2 Samuel 1:10

1:10 So I stood over him and put him to death, since I knew that he couldn’t live in such a condition. ¹  Then I took the crown which was on his head and the ²  bracelet which was on his arm. I have brought them here to my lord.” ³ 

2 Samuel 4:1

Ish-bosheth is killed

4:1 When Ish-bosheth ⁴  the son of Saul heard that Abner had died in Hebron, he was very disheartened, ⁵  and all Israel was afraid.

2 Samuel 10:3

10:3 the Ammonite officials said to their lord Hanun, “Do you really think David is trying to honor your father by sending these messengers to express his sympathy? ⁶  No, David has sent his servants to you to get information about the city and spy on it so they can overthrow it!” ⁷ 

2 Samuel 10:19

10:19 When all the kings who were subject to Hadadezer ⁸  saw they were defeated by Israel, they made peace with Israel and became subjects of Israel. ⁹  The Arameans were no longer willing to help the Ammonites.

2 Samuel 13:20

13:20 Her brother Absalom said to her, “Was Amnon your brother with you? Now be quiet, my sister. He is your brother. Don’t take it so seriously!” ¹⁰  Tamar, devastated, lived in the house of her brother Absalom.

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. ¹¹  But your servant said, ‘I will speak to the king! Perhaps the king will do what his female servant ¹²  asks.

2 Samuel 17:23

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 ¹³  of his father.

2 Samuel 19:6

19:6 You seem to love your enemies and hate your friends! For you have as much as declared today that leaders and servants don’t matter to you. I realize now ¹⁴  that if ¹⁵  Absalom were alive and all of us were dead today, ¹⁶  it would be all right with you.

2 Samuel 20:1

Sheba’s Rebellion

20:1 Now a wicked man ¹⁷  named Sheba son of Bicri, a Benjaminite, ¹⁸  happened to be there. He blew the trumpet ¹⁹  and said,

“We have no share in David;

we have no inheritance in this son of Jesse!

Every man go home, ²⁰  O Israel!”

2 Samuel 20:12

20:12 Amasa was squirming in his own blood in the middle of the path, and this man had noticed that all the soldiers stopped. Having noticed that everyone who came across Amasa ²¹  stopped, the man ²²  pulled him ²³  away from the path and into the field and threw a garment over him.

2 Samuel 20:21

20:21 That’s not the way things are. There is a man from the hill country of Ephraim named Sheba son of Bicri. He has rebelled ²⁴  against King David. Give me just this one man, and I will leave the city.” The woman said to Joab, “This very minute ²⁵  his head will be thrown over the wall to you!”

2 Samuel 21:1

The Gibeonites Demand Revenge

21:1 During David’s reign there was a famine for three consecutive years. So David inquired of the Lord. ²⁶  The Lord said, “It is because of Saul and his bloodstained family, ²⁷  because he murdered the Gibeonites.”

[1:10]  ¹ tn Heb “after his falling”; NAB “could not survive his wound”; CEV “was too badly wounded to live much longer.”

[1:10]  ² tc The MT lacks the definite article, but this is likely due to textual corruption. It is preferable to read the alef (א) of אֶצְעָדָה (’ets’adah) as a ה (he) giving הַצְּעָדָה (hatsÿ’adah). There is no reason to think that the soldier confiscated from Saul’s dead body only one of two or more bracelets that he was wearing (cf. NLT “one of his bracelets”).

[1:10]  ³ sn The claims that the soldier is making here seem to contradict the story of Saul’s death as presented in 1 Sam 31:3-5. In that passage it appears that Saul took his own life, not that he was slain by a passerby who happened on the scene. Some scholars account for the discrepancy by supposing that conflicting accounts have been brought together in the MT. However, it is likely that the young man is here fabricating the account in a self-serving way so as to gain favor with David, or so he supposes. He probably had come across Saul’s corpse, stolen the crown and bracelet from the body, and now hopes to curry favor with David by handing over to him these emblems of Saul’s royalty. But in so doing the Amalekite greatly miscalculated David’s response to this alleged participation in Saul’s death. The consequence of his lies will instead be his own death.

[4:1]  ⁴ tn The MT does not specify the subject of the verb here, but the reference is to Ish-bosheth, so the name has been supplied in the translation for clarity. 4QSam^a and the LXX mistakenly read “Mephibosheth.”

[4:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “his hands went slack.”

[10:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “Is David honoring your father in your eyes when he sends to you ones consoling?”

[10:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “Is it not to explore the city and to spy on it and to overthrow it [that] David has sent his servants to you?”

[10:19]  ⁸ tn Heb “the servants of Hadadezer.”

[10:19]  ⁹ tn Heb “and they served them.”

[13:20]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Don’t set your heart to this thing!”

[14:15]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² 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.

[17:23]  ¹³ tc The Greek recensions of Origen and Lucian have here “house” for “grave.”

[19:6]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “today.”

[19:6]  ¹⁵ tc The translation follows the Qere, 4QSam^a, and many medieval Hebrew mss in reading לוּ (lu, “if”) rather than MT לֹא (lo’, “not”).

[19:6]  ¹⁶ tc The Lucianic Greek recension and Syriac Peshitta lack “today.”

[20:1]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “a man of worthlessness.”

[20:1]  ¹⁸ 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]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the shophar” (the ram’s horn trumpet). So also v. 22.

[20:1]  ²⁰ 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.

[20:12]  ²¹ tn Heb “him”; the referent (Amasa) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[20:12]  ²² tn Heb “he”; the referent (the man who spoke up in v. 11) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[20:12]  ²³ tn Heb “Amasa.” For stylistic reasons the name has been replaced by the pronoun (“him”) in the translation.

[20:21]  ²⁴ tn Heb “lifted his hand.”

[20:21]  ²⁵ tn Heb “Look!”

[21:1]  ²⁶ tn Heb “sought the face of the Lord.”

[21:1]  ²⁷ tn Heb “and the house of bloodshed.”