2 Samuel 1:10

1:10 So I stood over him and put him to death, since I knew that he couldn’t live in such a condition. ¹  Then I took the crown which was on his head and the ²  bracelet which was on his arm. I have brought them here to my lord.” ³ 

2 Samuel 13:6

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 14:14

14:14 Certainly we must die, and are like water spilled on the ground that cannot be gathered up again. But God does not take away life; instead he devises ways for the banished to be restored. ⁴ 

2 Samuel 14:22

14:22 Then Joab bowed down with his face toward the ground and thanked ⁵  the king. Joab said, “Today your servant knows that I have found favor in your sight, my lord the king, because the king has granted the request of your ⁶  servant!”

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, ⁷  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 17:20

17:20 When the servants of Absalom approached the woman at her home, they asked, “Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan?” The woman replied to them, “They crossed over the stream.” Absalom’s men ⁸  searched but did not find them, so they returned to Jerusalem. ⁹ 

2 Samuel 18:28

18:28 Then Ahimaaz called out and said to the king, “Greetings!” ¹⁰  He bowed down before the king with his face toward the ground and said, “May the Lord your God be praised because he has defeated ¹¹  the men who opposed ¹²  my lord the king!”

2 Samuel 20:1

Sheba’s Rebellion

20:1 Now a wicked man ¹³  named Sheba son of Bicri, a Benjaminite, ¹⁴  happened to be there. He blew the trumpet ¹⁵  and said,

“We have no share in David;

we have no inheritance in this son of Jesse!

Every man go home, ¹⁶  O Israel!”

2 Samuel 24:17

24:17 When he saw the angel who was destroying the people, David said to the Lord, “Look, it is I who have sinned and done this evil thing! As for these sheep – what have they done? Attack me and my family.” ¹⁷ 

[1:10]  ¹ tn Heb “after his falling”; NAB “could not survive his wound”; CEV “was too badly wounded to live much longer.”

[1:10]  ² tc The MT lacks the definite article, but this is likely due to textual corruption. It is preferable to read the alef (א) of אֶצְעָדָה (’ets’adah) as a ה (he) giving הַצְּעָדָה (hatsÿ’adah). There is no reason to think that the soldier confiscated from Saul’s dead body only one of two or more bracelets that he was wearing (cf. NLT “one of his bracelets”).

[1:10]  ³ sn The claims that the soldier is making here seem to contradict the story of Saul’s death as presented in 1 Sam 31:3-5. In that passage it appears that Saul took his own life, not that he was slain by a passerby who happened on the scene. Some scholars account for the discrepancy by supposing that conflicting accounts have been brought together in the MT. However, it is likely that the young man is here fabricating the account in a self-serving way so as to gain favor with David, or so he supposes. He probably had come across Saul’s corpse, stolen the crown and bracelet from the body, and now hopes to curry favor with David by handing over to him these emblems of Saul’s royalty. But in so doing the Amalekite greatly miscalculated David’s response to this alleged participation in Saul’s death. The consequence of his lies will instead be his own death.

[14:14]  ⁴ tn Heb “he devises plans for the one banished from him not to be banished.”

[14:22]  ⁷ tn Heb “blessed.”

[14:22]  ⁸ tc The present translation reads with the Qere “your” rather than the MT “his.”

[16:11]  ¹⁰ 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.

[17:20]  ¹³ tn Heb “they”; the referents (Absalom’s men) have been specified in the translation for clarity.

[17:20]  ¹⁴ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[18:28]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Peace.”

[18:28]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “delivered over.”

[18:28]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “lifted their hand against.”

[20:1]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “a man of worthlessness.”

[20:1]  ²⁰ tn The expression used here יְמִינִי (yÿmini) is a short form of the more common “Benjamin.” It appears elsewhere in 1 Sam 9:4 and Esth 2:5. Cf. 1 Sam 9:1.

[20:1]  ²¹ tn Heb “the shophar” (the ram’s horn trumpet). So also v. 22.

[20:1]  ²² tc The MT reads לְאֹהָלָיו (lÿ’ohalav, “to his tents”). For a similar idiom, see 19:9. An ancient scribal tradition understands the reading to be לְאלֹהָיו (le’lohav, “to his gods”). The word is a tiqqun sopherim, and the scribes indicate that they changed the word from “gods” to “tents” so as to soften its theological implications. In a consonantal Hebrew text the change involved only the metathesis of two letters.

[24:17]  ²² tn Heb “let your hand be against me and against the house of my father.”