What Does 2 Samuel 2:21 Mean in the King James?
And Abner said to him, Turn thee aside to thy right hand or to thy left, and lay thee hold on one of the young men, and take thee his armour. But Asahel would not turn aside from following of him.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
English repeats “turn aside,” but Hebrew gives Abner a verb for bending toward another target and Asahel a different verb for departing from the man he follows.
THE MEANING
Abner tells Asahel to angle toward a young man and take his armor; Asahel stays on Abner’s trail instead. The pursuit is violent, and the verse leaves that violence plain. Their names carry images into the scene: Abner (אַבְנֵר, Avner, “father of light”) speaks, while Asahel (עֲשָׂהאֵל, Asahel, “God has made”) holds his course.
THE ROOT
לָסוּר
lasur
GROWS FROM
סור
To turn aside, depart, or remove.
Asahel’s verb is סוּר (sur, “depart or turn aside”), while Abner’s command uses נְטֵה (neteh, “incline or turn”) from נטה (natah, “stretch or incline”). English makes them sound like the same movement, but the Hebrew distinguishes leaving the pursuit from changing its direction.
ALSO GROWS
sur: To leave a position or path.
סוּר
Asahel refuses to leave Abner’s trail.
hesir: To cause something to be removed.
הֵסִיר
The same root can describe removal, giving Asahel’s refusal the force of not separating from the pursuit.
נְטֵה
neteh
GROWS FROM
נטה
To stretch, extend, incline, or turn aside.
“turn thee aside” in this verse is neteh. Abner’s command asks Asahel to angle toward a different young man. This root’s sense of stretching or extending makes the order a bodily redirection, distinct from the departure named in Asahel’s refusal.
ALSO GROWS
natah: To extend or angle something.
נָטָה
Abner’s command turns Asahel’s movement toward another target.
matteh: A staff; also a tribal division.
מַטֶּה
This related word carries the sense of something extended, echoing the change in direction Abner orders.
מֵאַחֲרָיו
me’acharav
GROWS FROM
אחר
After, behind, or later.
The KJV’s “following of him” retains a spatial image: Asahel is behind Abner, pursuing him. The same root also describes what comes afterward, linking this chase to other passages that speak of following as a path taken after someone.
ALSO GROWS
acharei: Positioned behind someone or occurring after something.
אַחֲרֵי
This is the form used for “ran after Elijah” in 1 Kings 19:20.
acharit: What comes later or at the end.
אַחֲרִית
It extends the root’s sense of “after” from space into time.
THE PATTERN
A direction becomes visible in what a person keeps following and what they refuse to turn toward.
And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.THE THREAD
And he left the oxen, and ran after Elijah, and said, Let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow thee. And he said unto him, Go back again: for what have I done to thee?“Ran after Elijah” uses אַחֲרֵי (acharei, “after or behind”), from אחר (ʾ-ḥ-r, “after or behind”), the same root as Asahel’s מֵאַחֲרָיו (me’acharav, “from behind him”). The verse places that same language of following beside a permitted return, making the shared root’s path visible in both pursuit and redirection.
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