2 Samuel 1:9

1:9 He said to me, ‘Stand over me and finish me off! ¹  I’m very dizzy, ²  even though I’m still alive.’ ³ 

2 Samuel 1:15

1:15 Then David called one of the soldiers ⁴  and said, “Come here and strike him down!” So he struck him down, and he died.

2 Samuel 2:14

2:14 Abner said to Joab, “Let the soldiers get up and fight ⁵  before us.” Joab said, “So be it!” ⁶ 

2 Samuel 2:28

2:28 Then Joab blew the ram’s horn and all the people stopped in their tracks. ⁷  They stopped chasing Israel and ceased fighting. ⁸ 

2 Samuel 3:17

3:17 Abner advised ⁹  the elders of Israel, “Previously you were wanting David to be your king. ¹⁰ 

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 6:8

6:8 David was angry because the Lord attacked ¹¹  Uzzah; so he called that place Perez Uzzah, ¹²  which remains its name to this very day.

2 Samuel 7:1

The Lord Establishes a Covenant with David

7:1 The king settled into his palace, ¹³  for the Lord gave him relief ¹⁴  from all his enemies on all sides. ¹⁵ 

2 Samuel 7:5

7:5 “Go, tell my servant David: ‘This is what the Lord says: Do you really intend to build a house for me to live in?

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 ¹⁶  and Berothai, Hadadezer’s cities, King David took a great deal of bronze.

2 Samuel 10:7

10:7 When David heard the news, he sent Joab and the entire army to meet them. ¹⁷ 

2 Samuel 11:3

11:3 So David sent someone to inquire about the woman. The messenger ¹⁸  said, “Isn’t this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?”

2 Samuel 11:16

11:16 So as Joab kept watch on the city, he stationed Uriah at the place where he knew the best enemy soldiers ¹⁹  were.

2 Samuel 12:15

12:15 Then Nathan went to his home. The Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and the child became very ill. ²⁰ 

2 Samuel 12:26-27

David’s Forces Defeat the Ammonites

12:26 ²¹ 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. ²² 

2 Samuel 13:24

13:24 Then Absalom went to the king and said, “My shearers have begun their work. ²³  Let the king and his servants go with me.”

2 Samuel 13:31

13:31 Then the king stood up and tore his garments and lay down on the ground. All his servants were standing there with torn garments as well.

2 Samuel 15:1

Absalom Leads an Insurrection against David

15:1 Some time later Absalom managed to acquire ²⁴  a chariot and horses, as well as fifty men to serve as his royal guard. ²⁵ 

2 Samuel 16:12

16:12 Perhaps the Lord will notice my affliction ²⁶  and this day grant me good in place of his curse.” ²⁷ 

2 Samuel 16:16

16:16 When David’s friend Hushai the Arkite came to Absalom, Hushai said to him, ²⁸  “Long live the king! Long live the king!”

2 Samuel 17:3

17:3 and will bring the entire army back to you. In exchange for the life of the man you are seeking, you will get back everyone. ²⁹  The entire army will return unharmed.” ³⁰ 

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 19:30

19:30 Mephibosheth said to the king, “Let him have ³¹  the whole thing! My lord the king has returned safely ³²  to his house!”

2 Samuel 21:13

21:13 David ³³  brought the bones of Saul and of Jonathan his son from there; they also gathered up the bones of those who had been executed.

2 Samuel 22:1

David Sings to the Lord

22:1 ³⁴ David sang ³⁵  to the Lord the words of this song when ³⁶  the Lord rescued him from the power ³⁷  of all his enemies, including Saul. ³⁸ 

2 Samuel 22:39

22:39 I wipe them out and beat them to death;

they cannot get up;

they fall at my feet.

2 Samuel 24:12

24:12 “Go, tell David, ‘This is what the Lord says: I am offering you three forms of judgment. Pick one of them and I will carry it out against you.’”

[1:9]  ¹ tn As P. K. McCarter (II Samuel [AB], 59) points out, the Polel of the verb מוּת (mut, “to die”) “refers to dispatching or ‘finishing off’ someone already wounded and near death.” Cf. NLT “put me out of my misery.”

[1:9]  ² tn Heb “the dizziness has seized me.” On the meaning of the Hebrew noun translated “dizziness,” see P. K. McCarter, II Samuel (AB), 59-60. The point seems to be that he is unable to kill himself because he is weak and disoriented.

