12:1 So the Lord sent Nathan 6 to David. When he came to David, 7 Nathan 8 said, 9 “There were two men in a certain city, one rich and the other poor.
4:4 Now Saul’s son Jonathan had a son who was crippled in both feet. He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan arrived from Jezreel. His nurse picked him up and fled, but in her haste to get away, he fell and was injured. 11 Mephibosheth was his name.
4:5 Now the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite – Recab and Baanah – went at the hottest part of the day to the home of Ish-bosheth, as he was enjoying his midday rest. 4:6 They 12 entered the house under the pretense of getting wheat and mortally wounded him 13 in the stomach. Then Recab and his brother Baanah escaped.
4:7 They had entered 14 the house while Ish-bosheth 15 was resting on his bed in his bedroom. They mortally wounded him 16 and then cut off his head. 17 Taking his head, 18 they traveled on the way of the Arabah all that night. 4:8 They brought the head of Ish-bosheth to David in Hebron, saying to the king, “Look! The head of Ish-bosheth son of Saul, your enemy who sought your life! The Lord has granted vengeance to my lord the king this day against 19 Saul and his descendants!”
4:9 David replied to Recab and his brother Baanah, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, “As surely as the Lord lives, who has delivered my life from all adversity, 4:10 when someone told me that Saul was dead – even though he thought he was bringing good news 20 – I seized him and killed him in Ziklag. That was the good news I gave to him! 4:11 Surely when wicked men have killed an innocent man as he slept 21 in his own house, should I not now require his blood from your hands and remove 22 you from the earth?”
1 tn Heb “raise up against you disaster.”
2 tn Heb “house” (so NAB, NRSV); NCV, TEV, CEV “family.”
3 tn Or “friend.”
4 tn Heb “will lie with” (so NIV, NRSV); TEV “will have intercourse with”; CEV, NLT “will go to bed with.”
5 tn Heb “in the eyes of this sun.”
6 tc A few medieval Hebrew
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.”
10 tn Heb “until this day.”
11 tn Heb “and was lame.”
12 tc For the MT’s וְהֵנָּה (vÿhennah, “and they,” feminine) read וְהִנֵּה (vÿhinneh, “and behold”). See the LXX, Syriac Peshitta, and Targum.
13 tn Heb “and they struck him down.”
14 tn After the concluding disjunctive clause at the end of v. 6, the author now begins a more detailed account of the murder and its aftermath.
15 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Ish-bosheth) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
16 tn Heb “they struck him down and killed him.” The expression is a verbal hendiadys.
17 tn Heb “and they removed his head.” The Syriac Peshitta and Vulgate lack these words.
18 tc The Lucianic Greek recension lacks the words “his head.”
19 tn Heb “from.”
20 tn Heb “and he was like a bearer of good news in his eyes.”
21 tn Heb “on his bed.”
22 tn See HALOT 146 s.v. II בער. Some derive the verb from a homonym meaning “to burn; to consume.”
23 tn Heb “Stop trusting in lying words which say.”
24 tn The words “We are safe!” are not in the text but are supplied in the translation for clarity.
25 tn Heb “The temple of the