2 Samuel 4:5-6

4:5 Now the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite – Recab and Baanah – went at the hottest part of the day to the home of Ish-bosheth, as he was enjoying his midday rest. 4:6 They ¹  entered the house under the pretense of getting wheat and mortally wounded him ²  in the stomach. Then Recab and his brother Baanah escaped.

2 Samuel 16:11

16:11 Then David said to Abishai and to all his servants, “My own son, my very own flesh and blood, ³  is trying to take my life. So also now this Benjaminite! Leave him alone so that he can curse, for the Lord has spoken to him.

2 Samuel 16:1

David Receives Gifts from Ziba

16:1 When David had gone a short way beyond the summit, Ziba the servant of Mephibosheth was there to meet him. He had a couple of donkeys that were saddled, and on them were two hundred loaves of bread, a hundred raisin cakes, a hundred baskets of summer fruit, ⁴  and a container of wine.

2 Samuel 15:25-27

15:25 Then the king said to Zadok, “Take the ark of God back to the city. If I find favor in the Lord’s sight he will bring me back and enable me to see both it and his dwelling place again. 15:26 However, if he should say, ‘I do not take pleasure in you,’ then he will deal with me in a way that he considers appropriate.” ⁵ 

15:27 The king said to Zadok the priest, “Are you a seer? ⁶  Go back to the city in peace! Your son Ahimaaz and Abiathar’s son Jonathan may go with you and Abiathar. ⁷ 

2 Samuel 16:9

16:9 Then Abishai son of Zeruiah said to the king, “Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over and cut off his head!”

2 Samuel 16:2

16:2 The king asked Ziba, “Why did you bring these things?” ⁸  Ziba replied, “The donkeys are for the king’s family to ride on, the loaves of bread ⁹  and the summer fruit are for the attendants to eat, and the wine is for those who get exhausted in the desert.” ¹⁰ 

2 Samuel 9:1

David Finds Mephibosheth

9:1 ¹¹ Then David asked, “Is anyone still left from the family ¹²  of Saul, so that I may extend kindness to him for the sake of Jonathan?”

2 Samuel 12:20

12:20 So David got up from the ground, bathed, put on oil, and changed his clothes. He went to the house of the Lord and worshiped. Then, when he entered his palace, he requested that food be brought to him, and he ate.

2 Samuel 21:1

The Gibeonites Demand Revenge

21:1 During David’s reign there was a famine for three consecutive years. So David inquired of the Lord. ¹³  The Lord said, “It is because of Saul and his bloodstained family, ¹⁴  because he murdered the Gibeonites.”

Psalms 144:10

144:10 the one who delivers ¹⁵  kings,

and rescued David his servant from a deadly ¹⁶  sword.

¹ tc For the MT’s וְהֵנָּה (vÿhennah, “and they,” feminine) read וְהִנֵּה (vÿhinneh, “and behold”). See the LXX, Syriac Peshitta, and Targum.

² tn Heb “and they struck him down.”

³ 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.

⁴ tn Heb “a hundred summer fruit.”

⁵ tn Heb “as [is] good in his eyes.”

⁶ tn The Greek tradition understands the Hebrew word as an imperative (“see”). Most Greek mss have ἴδετε (idete); the Lucianic recension has βλέπε (blepe). It could just as well be taken as a question: “Don’t you see what is happening?” The present translation takes the word as a question, with the implication that Zadok is a priest and not a prophet (i.e., “seer”) and therefore unable to know what the future holds.

⁷ tn Heb “And Ahimaaz your son, and Jonathan the son of Abiathar, two of your sons, with you.” The pronominal suffix on the last word is plural, referring to Zadok and Abiathar.

⁸ tn Heb “What are these to you?”

⁹ tc The translation follows the Qere and many medieval Hebrew mss in reading וְהַלֶּחֶם (vÿhallekhem, “and the bread”) rather than וּלְהַלֶּחֶם (ulÿhallekhem, “and to the bread”) of the Kethib. The syntax of the MT is confused here by the needless repetition of the preposition, probably taken from the preceding word.

¹⁰ tn The Hebrew text adds “to drink.”

¹¹ sn 2 Samuel 9–20 is known as the Succession Narrative. It is a literary unit that describes David’s efforts at consolidating his own kingdom following the demise of King Saul; it also provides the transition to subsequent leadership on the part of David’s successor Solomon.

¹² tn Heb “house.”

¹³ tn Heb “sought the face of the Lord.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “and the house of bloodshed.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “grants deliverance to.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “harmful.”