2 Samuel 2:7

2:7 Now be courageous ¹  and prove to be valiant warriors, for your lord Saul is dead. The people of Judah have anointed me as king over them.”

2 Samuel 2:16

2:16 As they grappled with one another, each one stabbed his opponent with his sword and they fell dead together. ²  So that place is called the Field of Flints; ³  it is in Gibeon.

2 Samuel 3:6

Abner Defects to David’s Camp

3:6 As the war continued between the house of Saul and the house of David, Abner was becoming more influential ⁴  in the house of Saul.

¹ tn Heb “let your hands be strong.”

² tn Heb “and they grabbed each one the head of his neighbor with his sword in the side of his neighbor and they fell together.”

³ tn The meaning of the name “Helkath Hazzurim” (so NIV; KJV, NASB, NRSV similar) is not clear. BHK relates the name to the Hebrew term for “side,” and this is reflected in NAB “the Field of the Sides”; the Greek OT revocalizes the Hebrew to mean something like “Field of Adversaries.” Cf. also TEV, NLT “Field of Swords”; CEV “Field of Daggers.”

³ tn Heb “was strengthening himself.” The statement may have a negative sense here, perhaps suggesting that Abner was overstepping the bounds of political propriety in a self-serving way.