2 Samuel 22:20

22:20 He brought me out into a wide open place;

he delivered me because he was pleased with me. 1 

2 Samuel 23:2

23:2 The Lord’s spirit spoke through me;

his word was on my tongue.

2 Samuel 1:9

1:9 He said to me, ‘Stand over me and finish me off! 2  I’m very dizzy, 3  even though I’m still alive.’ 4 

2 Samuel 6:21

6:21 David replied to Michal, “It was before the Lord! I was celebrating before the Lord, who chose me over your father and his entire family 5  and appointed me as leader over the Lord’s people Israel.

2 Samuel 24:17

24:17 When he saw the angel who was destroying the people, David said to the Lord, “Look, it is I who have sinned and done this evil thing! As for these sheep – what have they done? Attack me and my family.” 6 

2 Samuel 14:32

14:32 Absalom said to Joab, “Look, I sent a message to you saying, ‘Come here so that I can send you to the king with this message: 7  “Why have I come from Geshur? It would be better for me if I were still there.”’ Let me now see the face of the king. If I am at fault, let him put me to death!”

1 tn Or “delighted in me” (so KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

2 tn As P. K. McCarter (II Samuel [AB], 59) points out, the Polel of the verb מוּת (mut, “to die”) “refers to dispatching or ‘finishing off’ someone already wounded and near death.” Cf. NLT “put me out of my misery.”

3 tn Heb “the dizziness has seized me.” On the meaning of the Hebrew noun translated “dizziness,” see P. K. McCarter, II Samuel (AB), 59-60. The point seems to be that he is unable to kill himself because he is weak and disoriented.

4 tn The Hebrew text here is grammatically very awkward (Heb “because all still my life in me”). Whether the broken construct phrase is due to the fact that the alleged speaker is in a confused state of mind as he is on the verge of dying, or whether the MT has sustained corruption in the transmission process, is not entirely clear. The former seems likely, although P. K. McCarter understands the MT to be the result of conflation of two shorter forms of text (P. K. McCarter, II Samuel [AB], 57, n. 9). Early translators also struggled with the verse, apparently choosing to leave part of the Hebrew text untranslated. For example, the Lucianic recension of the LXX lacks “all,” while other witnesses (namely, one medieval Hebrew ms, codices A and B of the LXX, and the Syriac Peshitta) lack “still.”

3 tn Heb “all his house”; CEV “anyone else in your family.”

4 tn Heb “let your hand be against me and against the house of my father.”

5 tn Heb “saying.”