2 Samuel 2:12

2:12 Then Abner son of Ner and the servants of Ish-bosheth son of Saul went out from Mahanaim to Gibeon.

2 Samuel 2:14

2:14 Abner said to Joab, “Let the soldiers get up and fight ¹  before us.” Joab said, “So be it!” ² 

2 Samuel 2:20

2:20 Then Abner turned and asked, “Is that you, Asahel?” He replied, “Yes it is!”

2 Samuel 2:31

2:31 But David’s soldiers had slaughtered the Benjaminites and Abner’s men – in all, 360 men had died!

2 Samuel 3:11

3:11 Ish-bosheth ³  was unable to answer Abner with even a single word because he was afraid of him.

2 Samuel 4:1

Ish-bosheth is killed

4:1 When Ish-bosheth ⁴  the son of Saul heard that Abner had died in Hebron, he was very disheartened, ⁵  and all Israel was afraid.

¹ 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.”

² tn Heb “let them arise.”

¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Ish-bosheth) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹ tn The MT does not specify the subject of the verb here, but the reference is to Ish-bosheth, so the name has been supplied in the translation for clarity. 4QSam^a and the LXX mistakenly read “Mephibosheth.”

² tn Heb “his hands went slack.”