2 Samuel 2:14

Let the young men now arise "Young men" here means "servants" or "soldiers." Cp. ch. 2 Samuel 4:12. Desirous to avoid the horrors of a civil war, which would weaken the whole nation in the face of its common enemy the Philistines, perhaps also prompted by friendly relations with Joab, Abner proposes to decide the day by a combat between two bodies of picked men. The combat of the Horatii and Curiatii, which decided the war between Alba and Rome, affords a parallel in classical story. Livy represents the Alban dictator, Mettius Fuffetius, as urging this plan of ending the war, lest both nations, weakened by the losses of a general battle, should fall into the hands of their common enemy the Etruscans. See Livy I. 23 25.

and play before us The word "play" is used euphemistically in reference to fighting. There is no indication that a bloodless tournament was intended. Livy calls the combat above referred to "minime gratum spectaculum," "an exhibition which was by no means an amusement."