joab, saying, Abner the son of Ner came to the king, and he hath sent him away, and he is gone in peace.
  • Geneva Bible (1599) Public Domain
    When Ioab, and all the hoste that was with him were come, men tolde Ioab, saying, Abner the sonne of Ner came to the King, and he hath sent him away, and he is gone in peace.
  • Douay-Rheims (1899) Public Domain
    And Joab and all the army that was with him, came afterwards: and it was told Joab, that Abner the son of Ner came to the king, and he hath sent him away, and he is gone in peace.
  • Young's Literal Translation Public Domain
    and Joab and all the host that `is' with him have come, and they declare to Joab, saying, `Abner son of Ner hath come unto the king, and he sendeth him away, and he goeth in peace.'
  • Literal Standard Version CC BY-SA 4.0
    and Joab and all the host that [were] with him have come, and they declare to Joab, saying, “Abner son of Ner has come to the king, and he sends him away, and he goes in peace.”
  • Unlocked Literal Bible CC BY-SA 4.0
    When Joab and all the army with him arrived, they told Joab, “Abner son of Ner came to the king, and the king has sent him away, and Abner left in peace.”
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
    And Joab and all of the army that with him came, and they declared to Joab, saying, “Abner, the son of Ner, came to the king, and he sent him away, and he went in peace.”
  • Darby Bible Public Domain
    And Joab and all the host that was with him came; and they told Joab, saying, Abner the son of Ner came to the king, and he has sent him away; and he is gone in peace.
  • World Messianic Bible Public Domain
    When Joab and all the army who was with him had come, they told Joab, “Abner the son of Ner came to the king, and he has sent him away, and he has gone in peace.”
  • Webster's Bible Public Domain
    When Joab and all the host that was with him had come, they told Joab, saying, Abner the son of Ner came to the king, and he hath sent him away, and he hath gone in peace.
  • Free Bible Version CC BY-SA 4.0
    When Joab and all the army that was with him arrived, he was told, “Abner, son of Ner, came to see the king, who sent him safely on his way.”
  • Bible in Basic English Public Domain
    When Joab and his men came, news was given them that Abner, the son of Ner, had come to the king, who had let him go away again in peace.
  • JPS Tanakh (1917) Public Domain
    When Joab and all the host that was with him were come, they told Joab, saying: 'Abner the son of Ner came to the king, and he hath sent him away, and he is gone in peace.'

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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נֵר֙
Nêr
H5369
“Ner”
Noun, Proper
Part of Speech
Noun
Type
Proper
Full BDB Definition

Origin: the same as H5216

TWOT: 1333a

Ner = "lamp" - son of Jehiel, father of Kish, and grandfather of king Saul - father of Abner, the uncle of Saul - perhaps the same as 1
  1. וְיוֹאָ֛ב Yôwʼâb H3097 “and · Joab” Conjunction + Noun, Proper
  2. וְכָל kôl H3605 “and · all of” Conjunction + Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Construct
  3. הַצָּבָ֥א tsâbâʼ H6635 “the · army” Particle, Definite Article + Noun, Common, Both, Singular, Absolute
  4. אֲשֶׁר ʼăsher H834 “which” Particle, Relative
  5. אִתּ֖וֹ ʼêth H854 “with · him” Preposition + Suffix, Personal, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
  6. בָּ֑אוּ bôwʼ H935 “to enter” Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural
  7. וַיַּגִּ֤דוּ nâgad H5046 “and · to make known” Conjunction + Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural
  8. לְיוֹאָב֙ Yôwʼâb H3097 “to/for · Joab” Preposition + Noun, Proper
  9. לֵאמֹ֔ר ʼâmar H559 “to say” Preposition + Verb, Qal, Infinitive Construct
  10. בָּֽא bôwʼ H935 “to enter” Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
  11. אַבְנֵ֤ר ʼAbnêr H74 “Abner” Noun, Proper
  12. בֶּן bên H1121 “son of” Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Construct
  13. אֶל ʼêl H413 “to” Preposition
  14. הַמֶּ֔לֶךְ melek H4428 “the · king” Particle, Definite Article + Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute
  15. וַֽיְשַׁלְּחֵ֖הוּ shâlach H7971 “and · to send · him” Conjunction + Verb, Piel, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular + Suffix, Personal, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
  16. וַיֵּ֥לֶךְ yâlak H3212 “and · to walk” Conjunction + Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
  17. בְּשָׁלֽוֹם shâlôwm H7965 “in/at · peace” Preposition + Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute

