2 Samuel 14:5

14:5 The king replied to her, “What do you want?” ¹  She answered, “I am a widow; my husband is dead.

2 Samuel 14:27

14:27 Absalom had ²  three sons and one daughter, whose name was Tamar. She was a very attractive woman. ³ 

2 Samuel 20:16

20:16 a wise woman called out from the city, “Listen up! Listen up! Tell Joab, ‘Come near so that I may speak to you.’”

2 Samuel 6:19

6:19 He then handed out to each member of the entire assembly of Israel, ⁴  both men and women, a portion of bread, a date cake, ⁵  and a raisin cake. Then all the people went home. ⁶ 

2 Samuel 11:2

11:2 One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of his palace. ⁷  From the roof he saw a woman bathing. Now this woman was very attractive. ⁸ 

2 Samuel 11:21

11:21 Who struck down Abimelech the son of Jerub-Besheth? Didn’t a woman throw an upper millstone ⁹  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 14:2

14:2 So Joab sent to Tekoa and brought from there a wise woman. He told her, “Pretend to be in mourning ¹⁰  and put on garments for mourning. Don’t anoint yourself with oil. Instead, act like a woman who has been mourning for the dead for some time. ¹¹ 

¹ tn Heb “What to you?”

² tn Heb “and there were born.”

³ tc The LXX adds here the following words: “And she became a wife to Rehoboam the son of Solomon and bore to him Abia.”

³ tn Heb “to all the people, to all the throng of Israel.”

⁴ tn The Hebrew word used here אֶשְׁפָּר (’espar) is found in the OT only here and in the parallel passage found in 1 Chr 16:3. Its exact meaning is uncertain, although the context indicates that it was a food of some sort (cf. KJV “a good piece of flesh”; NRSV “a portion of meat”). The translation adopted here (“date cake”) follows the lead of the Greek translations of the LXX, Aquila, and Symmachus (cf. NASB, NIV, NLT).

⁵ tn Heb “and all the people went, each to his house.”

⁴ tn Heb “on the roof of the house of the king.” So also in vv. 8, 9.

⁵ tn The disjunctive clause highlights this observation and builds the tension of the story.

⁵ 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.

⁶ tn The Hebrew Hitpael verbal form here indicates pretended rather than genuine action.

⁷ tn Heb “these many days.”