2 Samuel 1:4

1:4 David inquired, “How were things going? ¹  Tell me!” He replied, “The people fled from the battle and many of them ²  fell dead. ³  Even Saul and his son Jonathan are dead!”

2 Samuel 1:12

1:12 They lamented and wept and fasted until evening because Saul, his son Jonathan, the Lord’s people, and the house of Israel had fallen by the sword.

2 Samuel 2:13

2:13 Joab son of Zeruiah and the servants of David also went out and confronted them at the pool of Gibeon. One group stationed themselves on one side of the pool, and the other group on the other side of the pool.

2 Samuel 7:14

7:14 I will become his father and he will become my son. When he sins, I will correct him with the rod of men and with wounds inflicted by human beings.

2 Samuel 11:27

11:27 When the time of mourning passed, David had her brought to his palace. ⁴  She became his wife and she bore him a son. But what David had done upset the Lord. ⁵ 

2 Samuel 13:4

13:4 He asked Amnon, ⁶  “Why are you, the king’s son, ⁷  so depressed every morning? Can’t you tell me?” So Amnon said to him, “I’m in love with Tamar the sister of my brother Absalom.”

2 Samuel 13:25

13:25 But the king said to Absalom, “No, my son. We shouldn’t all go. We shouldn’t burden you in that way.” Though Absalom ⁸  pressed ⁹  him, the king ¹⁰  was not willing to go. Instead, David ¹¹  blessed him.

2 Samuel 16:5

Shimei Curses David and His Men

16:5 Then King David reached ¹²  Bahurim. There a man from Saul’s extended family named Shimei son of Gera came out, yelling curses as he approached. ¹³ 

2 Samuel 18:20

18:20 But Joab said to him, “You will not be a bearer of good news today. You will bear good news some other day, but not today, ¹⁴  for the king’s son is dead.”

2 Samuel 18:27

18:27 The watchman said, “It appears to me that the first runner is Ahimaaz ¹⁵  son of Zadok.” The king said, “He is a good man, and he comes with good news.”

2 Samuel 21:8

21:8 So the king took Armoni and Mephibosheth, the two sons of Aiah’s daughter Rizpah whom she had born to Saul, and the five sons of Saul’s daughter Merab ¹⁶  whom she had born to Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite.

2 Samuel 21:19

21:19 Yet another battle occurred with the Philistines in Gob. On that occasion Elhanan the son of Jair ¹⁷  the Bethlehemite killed the brother of Goliath the Gittite, ¹⁸  the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.

2 Samuel 23:1

David’s Final Words

23:1 These are the final words of David:

“The oracle of David son of Jesse,

the oracle of the man raised up as

the ruler chosen by the God of Jacob, ¹⁹ 

Israel’s beloved ²⁰  singer of songs:

2 Samuel 23:11

23:11 Next in command ²¹  was Shammah son of Agee the Hararite. When the Philistines assembled at Lehi, ²²  where there happened to be an area of a field that was full of lentils, the army retreated before the Philistines.

2 Samuel 23:18

23:18 Abishai son of Zeruiah, the brother of Joab, was head of the three. ²³  He killed three hundred men with his spear and gained fame among the three. ²⁴ 

[1:4]  ¹ tn Heb “What was the word?”

[1:4]  ² tn Heb “from the people.”

[1:4]  ³ tn Heb “fell and died.”

[11:27]  ⁴ tn Heb “David sent and gathered her to his house.”

[11:27]  ⁵ tn Heb “and the thing which David had done was evil in the eyes of the Lord.” Note the verbal connection with v. 25. Though David did not regard the matter as evil, the Lord certainly did.

[13:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “and he said to him.”

[13:4]  ⁸ tn An more idiomatic translation might be “Why are you of all people…?”

[13:25]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Absalom) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[13:25]  ¹¹ tc Here and in v. 27 the translation follows 4QSam^a ויצפר (vayyitspar, “and he pressed”) rather than the MT וַיִּפְרָץ (vayyiprats, “and he broke through”). This emended reading seems also to underlie the translations of the LXX (καὶ ἐβιάσατο, kai ebiasato), the Syriac Peshitta (we’alseh), and Vulgate (cogeret eum).

