2 Samuel 1:10

1:10 So I stood over him and put him to death, since I knew that he couldn’t live in such a condition. ¹  Then I took the crown which was on his head and the ²  bracelet which was on his arm. I have brought them here to my lord.” ³ 

2 Samuel 6:2

6:2 David and all the men who were with him traveled ⁴  to ⁵  Baalah ⁶  in Judah to bring up from there the ark of God which is called by the name ⁷  of the Lord of hosts, who sits enthroned between the cherubim that are on it.

2 Samuel 11:21

11:21 Who struck down Abimelech the son of Jerub-Besheth? Didn’t a woman throw an upper millstone ⁸  down on him from the wall so that he died in Thebez? Why did you go so close to the wall?’ just say to him, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is also dead.’”

2 Samuel 14:26

14:26 When he would shave his head – at the end of every year he used to shave his head, for it grew too long ⁹  and he would shave it – he used to weigh the hair of his head at three pounds ¹⁰  according to the king’s weight.

2 Samuel 17:12

17:12 We will come against him wherever he happens to be found. We will descend on him like the dew falls on the ground. Neither he nor any of the men who are with him will be spared alive – not one of them!

2 Samuel 18:17

18:17 They took Absalom, threw him into a large pit in the forest, and stacked a huge pile of stones over him. In the meantime all the Israelite soldiers fled to their homes. ¹¹ 

2 Samuel 20:15

20:15 So Joab’s men ¹²  came and laid siege against him in Abel of Beth Maacah. They prepared a siege ramp outside the city which stood against its outer rampart. As all of Joab’s soldiers were trying to break through ¹³  the wall so that it would collapse,

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 “arose and went.”

⁵ tn Heb “from,” but the following context indicates they traveled to this location.

⁶ tn This is another name for Kiriath-jearim (see 1 Chr 13:6).

⁷ tc The MT has here a double reference to the name (שֵׁם שֵׁם, shem shem). Many medieval Hebrew mss in the first occurrence point the word differently and read the adverb שָׁם (sham, “there”). This is also the understanding of the Syriac Peshitta (Syr., taman). While this yields an acceptable understanding to the text, it is more likely that the MT dittographic here. The present translation therefore reads שֵׁם only once.

⁷ sn The upper millstone (Heb “millstone of riding”) refers to the heavy circular stone that was commonly rolled over a circular base in order to crush and grind such things as olives.

¹⁰ tn Heb “for it was heavy upon him.”

¹¹ tn Heb “two hundred shekels.” The modern equivalent would be about three pounds (1.4 kg).

¹³ tn Heb “and all Israel fled, each to his tent.” In this context this refers to the supporters of Absalom (see vv. 6-7, 16).

¹⁶ tn Heb “they.” The following context makes it clear that this refers to Joab and his army.

¹⁷ tc The LXX has here ἐνοοῦσαν (enoousan, “were devising”), which apparently presupposes the Hebrew word מַחֲשָׁבִים (makhashavim) rather than the MT מַשְׁחִיתִם (mashkhitim, “were destroying”). With a number of other scholars Driver thinks that the Greek variant may preserve the original reading, but this seems to be an unnecessary conclusion (but see S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, 346).