2 Samuel 12:31

12:31 He removed ¹  the people who were in it and made them do hard labor with saws, iron picks, and iron axes, putting them to work at the brick kiln. This was his policy ²  with all the Ammonite cities. Then David and all the army returned to Jerusalem. ³ 

2 Samuel 14:15

14:15 I have now come to speak with my lord the king about this matter, because the people have made me fearful. ⁴  But your servant said, ‘I will speak to the king! Perhaps the king will do what his female servant ⁵  asks.

2 Samuel 20:1

Sheba’s Rebellion

20:1 Now a wicked man ⁶  named Sheba son of Bicri, a Benjaminite, ⁷  happened to be there. He blew the trumpet ⁸  and said,

“We have no share in David;

we have no inheritance in this son of Jesse!

Every man go home, ⁹  O Israel!”

[12:31]  ¹ tn Heb “brought out.”

[12:31]  ² tn Heb “and so he would do.”

[12:31]  ³ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[14:15]  ⁴ tc The LXX (ὄψεταί με, opsetai me) has misunderstood the Hebrew יֵרְאֻנִי (yerÿ’uni, Piel perfect, “they have made me fearful”), taking the verb to be a form of the verb רָאָה (ra’ah, “to see”) rather than the verb יָרֵא (yare’, “to fear”). The fact that the Greek translators were working with an unvocalized Hebrew text (i.e., consonants only) made them very susceptible to this type of error.

[14:15]  ⁵ tn Here and in v. 16 the woman refers to herself as the king’s אָמָה (’amah), a term that refers to a higher level female servant toward whom the master might have some obligation. Like the other term, this word expresses her humility, but it also suggests that the king might have some obligation to treat her in accordance with the principles of justice.

[20:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “a man of worthlessness.”

[20:1]  ⁷ tn The expression used here יְמִינִי (yÿmini) is a short form of the more common “Benjamin.” It appears elsewhere in 1 Sam 9:4 and Esth 2:5. Cf. 1 Sam 9:1.

[20:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “the shophar” (the ram’s horn trumpet). So also v. 22.

[20:1]  ⁹ tc The MT reads לְאֹהָלָיו (lÿ’ohalav, “to his tents”). For a similar idiom, see 19:9. An ancient scribal tradition understands the reading to be לְאלֹהָיו (le’lohav, “to his gods”). The word is a tiqqun sopherim, and the scribes indicate that they changed the word from “gods” to “tents” so as to soften its theological implications. In a consonantal Hebrew text the change involved only the metathesis of two letters.