2 Samuel 10:14

10:14 When the Ammonites saw the Arameans flee, they fled before his brother Abishai and went into the city. Joab withdrew from fighting the Ammonites and returned to ¹  Jerusalem. ² 

2 Samuel 23:11

23:11 Next in command ³  was Shammah son of Agee the Hararite. When the Philistines assembled at Lehi, ⁴  where there happened to be an area of a field that was full of lentils, the army retreated before the Philistines.

2 Samuel 7:23

7:23 Who is like your people, Israel, a unique nation ⁵  on the earth? Their God ⁶  went ⁷  to claim ⁸  a nation for himself and to make a name for himself! You did great and awesome acts for your land, ⁹  before your people whom you delivered for yourself from the Egyptian empire and its gods. ¹⁰ 

2 Samuel 10:18

10:18 The Arameans fled before Israel. David killed 700 Aramean charioteers and 40,000 foot soldiers. ¹¹  He also struck down Shobach, the general in command of the army, who died there.

2 Samuel 15:14

15:14 So David said to all his servants who were with him in Jerusalem, ¹²  “Come on! ¹³  Let’s escape! ¹⁴  Otherwise no one will be delivered from Absalom! Go immediately, or else he will quickly overtake us and bring ¹⁵  disaster on us and kill the city’s residents with the sword.” ¹⁶ 

¹ tn Heb “and Joab returned from against the sons of Ammon and entered.”

² map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

³ tn Heb “after him.”

⁴ tn The Hebrew text is difficult here. The MT reads לַחַיָּה (lachayyah), which implies a rare use of the word חַיָּה (chayyah). The word normally refers to an animal, but if the MT is accepted it would here have the sense of a troop or community of people. BDB 312 s.v. II. חַיָּה, for example, understands the similar reference in v. 13 to be to “a group of allied families, making a raid together.” But this works better in v. 13 than it does in v. 11, where the context seems to suggest a particular staging location for a military operation. (See 1 Chr 11:15.) It therefore seems best to understand the word in v. 11 as a place name with ה (he) directive. In that case the Masoretes mistook the word for the common term for an animal and then tried to make sense of it in this context.

⁵ tn Heb “a nation, one.”

⁶ tn Heb “whose God” or “because God.” In the Hebrew text this clause is subordinated to what precedes. The clauses are separated in the translation for stylistic reasons.

⁷ tn The verb is plural in Hebrew, agreeing grammatically with the divine name, which is a plural of degree.

⁸ tn Heb “redeem.”

⁹ tn Heb “and to do for you [plural form] the great [thing] and awesome [things] for your land.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “from Egypt, nations and their gods.” The LXX has “nations and tents,” which reflects a mistaken metathesis of letters in אֶלֹהָיו (e’lohav, “its gods”) and אֹהָלָיו (’ohalav, “its tents”).

⁷ tn Heb “horsemen” (so KJV, NASB, NCV, NRSV, NLT) but the Lucianic recension of the LXX reads “foot soldiers,” as does the parallel text in 1 Chr 19:18. Cf. NAB, NIV.

⁹ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

¹⁰ tn Heb “Arise!”

¹¹ tn Heb “let’s flee.”

¹² tn Heb “thrust.”

¹³ tn Heb “and strike the city with the edge of the sword.”