The king said to his servants, “Don’t you know that a prince and a great man has fallen today in Israel?
Parallel Translations
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The king said to his servants, “Don’t you know that a prince and a great man has fallen today in Israel?
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And the king said unto his servants, Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel?
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And the king said unto his servants: 'Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel?
Cross-references (4)
Passages linked to 2 Samuel 3:38 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Job 32:9 It is not the great who are wise, nor the aged who understand justice.
- 1 Samuel 14:50-51 The name of Saul’s wife was Ahinoam the daughter of Ahimaaz. The name of the captain of his army was Abner the son of Ner, Saul’s uncle. Kish was the father of Saul; and Ner the father of Abner was the son of Abiel.
- 2 Samuel 2:8 Now Abner the son of Ner, captain of Saul’s army, had taken Ishbosheth the son of Saul, and brought him over to Mahanaim;
- 2 Samuel 3:12 Abner sent messengers to David on his behalf, saying, “Whose is the land?” and saying, “Make your alliance with me, and behold, my hand will be with you, to bring all Israel around to you.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 2Sa 3:38 And the king said unto his servants,…
2Sa 3:38 And the king said unto his servants, Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel?
Ver. 38. And the king said unto his servants.] His courtiers and counsellors.
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Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen?] Lords and losels {scoundrels} die alike: and the mortal scythe is master of the royal sceptre. But whereas his servants might hereupon demand, Why punishest not thou the murderer? David answereth:
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain A great man, both for his illustrious quality, and…
A great man, both for his illustrious quality, and for his high courage and wise conduct; and especially now for his great usefulness and serviceableness to me in giving me the entire and peaceable possession of all Israel. But still observe David’s prudence and piety, that he doth not commend him for his virtues and graces, as men of vendible consciences and tongues use to do upon funeral occasions; but only for the kind of worth which was really in him. Compare 2Sa 1:23.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And the king said unto his servants,.... His courtiers,…
And the king said unto his servants,.... His courtiers, giving a reason why he mourned as he did; or "had said" (w), and so is a reason why the people concluded, and were fully satisfied, he had no hand in his death; but the first is best, because what follows was said not to the people at the grave, but to his servants at court:
know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel? a "prince", being of the royal family, his father was Saul's uncle, and he his own cousin; a "great" man, being general of the army, a very valiant and skilful commander, a man of great wisdom and parts. David says nothing of his grace and virtue, only of his grandeur, his high birth and civil excellencies; he praises him in what he was commendable, and proceeds no further; and this was sufficient to show there was just cause of mourning on civil accounts; and this they might easily know and perceive, that the fall or death of such a man, which had that day happened in Israel, was a public loss, and matter of lamentation; and the rather as he was employing all his excellent talents in civil affairs, and all his interest in the people of Israel, to unite them to Judah, and bring them under the government of David.
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(w) "nam dixerat", Junius & Tremellius.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Know ye not, &c. - But how little, how…
Know ye not, &c. - But how little, how mean are they made by death, who were the terror of the mighty in the land of the living.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain 2Sa 3:38. The king said unto his servants —…
2Sa 3:38. The king said unto his servants — Who perhaps were not sensible enough of this loss, or thought he bewailed it too much; Know ye not that there is a prince, &c., fallen this day in Israel? — He bids them consider Abner’s birth and his power, his authority and his valour, with all his other excellent qualities, and they would not think it strange that he mourned so much for him.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Israel. And that all this pomp is not unseasonable.…
Israel. And that all this pomp is not unseasonable. (Menochius) --- The chief, if not the only virtue of Abner, was military skill, or a blunt valour.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 38, 39. To his confidential servants David speaks his…
38, 39. To his confidential servants David speaks his whole mind freely. He feels that some apology is needed for leaving the authors of this heinous crime unpunished. As an excuse for doing so he pleads his youth and weakness. Though he had been anointed king, his kingdom was as yet far from being securely established. He could not dispense with his warlike nephews’ help. He dared not order the execution of his best general. Probably the army would have interfered to prevent it. But he protests against their hardness and cruelty, and declares that Joab will not escape the divine judgment for his crime. “It was one of those moments in which a king, even with the best intentions, must feel to his own heavy cost the weakness of everything human and the limits of human supremacy.” Ewald, Hist of Israel, III. 117.
weak] The same epithet is applied to Solomon in 1Ch_29:1, and to Rehoboam in 2Ch_13:7 (E. V. tender).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain A prince and a great man. David pronounces this…
A prince and a great man. David pronounces this high estimate of Abner"s worth to his servants, that is, to his officers, and especially to the six hundred mighty men. His conduct is bold and open, and must have greatly humiliated Joab and Abishai. But though the six hundred approved of David"s conduct, and respected him for it, yet probably, as Abner had killed Asahel, they would not have consented to any further punishment than the disgrace inflicted on Joab by his being deprived of the command of David"s warriors.
