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 2:23

2:23 But Asahel ⁴  refused to turn aside. So Abner struck him in the abdomen with the back end of his ⁵  spear. The spear came out his back; Asahel ⁶  collapsed on the spot and died there right before Abner. ⁷  Everyone who now comes to the place where Asahel fell dead pauses in respect. ⁸ 

2 Samuel 6:2

6:2 David and all the men who were with him traveled ⁹  to ¹⁰  Baalah ¹¹  in Judah to bring up from there the ark of God which is called by the name ¹²  of the Lord of hosts, who sits enthroned between the cherubim that are on it.

2 Samuel 12:11

12:11 This is what the Lord says: ‘I am about to bring disaster on you ¹³  from inside your own household! ¹⁴  Right before your eyes I will take your wives and hand them over to your companion. ¹⁵  He will have sexual relations with ¹⁶  your wives in broad daylight! ¹⁷ 

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 13:28

13:28 Absalom instructed his servants, “Look! When Amnon is drunk ¹⁸  and I say to you, ‘Strike Amnon down,’ kill him then and there. Don’t fear! Is it not I who have given you these instructions? Be strong and courageous!” ¹⁹ 

2 Samuel 16:21

16:21 Ahithophel replied to Absalom, “Have sex with ²⁰  your father’s concubines whom he left to care for the palace. All Israel will hear that you have made yourself repulsive to your father. Then your followers will be motivated to support you.” ²¹ 

2 Samuel 17:8

17:8 Hushai went on to say, “You know your father and his men – they are soldiers and are as dangerous as a bear out in the wild that has been robbed of her cubs. ²²  Your father is an experienced soldier; he will not stay overnight with the army.

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 ²³  searched but did not find them, so they returned to Jerusalem. ²⁴ 

2 Samuel 19:9

19:9 All the people throughout all the tribes of Israel were arguing among themselves saying, “The king delivered us from the hand of our enemies. He rescued us from the hand of the Philistines, but now he has fled from the land because of Absalom.

2 Samuel 19:11

19:11 Then King David sent a message to Zadok and Abiathar the priests saying, “Tell the elders of Judah, ‘Why should you delay any further in bringing the king back to his palace, ²⁵  when everything Israel is saying has come to the king’s attention. ²⁶ 

2 Samuel 19:42

19:42 All the men of Judah replied to the men of Israel, “Because the king is our close relative! Why are you so upset about this? Have we eaten at the king’s expense? ²⁷  Or have we misappropriated anything for our own use?”

2 Samuel 20:12

20:12 Amasa was squirming in his own blood in the middle of the path, and this man had noticed that all the soldiers stopped. Having noticed that everyone who came across Amasa ²⁸  stopped, the man ²⁹  pulled him ³⁰  away from the path and into the field and threw a garment over him.

[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.

[2:23]  ⁴ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Asahel) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:23]  ⁵ tn Heb “the.” The article functions here as a possessive pronoun.

[2:23]  ⁶ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Asahel) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:23]  ⁷ tn Heb “him”; the referent (Abner) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:23]  ⁸ tn Heb “and they stand.”

[6:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “arose and went.”

[6:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “from,” but the following context indicates they traveled to this location.

[6:2]  ⁹ tn This is another name for Kiriath-jearim (see 1 Chr 13:6).

[6:2]  ¹⁰ 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.

[12:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “raise up against you disaster.”

[12:11]  ¹¹ tn Heb “house” (so NAB, NRSV); NCV, TEV, CEV “family.”

[12:11]  ¹² tn Or “friend.”

[12:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “will lie with” (so NIV, NRSV); TEV “will have intercourse with”; CEV, NLT “will go to bed with.”

[12:11]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “in the eyes of this sun.”

[13:28]  ¹³ tn Heb “when good is the heart of Amnon with wine.”

[13:28]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and become sons of valor.”

[16:21]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “go to”; NAB “have (+ sexual NCV) relations with”; TEV “have intercourse with”; NLT “Go and sleep with.”

[16:21]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and the hands of all who are with you will be strengthened.”

[17:8]  ¹⁹ tc The LXX (with the exception of the recensions of Origen and Lucian) repeats the description as follows: “Just as a female bear bereft of cubs in a field.”

[17:20]  ²² tn Heb “they”; the referents (Absalom’s men) have been specified in the translation for clarity.

[17:20]  ²³ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[19:11]  ²⁵ tn Heb “his house.”

[19:11]  ²⁶ tc The Hebrew text adds “to his house” (= palace), but the phrase, which also appears earlier in the verse, is probably accidentally repeated here.

[19:42]  ²⁸ tn Heb “from the king.”

[20:12]  ³¹ tn Heb “him”; the referent (Amasa) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[20:12]  ³² tn Heb “he”; the referent (the man who spoke up in v. 11) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[20:12]  ³³ tn Heb “Amasa.” For stylistic reasons the name has been replaced by the pronoun (“him”) in the translation.