2 Samuel 23:39

23:39 and Uriah the Hittite. Altogether there were thirty-seven.

2 Samuel 5:4

5:4 David was thirty years old when he began to reign and he reigned for forty years.

2 Samuel 6:1

David Brings the Ark to Jerusalem

6:1 David again assembled ¹  all the best ²  men in Israel, thirty thousand in number.

2 Samuel 5:5

5:5 In Hebron he reigned over Judah for seven years and six months, and in Jerusalem ³  he reigned for thirty-three years over all Israel and Judah.

2 Samuel 23:13

23:13 At the time of ⁴  the harvest three ⁵  of the thirty leaders went down to ⁶  David at the cave of Adullam. A band of Philistines was camped in the valley of Rephaim.

¹ tn The translation understands the verb to be a defective spelling of וַיְּאֱסֹף (vayyÿ’esof) due to quiescence of the letter א (alef). The root therefore is אסף (’sf, “to gather”). The Masoretes, however, pointed the verb as וַיֹּסֶף (vayyosef), understanding it to be a form of יָסַף (yasaf, “to add”). This does not fit the context, which calls for a verb of gathering.

² tn Or “chosen.”

¹ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

¹ tn The meaning of Hebrew אֶל־קָצִיר (’el qatsir) seems here to be “at the time of harvest,” although this is an unusual use of the phrase. As S. R. Driver points out, this preposition does not normally have the temporal sense of “in” or “during” (S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, 366).

² tc The translation follows the Qere and many medieval Hebrew mss in reading שְׁלֹשָׁה (shÿloshah, “three”) rather than the Kethib of the MT שְׁלֹשִׁים (shÿloshim, “thirty”). “Thirty” is due to dittography of the following word and makes no sense in the context.

³ tn Heb “went down…and approached.”