2:8 “Note well, you still have to contend with Shimei son of Gera, the Benjaminite from Bahurim, 14 who tried to call down upon me a horrible judgment when I went to Mahanaim. 15 He came down and met me at the Jordan, and I solemnly promised 16 him by the Lord, ‘I will not strike you down 17 with the sword.’
2:10 Then David passed away 18 and was buried in the city of David. 19
29:5 The Lord’s shout breaks 20 the cedars,
the Lord shatters 21 the cedars of Lebanon. 22
1 tn Heb “ built the house and completed it.”
2 tn Heb “the house.”
3 tn The word occurs only here; the precise meaning is uncertain.
4 tn Heb “and rows with cedar wood.”
5 tn Heb “five cubits.” This must refer to the height of each floor or room.
6 tn Heb “He built twenty cubits from the rear areas of the temple with cedar planks from the floor to the walls, and he built it on the inside for an inner sanctuary, for a holy place of holy places.”
7 tc The MT has קְלָעִים (qÿla’im, “curtains”), but this should be emended to קוֹרוֹת (qorot, “rafters”). See BDB 900 s.v. קוֹרָה.
8 tn Heb “twenty cubits” (this measurement occurs three times in this verse).
9 tn Heb “with plated gold” (or perhaps, “with pure gold”).
10 tn Heb “he plated [the] altar of cedar.”
11 tn Heb “sixty cubits.” A cubit was a unit of measure roughly equivalent to 18 inches or 45 cm. Measurements in vv. 2-10 have been converted to feet in the translation for clarity.
12 tn Heb “twenty cubits.”
13 tn Heb “thirty cubits.”
14 tn Heb “Look, with you is Shimei….”
15 tn Heb “and he cursed me with a horrible curse on the day I went to Mahanaim.”
16 tn Or “swore an oath to.”
17 tn Heb “kill you.”
18 tn Heb “and David lay down with his fathers.”
19 sn The phrase the city of David refers here to the fortress of Zion in Jerusalem, not to Bethlehem. See 2 Sam 5:7.
20 tn The Hebrew participial form draws attention to the durative nature of the action being described.
21 tn The prefixed verbal forms with vav (ו) consecutive here and in v. 6a carry on the descriptive function of the preceding participle (see GKC 329 §111.u). The verb שָׁבַר (shavar) appears in the Qal in the first line of the verse, and in the Piel in the second line. The verb, which means “break” in the Qal, appears thirty-six times in the Piel, always with multiple objects (the object is either a collective singular or grammatically plural or dual form). The Piel may highlight the repetition of the pluralative action, or it may suggest an intensification of action, indicating repeated action comprising a whole, perhaps with the nuance “break again and again, break in pieces.” Another option is to understand the form as resultative: “make broken” (see IBHS 404-7 §24.3).
22 sn The cedars of the Lebanon forest were well-known in ancient Israel for their immense size. Here they may symbolize the arrogant enemies of God (see Isa 2:12-13).