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 16:9-10

16:9 Then Abishai son of Zeruiah said to the king, “Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over and cut off his head!” 16:10 But the king said, “What do we have in common, ¹  you sons of Zeruiah? If he curses because the Lord has said to him, ‘Curse David!’, who can say to him, ‘Why have you done this?’”

2 Samuel 18:5

18:5 The king gave this order to Joab, Abishai, and Ittai: “For my sake deal gently with the young man Absalom.” Now the entire army was listening when the king gave all the leaders this order concerning Absalom.

2 Samuel 23:18

23:18 Abishai son of Zeruiah, the brother of Joab, was head of the three. ²  He killed three hundred men with his spear and gained fame among the three. ³ 

2 Samuel 23:1

David’s Final Words

23:1 These are the final words of David:

“The oracle of David son of Jesse,

the oracle of the man raised up as

the ruler chosen by the God of Jacob, ⁴ 

Israel’s beloved ⁵  singer of songs:

2 Samuel 2:16

2:16 As they grappled with one another, each one stabbed his opponent with his sword and they fell dead together. ⁶  So that place is called the Field of Flints; ⁷  it is in Gibeon.

¹ tn Heb “What to me and to you?”

² tc The translation follows the Qere, many medieval Hebrew mss, the LXX, and Vulgate in reading הַשְּׁלֹשָׁה (hashÿlosa, “the three”) rather than the Kethib of the MT הַשָּׁלִשִׁי (hashalisi, “the third,” or “adjutant”). Two medieval Hebrew mss and the Syriac Peshitta have “thirty.”

³ tn Heb “and he was wielding his spear against three hundred, [who were] slain, and to him there was a name among the three.”

⁴ tn Heb “the anointed one of the God of Jacob.”

⁵ tn Or “pleasant.”

⁶ tn Heb “and they grabbed each one the head of his neighbor with his sword in the side of his neighbor and they fell together.”

⁷ tn The meaning of the name “Helkath Hazzurim” (so NIV; KJV, NASB, NRSV similar) is not clear. BHK relates the name to the Hebrew term for “side,” and this is reflected in NAB “the Field of the Sides”; the Greek OT revocalizes the Hebrew to mean something like “Field of Adversaries.” Cf. also TEV, NLT “Field of Swords”; CEV “Field of Daggers.”