2 Samuel 1:24

1:24 O daughters of Israel, weep over Saul,

who clothed you in scarlet ¹  as well as jewelry,

who put gold jewelry on your clothes.

2 Samuel 14:6

14:6 Your servant ²  has two sons. When the two of them got into a fight in the field, there was no one present who could intervene. One of them struck the other and killed him.

2 Samuel 15:27

15:27 The king said to Zadok the priest, “Are you a seer? ³  Go back to the city in peace! Your son Ahimaaz and Abiathar’s son Jonathan may go with you and Abiathar. ⁴ 

2 Samuel 15:36

15:36 Furthermore, their two sons are there with them, Zadok’s son Ahimaaz and Abiathar’s son Jonathan. You must send them to me with any information you hear.” ⁵ 

2 Samuel 19:34

19:34 Barzillai replied to the king, “How many days do I have left to my life, that I should go up with the king to Jerusalem?

2 Samuel 8:2

8:2 He defeated the Moabites. He made them lie on the ground and then used a rope to measure them off. He put two-thirds of them to death and spared the other third. ⁶  The Moabites became David’s subjects and brought tribute. ⁷ 

2 Samuel 12:1

Nathan the Prophet Confronts David

12:1 So the Lord sent Nathan ⁸  to David. When he came to David, ⁹  Nathan ¹⁰  said, ¹¹  “There were two men in a certain city, one rich and the other poor.

2 Samuel 18:24

18:24 Now David was sitting between the inner and outer gates, ¹²  and the watchman went up to the roof over the gate at the wall. When he looked, he saw a man running by himself.

2 Samuel 21:8

21:8 So the king took Armoni and Mephibosheth, the two sons of Aiah’s daughter Rizpah whom she had born to Saul, and the five sons of Saul’s daughter Merab ¹³  whom she had born to Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite.

2 Samuel 23:20

23:20 Benaiah son of Jehoida was a brave warrior ¹⁴  from Kabzeel who performed great exploits. He struck down the two sons of Ariel of Moab. ¹⁵  He also went down and killed a lion in a cistern on a snowy day.

¹ sn Clothing of scarlet was expensive and beyond the financial reach of most people.

² tn Here and elsewhere (vv. 7, 12, 15a, 17, 19) the woman uses a term which suggests a lower level female servant. She uses the term to express her humility before the king. However, she uses a different term in vv. 15b-16. See the note at v. 15 for a discussion of the rhetorical purpose of this switch in terminology.

³ tn The Greek tradition understands the Hebrew word as an imperative (“see”). Most Greek mss have ἴδετε (idete); the Lucianic recension has βλέπε (blepe). It could just as well be taken as a question: “Don’t you see what is happening?” The present translation takes the word as a question, with the implication that Zadok is a priest and not a prophet (i.e., “seer”) and therefore unable to know what the future holds.

⁴ tn Heb “And Ahimaaz your son, and Jonathan the son of Abiathar, two of your sons, with you.” The pronominal suffix on the last word is plural, referring to Zadok and Abiathar.

⁴ tn Heb “and you must send by their hand to me every word which you hear.” Both of the second person verb forms are plural with Zadok, Abiathar, and Hushai being the understood subjects.

⁵ tn Heb “and he measured [with] two [lengths] of rope to put to death and [with] the fullness of the rope to keep alive.”

⁶ tn Heb “and the Moabites were servants of David, carriers of tribute.”

⁶ tc A few medieval Hebrew mss, the LXX, and the Syriac Peshitta add “the prophet.” The words are included in a few modern English version (e.g., TEV, CEV, NLT).

⁷ tn Heb “him”; the referent (David) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁸ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Nathan) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁹ tn The Hebrew text repeats “to him.”

⁷ tn Heb “the two gates.”

⁸ tc The MT reads “Michal” here, but two Hebrew manuscripts read “Merab,” along with some LXX manuscripts. Cf. 1 Sam 18:19.

⁹ tc The translation follows the Qere and many medieval Hebrew mss in reading חַיִל (khayil, “valor”) rather than the Kethib of the MT, חַי (khay, “life”).

¹⁰ tc Heb “the two of Ariel, Moab.” The precise meaning of אריאל is uncertain; some read “warrior.” The present translation assumes that the word is a proper name and that בני, “sons of,” has accidentally dropped from the text by homoioarcton (note the preceding שׁני).