Ver. 38. (HEBRON.)
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The fall of a prince and a great man.
The world is sometimes startled by the fall of an eminent man in a sudden and violent manner like that of the Czar of Russia or the President of the United States. Here is the epitaph of such a man. Reflect:
1. How uncertain is the continuance of human life! This familiar but littleheeded truth is set forth in an impressive manner by such an event, teaching that no station is exempt from the approach of death, no safeguards effectual against it. "Death is come up into our windows, and is entered into our palaces". (Jer_9:24)
1. How unstable is the foundation of earthly greatness! It is built upon thesand, and in a moment crumbles into dust. Goodness alone (the essence of
2. true greatness) endures and goes with the soul into "everlasting habitations.
3. How deplorable is the less of superior excellence! The world is madepoorer by its removal.
1. How dreadful is the prevalence of diabolical wickedness! Oneassassination begets another. And at times there is abroad in society a spirit of lawlessness, recklessness, and ungodliness, which is full of peril, and calls for the earnest efforts and prayers of good men that it may be overcome.
2. How mysterious are the ways of Divne Providence, in permitting the innocent to perish, the godless to succeed, the guilty to be spared!
3. How often is evil overruled for the promotion of beneficent ends! (2Sa_4:1 2Sa_5:1)
4. How profitable is the remembrance of a noble minded man! Know ye not," etc.? "He being dead, yet speaketh. D.
Death of a great man.
Abner had great qualities, filled a high position, seemed likely to be of great service to David, who sincerely lamented his untimely end, and the wicked treachery and violence by which he fell.
I GREAT MEN SHOULD BE HIGHLY VALUED. Great generals and naval commanders. If war must be, it is of vast importance that it should be conducted by able captains. But not only these, men great in the arts of peace, great statesmen, philosophers, historians, scientists, poets, artists, preachers, etc. Especially when distinguished ability is combined with unselfish devotion to the good of the nation or the race. For selfish ambition belittles the great, and moral corruption renders them powerful for evil instead of good. Abner"s greatness was marred by his unscrupulous ambition, and Joab was worse than he. The multitude are very dependent on great leaders, whether in war or peace, and can do little without them. "Thou art worth ten thousand of us". (2Sa_18:3) Leading and inspiring the many, they make them partners in their own greatness. The influence of their deeds, or (in the case of intellectual leaders) their thoughts, raises others towards their own level. The character as well as the progress of a people depends a good deal on its great men.
II GREAT MEN MUST DIE. In some conditions of society their lives are more exposed to peril than the lives of others whether from the assassin, or from fickle monarchs or ambitious rivals, using the forms of law to put them out of their way; or the cares incident to greatness may shorten their days. "I have said, Ye are gods but ye shall die like men" (Psa_82:6, Psa_82:7) a truth they should bear in mind to keep them sober and humble, to stimulate their diligence, and preserve in them a sense of responsibility to God; a truth which others should remember, that they may not idolize the great, nor unduly confide in them (see Psa_146:3, Psa_146:4) or dread their anger, (Isa_51:12) nor, to secure their favour, sinagainst him who lives forever; and that they may be themselves the more content to die.
III GREAT MEN SHOULD BE HONOURED AFTER DEATH. By general mourning; by honourable burial; by commemoration of their virtues and services, in elegies (as here), or biographies, or monuments to their memory; by carrying out their unaccomplished purposes for the public good; and withal by praise to God for them and their services. Such honour is due to the men themselves, and tends to the good of society by exciting emulation, etc.
In conclusion:
1. Let Britons bless God for the large number and long succession of greatmen who have adorned and served their country in all departments; and pray that the succession may be maintained to the latest times. Not only are such men invaluable while they live; their works and memories survive them as a perpetual treasure. The truly great do not die altogether.
But strew his ashes to the wind Whose sword or voice has served mankind And is he dead whose glorious mind Lifts thine on high? To live in hearts we leave behind, Is not to die. (Campbell.)
