2 Samuel 1:22

1:22 From the blood of the slain, from the fat of warriors,

the bow of Jonathan was not turned away.

The sword of Saul never returned ¹  empty.

2 Samuel 2:18

2:18 The three sons of Zeruiah were there – Joab, Abishai, and Asahel. (Now Asahel was as quick on his feet as one of the gazelles in the field.)

2 Samuel 3:17

3:17 Abner advised ²  the elders of Israel, “Previously you were wanting David to be your king. ³ 

2 Samuel 3:30

3:30 So Joab and his brother Abishai killed Abner, because he had killed their brother Asahel in Gibeon during the battle.

2 Samuel 6:14-15

6:14 Now David, wearing a linen ephod, was dancing with all his strength before the Lord. ⁴  6:15 David and all Israel ⁵  were bringing up the ark of the Lord, shouting and blowing trumpets. ⁶ 

2 Samuel 8:1

David Subjugates Nearby Nations

8:1 Later David defeated the Philistines and subdued them. David took Metheg Ammah ⁷  from the Philistines. ⁸ 

2 Samuel 8:5

8:5 The Arameans of Damascus came to help King Hadadezer of Zobah, but David killed 22,000 of the Arameans.

2 Samuel 8:8

8:8 From Tebah ⁹  and Berothai, Hadadezer’s cities, King David took a great deal of bronze.

2 Samuel 8:13

8:13 David became famous ¹⁰  when he returned from defeating the Arameans ¹¹  in the Valley of Salt, he defeated ¹²  18,000 in all.

2 Samuel 12:26-27

David’s Forces Defeat the Ammonites

12:26 ¹³ So Joab fought against Rabbah of the Ammonites and captured the royal city. 12:27 Joab then sent messengers to David, saying, “I have fought against Rabbah and have captured the water supply of the city. ¹⁴ 

2 Samuel 13:3

13:3 Now Amnon had a friend named Jonadab, the son of David’s brother Shimeah. Jonadab was a very crafty man.

2 Samuel 13:7

13:7 So David sent Tamar to the house saying, “Please go to the house of Amnon your brother and prepare some food for him.”

2 Samuel 13:30

13:30 While they were still on their way, the following report reached David: “Absalom has killed all the king’s sons; not one of them is left!”

2 Samuel 14:21

14:21 Then the king said to Joab, “All right! I ¹⁵  will do this thing! Go and bring back the young man Absalom!

2 Samuel 16:6-7

16:6 He threw stones at David and all of King David’s servants, as well as all the people and the soldiers who were on his right and on his left. 16:7 As he yelled curses, Shimei said, “Leave! Leave! You man of bloodshed, you wicked man! ¹⁶ 

2 Samuel 16:16

16:16 When David’s friend Hushai the Arkite came to Absalom, Hushai said to him, ¹⁷  “Long live the king! Long live the king!”

2 Samuel 18:1

The Death of Absalom

18:1 David assembled the army that was with him. He appointed leaders of thousands and leaders of hundreds.

2 Samuel 18:10

18:10 When one ¹⁸  of the men saw this, he reported it to Joab saying, “I saw Absalom hanging in an oak tree.

2 Samuel 19:29

19:29 Then the king replied to him, “Why should you continue speaking like this? You and Ziba will inherit the field together.”

2 Samuel 19:32

19:32 But Barzillai was very old – eighty years old, in fact – and he had taken care of the king when he stayed in Mahanaim, for he was a very rich ¹⁹  man.

2 Samuel 20:4

20:4 Then the king said to Amasa, “Call the men of Judah together for me in three days, ²⁰  and you be present here with them too.”

2 Samuel 22:1

David Sings to the Lord

22:1 ²¹ David sang ²²  to the Lord the words of this song when ²³  the Lord rescued him from the power ²⁴  of all his enemies, including Saul. ²⁵ 

2 Samuel 22:9

22:9 Smoke ascended from ²⁶  his nose; ²⁷ 

fire devoured as it came from his mouth; ²⁸ 

he hurled down fiery coals. ²⁹ 

2 Samuel 22:36

22:36 You give me ³⁰  your protective shield; ³¹ 

your willingness to help enables me to prevail. ³² 

2 Samuel 22:43-44

22:43 I grind them as fine as the dust of the ground;

I crush them and stomp on them like clay ³³  in the streets.

