2 Samuel 17:4

17:4 This seemed like a good idea to Absalom and to all the leaders ¹  of Israel.

2 Samuel 3:36

3:36 All the people noticed this and it pleased them. ²  In fact, everything the king did pleased all the people.

2 Samuel 22:25

22:25 The Lord rewarded me for my godly deeds; ³ 

he took notice of my blameless behavior. ⁴ 

2 Samuel 22:28

22:28 You deliver oppressed ⁵  people,

but you watch the proud and bring them down. ⁶ 

2 Samuel 6:22

6:22 I am willing to shame and humiliate myself even more than this! ⁷  But with the slave girls whom you mentioned let me be distinguished!”

2 Samuel 10:12

10:12 Be strong! Let’s fight bravely for the sake of our people and the cities of our God! The Lord will do what he decides is best!” ⁸ 

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.” ⁹ 

2 Samuel 3:19

3:19 Then Abner spoke privately ¹⁰  with the Benjaminites. Abner also went to Hebron to inform David privately ¹¹  of all that Israel and the entire house of Benjamin had agreed to. ¹² 

2 Samuel 12:11

12:11 This is what the Lord says: ‘I am about to bring disaster on you ¹³  from inside your own household! ¹⁴  Right before your eyes I will take your wives and hand them over to your companion. ¹⁵  He will have sexual relations with ¹⁶  your wives in broad daylight! ¹⁷ 

2 Samuel 7:19

7:19 And you didn’t stop there, O Lord God! You have also spoken about the future of your servant’s family. ¹⁸  Is this your usual way of dealing with men, ¹⁹  O Lord God?

2 Samuel 13:2

13:2 But Amnon became frustrated because he was so lovesick ²⁰  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 13:8

13:8 So Tamar went to the house of Amnon her brother, who was lying down. She took the dough, kneaded it, made some cakes while he watched, ²¹  and baked them. ²² 

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 ²³  on a road beside the hill.

2 Samuel 15:25

15:25 Then the king said to Zadok, “Take the ark of God back to the city. If I find favor in the Lord’s sight he will bring me back and enable me to see both it and his dwelling place again.

2 Samuel 16:4

16:4 The king said to Ziba, “Everything that was Mephibosheth’s now belongs to you.” Ziba replied, “I bow before you. May I find favor in your sight, my lord the king.”

2 Samuel 16:22

16:22 So they pitched a tent for Absalom on the roof, ²⁴  and Absalom had sex with ²⁵  his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel.

2 Samuel 18:4

18:4 Then the king said to them, “I will do whatever seems best to you.”

So the king stayed beside the city gate, while all the army marched out by hundreds and by thousands.

2 Samuel 19:27

19:27 But my servant ²⁶  has slandered me ²⁷  to my lord the king. But my lord the king is like an angel of God. Do whatever seems appropriate to you.

2 Samuel 19:38

19:38 The king replied, “Kimham will cross over with me, and I will do for him whatever I deem appropriate. And whatever you choose, I will do for you.”

2 Samuel 24:22

24:22 Araunah told David, “My lord the king may take whatever he wishes ²⁸  and offer it. Look! Here are oxen for burnt offerings, and threshing sledges ²⁹  and harnesses ³⁰  for wood.

2 Samuel 4:10

4:10 when someone told me that Saul was dead – even though he thought he was bringing good news ³¹  – I seized him and killed him in Ziklag. That was the good news I gave to him!

2 Samuel 6:20

6:20 When David went home to pronounce a blessing on his own house, ³²  Michal, Saul’s daughter, came out to meet him. ³³  She said, “How the king of Israel has distinguished ³⁴  himself this day! He has exposed himself today before his servants’ slave girls the way a vulgar fool ³⁵  might do!”

