2 Samuel 1:6

1:6 The young man who was telling him this ¹  said, “I just happened to be on Mount Gilboa and came across Saul leaning on his spear for support. The chariots and leaders of the horsemen were in hot pursuit of him.

2 Samuel 1:13

1:13 David said to the young man who told this to him, “Where are you from?” He replied, “I am an Amalekite, the son of a resident foreigner.” ² 

2 Samuel 2:6

2:6 Now may the Lord show you true kindness! ³  I also will reward you, ⁴  because you have done this deed.

2 Samuel 3:7

3:7 Now Saul had a concubine named Rizpah daughter of Aiah. Ish-bosheth ⁵  said to Abner, “Why did you have sexual relations with ⁶  my father’s concubine?” ⁷ 

2 Samuel 7:22

7:22 Therefore you are great, O Lord God, for there is none like you! There is no God besides you! What we have heard is true! ⁸ 

2 Samuel 7:28

7:28 Now, O sovereign Lord, you are the true God! ⁹  May your words prove to be true! ¹⁰  You have made this good promise to your servant! ¹¹ 

2 Samuel 12:21

12:21 His servants said to him, “What is this that you have done? While ¹²  the child was still alive, you fasted and wept. Once the child was dead you got up and ate food!”

2 Samuel 13:2

13:2 But Amnon became frustrated because he was so lovesick ¹³  over his sister Tamar. For she was a virgin, and to Amnon it seemed out of the question to do anything to her.

2 Samuel 13:16

13:16 But she said to him, “No I won’t, for sending me away now would be worse than what you did to me earlier!” ¹⁴  But he refused to listen to her.

2 Samuel 13:34

13:34 In the meantime Absalom fled. When the servant who was the watchman looked up, he saw many people coming from the west ¹⁵  on a road beside the hill.

2 Samuel 14:20

14:20 Your servant Joab did this so as to change this situation. But my lord has wisdom like that of the angel of God, and knows everything that is happening in the land.” ¹⁶ 

2 Samuel 15:35-36

15:35 Zadok and Abiathar the priests will be there with you. ¹⁷  Everything you hear in the king’s palace ¹⁸  you must tell Zadok and Abiathar the priests. 15:36 Furthermore, their two sons are there with them, Zadok’s son Ahimaaz and Abiathar’s son Jonathan. You must send them to me with any information you hear.” ¹⁹ 

2 Samuel 16:8

16:8 The Lord has punished you for ²⁰  all the spilled blood of the house of Saul, in whose place you rule. Now the Lord has given the kingdom into the hand of your son Absalom. Disaster has overtaken you, for you are a man of bloodshed!”

2 Samuel 17:19

17:19 His wife then took the covering and spread it over the top of the well and scattered some grain over it. No one was aware of what she had done.

2 Samuel 18:29

18:29 The king replied, “How is the young man Absalom?” Ahimaaz replied, “I saw a great deal of confusion when Joab was sending the king’s servant and me, your servant, but I don’t know what it was all about.”

2 Samuel 19:10

19:10 But Absalom, whom we anointed as our king, ²¹  has died in battle. So now why do you hesitate to bring the king back?” ²² 

2 Samuel 19:13

19:13 Say to Amasa, ‘Are you not my flesh and blood? ²³  God will punish me severely, ²⁴  if from this time on you are not the commander of my army in place of Joab!’”

2 Samuel 19:20

19:20 For I, your servant, ²⁵  know that I sinned, and I have come today as the first of all the house of Joseph to come down to meet my lord the king.”

2 Samuel 21:5

21:5 They replied to the king, “As for this man who exterminated us and who schemed against us so that we were destroyed and left without status throughout all the borders of Israel –

2 Samuel 24:1

David Displeases the Lord by Taking a Census

24:1 The Lord’s anger again raged against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, “Go count Israel and Judah.” ²⁶ 

2 Samuel 24:3

24:3 Joab replied to the king, “May the Lord your God make the army a hundred times larger right before the eyes of my lord the king! But why does my master the king want to do this?”

[1:6]  ¹ tc The Syriac Peshitta and one ms of the LXX lack the words “who was telling him this” of the MT.

[1:13]  ² tn The Hebrew word used here refers to a foreigner whose social standing was something less than that of native residents of the land, but something more than that of a nonresident alien who was merely passing through.

[2:6]  ³ tn Or “loyalty and devotion.”

[2:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “will do with you this good.”

[3:7]  ⁵ tc The Hebrew of the MT reads simply “and he said,” with no expressed subject for the verb. It is not likely that the text originally had no expressed subject for this verb, since the antecedent is not immediately clear from the context. We should probably restore to the Hebrew text the name “Ish-bosheth.” See a few medieval Hebrew mss, Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, and Vulgate. Perhaps the name was accidentally omitted by homoioarcton. Note that both the name Ishbosheth and the following preposition אֶל (’el) begin with the letter alef.

[3:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “come to”; KJV, NRSV “gone in to”; NAB “been intimate with”; NIV “sleep with.”

[3:7]  ⁷ sn This accusation against Abner is a very serious one, since an act of sexual infringement on the king’s harem would probably have been understood as a blatant declaration of aspirations to kingship. As such it was not merely a matter of ethical impropriety but an act of grave political significance as well.

[7:22]  ⁸ tn Heb “in all which we heard with our ears.” The phrase translated “in all” בְּכֹל (bÿkhol) should probably be emended to “according to all” כְּכֹל (kÿkhol).

[7:28]  ⁹ tn Heb “the God.” The article indicates uniqueness here.

[7:28]  ¹⁰ tn The translation understands the prefixed verb form as a jussive, indicating David’s wish/prayer. Another option is to take the form as an imperfect and translate “your words are true.”

[7:28]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and you have spoken to your servant this good thing.”

[12:21]  ¹² tc For the MT בַּעֲבוּר (ba’avur, “for the sake of”) we should probably read בְּעוֹד (bÿ’od, “while”). See the Lucianic Greek recension, the Syriac Peshitta, and the Targum.

[13:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “and there was distress to Amnon so that he made himself sick.”

[13:16]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “No, because this great evil is [worse] than the other which you did with me, by sending me away.” Perhaps the broken syntax reflects her hysteria and outrage.

[13:34]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “behind him.”

[14:20]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “to know all that is in the land.”

[15:35]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Will not Zadok and Abiathar the priests be there with you?” The rhetorical question draws attention to the fact that Hushai will not be alone.

[15:35]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “from the house of the king.”

[15:36]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and you must send by their hand to me every word which you hear.” Both of the second person verb forms are plural with Zadok, Abiathar, and Hushai being the understood subjects.

[16:8]  ²⁰ tn Heb “has brought back upon you.”

[19:10]  ²¹ tn Heb “over us.”

[19:10]  ²² tc The LXX includes the following words at the end of v. 11: “And what all Israel was saying came to the king’s attention.” The words are misplaced in the LXX from v. 12 (although the same statement appears there in the LXX as well).

[19:13]  ²³ tn Heb “my bone and my flesh.”

[19:13]  ²⁴ tn Heb “Thus God will do to me and thus he will add.”

[19:20]  ²⁵ tn The Hebrew text has simply “your servant.”

[24:1]  ²⁶ sn The parallel text in 1 Chr 21:1 says, “An adversary opposed Israel, inciting David to count how many warriors Israel had.” The Samuel version gives an underlying theological perspective, while the Chronicler simply describes what happened from a human perspective. The adversary in 1 Chr 21:1 is likely a human enemy, probably a nearby nation whose hostility against Israel pressured David into numbering the people so he could assess his military strength. See the note at 1 Chr 21:1.