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 →

18
words
16
distinct lemmas
Historical
section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is נֵר֙ Ner H5369 — appearing just 16 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

נֵר֙ Ner H5369 occurs in 16 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

  • 6 verbs
  • 9 nouns
  • 2 prepositions
  • 1 particle

Verb forms

  • בָּ֑אוּ Qal · Perfect
  • וַיַּגִּ֤דוּ Hiphil · Sequential Imperfect
  • לֵאמֹ֔ר Qal · Infinitive Construct
  • בָּֽא Qal · Perfect
  • וַֽיְשַׁלְּחֵ֖הוּ Piel · Sequential Imperfect
  • וַיֵּ֥לֶךְ Qal · Sequential Imperfect

Repetition

Words recur within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

  • וְיוֹאָ֛ב Joab H3097 ×2
  • בָּ֑אוּ to enter H935 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 37 words from the Hebrew and 35 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 18 Hebrew tokens and 26 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 3:23 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וְיוֹאָ֛ב וְכָל הַצָּבָ֥א אֲשֶׁר אִתּ֖וֹ בָּ֑אוּ וַיַּגִּ֤דוּ לְיוֹאָב֙ לֵאמֹ֔ר בָּֽא אַבְנֵ֤ר בֶּן נֵר֙ אֶל הַמֶּ֔לֶךְ וַֽיְשַׁלְּחֵ֖הוּ וַיֵּ֥לֶךְ בְּשָׁלֽוֹם

When Joab and all the host who was with him had come, they told Joab, saying, Abner the son of Ner came to the king, and he has sent him away, and he is gone in peace.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX 2 Samuel 3:23 Septuagint · lemma form

καί ιωαβ καί πᾶς ὁ στρατιά αὐτός ἄγω καί ἀποἀγγέλλω ὁ ιωαβ λέγω ἥκω αβεννηρ υἱός νηρ πρός δαυίδ καί ἀποστέλλω αὐτός καί ἀποἔρχομαι ἐν εἰρήνη

And Joab and all his army came, and it was reported to Joab, saying, Abenner the son of Ner is come to David, and David has let him go, and he has departed in peace.

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)
    וְיוֹאָב וְכָל חֵילָא דְעִמֵיהּ אֲתוֹ וְחַוִיאוּ לְיוֹאָב לְמֵימַר אָתָא אַבְנֵר בַּר נֵר לְוַת מַלְכָּא וְשַׁלְחֵיהּ וַאֲזַל בִּשְׁלָם:

    (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 3:23 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 3:23 When Joab and all the host that [was] with him were come, they told Joab, saying, Abner the son of Ner came to the king, and he hath sent him away, and he is gone in peace.

Ver. 23. They told Joab, saying.] The courtiers; to curry favour.

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.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

23. When Joab, &c.] Probably Abner had intentionally chosen a time for his visit, when he knew that Joab was absent from Hebron.

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

When Joab and all the host that was with him were come,.... To Hebron, or rather to David's court; for their coming to the city is before mentioned; this must be understood not of the whole army, of all the common soldiers, but of the chief officers, who with Joab came to court, to wait upon David, and report their success:

they told Joab, saying, Abner the son, of Ner came to the king; some of the courtiers informed him of it, who knew it would not be very agreeable to him:

and he hath sent him away, and he is gone in peace: instead of seizing him, and laying him in a prison as his enemy, he has let him go with all the marks of friendship and good will.

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

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 18 words (16 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is Nêr (“Ner”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

  1. How does “Ner” (Nêr) shape what this verse is saying?
  2. How does 1 Samuel 14:50, which shares the word «Ner», read alongside this verse?
  3. What does the repetition of “Joab” (2× in this one verse) do in this verse?
  4. The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
  5. «בָּ֑אוּ» is a Qal Perfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
  6. Compare how Trapp's Complete Commentary and The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

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.