2 Samuel 2:16

2:16 As they grappled with one another, each one stabbed his opponent with his sword and they fell dead together. ¹  So that place is called the Field of Flints; ²  it is in Gibeon.

2 Samuel 2:29

2:29 Abner and his men went through the Arabah all that night. They crossed the Jordan River ³  and went through the whole region of Bitron ⁴  and came to Mahanaim.

2 Samuel 4:7

4:7 They had entered ⁵  the house while Ish-bosheth ⁶  was resting on his bed in his bedroom. They mortally wounded him ⁷  and then cut off his head. ⁸  Taking his head, ⁹  they traveled on the way of the Arabah all that night.

2 Samuel 10:9

10:9 When Joab saw that the battle would be fought on two fronts, he chose some of Israel’s best men and deployed them against the Arameans. ¹⁰ 

[2:16]  ¹ tn Heb “and they grabbed each one the head of his neighbor with his sword in the side of his neighbor and they fell together.”

[2:16]  ² tn The meaning of the name “Helkath Hazzurim” (so NIV; KJV, NASB, NRSV similar) is not clear. BHK relates the name to the Hebrew term for “side,” and this is reflected in NAB “the Field of the Sides”; the Greek OT revocalizes the Hebrew to mean something like “Field of Adversaries.” Cf. also TEV, NLT “Field of Swords”; CEV “Field of Daggers.”

[2:29]  ³ tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[2:29]  ⁴ tn Heb “and they went, all the Bitron.” The meaning of the Hebrew word “Bitron,” which is used only here in the OT, is disputed. The translation above follows BDB 144 s.v. בִּתְרוֹן in taking the word to be a proper name of an area east of the Jordan. A different understanding was advocated by W. R. Arnold, who took the word to refer to the forenoon or morning; a number of modern scholars and translations have adopted this view (cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV, CEV, NLT). See W. R. Arnold, “The Meaning of בתרון,” AJSL 28 (1911-1912): 274-83. In this case one could translate “and they traveled all morning long.”

[4:7]  ⁵ tn After the concluding disjunctive clause at the end of v. 6, the author now begins a more detailed account of the murder and its aftermath.

[4:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Ish-bosheth) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[4:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “they struck him down and killed him.” The expression is a verbal hendiadys.

[4:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “and they removed his head.” The Syriac Peshitta and Vulgate lack these words.

[4:7]  ⁹ tc The Lucianic Greek recension lacks the words “his head.”

[10:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and Joab saw that the face of the battle was to him before and behind and he chose from all the best in Israel and arranged to meet Aram.”