2 Samuel 2:11

2:11 David was king in Hebron over the people of Judah for seven and a half years. ¹ 

2 Samuel 6:9

6:9 David was afraid of the Lord that day and said, “How will the ark of the Lord ever come to me?”

2 Samuel 7:16

7:16 Your house and your kingdom will stand before me ²  permanently; your dynasty ³  will be permanent.’”

2 Samuel 8:18

8:18 Benaiah son of Jehoida supervised ⁴  the Kerithites and Pelethites; and David’s sons were priests. ⁵ 

2 Samuel 13:39

13:39 The king longed ⁶  to go to Absalom, for he had since been consoled over the death of Amnon. ⁷ 

2 Samuel 14:28

14:28 Absalom lived in Jerusalem for two years without seeing the king’s face.

[2:11]  ¹ tn Heb “And the number of the days in which David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months.”

[7:16]  ² tc Heb “before you.” A few medieval Hebrew mss read instead “before me,” which makes better sense contextually. (See also the LXX and the Syriac Peshitta.) The MT reading is probably the result of dittography (note the כ [kaf] at the beginning of the next form), with the extra כ then being interpreted as a pronominal suffix.

[7:16]  ³ tn Heb “throne.”

[8:18]  ⁴ tc The translation follows the Syriac Peshitta, Targum, and Vulgate in reading “over,” rather than the simple conjunction that appears in MT. See also the parallel passage in 1 Chr 18:17.

[8:18]  ⁵ sn That David’s sons could have been priests, in light of the fact that they were not of the priestly lineage, is strange. One must assume either (1) that the word “priest” (כֹּהֵן, kohen) during this period of time could be used in a broader sense of “chief ruler” (KJV); “chief minister” (ASV, NASB), or “royal adviser” (NIV), perhaps based on the parallel passage in 1 Chr 18:17 which has “the king’s leading officials”, or (2) that in David’s day members of the king’s family could function as a special category of “priests” (cf. NLT “priestly leaders”). The latter option seems to be the more straightforward way of understanding the word in 2 Sam 8:18.

[13:39]  ⁶ tc The translation follows 4QSam^a in reading רוּחַ הַמֶּלֶךְ (ruakh hammelekh, “the spirit of the king”) rather than the MT דָּוִד הַמֶּלֶךְ (david hammelekh, “David the king”). The understanding reflected in the translation above is that David, though alienated during this time from his son Absalom, still had an abiding love and concern for him. He longed for reconciliation with him. A rather different interpretation of the verse supposes that David’s interest in taking military action against Absalom grew slack with the passing of time, and this in turn enabled David’s advisers to encourage him toward reconciliation with Absalom. For the latter view, see P. K. McCarter, II Samuel (AB), 344, and cf. CEV.

[13:39]  ⁷ tn Heb “was consoled over Amnon, because he was dead.”