2 Samuel 2:1

David is Anointed King

2:1 Afterward David inquired of the Lord, “Should I go up to one of the cities of Judah?” The Lord told him, “Go up.” David asked, “Where should I go?” The Lord replied, ¹  “To Hebron.”

2 Samuel 2:26

2:26 Then Abner called out to Joab, “Must the sword devour forever? Don’t you realize that this will turn bitter in the end? When will you tell the people to turn aside from pursuing their brothers?”

2 Samuel 8:10

8:10 he ²  sent his son Joram ³  to King David to extend his best wishes ⁴  and to pronounce a blessing on him for his victory over Hadadezer, for Toi had been at war with Hadadezer. ⁵  He brought with him various items made of silver, gold, and bronze. ⁶ 

2 Samuel 9:10

9:10 You will cultivate ⁷  the land for him – you and your sons and your servants. You will bring its produce ⁸  and it will be ⁹  food for your master’s grandson to eat. ¹⁰  But Mephibosheth, your master’s grandson, will be a regular guest at my table.” (Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants.)

2 Samuel 10:2-3

10:2 David said, “I will express my loyalty ¹¹  to Hanun son of Nahash just as his father was loyal ¹²  to me.” So David sent his servants with a message expressing sympathy over his father’s death. ¹³  When David’s servants entered the land of the Ammonites, 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? ¹⁴  No, David has sent his servants to you to get information about the city and spy on it so they can overthrow it!” ¹⁵ 

2 Samuel 11:11

11:11 Uriah replied to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah reside in temporary shelters, and my lord Joab and my lord’s soldiers are camping in the open field. Should I go to my house to eat and drink and have marital relations ¹⁶  with my wife? As surely as you are alive, ¹⁷  I will not do this thing!”

2 Samuel 13:5

13:5 Jonadab replied to him, “Lie down on your bed and pretend to be sick. ¹⁸  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.’”

2 Samuel 15:20

15:20 It seems like you arrived just yesterday. Today should I make you wander around by going with us? I go where I must go. But as for you, go back and take your men ¹⁹  with you. May genuine loyal love ²⁰  protect ²¹  you!”

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 17:21

17:21 After the men had left, Ahimaaz and Jonathan ²²  climbed out of the well. Then they left and informed King David. They advised David, “Get up and cross the stream ²³  quickly, for Ahithophel has devised a plan to catch you.” ²⁴ 

2 Samuel 17:23

17:23 When Ahithophel realized that his advice had not been followed, he saddled his donkey and returned to his house in his hometown. After setting his household in order, he hanged himself. So he died and was buried in the grave ²⁵  of his father.

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 20:1

Sheba’s Rebellion

20:1 Now a wicked man ²⁶  named Sheba son of Bicri, a Benjaminite, ²⁷  happened to be there. He blew the trumpet ²⁸  and said,

“We have no share in David;

we have no inheritance in this son of Jesse!

Every man go home, ²⁹  O Israel!”

[2:1]  ¹ tn Heb “he said.” The referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity and for stylistic reasons.

[8:10]  ² tn Heb “Toi.” The proper name has been replaced by the pronoun in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[8:10]  ³ tn The name appears as “Hadoram” in the parallel text in 1 Chr 18:10.

[8:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “to ask concerning him for peace.”

[8:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “and to bless him because he fought with Hadadezer and defeated him, for Hadadezer was a man of battles with Toi.”

[8:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “and in his hand were items of silver and items of gold and items of bronze.”

[9:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “work.”

[9:10]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew text implies, but does not actually contain, the words “its produce” here.

[9:10]  ⁹ tc The words “it will be,” though present in the MT, are absent from the LXX, the Syriac Peshitta, and Vulgate.

[9:10]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and he will eat it.”

[10:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “do loyalty.”

[10:2]  ¹² tn Heb “did loyalty.”

[10:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “and David sent to console him by the hand of his servants concerning his father.”

[10:3]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Is David honoring your father in your eyes when he sends to you ones consoling?”

[10:3]  ¹⁵ 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?”

[11:11]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and lay.”

[11:11]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “as you live and as your soul lives.”

[13:5]  ¹⁸ 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.

[15:20]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “brothers,” but see v. 22.

[15:20]  ²⁰ tn Heb “loyal love and truth.” The expression is a hendiadys.

[15:20]  ²¹ tn Heb “be with.”

[17:21]  ²² tn Heb “they”; the referents (Ahimaaz and Jonathan) have been specified in the translation for clarity.

[17:21]  ²³ tn Heb “the water.”

[17:21]  ²⁴ 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.

[17:23]  ²⁵ tc The Greek recensions of Origen and Lucian have here “house” for “grave.”

[20:1]  ²⁶ tn Heb “a man of worthlessness.”

[20:1]  ²⁷ tn The expression used here יְמִינִי (yÿmini) is a short form of the more common “Benjamin.” It appears elsewhere in 1 Sam 9:4 and Esth 2:5. Cf. 1 Sam 9:1.

[20:1]  ²⁸ tn Heb “the shophar” (the ram’s horn trumpet). So also v. 22.

[20:1]  ²⁹ tc The MT reads לְאֹהָלָיו (lÿ’ohalav, “to his tents”). For a similar idiom, see 19:9. An ancient scribal tradition understands the reading to be לְאלֹהָיו (le’lohav, “to his gods”). The word is a tiqqun sopherim, and the scribes indicate that they changed the word from “gods” to “tents” so as to soften its theological implications. In a consonantal Hebrew text the change involved only the metathesis of two letters.