What Does 2 Samuel 3:11 Mean?
And he could not turn a word back to Abner again, because he feared him.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And he could not answer Abner a word again, because he feared him.THE KEY
The answer Ish-bosheth cannot give is a word he cannot send back, because fear has narrowed his voice.
THE MEANING
Fear of another person can close a voice before a reply forms. The silence shows what fear is doing; it does not settle whether the other person is right.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Silence does not prove agreement or lack of an answer; fear can make a person unable to respond.
THE ROOT
לְהָשִׁיב
lehashiv
GROWS FROM
שוב
shuv
To turn or return.
“turn a word back” in this verse is lehashiv. The verb translated answer comes from the root for turning or returning: a reply is a word sent back. Here fear interrupts that return, leaving Ish-bosheth unable to answer Abner.
ALSO GROWS
shuv: Turn, return.
שׁוּב
It exposes the movement inside answering: something is turned back in response.
heshiv: Return, restore, or respond.
הֵשִׁיב
This form shows how the root’s sense of returning can describe giving an answer.
מִיִּרְאָתוֹ
miyyir'ato
GROWS FROM
ירא
yare
To fear or stand in awe.
“feared” in this verse is miyyir'ato. The object here is Abner, so the word describes fear of another person’s power. The same root can express awe when directed toward God; what this fear does depends on whom it faces.
ALSO GROWS
yare: Fear or stand in awe.
יָרֵא
This verb carries the same root into the act of fearing.
yirah: Fear or awe.
יִרְאָה
The noun makes clear that the root can name either fear or reverence, with the object shaping its force.
THE PATTERN
Fear of human power can narrow a person’s ability to speak, respond, or remain present.
And he said, I heard your voice in the garden, and I trembled, because I was bare; and I hid myself.The trembling of man sets a snare, but the one who leans his full weight on the LORD is set on high.Yet no one spoke of him in the open for fear of the Jews.THE THREAD
But the midwives stood in awe of God, and did not do as the king of Egypt had spoken to them, but kept the boys alive.The midwives’ fear uses the same root, ירא (yare), as Ish-bosheth’s fear of Abner. Here fear of God leads them to refuse a king’s command, showing how the one root can mark very different responses depending on whom the fear faces.
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