Translations
F.O.G.MPrimary
F.O.G MessageAbner said to Joab, "Let the young men rise and fight before us." Joab said, "Let them rise."
F.O.GSecondary
The F.O.GAvner said to Yo'av, "Let the young men rise and compete before us." And Yo'av said, "Let them rise."
KJV
King James VersionAnd Abner said to Joab, Let the young men now arise, and play before us. And Joab said, Let them arise.
BSB
Berean Standard BibleThen Abner said to Joab, “Let us have the young men get up and compete before us.” “Let them get up,” Joab replied.
Footnotes
The verb *yesachaku* (יְשַׂחֲקוּ, from *sachaq* שָׂחַק) spans the range of "play," "laugh," "sport," and formalised mock-combat. Abner's proposal appears to invoke the ancient Near Eastern custom of representative combat — a ritualised contest to settle political disputes with minimal casualties, the kind of duel that could spare two armies the cost of full battle. The word's ambiguity may itself be the narrator's dark irony: what Abner frames as a "game" immediately produces mutual annihilation (v. 16), triggering the very war it was meant to prevent. FOG renders it "compete" to capture the formalised, adversarial sense; FOG Message uses "fight" to signal from the outset that whatever Abner intended, there is nothing playful about what follows.
