5:20 So David marched against Baal Perazim and defeated them there. Then he said, “The Lord has burst out against my enemies like water bursts out.” So he called the name of that place Baal Perazim. 1
11:4 David sent some messengers to get her. 2 She came to him and he had sexual relations with her. 3 (Now at that time she was in the process of purifying herself from her menstrual uncleanness.) 4 Then she returned to her home.
17:23 When Ahithophel realized that his advice had not been followed, he saddled his donkey and returned to his house in his hometown. After setting his household in order, he hanged himself. So he died and was buried in the grave 5 of his father.
19:8 So the king got up and sat at the city gate. When all the people were informed that the king was sitting at the city gate, they 6 all came before him.
But the Israelite soldiers 7 had all fled to their own homes. 8
20:8 When they were near the big rock that is in Gibeon, Amasa came to them. Now Joab was dressed in military attire and had a dagger in its sheath belted to his waist. When he advanced, it fell out. 9
23:11 Next in command 13 was Shammah son of Agee the Hararite. When the Philistines assembled at Lehi, 14 where there happened to be an area of a field that was full of lentils, the army retreated before the Philistines.
1 tn The name means “Lord of the outbursts.”
2 tn Heb “and David sent messengers and he took her.”
3 tn Heb “he lay with her” (so NASB, NRSV); TEV “he made love to her”; NIV, CEV, NLT “he slept with her.”
4 tn The parenthetical disjunctive clause further heightens the tension by letting the reader know that Bathsheba, having just completed her menstrual cycle, is ripe for conception. See P. K. McCarter, II Samuel (AB), 286. Since she just had her period, it will also be obvious to those close to the scene that Uriah, who has been away fighting, cannot be the father of the child.
5 tc The Greek recensions of Origen and Lucian have here “house” for “grave.”
6 tn Heb “all the people.”
7 tn The Hebrew text has simply “Israel” (see 18:16-17).
8 tn Heb “had fled, each to his tent.”
9 sn The significance of the statement it fell out here is unclear. If the dagger fell out of its sheath before Joab got to Amasa, how then did he kill him? Josephus, Ant. 7.11.7 (7.284), suggested that as Joab approached Amasa he deliberately caused the dagger to fall to the ground at an opportune moment as though by accident. When he bent over and picked it up, he then stabbed Amasa with it. Others have tried to make a case for thinking that two swords are referred to – the one that fell out and another that Joab kept concealed until the last moment. But nothing in the text clearly supports this view. Perhaps Josephus’ understanding is best, but it is by no means obvious in the text either.
10 tc The translation follows the Qere and several medieval Hebrew
11 tn Heb “fell.”
12 tc The translation follows the Qere and many medieval Hebrew
13 tn Heb “after him.”
14 tn The Hebrew text is difficult here. The MT reads לַחַיָּה (lachayyah), which implies a rare use of the word חַיָּה (chayyah). The word normally refers to an animal, but if the MT is accepted it would here have the sense of a troop or community of people. BDB 312 s.v. II. חַיָּה, for example, understands the similar reference in v. 13 to be to “a group of allied families, making a raid together.” But this works better in v. 13 than it does in v. 11, where the context seems to suggest a particular staging location for a military operation. (See 1 Chr 11:15.) It therefore seems best to understand the word in v. 11 as a place name with ה (he) directive. In that case the Masoretes mistook the word for the common term for an animal and then tried to make sense of it in this context.