2 Samuel 3:27

3:27 When Abner returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside at the gate as if to speak privately with him. Joab then stabbed him ¹  in the abdomen and killed him, avenging the shed blood of his brother Asahel. ² 

2 Samuel 3:29

3:29 May his blood whirl over ³  the head of Joab and the entire house of his father! ⁴  May the males of Joab’s house ⁵  never cease to have ⁶  someone with a running sore or a skin disease or one who works at the spindle ⁷  or one who falls by the sword or one who lacks food!”

2 Samuel 3:34

3:34 Your hands ⁸  were not bound,

and your feet were not put into irons.

You fell the way one falls before criminals.”

All the people ⁹  wept over him again.

2 Samuel 11:14-15

11:14 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. 11:15 In the letter he wrote: “Station Uriah in the thick of the battle and then withdraw from him so he will be cut down and killed.”

2 Samuel 11:1

David Commits Adultery with Bathsheba

11:1 In the spring of the year, at the time when kings ¹⁰  normally conduct wars, ¹¹  David sent out Joab with his officers ¹²  and the entire Israelite army. ¹³  They defeated the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed behind in Jerusalem. ¹⁴ 

2 Samuel 2:5-6

2:5 So David sent messengers to the people of Jabesh Gilead and told them, “May you be blessed by the Lord because you have shown this kindness ¹⁵  to your lord Saul by burying him. 2:6 Now may the Lord show you true kindness! ¹⁶  I also will reward you, ¹⁷  because you have done this deed.

¹ tn Heb “and he struck him down there [in] the stomach.”

² tn Heb “and he [i.e., Abner] died on account of the blood of Asahel his [i.e., Joab’s] brother.”

³ tn Heb “and may they whirl over.” In the Hebrew text the subject of the plural verb is unexpressed. The most likely subject is Abner’s “shed blood” (v. 28), which is a masculine plural form in Hebrew. The verb חוּל (khul, “whirl”) is used with the preposition עַל (’al) only here and in Jer 23:19; 30:23.

⁴ tc 4QSam^a has “of Joab” rather than “of his father” read by the MT.

⁵ tn Heb “the house of Joab.” However, it is necessary to specify that David’s curse is aimed at Joab’s male descendants; otherwise it would not be clear that “one who works at the spindle” refers to a man doing woman’s work rather than a woman.

⁶ tn Heb “and may there not be cut off from the house of Joab.”

⁷ tn The expression used here is difficult. The translation “one who works at the spindle” follows a suggestion of S. R. Driver that the expression pejoratively describes an effeminate man who, rather than being a mighty warrior, is occupied with tasks that are normally fulfilled by women (S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, 250-51; cf. NAB “one unmanly”; TEV “fit only to do a woman’s work”; CEV “cowards”). But P. K. McCarter, following an alleged Phoenician usage of the noun to refer to “crutches,” adopts a different view. He translates the phrase “clings to a crutch,” seeing here a further description of physical lameness (II Samuel [AB], 118). Such an idea fits the present context well and is followed by NIV, NCV, and NLT, although the evidence for this meaning is questionable. According to DNWSI 2:915-16, the noun consistently refers to a spindle in Phoenician, as it does in Ugaritic (see UT 468).

⁸ tc The translation follows many medieval Hebrew manuscripts and several ancient versions in reading “your hands,” rather than “your hand.”

⁹ tc 4QSam^a lacks the words “all the people.”

¹⁰ tc Codex Leningrad (B19A), on which BHS is based, has here “messengers” (הַמַּלְאכִים, hammal’khim), probably as the result of contamination from the occurrence of that word in v. 4. The present translation follows most Hebrew mss and the ancient versions, which read “kings” (הַמֶּלָאכִים, hammela’kim).

¹¹ tn Heb “go out.”

¹² tn Heb “and his servants with him.”

¹³ tn Heb “all Israel.”

¹⁴ tn The disjunctive clause contrasts David’s inactivity with the army’s activity.

¹⁵ tn Or “loyalty.”

¹⁶ tn Or “loyalty and devotion.”

¹⁷ tn Heb “will do with you this good.”