2 Samuel 6:2

6:2 David and all the men who were with him traveled ¹  to ²  Baalah ³  in Judah to bring up from there the ark of God which is called by the name ⁴  of the Lord of hosts, who sits enthroned between the cherubim that are on it.

2 Samuel 6:17

6:17 They brought the ark of the Lord and put it in its place ⁵  in the middle of the tent that David had pitched for it. Then David offered burnt sacrifices and peace offerings before the Lord.

2 Samuel 6:1

David Brings the Ark to Jerusalem

6:1 David again assembled ⁶  all the best ⁷  men in Israel, thirty thousand in number.

2 Samuel 13:5-6

13:5 Jonadab replied to him, “Lie down on your bed and pretend to be sick. ⁸  When your father comes in to see you, say to him, ‘Please let my sister Tamar come in so she can fix some food for me. Let her prepare the food in my sight so I can watch. Then I will eat from her hand.’”

13:6 So Amnon lay down and pretended to be sick. When the king came in to see him, Amnon said to the king, “Please let my sister Tamar come in so she can make a couple of cakes in my sight. Then I will eat from her hand.”

2 Samuel 15:1

Absalom Leads an Insurrection against David

15:1 Some time later Absalom managed to acquire ⁹  a chariot and horses, as well as fifty men to serve as his royal guard. ¹⁰ 

2 Samuel 15:25-28

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.” ¹¹ 

15:27 The king said to Zadok the priest, “Are you a seer? ¹²  Go back to the city in peace! Your son Ahimaaz and Abiathar’s son Jonathan may go with you and Abiathar. ¹³  15:28 Look, I will be waiting at the fords of the desert until word from you ¹⁴  reaches me.”

¹ tn Heb “arose and went.”

² tn Heb “from,” but the following context indicates they traveled to this location.

³ tn This is another name for Kiriath-jearim (see 1 Chr 13:6).

⁴ tc The MT has here a double reference to the name (שֵׁם שֵׁם, shem shem). Many medieval Hebrew mss in the first occurrence point the word differently and read the adverb שָׁם (sham, “there”). This is also the understanding of the Syriac Peshitta (Syr., taman). While this yields an acceptable understanding to the text, it is more likely that the MT dittographic here. The present translation therefore reads שֵׁם only once.

⁵ tc The Syriac Peshitta lacks “in its place.”

⁶ 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.

⁷ tn Or “chosen.”

⁸ tn This verb is used in the Hitpael stem only in this chapter of the Hebrew Bible. With the exception of v. 2 it describes not a real sickness but one pretended in order to entrap Tamar. The Hitpael sometimes, as here, describes the subject making oneself appear to be of a certain character. On this use of the stem, see GKC 149-50 §54.e.

⁹ tn Heb “acquired for himself.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “to run ahead of him.”

¹¹ tn Heb “as [is] good in his eyes.”

¹² 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.

¹³ 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.

¹⁴ tn The pronoun is plural, referring to Zadok and Abiathar.