2 Samuel 1:2

1:2 On the third day a man arrived from the camp of Saul with his clothes torn and dirt on his head. ¹  When he approached David, the man ²  threw himself to the ground. ³ 

2 Samuel 2:27

2:27 Joab replied, “As surely as God lives, if you had not said this, it would have been morning before the people would have abandoned pursuit ⁴  of their brothers!”

2 Samuel 3:16

3:16 Her husband went along behind her, weeping all the way to Bahurim. Finally Abner said to him, “Go back!” ⁵  So he returned home.

2 Samuel 4:7

4:7 They had entered ⁶  the house while Ish-bosheth ⁷  was resting on his bed in his bedroom. They mortally wounded him ⁸  and then cut off his head. ⁹  Taking his head, ¹⁰  they traveled on the way of the Arabah all that night.

2 Samuel 10:5

10:5 Messengers ¹¹  told David what had happened, ¹²  so he summoned them, for the men were thoroughly humiliated. The king said, “Stay in Jericho ¹³  until your beards have grown again; then you may come back.”

2 Samuel 11:8

11:8 Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your home and relax.” ¹⁴  When Uriah left the palace, the king sent a gift to him. ¹⁵ 

2 Samuel 12:17

12:17 The elders of his house stood over him and tried to lift him from the ground, but he was unwilling, and refused to eat food with them.

2 Samuel 13:16

13:16 But she said to him, “No I won’t, for sending me away now would be worse than what you did to me earlier!” ¹⁶  But he refused to listen to her.

2 Samuel 13:34

13:34 In the meantime Absalom fled. When the servant who was the watchman looked up, he saw many people coming from the west ¹⁷  on a road beside the hill.

2 Samuel 14:29

14:29 Then Absalom sent a message to Joab asking him to send him to the king, but Joab was not willing to come to him. So he sent a second message to him, but he still was not willing to come.

2 Samuel 15:8

15:8 For I made this vow ¹⁸  when I was living in Geshur in Aram: ‘If the Lord really does allow me to return to Jerusalem, ¹⁹  I will serve the Lord.’”

2 Samuel 15:22

15:22 So David said to Ittai, “Come along then.” ²⁰  So Ittai the Gittite went along, ²¹  accompanied by all his men and all the dependents ²²  who were with him.

2 Samuel 18:19

David Learns of Absalom’s Death

18:19 Then Ahimaaz the son of Zadok said, “Let me run and give the king the good news that the Lord has vindicated him before his enemies.” ²³ 

2 Samuel 18:29

18:29 The king replied, “How is the young man Absalom?” Ahimaaz replied, “I saw a great deal of confusion when Joab was sending the king’s servant and me, your servant, but I don’t know what it was all about.”

2 Samuel 19:18

19:18 They crossed at the ford in order to help the king’s household cross and to do whatever he thought appropriate.

Now after he had crossed the Jordan, Shimei son of Gera threw himself down before the king.

2 Samuel 20:14

20:14 Sheba ²⁴  traveled through all the tribes of Israel to Abel of ²⁵  Beth Maacah and all the Berite region. When they had assembled, ²⁶  they too joined him.

2 Samuel 21:15

Israel Engages in Various Battles with the Philistines

21:15 Another battle was fought between the Philistines and Israel. So David went down with his soldiers ²⁷  and fought the Philistines. David became exhausted.

2 Samuel 23:13

23:13 At the time of ²⁸  the harvest three ²⁹  of the thirty leaders went down to ³⁰  David at the cave of Adullam. A band of Philistines was camped in the valley of Rephaim.

2 Samuel 24:20

24:20 When Araunah looked out and saw the king and his servants approaching him, he ³¹  went out and bowed to the king with his face ³²  to the ground.

[1:2]  ¹ sn Tearing one’s clothing and throwing dirt on one’s head were outward expressions of grief in the ancient Near East, where such demonstrable reactions were a common response to tragic news.

[1:2]  ² tn Heb “he”; the referent (the man mentioned at the beginning of v. 2) has been specified in the translation to avoid confusion as to who fell to the ground.

[1:2]  ³ tn Heb “he fell to the ground and did obeisance.”

[2:27]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew verb נַעֲלָה (na’alah) used here is the Niphal perfect 3rd person masculine singular of עָלָה (’alah, “to go up”). In the Niphal this verb “is used idiomatically, of getting away from so as to abandon…especially of an army raising a siege…” (see S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, 244).

[3:16]  ⁵ tn Heb “Go, return.”

[4:7]  ⁶ tn After the concluding disjunctive clause at the end of v. 6, the author now begins a more detailed account of the murder and its aftermath.

[4:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Ish-bosheth) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[4:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “they struck him down and killed him.” The expression is a verbal hendiadys.

[4:7]  ⁹ tn Heb “and they removed his head.” The Syriac Peshitta and Vulgate lack these words.

[4:7]  ¹⁰ tc The Lucianic Greek recension lacks the words “his head.”

[10:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the messengers) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[10:5]  ¹² tn The words “what had happened” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[10:5]  ¹³ map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.

[11:8]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and wash your feet.”

[11:8]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and there went out after him the gift of the king.”

[13:16]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “No, because this great evil is [worse] than the other which you did with me, by sending me away.” Perhaps the broken syntax reflects her hysteria and outrage.

[13:34]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “behind him.”

[15:8]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “for your servant vowed a vow.” The formal court style of referring to one’s self in third person (“your servant”) has been translated here as first person for clarity.

[15:8]  ¹⁹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[15:22]  ²⁰ tn Heb “Come and cross over.”

[15:22]  ²¹ tn Heb “crossed over.”

[15:22]  ²² tn Heb “all the little ones.”

[18:19]  ²³ tn Heb “that the Lord has vindicated him from the hand of his enemies.”

[20:14]  ²⁴ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Sheba) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[20:14]  ²⁵ tc In keeping with the form of the name in v. 15, the translation deletes the “and” found in the MT.

[20:14]  ²⁶ tc The translation follows the Qere, many medieval Hebrew mss, and the ancient versions in reading וַיִּקָּהֲלוּ (vayyiqqahalu, “and they were gathered together”) rather than the Kethib of the MT וַיִּקְלֻהוּ (vayyiqluhu, “and they cursed him”). The Kethib is the result of metathesis.

[21:15]  ²⁷ tn Heb “his servants.”

[23:13]  ²⁸ tn The meaning of Hebrew אֶל־קָצִיר (’el qatsir) seems here to be “at the time of harvest,” although this is an unusual use of the phrase. As S. R. Driver points out, this preposition does not normally have the temporal sense of “in” or “during” (S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, 366).

[23:13]  ²⁹ tc The translation follows the Qere and many medieval Hebrew mss in reading שְׁלֹשָׁה (shÿloshah, “three”) rather than the Kethib of the MT שְׁלֹשִׁים (shÿloshim, “thirty”). “Thirty” is due to dittography of the following word and makes no sense in the context.

[23:13]  ³⁰ tn Heb “went down…and approached.”

[24:20]  ³¹ tn Heb “Araunah.” The name has been replaced in the translation by the pronoun (“he”) for stylistic reasons.

[24:20]  ³² tn Heb “nostrils.”