Discovery Box2 Samuel 3:33-38 
Context3:33 The king chanted the following lament for Abner:
“Should Abner have died like a fool?
3:34 Your hands 1 were not bound,
and your feet were not put into irons.
You fell the way one falls before criminals.”
All the people 2 wept over him again. 3:35 Then all the people came and encouraged David to eat food while it was still day. But David took an oath saying, “God will punish me severely 3 if I taste bread or anything whatsoever before the sun sets!”
3:36 All the people noticed this and it pleased them. 4 In fact, everything the king did pleased all the people. 3:37 All the people and all Israel realized on that day that the killing of Abner son of Ner was not done at the king’s instigation. 5
3:38 Then the king said to his servants, “Do you not realize that a great leader 6 has fallen this day in Israel?
1 tc The translation follows many medieval Hebrew manuscripts and several ancient versions in reading “your hands,” rather than “your hand.”
2 tc 4QSama lacks the words “all the people.”
3 tn Heb “Thus God will do to me and thus he will add.”
4 tn Heb “it was good in their eyes.”
5 tn Heb “from the king.”
6 tn Heb “a leader and a great one.” The expression is a hendiadys.
