Bible Strands
2 Samuel 3:25
Surely you realize that Abner son of Ner came to deceive you and to track your movements and all that you are doing.”
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Joab addresses King David immediately after David dismisses Abner, interrupting his departure to warn him of the general’s hidden agenda.
The words — יָדַ֙עְתָּ֙ (ya.Da'.ta) translates literally as “you know,” while לְ/פַתֹּתְ/ךָ֖ (le./fa.to.te./Kha) means “to deceive you.”
The thread — The concept of monitoring activity appears in Numbers 27:17, Deuteronomy 28:6, and Isaiah 37:28, though those texts apply the “going out and coming in” idiom to leadership transitions, covenant blessings, and divine omniscience rather than espionage.
Why it lands — The verse demands immediate political discernment, forcing the reader to weigh the cost of diplomatic leniency against the necessity of securing state intelligence.
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
Thou knowest Abner the son of Ner, that he came to deceive thee, and to know thy going out and thy coming in, and to know all that thou doest.
Cross-references
- Numbers 27:17 who will go out and come in before them, and who will lead them out and bring them in, so that the congregation of the LORD will not be like sheep without a shepherd.”
- Deuteronomy 28:6 You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.
- Isaiah 37:28 But I know your sitting down, your going out and coming in, and your raging against Me.
- Genesis 42:9 Joseph remembered his dreams about them and said, “You are spies! You have come to see if our land is vulnerable.”
- Genesis 42:12 “No,” he told them. “You have come to see if our land is vulnerable.”
- Genesis 42:16 Send one of your number to get your brother; the rest of you will be confined so that the truth of your words may be tested. If they are untrue, then as surely as Pharaoh lives, you are spies!”
- 1 Samuel 29:4 But the commanders of the Philistines were angry with Achish and told him, “Send that man back and let him return to the place you assigned him. He must not go down with us into battle only to become our adversary during the war. What better way for him to regain the favor of his master than with the heads of our men?
- 2 Samuel 3:27 When Abner returned to Hebron, Joab pulled him aside into the gateway, as if to speak to him privately, and there Joab stabbed him in the stomach. So Abner died on account of the blood of Joab’s brother Asahel.
- 2 Samuel 10:3 the princes of the Ammonites said to Hanun their lord, “Just because David has sent you comforters, do you really believe he is showing respect for your father? Has not David instead sent his servants to explore the city, spy it out, and overthrow it?”
- 2 Kings 18:32 until I come and take you away to a land like your own—a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey—so that you may live and not die. But do not listen to Hezekiah, for he misleads you when he says, ‘The LORD will deliver us.’