2 Samuel 10:2

10:2 David said, “I will express my loyalty ¹  to Hanun son of Nahash just as his father was loyal ²  to me.” So David sent his servants with a message expressing sympathy over his father’s death. ³  When David’s servants entered the land of the Ammonites,

2 Samuel 13:28

13:28 Absalom instructed his servants, “Look! When Amnon is drunk ⁴  and I say to you, ‘Strike Amnon down,’ kill him then and there. Don’t fear! Is it not I who have given you these instructions? Be strong and courageous!” ⁵ 

2 Samuel 14:22

14:22 Then Joab bowed down with his face toward the ground and thanked ⁶  the king. Joab said, “Today your servant knows that I have found favor in your sight, my lord the king, because the king has granted the request of your ⁷  servant!”

2 Samuel 17:8

17:8 Hushai went on to say, “You know your father and his men – they are soldiers and are as dangerous as a bear out in the wild that has been robbed of her cubs. ⁸  Your father is an experienced soldier; he will not stay overnight with the army.

2 Samuel 17:18

17:18 But a young man saw them on one occasion and informed Absalom. So the two of them quickly departed and went to the house of a man in Bahurim. There was a well in his courtyard, and they got down in it.

2 Samuel 17:21

17:21 After the men had left, Ahimaaz and Jonathan ⁹  climbed out of the well. Then they left and informed King David. They advised David, “Get up and cross the stream ¹⁰  quickly, for Ahithophel has devised a plan to catch you.” ¹¹ 

2 Samuel 18:2

18:2 David then sent out the army – a third under the leadership of Joab, a third under the leadership of Joab’s brother Abishai son of Zeruiah, and a third under the leadership of Ittai the Gittite. The king said to the troops, “I too will indeed march out with you.”

2 Samuel 19:6

19:6 You seem to love your enemies and hate your friends! For you have as much as declared today that leaders and servants don’t matter to you. I realize now ¹²  that if ¹³  Absalom were alive and all of us were dead today, ¹⁴  it would be all right with you.

[10:2]  ¹ tn Heb “do loyalty.”

[10:2]  ² tn Heb “did loyalty.”

[10:2]  ³ tn Heb “and David sent to console him by the hand of his servants concerning his father.”

[13:28]  ⁴ tn Heb “when good is the heart of Amnon with wine.”

[13:28]  ⁵ tn Heb “and become sons of valor.”

[14:22]  ⁶ tn Heb “blessed.”

[14:22]  ⁷ tc The present translation reads with the Qere “your” rather than the MT “his.”

[17:8]  ⁸ tc The LXX (with the exception of the recensions of Origen and Lucian) repeats the description as follows: “Just as a female bear bereft of cubs in a field.”

[17:21]  ⁹ tn Heb “they”; the referents (Ahimaaz and Jonathan) have been specified in the translation for clarity.

[17:21]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the water.”

[17:21]  ¹¹ tn Heb “for thus Ahithophel has devised against you.” The expression “thus” is narrative shorthand, referring to the plan outlined by Ahithophel (see vv. 1-3). The men would surely have outlined the plan in as much detail as they had been given by the messenger.

[19:6]  ¹² tn Heb “today.”

[19:6]  ¹³ tc The translation follows the Qere, 4QSam^a, and many medieval Hebrew mss in reading לוּ (lu, “if”) rather than MT לֹא (lo’, “not”).

[19:6]  ¹⁴ tc The Lucianic Greek recension and Syriac Peshitta lack “today.”