2 Samuel 2:18

2:18 The three sons of Zeruiah were there – Joab, Abishai, and Asahel. (Now Asahel was as quick on his feet as one of the gazelles in the field.)

2 Samuel 11:16

11:16 So as Joab kept watch on the city, he stationed Uriah at the place where he knew the best enemy soldiers ¹  were.

2 Samuel 15:32

15:32 When David reached the summit, where he used to worship God, Hushai the Arkite met him with his clothes torn and dirt on his head.

2 Samuel 15:35-36

15:35 Zadok and Abiathar the priests will be there with you. ²  Everything you hear in the king’s palace ³  you must tell Zadok and Abiathar the priests. 15:36 Furthermore, their two sons are there with them, Zadok’s son Ahimaaz and Abiathar’s son Jonathan. You must send them to me with any information you hear.” ⁴ 

2 Samuel 17:18

17:18 But a young man saw them on one occasion and informed Absalom. So the two of them quickly departed and went to the house of a man in Bahurim. There was a well in his courtyard, and they got down in it.

2 Samuel 18:8

18:8 The battle there was spread out over the whole area, and the forest consumed more soldiers than the sword devoured that day.

2 Samuel 21:13

21:13 David ⁵  brought the bones of Saul and of Jonathan his son from there; they also gathered up the bones of those who had been executed.

2 Samuel 23:11

23:11 Next in command ⁶  was Shammah son of Agee the Hararite. When the Philistines assembled at Lehi, ⁷  where there happened to be an area of a field that was full of lentils, the army retreated before the Philistines.

2 Samuel 24:25

24:25 Then David built an altar for the Lord there and offered burnt sacrifices and peace offerings. And the Lord accepted prayers for the land, and the plague was removed from Israel.

¹ tn Heb “the valiant men.” This refers in context to the strongest or most valiant defenders of the city Joab and the Israelite army were besieging, so the present translation uses “the best enemy soldiers” for clarity.

¹ tn Heb “Will not Zadok and Abiathar the priests be there with you?” The rhetorical question draws attention to the fact that Hushai will not be alone.

² tn Heb “from the house of the king.”

¹ tn Heb “and you must send by their hand to me every word which you hear.” Both of the second person verb forms are plural with Zadok, Abiathar, and Hushai being the understood subjects.

¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (David) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹ tn Heb “after him.”

² tn The Hebrew text is difficult here. The MT reads לַחַיָּה (lachayyah), which implies a rare use of the word חַיָּה (chayyah). The word normally refers to an animal, but if the MT is accepted it would here have the sense of a troop or community of people. BDB 312 s.v. II. חַיָּה, for example, understands the similar reference in v. 13 to be to “a group of allied families, making a raid together.” But this works better in v. 13 than it does in v. 11, where the context seems to suggest a particular staging location for a military operation. (See 1 Chr 11:15.) It therefore seems best to understand the word in v. 11 as a place name with ה (he) directive. In that case the Masoretes mistook the word for the common term for an animal and then tried to make sense of it in this context.