[1:9]  ³ tn The Hebrew text here is grammatically very awkward (Heb “because all still my life in me”). Whether the broken construct phrase is due to the fact that the alleged speaker is in a confused state of mind as he is on the verge of dying, or whether the MT has sustained corruption in the transmission process, is not entirely clear. The former seems likely, although P. K. McCarter understands the MT to be the result of conflation of two shorter forms of text (P. K. McCarter, II Samuel [AB], 57, n. 9). Early translators also struggled with the verse, apparently choosing to leave part of the Hebrew text untranslated. For example, the Lucianic recension of the LXX lacks “all,” while other witnesses (namely, one medieval Hebrew ms, codices A and B of the LXX, and the Syriac Peshitta) lack “still.”

[1:15]  ⁴ tn Heb “young men.”

[2:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “play.” What is in view here is a gladiatorial contest in which representative groups of soldiers engage in mortal combat before the watching armies. Cf. NAB “perform for us”; NASB “hold (have NRSV) a contest before us”; NLT “put on an exhibition of hand-to-hand combat.”

[2:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “let them arise.”

[2:28]  ⁷ tn Heb “stood.”

[2:28]  ⁸ tn Heb “they no longer chased after Israel and they no longer fought.”

[3:17]  ⁹ tn Heb “the word of Abner was with.”

[3:17]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “you were seeking David to be king over you.”

[6:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “because the Lord broke out [with] a breaking out [i.e., an outburst] against Uzzah.”

[6:8]  ¹² sn The name Perez Uzzah means in Hebrew “the outburst [against] Uzzah.”

[7:1]  ¹³ tn Heb “house” (also in the following verse).

[7:1]  ¹⁴ tn Or “rest.”

[7:1]  ¹⁵ tn The translation understands the disjunctive clause in v. 1b as circumstantial-causal.

[8:8]  ¹⁶ 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.

[10:7]  ¹⁷ tn The words “the news” and “to meet them” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons and for clarification.

[11:3]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the messenger) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[11:16]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the valiant men.” This refers in context to the strongest or most valiant defenders of the city Joab and the Israelite army were besieging, so the present translation uses “the best enemy soldiers” for clarity.

[12:15]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and the Lord struck the child…and he was ill.” It is necessary to repeat “the child” in the translation to make clear who became ill, since “the Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and he became very ill” could be understood to mean that David himself became ill.

[12:26]  ²¹ 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]  ²² 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.

[13:24]  ²³ tn Heb “your servant has sheepshearers.” The phrase “your servant” also occurs at the end of the verse.

[15:1]  ²⁴ tn Heb “acquired for himself.”

[15:1]  ²⁵ tn Heb “to run ahead of him.”

[16:12]  ²⁶ tc The Hebrew text is difficult here. It is probably preferable to read with the LXX, the Syriac Peshitta, and Vulgate בְּעוֹנִי (bÿ’onyi, “on my affliction”) rather than the Kethib of the MT בָּעַוֹנִי (ba’avoni, “on my wrongdoing”). While this Kethib reading is understandable as an objective genitive (i.e., “the wrong perpetrated upon me”), it does not conform to normal Hebrew idiom for this idea. The Qere of the MT בְּעֵינֵי (bÿ’eni, “on my eyes”), usually taken as synecdoche to mean “my tears,” does not commend itself as a likely meaning. The Hebrew word is one of the so-called tiqqune sopherim, or “emendations of the scribes.”

[16:12]  ²⁷ tn Heb “and the Lord will restore to me good in place of his curse this day.”

[16:16]  ²⁸ tn Heb “to Absalom.” The proper name has been replaced by the pronoun “him” in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[17:3]  ²⁹ tc Heb “like the returning of all, the man whom you are seeking.” The LXX reads differently: “And I will return all the people to you the way a bride returns to her husband, except for the life of the one man whom you are seeking.” The other early versions also struggled with this verse. Modern translations are divided as well: the NAB, NRSV, REB, and NLT follow the LXX, while the NASB and NIV follow the Hebrew text.

[17:3]  ³⁰ tn Heb “all of the people will be safe.”

[19:30]  ³¹ tn Heb “take.”

[19:30]  ³² tn Heb “in peace.”

[21:13]  ³³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (David) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[22:1]  ³⁴ 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]  ³⁵ tn Heb “spoke.”

[22:1]  ³⁶ tn Heb “in the day,” or “at the time.”

[22:1]  ³⁷ tn Heb “hand.”

[22:1]  ³⁸ tn Heb “and from the hand of Saul.”