19:8 So the king got up and sat at the city gate. When all the people were informed that the king was sitting at the city gate, they 2 all came before him.
But the Israelite soldiers 3 had all fled to their own homes. 4
20:1 Now a wicked man 5 named Sheba son of Bicri, a Benjaminite, 6 happened to be there. He blew the trumpet 7 and said,
“We have no share in David;
we have no inheritance in this son of Jesse!
Every man go home, 8 O Israel!”
20:22 Then the woman went to all the people with her wise advice and they cut off Sheba’s head and threw it out to Joab. Joab 9 blew the trumpet, and his men 10 dispersed from the city, each going to his own home. 11 Joab returned to the king in Jerusalem.
1 tn Heb “and all Israel fled, each to his tent.” In this context this refers to the supporters of Absalom (see vv. 6-7, 16).
2 tn Heb “all the people.”
3 tn The Hebrew text has simply “Israel” (see 18:16-17).
4 tn Heb “had fled, each to his tent.”
3 tn Heb “a man of worthlessness.”
4 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.
5 tn Heb “the shophar” (the ram’s horn trumpet). So also v. 22.
6 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.
4 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Joab) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
5 tn Heb “they”; the referent (Joab’s men) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
6 tn Heb “his tents.”