22:44 You rescue me from a hostile army; ³⁴ 

you preserve me as a leader of nations;

people over whom I had no authority are now my subjects. ³⁵ 

2 Samuel 22:50

22:50 So I will give you thanks, O Lord, before the nations! ³⁶ 

I will sing praises to you. ³⁷ 

2 Samuel 24:8

24:8 They went through all the land and after nine months and twenty days came back to Jerusalem. ³⁸ 

2 Samuel 24:23

24:23 I, the servant of my lord ³⁹  the king, give it all to the king!” Araunah also told the king, “May the Lord your God show you favor!”

[1:22]  ¹ tn The Hebrew imperfect verbal form is used here to indicate repeated past action.

[3:17]  ² tn Heb “the word of Abner was with.”

[3:17]  ³ tn Heb “you were seeking David to be king over you.”

[6:14]  ⁴ tn Heb “and David was dancing with all his strength before the Lord, and David was girded with a linen ephod.”

[6:15]  ⁵ tc Heb “all the house of Israel.” A few medieval Hebrew mss and the Syriac Peshitta lack the words “the house.”

[6:15]  ⁶ tn Heb “the shophar” (the ram’s horn trumpet).

[8:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “the bridle of one cubit.” Many English versions treat this as a place name because the parallel text in 1 Chr 18:1 reads “Gath” (which is used by NLT here). It is possible that “the bridle of one cubit” is to be understood as “the token of surrender,” referring to the Philistine’s defeat rather than a specific place (cf. TEV, CEV).

[8:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “from the hand [i.e., control] of the Philistines.”

[8:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “Betah” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV), but the name should probably be corrected to “Tebah.” See the parallel text in 1 Chr 18:8.

[8:13]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “made a name.”

[8:13]  ¹¹ tn So NASB, NCV; NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT “Edomites” (see the note on “Aram” in v. 12).

[8:13]  ¹² tn The words “he defeated” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[12:26]  ¹³ sn Here the narrative resumes the battle story that began in 11:1 (see 11:25). The author has interrupted that story to give the related account of David’s sin with Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah. He now returns to the earlier story and brings it to a conclusion.

[12:27]  ¹⁴ sn The expression translated the water supply of the city (Heb “the city of the waters”) apparently refers to that part of the fortified city that guarded the water supply of the entire city. Joab had already captured this part of the city, but he now defers to King David for the capture of the rest of the city. In this way the king will receive the credit for this achievement.

[14:21]  ¹⁵ tc Many medieval Hebrew mss have “you” rather than “I.”

[16:7]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “man of worthlessness.”

[16:16]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “to Absalom.” The proper name has been replaced by the pronoun “him” in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[18:10]  ¹⁸ tc 4QSam^a lacks the word “one.”

[19:32]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “great.”

[20:4]  ²⁰ tn The present translation follows the Masoretic accentuation, with the major mark of disjunction (i.e., the atnach) placed at the word “days.” However, some scholars have suggested moving the atnach to “Judah” a couple of words earlier. This would yield the following sense: “Three days, and you be present here with them.” The difference in meaning is slight, and the MT is acceptable as it stands.

[22:1]  ²¹ sn In this long song of thanks, David affirms that God is his faithful protector. He recalls in highly poetic fashion how God intervened in awesome power and delivered him from death. His experience demonstrates that God vindicates those who are blameless and remain loyal to him. True to his promises, God gives the king victory on the battlefield and enables him to subdue nations. A parallel version of the song appears in Ps 18.

[22:1]  ²² tn Heb “spoke.”

[22:1]  ²³ tn Heb “in the day,” or “at the time.”

[22:1]  ²⁴ tn Heb “hand.”

[22:1]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and from the hand of Saul.”

[22:9]  ²⁶ tn Heb “within” or “[from] within.” For a discussion of the use of the preposition בְּ (bet) here, see R. B. Chisholm, “An Exegetical and Theological Study of Psalm 18/2 Samuel 22” (Th.D. diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 1983), 163-64.

