What Does 2 Samuel 3:20 Mean?
So Abner came in to David at Hebron, and twenty men with him. And David made Abner and the men who were with him a feast of drink.
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
So Abner came to David to Hebron, and twenty men with him. And David made Abner and the men that were with him a feast.THE KEY
David makes reconciliation tangible through a meal, while Hebron’s name itself carries the idea of joining.
THE MEANING
Welcome takes visible form at a shared table: David feeds Abner and the men who came with him. Sharing food creates common space between people divided by conflict, though it does not prove the danger is gone or trust complete.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that an opponent can only be met as a threat, never welcomed as a guest.
THE ROOT
מִשְׁתֶּה
mishteh
GROWS FROM
שתה
to drink
“feast of drink” in this verse is mishteh. The word for feast grows from the root for drinking, so the meal is named as a shared act of taking in. English “feast” can hide that bodily common ground: Abner and his men are received at a table where they eat and drink.
ALSO GROWS
shatah: to drink
שָׁתָה
This verb shares the feast’s root and makes the meal’s act of drinking audible beneath the English word.
shtiyah: drinking
שְׁתִיָּה
This noun from the same root names the shared act at the heart of a drinking feast.
חֶבְרוֹן
Ḥevron
GROWS FROM
חבר
to join, associate, or bind together
Hebron’s name echoes the root for joining and association, so the encounter happens in a place whose name carries the language of connection. The feast makes that joining concrete, while the verse leaves the durability of the bond unresolved.
ALSO GROWS
chavar: to join or associate
חָבַר
The verb behind Hebron’s name echoes the meeting of people who had stood on opposing sides.
chever: company or association
חֶבֶר
This related noun gives the idea of joining a social shape, like the company gathered around David’s table.
THE PATTERN
A shared meal can create common ground between people divided by conflict or status, without guaranteeing that the division is gone.
And he made them a feast, and they ate and drank.And he prepared a great feast for them, and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. So the bands of Syria came no more into the land of Israel.And Levi made a great feast for him in his house, and there was a great crowd of tax collectors and others reclining with them.THE THREAD
And he made them a feast, and they ate and drank.Genesis uses מִשְׁתֶּה (mishteh), “feast,” and וַיִּשְׁתּוּ (vayyishtû), “they drank,” both from שׁתה (shatah), “to drink.” As here, a negotiated relationship takes shape around a meal, making the encounter something people share bodily as well as verbally.
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