2 Samuel 19:8

19:8 So the king got up and sat at the city gate. When all the people were informed that the king was sitting at the city gate, they ¹  all came before him.

David Goes Back to Jerusalem

But the Israelite soldiers ²  had all fled to their own homes. ³ 

2 Samuel 23:11

23:11 Next in command ⁴  was Shammah son of Agee the Hararite. When the Philistines assembled at Lehi, ⁵  where there happened to be an area of a field that was full of lentils, the army retreated before the Philistines.

[19:8]  ¹ tn Heb “all the people.”

[19:8]  ² tn The Hebrew text has simply “Israel” (see 18:16-17).

[19:8]  ³ tn Heb “had fled, each to his tent.”

[23:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “after him.”

[23:11]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew text is difficult here. The MT reads לַחַיָּה (lachayyah), which implies a rare use of the word חַיָּה (chayyah). The word normally refers to an animal, but if the MT is accepted it would here have the sense of a troop or community of people. BDB 312 s.v. II. חַיָּה, for example, understands the similar reference in v. 13 to be to “a group of allied families, making a raid together.” But this works better in v. 13 than it does in v. 11, where the context seems to suggest a particular staging location for a military operation. (See 1 Chr 11:15.) It therefore seems best to understand the word in v. 11 as a place name with ה (he) directive. In that case the Masoretes mistook the word for the common term for an animal and then tried to make sense of it in this context.