[22:9]  ²⁷ tn Or “in his anger.” The noun אַף (’af) can carry the abstract meaning “anger,” but the parallelism (note “from his mouth”) suggests the more concrete meaning “nose” here (most English versions, “nostrils”). See also v. 16, “the powerful breath of your nose.”

[22:9]  ²⁸ tn Heb “fire from his mouth devoured.” In this poetic narrative the prefixed verbal form is best understood as a preterite indicating past tense, not an imperfect. Note the two perfect verbal forms in the verse.

[22:9]  sn For other examples of fire as a weapon in Old Testament theophanies and ancient Near Eastern portrayals of warring gods and kings, see R. B. Chisholm, “An Exegetical and Theological Study of Psalm 18/2 Samuel 22” (Th.D. diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 1983), 165-67.

[22:9]  ²⁹ tn Heb “coals burned from him.” Perhaps the psalmist pictures God’s fiery breath igniting coals (see Job 41:21), which he then hurls as weapons (see Ps 120:4).

[22:36]  ³⁰ tn Another option is to translate the prefixed verb with vav consecutive with a past tense, “you gave me.” Several prefixed verbal forms with vav consecutive also appear in vv. 38-44. The present translation understands this section as a description of what generally happened when the author charged into battle, but another option is to understand the section as narrative and translate accordingly.

[22:36]  ³¹ tc Ps 18:35 contains an additional line following this one, which reads “your right hand supports me.” It may be omitted here due to homoioarcton. See the note at Ps 18:35.

[22:36]  tn Heb “and you give me the shield of your deliverance”; KJV, ASV “the shield of thy (your NRSV, NLT) salvation”; NIV “your shield of victory.” Ancient Near Eastern literature often refers to a god giving a king special weapons. See R. B. Chisholm, “An Exegetical and Theological Study of Psalm 18/2 Samuel 22” (Th.D. diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 1983), 260-61.

[22:36]  ³² tn Heb “your answer makes me great.” David refers to God’s willingness to answer his prayer.

[22:43]  ³³ tn Or “mud” (so NAB, NIV, CEV). See HALOT 374 s.v. טִיט.

[22:44]  ³⁴ tn Heb “from the strivings of my people.” In this context רִיב (riv, “striving”) probably has a militaristic sense (as in Judg 12:2; Isa 41:11), and עַם (’am, “people”) probably refers more specifically to an army (for other examples, see the verses listed in BDB 766 s.v. עַם 2.d). The suffix “my” suggests David is referring to attacks by his own countrymen, the “people” being Israel. However, the parallel text in Ps 18:43 omits the suffix.

[22:44]  ³⁵ tn Heb “a people whom I did not know serve me.” In this context the verb “know” (יָדַע, yada’) probably refers to formal recognition by treaty. People who were once not under the psalmist’s authority now willingly submit to his rulership to avoid being conquered militarily (see vv. 45-46). The language may recall the events recorded in 2 Sam 8:9-10 and 10:19.

[22:50]  ³⁶ sn This probably alludes to the fact that David will praise the Lord in the presence of the defeated nations when they, as his subjects, bring their tribute payments. Ideally God’s chosen king was to testify to the nations of God’s greatness. See J. Eaton, Kingship and the Psalms (SBT), 182-85.

[22:50]  ³⁷ tn Heb “to your name.” God’s “name” refers metonymically to his divine characteristics as suggested by his name, in this case “Lord,” the primary name of Israel’s covenant God which suggests his active presence with his people (see Exod 3:12-15).

[24:8]  ³⁸ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[24:23]  ³⁹ tc The Hebrew text is difficult here. The translation reads עֶבֶד אֲדֹנָי (’eved ’adoni, “the servant of my lord”) rather than the MT’s אֲרַוְנָה (’Aravnah). In normal court etiquette a subject would not use his own name in this way, but would more likely refer to himself in the third person. The MT probably first sustained loss of עֶבֶד (’eved, “servant”), leading to confusion of the word for “my lord” with the name of the Jebusite referred to here.