2 Samuel 2:21

21 dixitque ei Abner vade ad dextram sive ad sinistram et adprehende unum de adulescentibus et tolle tibi spolia eius noluit autem Asahel omittere quin urgueret eum

2 Samuel 2:21 Meaning and Commentary

2 Samuel 2:21

And Abner said unto him
Having a respect for him, and consulting his good, and however fearing his brother Joab should he slay him:

turn thee aside to thy right or to thy left;
he does not advise him to go back, which would have been to his disgrace, having engaged in the pursuit, but to turn to the right or left, as if pursuing some other person and not Abner:

and lay thee hold on one of the young men, and take thee his armour;
one of the common soldiers, or an attendant on Abner, a young man like himself, whom he might be able to cope with, and take him a prisoner and disarm him, when he was not a match for such an old experienced officer as he was; and this Abner seems to speak as a friend, consulting the young man's safety and his honour too.

But, Asahel would not turn aside from following him;
fired with the ambition of taking him, and not content with any prey short of him; and perhaps was the more animated by what he said, as supposing it arose from fear of him.

2 Samuel 2:21 In-Context

19 persequebatur autem Asahel Abner et non declinavit ad dexteram sive ad sinistram omittens persequi Abner

20 respexit itaque Abner post tergum suum et ait tune es Asahel qui respondit ego sum

21 dixitque ei Abner vade ad dextram sive ad sinistram et adprehende unum de adulescentibus et tolle tibi spolia eius noluit autem Asahel omittere quin urgueret eum

22 rursumque locutus est Abner ad Asahel recede noli me sequi ne conpellar confodere te in terra et levare non potero faciem meam ad Ioab fratrem tuum

23 qui audire contempsit et noluit declinare percussit ergo eum Abner aversa hasta in inguine et transfodit et mortuus est in eodem loco omnesque qui transiebant per locum in quo ceciderat Asahel et mortuus erat subsistebant