2 Samuel 10:3

10:3 the Ammonite officials said to their lord Hanun, “Do you really think David is trying to honor your father by sending these messengers to express his sympathy? ³⁶  No, David has sent his servants to you to get information about the city and spy on it so they can overthrow it!” ³⁷ 

2 Samuel 11:25

11:25 David said to the messenger, “Tell Joab, ‘Don’t let this thing upset you. ³⁸  There is no way to anticipate whom the sword will cut down. ³⁹  Press the battle against the city and conquer ⁴⁰  it.’ Encourage him with these words.” ⁴¹ 

2 Samuel 11:27

11:27 When the time of mourning passed, David had her brought to his palace. ⁴²  She became his wife and she bore him a son. But what David had done upset the Lord. ⁴³ 

2 Samuel 12:9

12:9 Why have you shown contempt for the word of the Lord by doing evil in my ⁴⁴  sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and you have taken his wife as your own! ⁴⁵  You have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.

2 Samuel 13:5-6

13:5 Jonadab replied to him, “Lie down on your bed and pretend to be sick. ⁴⁶  When your father comes in to see you, say to him, ‘Please let my sister Tamar come in so she can fix some food for me. Let her prepare the food in my sight so I can watch. Then I will eat from her hand.’”

13:6 So Amnon lay down and pretended to be sick. When the king came in to see him, Amnon said to the king, “Please let my sister Tamar come in so she can make a couple of cakes in my sight. Then I will eat from her hand.”

2 Samuel 14:22

14:22 Then Joab bowed down with his face toward the ground and thanked ⁴⁷  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 ⁴⁸  servant!”

2 Samuel 18:24

18:24 Now David was sitting between the inner and outer gates, ⁴⁹  and the watchman went up to the roof over the gate at the wall. When he looked, he saw a man running by himself.

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 ⁵⁰  that if ⁵¹  Absalom were alive and all of us were dead today, ⁵²  it would be all right with you.

2 Samuel 19:18

19:18 They crossed at the ford in order to help the king’s household cross and to do whatever he thought appropriate.

Now after he had crossed the Jordan, Shimei son of Gera threw himself down before the king.

2 Samuel 19:37

19:37 Let me ⁵³  return so that I may die in my own city near the grave of my father and my mother. But look, here is your servant Kimham. Let him cross over with my lord the king. Do for him whatever seems appropriate to you.”

2 Samuel 20:6

20:6 Then David said to Abishai, “Now Sheba son of Bicri will cause greater disaster for us than Absalom did! Take your lord’s servants and pursue him. Otherwise he will secure ⁵⁴  fortified cities for himself and get away from us.”

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?”

[17:4]  ¹ tn Heb “elders.”

[3:36]  ² tn Heb “it was good in their eyes.”

[22:25]  ³ tn Heb “according to my righteousness.” See v. 21.

[22:25]  ⁴ tn Heb “according to my purity before his eyes.”

[22:28]  ⁵ tn Or perhaps “humble” (so NIV, NRSV, NLT; note the contrast with those who are proud).

[22:28]  ⁶ tc Heb “but your eyes are upon the proud, you bring low.” Ps 18:27 reads “but proud eyes you bring low.”

[6:22]  ⁷ tn Heb “and I will shame myself still more than this and I will be lowly in my eyes.”

[10:12]  ⁸ tn Heb “and the Lord will do what is good in his eyes.”

[15:26]  ⁹ tn Heb “as [is] good in his eyes.”

[3:19]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “into the ears of.”

[3:19]  ¹¹ tn Heb “also Abner went to speak into the ears of David in Hebron.”

[3:19]  ¹² tn Heb “all which was good in the eyes of Israel and in the eyes of all the house of Benjamin.”

[12:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “raise up against you disaster.”

[12:11]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “house” (so NAB, NRSV); NCV, TEV, CEV “family.”

[12:11]  ¹⁵ tn Or “friend.”

[12:11]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “will lie with” (so NIV, NRSV); TEV “will have intercourse with”; CEV, NLT “will go to bed with.”

[12:11]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “in the eyes of this sun.”

[7:19]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and this was small in your eyes, O Lord God, so you spoke concerning the house of your servant for a distance.”

