17:21 After the men had left, Ahimaaz and Jonathan 1 climbed out of the well. Then they left and informed King David. They advised David, “Get up and cross the stream 2 quickly, for Ahithophel has devised a plan to catch you.” 3 17:22 So David and all the people who were with him got up and crossed the Jordan River. 4 By dawn there was not one person left who had not crossed the Jordan.
15:1 Some time later Absalom managed to acquire 11 a chariot and horses, as well as fifty men to serve as his royal guard. 12
20:1 Now a wicked man 13 named Sheba son of Bicri, a Benjaminite, 14 happened to be there. He blew the trumpet 15 and said,
“We have no share in David;
we have no inheritance in this son of Jesse!
Every man go home, 16 O Israel!”
55:8 I will hurry off to a place that is safe
from the strong wind 17 and the gale.”
6:4 Permit no sleep to your eyes 18
or slumber to your eyelids.
6:5 Deliver yourself like a gazelle from a snare, 19
and like a bird from the trap 20 of the fowler.
1 tn Heb “they”; the referents (Ahimaaz and Jonathan) have been specified in the translation for clarity.
2 tn Heb “the water.”
3 tn Heb “for thus Ahithophel has devised against you.” The expression “thus” is narrative shorthand, referring to the plan outlined by Ahithophel (see vv. 1-3). The men would surely have outlined the plan in as much detail as they had been given by the messenger.
4 tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text here or in v. 24, but has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
7 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
8 tn Heb “Arise!”
9 tn Heb “let’s flee.”
10 tn Heb “thrust.”
11 tn Heb “and strike the city with the edge of the sword.”
10 tn The pronoun is plural, referring to Zadok and Abiathar.
13 tn Heb “acquired for himself.”
14 tn Heb “to run ahead of him.”
16 tn Heb “a man of worthlessness.”
17 tn The expression used here יְמִינִי (yÿmini) is a short form of the more common “Benjamin.” It appears elsewhere in 1 Sam 9:4 and Esth 2:5. Cf. 1 Sam 9:1.
18 tn Heb “the shophar” (the ram’s horn trumpet). So also v. 22.
19 tc The MT reads לְאֹהָלָיו (lÿ’ohalav, “to his tents”). For a similar idiom, see 19:9. An ancient scribal tradition understands the reading to be לְאלֹהָיו (le’lohav, “to his gods”). The word is a tiqqun sopherim, and the scribes indicate that they changed the word from “gods” to “tents” so as to soften its theological implications. In a consonantal Hebrew text the change involved only the metathesis of two letters.
19 tn Heb “[the] wind [that] sweeps away.” The verb סָעָה (sa’ah, “sweep away”) occurs only here in the OT (see H. R. Cohen, Biblical Hapax Legomena [SBLDS], 120).
22 tn Heb “do not give sleep to your eyes.” The point is to go to the neighbor and seek release from the agreement immediately (cf. NLT “Don’t rest until you do”).
25 tn Heb “from the hand.” Most translations supply “of the hunter.” The word “hand” can signify power, control; so the meaning is that of a gazelle freeing itself from a snare or a trap that a hunter set.
26 tc Heb “hand” (so KJV, NAB, NRSV). Some
28 sn Fleeing to the mountains is a key OT image: Gen 19:17; Judg 6:2; Isa 15:5; Jer 16:16; Zech 14:5.
31 sn On the roof. Most of the roofs in the NT were flat roofs made of pounded dirt, sometimes mixed with lime or stones, supported by heavy wooden beams. They generally had an easy means of access, either a sturdy wooden ladder or stone stairway, sometimes on the outside of the house.
32 sn The swiftness and devastation of the judgment will require a swift escape. There will be no time to come down from the roof and pick up anything from inside one’s home.