2 Samuel 22:4

22:4 I called ¹  to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, ² 

and I was delivered from my enemies.

2 Samuel 17:5

17:5 But Absalom said, “Call for ³  Hushai the Arkite, and let’s hear what he has to say.” ⁴ 

2 Samuel 20:4-5

20:4 Then the king said to Amasa, “Call the men of Judah together for me in three days, ⁵  and you be present here with them too.” 20:5 So Amasa went out to call Judah together. But in doing so he took longer than the time that the king had allotted him.

2 Samuel 15:2

15:2 Now Absalom used to get up early and stand beside the road that led to the city gate. Whenever anyone came by who had a complaint to bring to the king for arbitration, Absalom would call out to him, “What city are you from?” The person would answer, “I, your servant, ⁶  am from one of the tribes of Israel.”

2 Samuel 16:17

16:17 Absalom said to Hushai, “Do you call this loyalty to your friend? Why didn’t you go with your friend?”

2 Samuel 2:26

2:26 Then Abner called out to Joab, “Must the sword devour forever? Don’t you realize that this will turn bitter in the end? When will you tell the people to turn aside from pursuing their brothers?”

2 Samuel 19:19

19:19 He said to the king, “Don’t think badly of me, my lord, and don’t recall the sin of your servant on the day when you, my lord the king, left ⁷  Jerusalem! ⁸  Please don’t call it to mind!

2 Samuel 3:21

3:21 Abner said to David, “Let me leave so that I may go and gather all Israel to my lord the king so that they may make an agreement ⁹  with you. Then you will rule over all that you desire.” So David sent Abner away, and he left in peace.

¹ tn In this song of thanksgiving, where David recalls how the Lord delivered him, the prefixed verbal form is best understood as a preterite indicating past tense (cf. CEV “I prayed”), not an imperfect (as in many English versions).

² tn Heb “worthy of praise, I cried out [to] the Lord.” Some take מְהֻלָּל (mÿhullal, “worthy of praise”) with what precedes and translate, “the praiseworthy one,” or “praiseworthy.” However, the various epithets in vv. 1-2 have the first person pronominal suffix, unlike מְהֻלָּל. If one follows the traditional verse division and takes מְהֻלָּל with what follows, it is best understood as substantival and as appositional to יְהוָה (yÿhvah, “Yahweh”), resulting in “[to the] praiseworthy one I cried out, [to the] Lord.”

³ tc In the MT the verb is singular, but in the LXX, the Syriac Peshitta, and Vulgate it is plural.

⁴ tn Heb “what is in his mouth.”

⁵ tn The present translation follows the Masoretic accentuation, with the major mark of disjunction (i.e., the atnach) placed at the word “days.” However, some scholars have suggested moving the atnach to “Judah” a couple of words earlier. This would yield the following sense: “Three days, and you be present here with them.” The difference in meaning is slight, and the MT is acceptable as it stands.

⁷ tn Heb “your servant.” So also in vv. 8, 15, 21.

⁹ tn Though this verb in the MT is 3rd person masculine singular, it should probably be read as 2nd person masculine singular. It is one of fifteen places where the Masoretes placed a dot over each of the letters of the word in question in order to call attention to their suspicion of the word. Their concern in this case apparently had to do with the fact that this verb and the two preceding verbs alternate from third person to second and back again to third. Words marked in this way in Hebrew manuscripts or printed editions are said to have puncta extrordinaria, or “extraordinary points.”

¹⁰ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

¹¹ tn After the cohortatives, the prefixed verbal form with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose or result.