“Thus Yo’av and Avishai his brother killed Avner, because he had killed their brother ‘Asah’el during the battle in Giv‘on.”-2 Samuel 3:30
I wanna show you something interesting in verse 30, which says…
“Thus Yo’av and Avishai his brother killed Avner, because he had killed their brother ‘Asah’el during the battle in Giv‘on.”
Notice the words “killed” that I bolded.
Here’s the thing.
Two different Hebrew words are being used here.
In the part where it says “Yo’av and Avishai his brother killed Avner”, the following Hebrew word is used:
HARAG or הָרַג.
In the part where it says “because he had killed their brother,” the following Hebrew word is used:
MUTH or מוּת.
So what’s the significance of this?
HARAG carries the sense of murder or an unjustified killing.
MUTH carries the sense of a lawful execution or a justified killing.
Are you catching what I’m getting at here?
The purpose of verse 30 wasn’t just to restate simple facts.
The narrator wanted to present a clear contrast between Asahel’s death, and Avner’s death – how one was justified and the other wasn’t.
Our English Bibles completely miss the point of this verse.
The purpose of this passage is to drive home the point that Asahel’s death happened during a battle – that the slaying of the other opponent was fair and square.
On the other hand, Yo’av slaying Avner was a full-blown murder because it happened in a non-warfare situation.
Ya feeling me?
So the takeaway for today is simple.
Study your Hebrew homies.
When you study Hebrew, your understanding of the Bible will go from 1930’s black-and-white blurry resolution to multi-dimensional eye-piercing color that will just blow your mind with the insights you’ll get!
See ya all next time.
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