2. Let us be thankful that it is not necessary to be great in order to be either happy or useful. Goodness is the essential thing. A comfort to the many who can never be distinguished.
3. Yet real greatness is possible to all. Through faith in Christ we becomechildren of God, "heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ," to be "glorified together" with him. (Rom_8:17) In the kingdom of heaven greatness is secured by conscientious obedience to the Divine commandments, (Mat_5:19) humility (Mat_18:4; Luk_9:48) and self abasing, self-denying service of others. (Mar_10:42-45) Such greatness is substantial and immortal. (1Jn_2:17)
4. Let us rejoice that the great "Captain of our salvation" lives forever, infulness of power to save and bless all who trust in him. G.W.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Know are not that there is a prince and…
2Sa_3:38
Know are not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel?
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A great man
As we review the history of the world, we see it dividing itself into three stages. In the first stage, power is magnified, force is deified, the great man is represented as a sort of Hercules, with his lion skin and club, in a world of insects. In that era Nimrod is the hero of the worlds heart. Then strength received the homage of men. In the second stage, power is pushed back a step or two, and intellect comes to the front. The great man is the intellectual man, the man of letters, the man who swayed his sceptre over the dominion of thought. In that era Homer is the favoured idol before whom the populace delights to bow. Then genius received the homage of men. Bug Christianity inaugurated a new era. It pointed the world not to a Nimrod or a Homer, but to a Child; not to power or genius, but to goodness. The great man of the future will be a good man. The day is fast coming when a good man like William Guthrie or Norman Macleod shall be more honoured and esteemed than the hero of a hundred battles, or the mightiest unsanctified genius that has flashed its lurid light across the centuries. There is an old proverb which says: Some men are born great, some men achieve greatness, but others have greatness thrust upon them. Sir Titus Salt, of Saltaire, and Crow Nest, near Halifax, was one of those who achieved greatness. He was not born great, nor had he greatness thrust upon him, bug he achieved it. A man of iron will, he made everything with which he had to do bend to it. 1 True goodness alone is true greatness. Greatness no longer depends upon rentals--the world is too rich. Greatness no longer depends upon pedigree--the world is too knowing. Nothing is great now but the personal.
Howeer it be, it seems to me
Tis only noble to be good;
Kind hearts are more than coronets,
And simple faith than Norman blood.
No amount of material wealth, no portion of worldly grandeur, no height of intellectual superiority can invest the soul of a bad man with one spark of true dignity and glory. Miss salvation, and I care not what you are--I care not what wealth you have--I care not whom you call father;--miss salvation, and you are in a wretchedly low estate. But be saved--be born again--have faith in God--love to Christ, and you are at once elevated. You are rich, noble, highborn, because God-born. You have a patent of nobility from the skies. You belong to the moral aristocracy of the universe. You are a member of Gods House of Lords. (W. Francis.)
Greatness
When I speak of greatness I do not refer to the greatness which depends upon worldly fortune or favour--the dignities and distinctions which are the product of a royal smile--the mere accidentals of rank and riches--the greatness that glitters in the gay saloon, and is encompassed by the flatteries of courteous and captivated satellites. I refer to the greatness which consists in the possession of a grand, cultivated disciplined intellect--in the resolution to do, and doing, what Other men have shunned. Cousin makes a distinction between the man and the great man, He says There are two parts in a great man--the part of the great man and the part of the man; the first belongs to history, the second should be abandoned to memoirs and biography. History should be a classic drama--it should bring together all the details and individual traits into a unity; it should place in clear light the idea which a great man represents. The philosophy of history does not know individuals; it omits, it ignores the purely individual and biographical side of man, for this very simple reason--that this is not what humanity has seen in him; that it has not adored him nor followed him on account of this, but notwithstanding this. The fundamental rule of the philosophy of history in regard to great men is to do as humanity does, to judge them by what they have done--by what they have wished to do; to neglect the description of weaknesses inherent in their individuality, and which have perished with it, and to fasten itself upon the great things which they have done, which have served humanity, and which still endure in the memory of men; in short, to search out and establish what constitutes them historical personages, what has given them power and glory--namely, the idea which they represent, and their intimate relation with the spirit of their times and of their nation.
