3:17 Abner advised 1 the elders of Israel, “Previously you were wanting David to be your king. 2
5:17 When the Philistines heard that David had been designated 11 king over Israel, they all 12 went up to search for David. When David heard about it, he went down to the fortress.
17:20 When the servants of Absalom approached the woman at her home, they asked, “Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan?” The woman replied to them, “They crossed over the stream.” Absalom’s men 14 searched but did not find them, so they returned to Jerusalem. 15
21:1 During David’s reign there was a famine for three consecutive years. So David inquired of the Lord. 16 The Lord said, “It is because of Saul and his bloodstained family, 17 because he murdered the Gibeonites.”
21:2 So the king summoned the Gibeonites and spoke with them. (Now the Gibeonites were not descendants of Israel; they were a remnant of the Amorites. The Israelites had made a promise to 18 them, but Saul tried to kill them because of his zeal for the people of Israel and Judah.)
1 tn Heb “the word of Abner was with.”
2 tn Heb “you were seeking David to be king over you.”
3 tn Heb “sought” or “searched for.”
4 tn Heb “and David fasted.”
5 tn The three Hebrew verbs that follow in this verse are perfects with prefixed vav. They may describe repeated past actions or actions which accompanied David’s praying and fasting.
5 tc Heb “like the returning of all, the man whom you are seeking.” The LXX reads differently: “And I will return all the people to you the way a bride returns to her husband, except for the life of the one man whom you are seeking.” The other early versions also struggled with this verse. Modern translations are divided as well: the NAB, NRSV, REB, and NLT follow the LXX, while the NASB and NIV follow the Hebrew text.
6 tn Heb “all of the people will be safe.”
7 tn Heb “a city and a mother.” The expression is a hendiadys, meaning that this city was an important one in Israel and had smaller cities dependent on it.
9 tn Heb “on his bed.”
10 tn See HALOT 146 s.v. II בער. Some derive the verb from a homonym meaning “to burn; to consume.”
11 tn Heb “anointed.”
12 tn Heb “all the Philistines.”
13 tn Heb “who came out from my entrails.” David’s point is that is his own son, his child whom he himself had fathered, was now wanting to kill him.
15 tn Heb “they”; the referents (Absalom’s men) have been specified in the translation for clarity.
16 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
17 tn Heb “sought the face of the
18 tn Heb “and the house of bloodshed.”
19 tn Heb “swore an oath to.”
21 tn Heb “from.”