[13:25]  ¹² tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[13:25]  ¹³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (David) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[16:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “came to.” The form of the verb in the MT is odd. Some prefer to read וַיַּבֹא (vayyavo’), preterite with vav consecutive) rather than וּבָא (uva’), apparently perfect with vav), but this is probably an instance where the narrative offline vÿqatal construction introduces a new scene.

[16:5]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “And look, from there a man was coming out from the clan of the house of Saul and his name was Shimei son of Gera, continually going out and cursing.”

[18:20]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “but this day you will not bear good news.”

[18:27]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “I am seeing the running of the first one like the running of Ahimaaz.”

[21:8]  ²² tc The MT reads “Michal” here, but two Hebrew manuscripts read “Merab,” along with some LXX manuscripts. Cf. 1 Sam 18:19.

[21:19]  ²⁵ tn Heb “Jaare-Oregim,” but the second word, which means “weavers,” is probably accidentally included. It appears at the end of the verse. The term is omitted in the parallel account in 1 Chr 20:5, which has simply “Jair.”

[21:19]  ²⁶ sn The Hebrew text as it stands reads, “Elhanan son of Jaare-Oregim the Bethlehemite killed Goliath the Gittite.” Who killed Goliath the Gittite? According to 1 Sam 17:4-58 it was David who killed Goliath, but according to the MT of 2 Sam 21:19 it was Elhanan who killed him. Many scholars believe that the two passages are hopelessly at variance with one another. Others have proposed various solutions to the difficulty, such as identifying David with Elhanan or positing the existence of two Goliaths. But in all likelihood the problem is the result of difficulties in the textual transmission of the Samuel passage; in fact, from a text-critical point of view the books of Samuel are the most poorly preserved of all the books of the Hebrew Bible. The parallel passage in 1 Chr 20:5 reads, “Elhanan son of Jair killed Lahmi the brother of Goliath.” Both versions are textually corrupt. The Chronicles text has misread “Bethlehemite” (בֵּית הַלַּחְמִי, bet hallakhmi) as the accusative sign followed by a proper name אֶת לַחְמִי (’et lakhmi). (See the note at 1 Chr 20:5.) The Samuel text misread the word for “brother” (אַח, ’akh) as the accusative sign (אֵת, ’et), thereby giving the impression that Elhanan, not David, killed Goliath. Thus in all probability the original text read, “Elhanan son of Jair the Bethlehemite killed the brother of Goliath.”

[23:1]  ²⁸ tn Heb “the anointed one of the God of Jacob.”

[23:1]  ²⁹ tn Or “pleasant.”

[23:11]  ³¹ tn Heb “after him.”

[23:11]  ³² tn The Hebrew text is difficult here. The MT reads לַחַיָּה (lachayyah), which implies a rare use of the word חַיָּה (chayyah). The word normally refers to an animal, but if the MT is accepted it would here have the sense of a troop or community of people. BDB 312 s.v. II. חַיָּה, for example, understands the similar reference in v. 13 to be to “a group of allied families, making a raid together.” But this works better in v. 13 than it does in v. 11, where the context seems to suggest a particular staging location for a military operation. (See 1 Chr 11:15.) It therefore seems best to understand the word in v. 11 as a place name with ה (he) directive. In that case the Masoretes mistook the word for the common term for an animal and then tried to make sense of it in this context.

[23:18]  ³⁴ tc The translation follows the Qere, many medieval Hebrew mss, the LXX, and Vulgate in reading הַשְּׁלֹשָׁה (hashÿlosa, “the three”) rather than the Kethib of the MT הַשָּׁלִשִׁי (hashalisi, “the third,” or “adjutant”). Two medieval Hebrew mss and the Syriac Peshitta have “thirty.”

[23:18]  ³⁵ tn Heb “and he was wielding his spear against three hundred, [who were] slain, and to him there was a name among the three.”