4:9 David replied to Recab and his brother Baanah, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, “As surely as the Lord lives, who has delivered my life from all adversity,
11:1 In the spring of the year, at the time when kings 12 normally conduct wars, 13 David sent out Joab with his officers 14 and the entire Israelite army. 15 They defeated the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed behind in Jerusalem. 16
13:25 But the king said to Absalom, “No, my son. We shouldn’t all go. We shouldn’t burden you in that way.” Though Absalom 22 pressed 23 him, the king 24 was not willing to go. Instead, David 25 blessed him.
1 tc The present translation, “Saul’s son had two men,” is based on the reading “to the son of Saul,” rather than the MT’s “the son of Saul.” The context requires the preposition to indicate the family relationship.
2 tn Heb “Did I speak a word?” In the Hebrew text the statement is phrased as a rhetorical question.
3 tn Heb “tribes” (so KJV, NASB, NCV), but the parallel passage in 1 Chr 17:6 has “judges.”
4 tn Heb “whom I commanded to shepherd” (so NIV, NRSV).
3 tn Heb “do loyalty.”
4 tn Heb “did loyalty.”
5 tn Heb “and David sent to console him by the hand of his servants concerning his father.”
4 tn Heb “Is David honoring your father in your eyes when he sends to you ones consoling?”
5 tn Heb “Is it not to explore the city and to spy on it and to overthrow it [that] David has sent his servants to you?”
5 tn Heb “the servants of Hadadezer.”
6 tn Heb “and they served them.”
6 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
7 tn Heb “go out.”
8 tn Heb “and his servants with him.”
9 tn Heb “all Israel.”
10 tn The disjunctive clause contrasts David’s inactivity with the army’s activity.
7 tc So the Qere; the Kethib has “his.”
8 tn Heb “to you for a wife.” This expression also occurs at the end of v. 10.
8 tn Heb “brought out.”
9 tn Heb “and so he would do.”
10 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
9 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Absalom) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
10 tc Here and in v. 27 the translation follows 4QSama ויצפר (vayyitspar, “and he pressed”) rather than the MT וַיִּפְרָץ (vayyiprats, “and he broke through”). This emended reading seems also to underlie the translations of the LXX (καὶ ἐβιάσατο, kai ebiasato), the Syriac Peshitta (we’alseh), and Vulgate (cogeret eum).
11 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
12 tn Heb “he”; the referent (David) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
10 tn The words “in that case” are not in the Hebrew text, but may be inferred from the context. They are supplied in the translation for the sake of clarification.
11 tn Heb “let the king remember.”
12 tn Heb “of your son.”
11 tn Heb “What to me and to you?”
12 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.
13 tn Heb “what to me and to you.”