2 Samuel 1:4

1:4 David inquired, “How were things going? ¹  Tell me!” He replied, “The people fled from the battle and many of them ²  fell dead. ³  Even Saul and his son Jonathan are dead!”

2 Samuel 3:14

3:14 David sent messengers to Ish-bosheth son of Saul with this demand: ⁴  “Give me my wife Michal whom I acquired ⁵  for a hundred Philistine foreskins.”

2 Samuel 3:35

3:35 Then all the people came and encouraged David to eat food while it was still day. But David took an oath saying, “God will punish me severely ⁶  if I taste bread or anything whatsoever before the sun sets!”

2 Samuel 4:10

4:10 when someone told me that Saul was dead – even though he thought he was bringing good news ⁷  – I seized him and killed him in Ziklag. That was the good news I gave to him!

2 Samuel 7:7

7:7 Wherever I moved among all the Israelites, I did not say ⁸  to any of the leaders ⁹  whom I appointed to care for ¹⁰  my people Israel, “Why have you not built me a house made from cedar?”’

2 Samuel 13:4

13:4 He asked Amnon, ¹¹  “Why are you, the king’s son, ¹²  so depressed every morning? Can’t you tell me?” So Amnon said to him, “I’m in love with Tamar the sister of my brother Absalom.”

2 Samuel 15:34

15:34 But you will be able to counter the advice of Ahithophel if you go back to the city and say to Absalom, ‘I will be your servant, O king! Previously I was your father’s servant, and now I will be your servant.’

2 Samuel 16:3

16:3 The king asked, “Where is your master’s grandson?” ¹³  Ziba replied to the king, “He remains in Jerusalem, ¹⁴  for he said, ‘Today the house of Israel will give back to me my grandfather’s ¹⁵  kingdom.’”

2 Samuel 16:10

16:10 But the king said, “What do we have in common, ¹⁶  you sons of Zeruiah? If he curses because the Lord has said to him, ‘Curse David!’, who can say to him, ‘Why have you done this?’”

2 Samuel 18:5

18:5 The king gave this order to Joab, Abishai, and Ittai: “For my sake deal gently with the young man Absalom.” Now the entire army was listening when the king gave all the leaders this order concerning Absalom.

2 Samuel 18:18

18:18 Prior to this ¹⁷  Absalom had set up a monument ¹⁸  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 19:13

19:13 Say to Amasa, ‘Are you not my flesh and blood? ¹⁹  God will punish me severely, ²⁰  if from this time on you are not the commander of my army in place of Joab!’”

2 Samuel 19:19

19:19 He said to the king, “Don’t think badly of me, my lord, and don’t recall the sin of your servant on the day when you, my lord the king, left ²¹  Jerusalem! ²²  Please don’t call it to mind!

2 Samuel 19:26

19:26 He replied, “My lord the king, my servant deceived me! I ²³  said, ‘Let me get my donkey saddled so that I can ride on it and go with the king,’ for I ²⁴  am lame.

2 Samuel 19:28

19:28 After all, there was no one in the entire house of my grandfather ²⁵  who did not deserve death from my lord the king. But instead you allowed me to eat at your own table! ²⁶  What further claim do I have to ask ²⁷  the king for anything?”

2 Samuel 21:4

21:4 The Gibeonites said to him, “We ²⁸  have no claim to silver or gold from Saul or from his family, ²⁹  nor would we be justified in putting to death anyone in Israel.” David asked, ³⁰  “What then are you asking me to do for you?”

2 Samuel 23:5

23:5 My dynasty is approved by God, ³¹ 

for he has made a perpetual covenant with me,

arranged in all its particulars and secured.

He always delivers me,

and brings all I desire to fruition. ³² 

[1:4]  ¹ tn Heb “What was the word?”

[1:4]  ² tn Heb “from the people.”

[1:4]  ³ tn Heb “fell and died.”

[3:14]  ⁴ tn Heb “to Ish-bosheth son of Saul saying.” To avoid excessive sibilance (especially when read aloud) the translation renders “saying” as “with this demand.”

[3:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “whom I betrothed to myself.”

[3:35]  ⁶ tn Heb “Thus God will do to me and thus he will add.”

[4:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “and he was like a bearer of good news in his eyes.”

[7:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “Did I speak a word?” In the Hebrew text the statement is phrased as a rhetorical question.

[7:7]  ⁹ tn Heb “tribes” (so KJV, NASB, NCV), but the parallel passage in 1 Chr 17:6 has “judges.”

[7:7]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “whom I commanded to shepherd” (so NIV, NRSV).

[13:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and he said to him.”

[13:4]  ¹² tn An more idiomatic translation might be “Why are you of all people…?”

[16:3]  ¹³ tn Heb “son.”

[16:3]  ¹⁴ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[16:3]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “my father’s.”

[16:10]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “What to me and to you?”

[18:18]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and.” This disjunctive clause (conjunction + subject + verb) describes an occurrence that preceded the events just narrated.

[18:18]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “a pillar.”

[19:13]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “my bone and my flesh.”

[19:13]  ²⁰ tn Heb “Thus God will do to me and thus he will add.”

[19:19]  ²¹ tn Though this verb in the MT is 3rd person masculine singular, it should probably be read as 2nd person masculine singular. It is one of fifteen places where the Masoretes placed a dot over each of the letters of the word in question in order to call attention to their suspicion of the word. Their concern in this case apparently had to do with the fact that this verb and the two preceding verbs alternate from third person to second and back again to third. Words marked in this way in Hebrew manuscripts or printed editions are said to have puncta extrordinaria, or “extraordinary points.”

[19:19]  ²² map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[19:26]  ²³ tn Heb “your servant.”

[19:26]  ²⁴ tn Heb “your servant.”

[19:28]  ²⁵ tn Heb “father.”

[19:28]  ²⁶ tn Heb “and you placed your servant among those who eat at your table.”

[19:28]  ²⁷ tn Heb “to cry out to.”

[21:4]  ²⁸ tc The translation follows the Qere and several medieval Hebrew mss in reading לָנוּ (lanu, “to us”) rather than the MT לִי (li, “to me”). But for a contrary opinion see S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, 53, 350.

[21:4]  ²⁹ tn Heb “house.”

[21:4]  ³⁰ tn Heb “and he said”; the referent (David) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[23:5]  ³¹ tn Heb “For not thus [is] my house with God?”

[23:5]  ³² tn Heb “for all my deliverance and every desire, surely does he not make [it] grow?”