3:34 Your hands 4 were not bound,
and your feet were not put into irons.
You fell the way one falls before criminals.”
All the people 5 wept over him again.
20:11 One of Joab’s soldiers who stood over Amasa said, “Whoever is for 8 Joab and whoever is for David, follow Joab!”
24:20 When Araunah looked out and saw the king and his servants approaching him, he 9 went out and bowed to the king with his face 10 to the ground.
1 tn Heb “him”; the referent (Amasa) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the man who spoke up in v. 11) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
3 tn Heb “Amasa.” For stylistic reasons the name has been replaced by the pronoun (“him”) in the translation.
4 tc The translation follows many medieval Hebrew manuscripts and several ancient versions in reading “your hands,” rather than “your hand.”
5 tc 4QSama lacks the words “all the people.”
7 tn Heb “and I will come upon him.”
8 tn Heb “exhausted and slack of hands.”
10 tn Heb “takes delight in.”
13 tn Heb “Araunah.” The name has been replaced in the translation by the pronoun (“he”) for stylistic reasons.
14 tn Heb “nostrils.”
16 tn Heb “after his falling”; NAB “could not survive his wound”; CEV “was too badly wounded to live much longer.”
17 tc The MT lacks the definite article, but this is likely due to textual corruption. It is preferable to read the alef (א) of אֶצְעָדָה (’ets’adah) as a ה (he) giving הַצְּעָדָה (hatsÿ’adah). There is no reason to think that the soldier confiscated from Saul’s dead body only one of two or more bracelets that he was wearing (cf. NLT “one of his bracelets”).
18 sn The claims that the soldier is making here seem to contradict the story of Saul’s death as presented in 1 Sam 31:3-5. In that passage it appears that Saul took his own life, not that he was slain by a passerby who happened on the scene. Some scholars account for the discrepancy by supposing that conflicting accounts have been brought together in the MT. However, it is likely that the young man is here fabricating the account in a self-serving way so as to gain favor with David, or so he supposes. He probably had come across Saul’s corpse, stolen the crown and bracelet from the body, and now hopes to curry favor with David by handing over to him these emblems of Saul’s royalty. But in so doing the Amalekite greatly miscalculated David’s response to this alleged participation in Saul’s death. The consequence of his lies will instead be his own death.
19 tn Heb “arose and went.”
20 tn Heb “from,” but the following context indicates they traveled to this location.
21 tn This is another name for Kiriath-jearim (see 1 Chr 13:6).
22 tc The MT has here a double reference to the name (שֵׁם שֵׁם, shem shem). Many medieval Hebrew
22 sn The upper millstone (Heb “millstone of riding”) refers to the heavy circular stone that was commonly rolled over a circular base in order to crush and grind such things as olives.
25 tn Heb “for it was heavy upon him.”
26 tn Heb “two hundred shekels.” The modern equivalent would be about three pounds (1.4 kg).
28 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).
31 tn Heb “they.” The following context makes it clear that this refers to Joab and his army.
32 tc The LXX has here ἐνοοῦσαν (enoousan, “were devising”), which apparently presupposes the Hebrew word מַחֲשָׁבִים (makhashavim) rather than the MT מַשְׁחִיתִם (mashkhitim, “were destroying”). With a number of other scholars Driver thinks that the Greek variant may preserve the original reading, but this seems to be an unnecessary conclusion (but see S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, 346).