I. Achieve greatness. It is possible for you each to attain a position of usefulness and honour, such as at present you do not dream of reaching. Do not suppose that all the great and good men have sprung from the ranks of the leisured aristocracy. As a rule the foremost men in all branches have risen from the industrial classes. AEsop was a slave. Homer a beggar. Demosthenes was the son of a curler. Virgil was the son of a baker. Socrates was a statuary. Raffaelle was the son of a peasant. Luther the son of a miner. The Scotch poet, Ferguson, the son of a humble labourer. Burns was a farm rustic. Ben Jonson was a bricklayer. Blackstone was the son of a draper. Butler was the son of a farmer. Stephenson was a collier. Faraday a bookbinder. Arkwright a barber. Davy a druggist. Milton a schoolmaster. Caxton, Willis, Horace Greely, Dickens, Douglas Jerrold and Benjamin Franklin were all printers. Morrison, the great Chinese scholar and missionary, was a bootmaker. Carlyle was the son of a stonemason. Benjamin Disraeli, who became a peer of the realm, and made his Queen an Empress, was a solicitors clerk. Such lives remind you that energy, perseverance, and integrity in the use of your God-given abilities may place you in the foremost rank of those who are benefactors of your race. Up! Up! select the calling which is congenial to your taste, which is honourable before men, and approved of God, and then be resolute, undaunted, persevering! If now and again defeated, remember that, though cast down, you are not utterly destroyed. There is, however, a nobler greatness yet--a greatness of the soul--a greatness that springs from relationship to and frequent communion with the King of kings; a greatness which is displayed in growing conformity to the likeness of Christ and increasing usefulness in His vineyard; a greatness much more to be desired than a mighty intellect, social grandeur, or worldly fame.
II. Retain greatness, It is often easier to rise than to keep the place procured. Many a time an army has stormed and carried a citadel which it was powerless to hold. So not infrequently men have stepped up to vantage ground from which by some lamentable moral declination, or culpable negligence, they have most ingloriously slipped. We have read of many men who have risen to a position of honour and influence, from which sunny altitude they have fallen for ever, like a bright exhalation in the evening. You think of Saul the son of Kish, chosen of God, anointed by Samuel, and made the first king of Israel; and you remember how he disobeyed the Lord, was defeated in battle, craved death at the hand of a fellow-man, and then, by his own deed, terminated his career. You think of Wolsey, the son of a butcher, rising to be Cardinal and Lord-Chancellor, then stripped of his dignities and arrested for treason. Hear his words, as our great dramatic poet has given them:--
Farewell, a long farewell to all my greatness!
. . . I have ventured
Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders
This many summers, in a sea of glory;
But far beyond my depth, my high-blown pride
At length broke under me, and now has left me,
Weary and old with service, to the mercy
Of a rude stream, that must for ever hide me.
Look at Thomas Cromwell, the son of a blacksmith at Putney, rising to be Earl of Essex and Lord High Chamberlain, yet arrested for treason, committed to the Tower for seven weeks, and then conducted to the scaffold and beheaded. Look at Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, becoming the special favourite of Queen Elizabeth, falling into disgrace and imprudence which led to his being arraigned for trial at Westminster, conveyed to the Tower, and a week afterwards beheaded. In each of these cases we may use the text, and say, A great man has fallen. But theirs was a fall into shame, loss, sorrow, and irretrievable ruin. Theirs was a moral fall, a fall in social esteem, a fall in national honour. If we have realised any of our fond hopes, achieved any of our cherished plans, let us not be unduly elated or incautious. Let not the man who girdeth himself with the robes of official dignity boast himself as he who putteth them off. There is a legitimate fear that all who have risen, or are rising, will do well to foster. There is a holy fear of falling which the noblest, the purest, and the most perfect cannot afford to disdain. It is that which is recommended by the inspired writers in the words, Happy is the man that feareth always, but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief. Let us, therefore, fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest any of you should seem to come short of it. Happy is the man who perseveres to the end, and is faithful unto death.
