2 Samuel 19:3
 2 Samuel 19:3 
New International Version (©2011)
The men stole into the city that day as men steal in who are ashamed when they flee from battle.

New Living Translation (©2007)
They crept back into the town that day as though they were ashamed and had deserted in battle.

English Standard Version (©2001)
And the people stole into the city that day as people steal in who are ashamed when they flee in battle.

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
So the people went by stealth into the city that day, as people who are humiliated steal away when they flee in battle.

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
And the people gat them by stealth that day into the city, as people being ashamed steal away when they flee in battle.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
So they returned to the city quietly that day like people come in when they are humiliated after fleeing in battle.

International Standard Version (©2012)
So men snuck into the city that day like men do who are ashamed after they've run away from a battle.

NET Bible (©2006)
That day the people stole away to go to the city the way people who are embarrassed steal away in fleeing from battle.

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
That day the troops sneaked into the city as if they had fled from battle and were ashamed of it.

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
And the people stole back that day into the city, as people being ashamed steal away when they flee in battle.

American King James Version
And the people got them by stealth that day into the city, as people being ashamed steal away when they flee in battle.

American Standard Version
And the people gat them by stealth that day into the city, as people that are ashamed steal away when they flee in battle.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And the people shunned the going into the city that day as a people would do that hath turned their backs, and fled away from the battle.

Darby Bible Translation
And the people stole away that day into the city, as people steal away when ashamed of fleeing in battle.

English Revised Version
And the people gat them by stealth that day into the city, as people that are ashamed steal away when they flee in battle.

Webster's Bible Translation
And the people withdrew by stealth that day into the city, as people being ashamed steal away when they flee in battle.

World English Bible
The people snuck into the city that day, as people who are ashamed steal away when they flee in battle.

Young's Literal Translation
And the people stealeth away, on that day, to go in to the city, as the people steal away, who are ashamed, in their fleeing in battle;

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

19:1-8 To continue to lament for so bad a son as Absalom, was very unwise, and very unworthy. Joab censures David, but not with proper respect and deference to his sovereign. A plain case may be fairly pleaded with those above us, and they may be reproved for what they do amiss, but it must not be with rudeness and insolence. Yet David took the reproof and the counsel, prudently and mildly. Timely giving way, usually prevents the ill effects of mistaken measures.


Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And the people got them by stealth that day into the city,.... Did not march into it in companies, in a public and triumphant manner, as conquerors used to do; but entered in a private manner, one by one, or a very few together, not caring to be seen or known, at least by the king, as fearing they had incurred his displeasure: but

as people being ashamed steal away when they flee in battle; as if they had been conquered, and not conquerors; nay, had acted a cowardly part, and ran away; and so cared not to be seen, lest they should be reproached, or suffer for their cowardice.


Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

3. the people gat them by stealth … to the city—The rumor of the king's disconsolate condition spread a universal and unseasonable gloom. His troops, instead of being welcomed back (as a victorious army always was) with music and other demonstrations of public joy, slunk secretly and silently into the city, as if ashamed after the commission of some crime.


2 Samuel 19:3 Parallel Commentaries

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Joab Reproves David
1And it was told Joab, Behold, the king weeps and mourns for Absalom. 2And the victory that day was turned into mourning to all the people: for the people heard say that day how the king was grieved for his son. 3And the people got them by stealth that day into the city, as people being ashamed steal away when they flee in battle.

2 Samuel 19:2 And for the whole army the victory that day was turned into mourning, because on that day the troops heard it said, "The king is grieving for his son."
2 Samuel 19:4 The king covered his face and cried aloud, "O my son Absalom! O Absalom, my son, my son!"