2 Samuel 8:2

8:2 He defeated the Moabites. He made them lie on the ground and then used a rope to measure them off. He put two-thirds of them to death and spared the other third. ¹  The Moabites became David’s subjects and brought tribute. ² 

2 Samuel 8:1

David Subjugates Nearby Nations

8:1 Later David defeated the Philistines and subdued them. David took Metheg Ammah ³  from the Philistines. ⁴ 

2 Samuel 4:1

Ish-bosheth is killed

4:1 When Ish-bosheth ⁵  the son of Saul heard that Abner had died in Hebron, he was very disheartened, ⁶  and all Israel was afraid.

2 Samuel 10:1-2

David and the Ammonites

10:1 Later the king of the Ammonites died and his son Hanun succeeded him. ⁷  10:2 David said, “I will express my loyalty ⁸  to Hanun son of Nahash just as his father was loyal ⁹  to me.” So David sent his servants with a message expressing sympathy over his father’s death. ¹⁰  When David’s servants entered the land of the Ammonites,

2 Samuel 17:5

17:5 But Absalom said, “Call for ¹¹  Hushai the Arkite, and let’s hear what he has to say.” ¹² 

Psalms 72:10

72:10 The kings of Tarshish ¹³  and the coastlands will offer gifts;

the kings of Sheba ¹⁴  and Seba ¹⁵  will bring tribute.

Matthew 2:11

2:11 As they came into the house and saw the child with Mary his mother, they bowed down ¹⁶  and worshiped him. They opened their treasure boxes and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, ¹⁷  and myrrh. ¹⁸ 

¹ tn Heb “and he measured [with] two [lengths] of rope to put to death and [with] the fullness of the rope to keep alive.”

² tn Heb “and the Moabites were servants of David, carriers of tribute.”

³ tn Heb “the bridle of one cubit.” Many English versions treat this as a place name because the parallel text in 1 Chr 18:1 reads “Gath” (which is used by NLT here). It is possible that “the bridle of one cubit” is to be understood as “the token of surrender,” referring to the Philistine’s defeat rather than a specific place (cf. TEV, CEV).

⁴ tn Heb “from the hand [i.e., control] of the Philistines.”

⁵ tn The MT does not specify the subject of the verb here, but the reference is to Ish-bosheth, so the name has been supplied in the translation for clarity. 4QSam^a and the LXX mistakenly read “Mephibosheth.”

⁶ tn Heb “his hands went slack.”

⁷ tn Heb “reigned in his place.”

⁸ tn Heb “do loyalty.”

⁹ tn Heb “did loyalty.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “and David sent to console him by the hand of his servants concerning his father.”

¹¹ tc In the MT the verb is singular, but in the LXX, the Syriac Peshitta, and Vulgate it is plural.

¹² tn Heb “what is in his mouth.”

¹³ sn Tarshish was a distant western port, the precise location of which is uncertain.

¹⁴ sn Sheba was located in Arabia.

¹⁵ sn Seba was located in Africa.

¹⁶ tn Grk “they fell down.” BDAG 815 s.v. πίπτω 1.b.α.ב has “fall down, throw oneself to the ground as a sign of devotion, before high-ranking persons or divine beings.”

¹⁷ sn Frankincense refers to the aromatic resin of certain trees, used as a sweet-smelling incense (L&N 6.212).

¹⁸ sn Myrrh consisted of the aromatic resin of certain shrubs (L&N 6.208). It was used in preparing a corpse for burial.