III. The great die. (J. H. Hitchens, D. D.)
The warriors grave
1. Our first lesson has reference to the dealings of Gods Providence, and is one of encouragement. We are not sufficiently accustomed to recognize the hand of Providence in the ordinary arrangements of Society, and are too prone to think and act as though we regarded the affairs of nations as lying, if not beyond the range of Divine power, at least beyond the pale of Divine sympathy and interest. Yet to an observant and pious mind, there can be few studies more interesting than to trace the indications of the presence of God amid all the affairs of men, and to educe that testimony which all history bears to his goodness, his wisdom, and his power. How manifest does this appear in the history of the Jewish people. God designed them to occupy a special position and to do an important work, and all his dispensations towards them were designed to discipline and prepare them for that work. And it is scarcely too much to infer from the eminence to which our country has been raised, and the influence which she wields, that there is a special mission entrusted to her--that it is from her, directly or indirectly, that the instrumentality is to go forth by which the universal conquests of the cross are to be achieved, and that all Gods dispensations towards her have been designed to fit her for this glorious enterprize. Again and again has God raised up the men suited for the peculiar crisis through which she has been called to pass--an Alfred, a Cromwell, a William of Orange, and: a Wellington--men, each of whom was fitted for his times and for his work. But we have partially profited by the lesson thus conveyed, if our only sentiment be one of gratitude for the past. All the experience of Divine goodness in the past is calculated to awaken our hope and give us strong confidence for the future. Surely we are warranted, nay, we are bound to trust in Him who has thus abundantly blessed us in past times, and to cherish the assurance that, as in the past, so in the future He will raise men eminently qualified for any periods of peculiar peril and difficulty which may await the church and the world. It teaches us that this world is not abandoned to the sport of conflicting elements and agencies, to be the mere plaything of chance, or the creature of a blind and irresistible destiny, but that there is a God who watches over its course, controls all the influences by which it is affected, draws good out of that which might seem to be only evil, overrules the counsels of its potentates and princes, and makes everything tend to the furtherance of His own glory and the promotion of human happiness.
2. Our second lesson is one of anticipation and hope. There is no brighter feature in the prophetic predictions relative to the coming Millennium of Messiahs reign, than that in which it is represented as a period of universal peace. But how is this great change to be affected? Rationalism will not do it. Philanthropy wilt not do it. Art cannot do it. Commerce will not do it. But the great work to which none of these influences is equal, the Gospel of Christ will accomplish. That Gospel is destined to achieve universal power, and one glorious result of its victory will be to bind men of all countries, climes and colours, in one holy chain of friendship and love, which nothing shall be able to disturb or dissolve.
3. Our third lesson is one of example.
There are three great Qualities which the Christian soldier should aim to copy.
1. And first, vigilance. Thou art in the presence of a foe who is ever wakeful and ever active--who will not fail to improve every opportunity which thy negligence, ignorance, or slumber may present, to secure the victory and accomplish thy destruction--who never sounds a trumpet of truce, but to deceive the unwary soul, and to lure it on to its eternal ruin.
2. A second conspicuous and notable quality is determination to conquer. In the carnal warfare, every precaution may prove unavailing, every effort useless--the resources of genius and the daring of valour may be called into requisition in vain, and after man has done all, he may find that the race is not always to the swift nor the battle to the strong. But it cannot be so in the spiritual struggles. Here victory is promised to thee by One whose word cannot be false, and whose power cannot prove insufficient to accomplish the great designs of His love. Thine, then, must be the holy resolve to conquer in this war--thy course must be ever onward--up-ward--heavenward--continually winning fresh laurels and rearing new trophies--overcoming every varied form of temptation and sin, until the last enemy be vanquished, and the weapons of warfare exchanged for the meeds of victory.
3. Unbending loyalty. Christian! let this loyalty be thine. Be thou true and faithful and devoted to that God to whose service thou hast consecrated thyself.
4. Our last lesson is one of warning as to the vanity of human glory. Vanity of vanities all is vanity. And so must it be with you. Whatever your course, in its extent or in its character--be it long protracted, or speedily closed--be it brightened with continual joys, or darkened with successive griefs--the end of all must be in death. This sentence is universal--from this issue there is no escape--and you, who are striving most earnestly after the things of the present world, must know that you cannot retain them, for the day comes when you must die. (J. G. Rogers, B. A.)
Grief at the loss of a great statesman
When Mirabeau, the great French statesman, died the Assembly voted that he should be buried in the Pantheon. On the day of his funeral an immense multitude gathered together. The streets were filled by a huge procession, which followed his remains to the grave. A lady, who was greatly annoyed by the dust, complained of the municipality for neglecting to water the boulevards. Madam, said a poor fishwoman who was standing beside her, they reckoned on our tears! It was a wonderful token of the affection in which this strange and violent man was held. (H. Aspden.)
The death of a great man
Canning exclaimed, after the death of Edmund Burke: There is but one event, but it is the event of the world--Burke is dead.
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.