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.”
13:28 Absalom instructed his servants, “Look! When Amnon is drunk 14 and I say to you, ‘Strike Amnon down,’ kill him then and there. Don’t fear! Is it not I who have given you these instructions? Be strong and courageous!” 15
17:20 When the servants of Absalom approached the woman at her home, they asked, “Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan?” The woman replied to them, “They crossed over the stream.” Absalom’s men 16 searched but did not find them, so they returned to Jerusalem. 17
1 tn Heb “after his falling”; NAB “could not survive his wound”; CEV “was too badly wounded to live much longer.”
2 tc The MT lacks the definite article, but this is likely due to textual corruption. It is preferable to read the alef (א) of אֶצְעָדָה (’ets’adah) as a ה (he) giving הַצְּעָדָה (hatsÿ’adah). There is no reason to think that the soldier confiscated from Saul’s dead body only one of two or more bracelets that he was wearing (cf. NLT “one of his bracelets”).
3 sn The claims that the soldier is making here seem to contradict the story of Saul’s death as presented in 1 Sam 31:3-5. In that passage it appears that Saul took his own life, not that he was slain by a passerby who happened on the scene. Some scholars account for the discrepancy by supposing that conflicting accounts have been brought together in the MT. However, it is likely that the young man is here fabricating the account in a self-serving way so as to gain favor with David, or so he supposes. He probably had come across Saul’s corpse, stolen the crown and bracelet from the body, and now hopes to curry favor with David by handing over to him these emblems of Saul’s royalty. But in so doing the Amalekite greatly miscalculated David’s response to this alleged participation in Saul’s death. The consequence of his lies will instead be his own death.
4 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Asahel) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
5 tn Heb “the.” The article functions here as a possessive pronoun.
6 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Asahel) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
7 tn Heb “him”; the referent (Abner) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
8 tn Heb “and they stand.”
7 tn Heb “raise up against you disaster.”
8 tn Heb “house” (so NAB, NRSV); NCV, TEV, CEV “family.”
9 tn Or “friend.”
10 tn Heb “will lie with” (so NIV, NRSV); TEV “will have intercourse with”; CEV, NLT “will go to bed with.”
11 tn Heb “in the eyes of this sun.”
10 tn Heb “when good is the heart of Amnon with wine.”
11 tn Heb “and become sons of valor.”
13 tn Heb “they”; the referents (Absalom’s men) have been specified in the translation for clarity.
14 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
16 tn Heb “from the king.”
19 tn Heb “him”; the referent (Amasa) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
20 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the man who spoke up in v. 11) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
21 tn Heb “Amasa.” For stylistic reasons the name has been replaced by the pronoun (“him”) in the translation.