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 4:10

4:10 when someone told me that Saul was dead – even though he thought he was bringing good news ⁶  – I seized him and killed him in Ziklag. That was the good news I gave to him!

2 Samuel 5:6

David Occupies Jerusalem

5:6 Then the king and his men advanced to Jerusalem ⁷  against the Jebusites who lived in the land. The Jebusites ⁸  said to David, “You cannot invade this place! Even the blind and the lame will turn you back, saying, ‘David cannot invade this place!’”

2 Samuel 5:20

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. ⁹ 

2 Samuel 7:10

7:10 I will establish a place for my people Israel and settle ¹⁰  them there; they will live there and not be disturbed ¹¹  any more. Violent men ¹²  will not oppress them again, as they did in the beginning

2 Samuel 8:10

8:10 he ¹³  sent his son Joram ¹⁴  to King David to extend his best wishes ¹⁵  and to pronounce a blessing on him for his victory over Hadadezer, for Toi had been at war with Hadadezer. ¹⁶  He brought with him various items made of silver, gold, and bronze. ¹⁷ 

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? ¹⁸  No, David has sent his servants to you to get information about the city and spy on it so they can overthrow it!” ¹⁹ 

2 Samuel 11:1-2

David Commits Adultery with Bathsheba

11:1 In the spring of the year, at the time when kings ²⁰  normally conduct wars, ²¹  David sent out Joab with his officers ²²  and the entire Israelite army. ²³  They defeated the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed behind in Jerusalem. ²⁴  11:2 One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of his palace. ²⁵  From the roof he saw a woman bathing. Now this woman was very attractive. ²⁶ 

2 Samuel 14:13

14:13 The woman said, “Why have you devised something like this against God’s people? When the king speaks in this fashion, he makes himself guilty, for the king has not brought back the one he has banished.

2 Samuel 15:19

15:19 Then the king said to Ittai the Gittite, “Why should you come with us? Go back and stay with the new ²⁷  king, for you are a foreigner and an exile from your own country. ²⁸ 

2 Samuel 18:12

18:12 The man replied to Joab, “Even if ²⁹  I were receiving ³⁰  a thousand pieces of silver, ³¹  I would not strike ³²  the king’s son! In our very presence ³³  the king gave this order to you and Abishai and Ittai, ‘Protect the young man Absalom for my sake.’ ³⁴ 

2 Samuel 18:18

18:18 Prior to this ³⁵  Absalom had set up a monument ³⁶  and dedicated it to himself in the King’s Valley, reasoning “I have no son who will carry on my name.” He named the monument after himself, and to this day it is known as Absalom’s Memorial.

2 Samuel 19:35

19:35 I am presently eighty years old. Am I able to discern good and bad? Can I ³⁷  taste what I eat and drink? Am I still able to hear the voices of male and female singers? Why should I ³⁸  continue to be a burden to my lord the king?

2 Samuel 20:1

Sheba’s Rebellion

20:1 Now a wicked man ³⁹  named Sheba son of Bicri, a Benjaminite, ⁴⁰  happened to be there. He blew the trumpet ⁴¹  and said,

“We have no share in David;

we have no inheritance in this son of Jesse!

Every man go home, ⁴²  O Israel!”

2 Samuel 20:6

20:6 Then David said to Abishai, “Now Sheba son of Bicri will cause greater disaster for us than Absalom did! Take your lord’s servants and pursue him. Otherwise he will secure ⁴³  fortified cities for himself and get away from us.”

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 ⁴⁴  stopped, the man ⁴⁵  pulled him ⁴⁶  away from the path and into the field and threw a garment over him.

2 Samuel 23:9

23:9 Next in command ⁴⁷  was Eleazar son of Dodo, ⁴⁸  the son of Ahohi. He was one of the three warriors who were with David when they defied the Philistines who were assembled there for battle. When the men of Israel retreated, ⁴⁹ 

2 Samuel 24:16

24:16 When the angel ⁵⁰  extended his hand to destroy Jerusalem, the Lord relented from his judgment. ⁵¹  He told the angel who was killing the people, “That’s enough! Stop now!” ⁵²  (Now the Lord’s angel was near the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.)

[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.”

[4:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “and he was like a bearer of good news in his eyes.”

[5:6]  ⁷ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[5:6]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew text has “he” rather than “the Jebusites.” The referent has been specified in the translation for clarity. In the Syriac Peshitta and some mss of the Targum the verb is plural rather than singular.

