2 Samuel 16:12

16:12 Perhaps the Lord will notice my affliction ¹  and this day grant me good in place of his curse.” ² 

2 Samuel 3:39

3:39 Today I am weak, even though I am anointed as king. These men, the sons of Zeruiah, are too much for me to bear! ³  May the Lord punish appropriately the one who has done this evil thing!” ⁴ 

2 Samuel 19:36

19:36 I will cross the Jordan with the king and go a short distance. ⁵  Why should the king reward me in this way?

2 Samuel 2:6

2:6 Now may the Lord show you true kindness! ⁶  I also will reward you, ⁷  because you have done this deed.

2 Samuel 12:6

12:6 Because he committed this cold-hearted crime, he must pay for the lamb four times over!” ⁸ 

2 Samuel 15:7

15:7 After four ⁹  years Absalom said to the king, “Let me go and repay my vow that I made to the Lord while I was in Hebron.

¹ tc The Hebrew text is difficult here. It is probably preferable to read with the LXX, the Syriac Peshitta, and Vulgate בְּעוֹנִי (bÿ’onyi, “on my affliction”) rather than the Kethib of the MT בָּעַוֹנִי (ba’avoni, “on my wrongdoing”). While this Kethib reading is understandable as an objective genitive (i.e., “the wrong perpetrated upon me”), it does not conform to normal Hebrew idiom for this idea. The Qere of the MT בְּעֵינֵי (bÿ’eni, “on my eyes”), usually taken as synecdoche to mean “my tears,” does not commend itself as a likely meaning. The Hebrew word is one of the so-called tiqqune sopherim, or “emendations of the scribes.”

² tn Heb “and the Lord will restore to me good in place of his curse this day.”

³ tn Heb “are hard from me.”

⁴ tn Heb “May the Lord repay the doer of the evil according to his evil” (NASB similar).

⁵ tn Heb “Like a little your servant will cross the Jordan with the king.”

⁷ tn Or “loyalty and devotion.”

⁸ tn Heb “will do with you this good.”

⁹ tc With the exception of the Lucianic recension, the Old Greek translation has here “sevenfold” rather than “fourfold,” a reading that S. R. Driver thought probably to be the original reading (S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, 291). However, Exod 22:1 [21:37 HT] specifies fourfold repayment for a stolen sheep, which is consistent with 2 Sam 12:6. Some mss of the Targum and the Syriac Peshitta exaggerate the idea to “fortyfold.”

¹¹ tc The MT has here “forty,” but this is presumably a scribal error for “four.” The context will not tolerate a period of forty years prior to the rebellion of Absalom. The Lucianic Greek recension (τέσσαρα ἔτη, tessara ete), the Syriac Peshitta (’arba’ sanin), and Vulgate (post quattuor autem annos) in fact have the expected reading “four years.” Most English translations follow the versions in reading “four” here, although some (e.g. KJV, ASV, NASB, NKJV), following the MT, read “forty.”