2 Samuel 15:26

15:26 However, if he should say, ‘I do not take pleasure in you,’ then he will deal with me in a way that he considers appropriate.” ¹ 

2 Samuel 15:28

15:28 Look, I will be waiting at the fords of the desert until word from you ²  reaches me.”

2 Samuel 16:12

16:12 Perhaps the Lord will notice my affliction ³  and this day grant me good in place of his curse.” ⁴ 

2 Samuel 20:20

20:20 Joab answered, “Get serious! ⁵  I don’t want to swallow up or destroy anything!

2 Samuel 22:7

22:7 In my distress I called to the Lord;

I called to my God. ⁶ 

From his heavenly temple ⁷  he heard my voice;

he listened to my cry for help. ⁸ 

[15:26]  ¹ tn Heb “as [is] good in his eyes.”

[15:28]  ² tn The pronoun is plural, referring to Zadok and Abiathar.

[16:12]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn Heb “and the Lord will restore to me good in place of his curse this day.”

[20:20]  ⁵ tn Heb “Far be it, far be it from me.” The expression is clearly emphatic, as may be seen in part by the repetition. P. K. McCarter, however, understands it to be coarser than the translation adopted here. He renders it as “I’ll be damned if…” (II Samuel [AB], 426, 429), which (while it is not a literal translation) may not be too far removed from the way a soldier might have expressed himself.

[22:7]  ⁶ tn In this poetic narrative the two prefixed verbal forms in v. 7a are best understood as preterites indicating past tense, not imperfects. Note the use of the vav consecutive with the prefixed verbal form that follows in v. 7b.

[22:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “from his temple.” Verse 10, which pictures God descending from the sky, indicates that the heavenly, not earthly, temple is in view.

[22:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “and my cry for help [entered] his ears.”