[5:20]  ⁹ tn The name means “Lord of the outbursts.”

[7:10]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “plant.”

[7:10]  ¹¹ tn Heb “shaken.”

[7:10]  ¹² tn Heb “the sons of violence.”

[8:10]  ¹³ tn Heb “Toi.” The proper name has been replaced by the pronoun in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[8:10]  ¹⁴ tn The name appears as “Hadoram” in the parallel text in 1 Chr 18:10.

[8:10]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “to ask concerning him for peace.”

[8:10]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and to bless him because he fought with Hadadezer and defeated him, for Hadadezer was a man of battles with Toi.”

[8:10]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and in his hand were items of silver and items of gold and items of bronze.”

[10:3]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “Is David honoring your father in your eyes when he sends to you ones consoling?”

[10:3]  ¹⁹ 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?”

[11:1]  ²⁰ tc Codex Leningrad (B19A), on which BHS is based, has here “messengers” (הַמַּלְאכִים, hammal’khim), probably as the result of contamination from the occurrence of that word in v. 4. The present translation follows most Hebrew mss and the ancient versions, which read “kings” (הַמֶּלָאכִים, hammela’kim).

[11:1]  ²¹ tn Heb “go out.”

[11:1]  ²² tn Heb “and his servants with him.”

[11:1]  ²³ tn Heb “all Israel.”

[11:1]  ²⁴ tn The disjunctive clause contrasts David’s inactivity with the army’s activity.

[11:1]  map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[11:2]  ²⁵ tn Heb “on the roof of the house of the king.” So also in vv. 8, 9.

[11:2]  ²⁶ tn The disjunctive clause highlights this observation and builds the tension of the story.

[15:19]  ²⁷ tn The word “new” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation to make it clear that David refers to Absalom, not himself.

[15:19]  ²⁸ tn Heb “place.”

[18:12]  ²⁹ tc The translation follows the Qere and many medieval Hebrew mss in reading וְלוּ (vÿlu, “and if”) rather than MT וְלֹא (vÿlo’, “and not”).

[18:12]  ³⁰ tn Heb “weighing out in my hand.”

[18:12]  ³¹ tn Heb “a thousand [shekels] of silver.” This would have been about 25 pounds (11.4 kg) of silver by weight.

[18:12]  ³² tn Heb “extend my hand against.”

[18:12]  ³³ tn Heb “in our ears.”

[18:12]  ³⁴ tc The Hebrew text is very difficult here. The MT reads מִי (mi, “who”), apparently yielding the following sense: “Show care, whoever you might be, for the youth Absalom.” The Syriac Peshitta reads li (“for me”), the Hebrew counterpart of which may also lie behind the LXX rendering μοι (moi, “for me”). This reading seems preferable here, since it restores sense to the passage and most easily explains the rise of the variant.

[18:18]  ³⁵ tn Heb “and.” This disjunctive clause (conjunction + subject + verb) describes an occurrence that preceded the events just narrated.

[18:18]  ³⁶ tn Heb “a pillar.”

[19:35]  ³⁷ tn Heb “your servant.”

[19:35]  ³⁸ tn Heb “your servant.”

[20:1]  ³⁹ tn Heb “a man of worthlessness.”

[20:1]  ⁴⁰ 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]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “the shophar” (the ram’s horn trumpet). So also v. 22.

[20:1]  ⁴² 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.

[20:6]  ⁴³ tn Heb “find.” The perfect verbal form is unexpected with the preceding word “otherwise.” We should probably read instead the imperfect. Although it is possible to understand the perfect here as indicating that the feared result is thought of as already having taken place (cf. BDB 814 s.v. פֶּן 2), it is more likely that the perfect is simply the result of scribal error. In this context the imperfect would be more consistent with the following verb וְהִצִּיל (vÿhitsil, “and he will get away”).

[20:12]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “him”; the referent (Amasa) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[20:12]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the man who spoke up in v. 11) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[20:12]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “Amasa.” For stylistic reasons the name has been replaced by the pronoun (“him”) in the translation.

[23:9]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “after him.”

[23:9]  ⁴⁸ tc This follows the Qere and many medieval Hebrew mss in reading דֹּדוֹ (dodo) rather than the Kethib of the MT דֹּדַי (dodai; cf. ASV, NIV, NLT). But see 1 Chr 27:4.

[23:9]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “went up.”

[24:16]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “messenger.”

[24:16]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “concerning the calamity.”

[24:16]  ⁵² tn Heb “Now, drop your hand.”