[7:19]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and this [is] the law of man”; KJV “is this the manner of man, O Lord God?”; NAB “this too you have shown to man”; NRSV “May this be instruction for the people, O Lord God!” This part of the verse is very enigmatic; no completely satisfying solution has yet been suggested. The present translation tries to make sense of the MT by understanding the phrase as a question that underscores the uniqueness of God’s dealings with David as described here. The parallel passage in 1 Chr 17:17 reads differently (see the note there).

[13:2]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and there was distress to Amnon so that he made himself sick.”

[13:8]  ²¹ tn Heb “in his sight.”

[13:8]  ²² tn Heb “the cakes.”

[13:34]  ²³ tn Heb “behind him.”

[16:22]  ²⁴ sn That is, on top of the flat roof of the palace, so it would be visible to the public.

[16:22]  ²⁵ tn Heb “went to”; NAB “he visited his father’s concubines”; NIV “lay with his father’s concubines”; TEV “went in and had intercourse with.”

[19:27]  ²⁶ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (the servant) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[19:27]  ²⁷ tn Heb “your servant.”

[24:22]  ²⁸ tn Heb “what is good in his eyes.”

[24:22]  ²⁹ sn Threshing sledges were heavy boards used in ancient times for loosening grain from husks. On the bottom sides of these boards sharp stones were embedded, and the boards were then dragged across the grain on a threshing floor by an ox or donkey.

[24:22]  ³⁰ tn Heb “the equipment of the oxen.”

[4:10]  ³¹ tn Heb “and he was like a bearer of good news in his eyes.”

[6:20]  ³² tn Heb “and David returned to bless his house.”

[6:20]  ³³ tn Heb “David.” The name has been replaced by the pronoun (“him”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[6:20]  ³⁴ tn Heb “honored.”

[6:20]  ³⁵ tn Heb “one of the foolish ones.”

[10:3]  ³⁶ tn Heb “Is David honoring your father in your eyes when he sends to you ones consoling?”

[10:3]  ³⁷ tn Heb “Is it not to explore the city and to spy on it and to overthrow it [that] David has sent his servants to you?”

[11:25]  ³⁸ tn Heb “let not this matter be evil in your eyes.”

[11:25]  ³⁹ tn Heb “according to this and according to this the sword devours.”

[11:25]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “overthrow.”

[11:25]  ⁴¹ tn The Hebrew text does not have “with these words.” They are supplied in the translation for clarity and for stylistic reasons.

[11:27]  ⁴² tn Heb “David sent and gathered her to his house.”

[11:27]  ⁴³ tn Heb “and the thing which David had done was evil in the eyes of the Lord.” Note the verbal connection with v. 25. Though David did not regard the matter as evil, the Lord certainly did.

[12:9]  ⁴⁴ tc So the Qere; the Kethib has “his.”

[12:9]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “to you for a wife.” This expression also occurs at the end of v. 10.

[13:5]  ⁴⁶ tn This verb is used in the Hitpael stem only in this chapter of the Hebrew Bible. With the exception of v. 2 it describes not a real sickness but one pretended in order to entrap Tamar. The Hitpael sometimes, as here, describes the subject making oneself appear to be of a certain character. On this use of the stem, see GKC 149-50 §54.e.

[14:22]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “blessed.”

[14:22]  ⁴⁸ tc The present translation reads with the Qere “your” rather than the MT “his.”

[18:24]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “the two gates.”

[19:6]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “today.”

[19:6]  ⁵¹ 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]  ⁵² tc The Lucianic Greek recension and Syriac Peshitta lack “today.”

[19:37]  ⁵³ tn Heb “your servant.”

[20:6]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “find.” The perfect verbal form is unexpected with the preceding word “otherwise.” We should probably read instead the imperfect. Although it is possible to understand the perfect here as indicating that the feared result is thought of as already having taken place (cf. BDB 814 s.v. פֶּן 2), it is more likely that the perfect is simply the result of scribal error. In this context the imperfect would be more consistent with the following verb וְהִצִּיל (vÿhitsil, “and he will get away”).