Bible Strands
2 Samuel 14:6
And your maidservant had two sons who were fighting in the field with no one to separate them, and one struck the other and killed him.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — A disguised widow addresses King David, recounting a violent family dispute to frame her plea for her remaining son.
The words — The text reports that two sons “struggled together” (וַ/יִּנָּצ֤וּ / va/i.yi.na.Tzu) in the field while no “deliverer” (מַצִּ֖יל / ma.Tzil) intervened to stop the killing.
The thread — This unmediated fratricide parallels the field violence of Genesis 4:8 and the unseparated Hebrew fighters of Exodus 2:13, both showing aggression escalating without external restraint.
Why it lands — The narrative forces the reader to see how rigid legal retribution extinguishes the last surviving heir, requiring a choice between punitive justice and familial preservation.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And thy handmaid had two sons, and they two strove together in the field, and there was none to part them, but the one smote the other, and slew him.
Cross-references
- Genesis 4:8 Then Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let us go out to the field.” And while they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.
- Exodus 2:13 The next day Moses went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you attacking your companion?”
- Deuteronomy 22:26 Do nothing to the young woman, because she has committed no sin worthy of death. This case is just like one in which a man attacks his neighbor and murders him.