2 Samuel 10:12

10:12 Be strong! Let’s fight bravely for the sake of our people and the cities of our God! The Lord will do what he decides is best!” ¹ 

2 Samuel 10:11

10:11 Joab ²  said, “If the Arameans start to overpower me, ³  you come to my rescue. If the Ammonites start to overpower you, ⁴  I will come to your rescue.

2 Samuel 1:11

1:11 David then grabbed his own clothes ⁵  and tore them, as did all the men who were with him.

2 Samuel 13:11

13:11 As she brought them to him to eat, he grabbed her and said to her, “Come on! Get in bed with me, ⁶  my sister!”

2 Samuel 13:14

13:14 But he refused to listen to her. ⁷  He overpowered her and humiliated her by raping her. ⁸ 

2 Samuel 15:5

15:5 When someone approached to bow before him, Absalom ⁹  would extend his hand and embrace him and kiss him.

2 Samuel 11:25

11:25 David said to the messenger, “Tell Joab, ‘Don’t let this thing upset you. ¹⁰  There is no way to anticipate whom the sword will cut down. ¹¹  Press the battle against the city and conquer ¹²  it.’ Encourage him with these words.” ¹³ 

2 Samuel 2:7

2:7 Now be courageous ¹⁴  and prove to be valiant warriors, for your lord Saul is dead. The people of Judah have anointed me as king over them.”

2 Samuel 2:16

2:16 As they grappled with one another, each one stabbed his opponent with his sword and they fell dead together. ¹⁵  So that place is called the Field of Flints; ¹⁶  it is in Gibeon.

2 Samuel 3:6

Abner Defects to David’s Camp

3:6 As the war continued between the house of Saul and the house of David, Abner was becoming more influential ¹⁷  in the house of Saul.

2 Samuel 3:29

3:29 May his blood whirl over ¹⁸  the head of Joab and the entire house of his father! ¹⁹  May the males of Joab’s house ²⁰  never cease to have ²¹  someone with a running sore or a skin disease or one who works at the spindle ²²  or one who falls by the sword or one who lacks food!”

2 Samuel 13:28

13:28 Absalom instructed his servants, “Look! When Amnon is drunk ²³  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!” ²⁴ 

2 Samuel 16:21

16:21 Ahithophel replied to Absalom, “Have sex with ²⁵  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.” ²⁶ 

2 Samuel 18:9

18:9 Then Absalom happened to come across David’s men. Now as Absalom was riding on his ²⁷  mule, it ²⁸  went under the branches of a large oak tree. His head got caught in the oak and he was suspended in midair, ²⁹  while the mule he had been riding kept going.

2 Samuel 24:4

24:4 But the king’s edict stood, despite the objections of ³⁰  Joab and the leaders of the army. So Joab and the leaders of the army left the king’s presence in order to muster the Israelite army.

[10:12]  ¹ tn Heb “and the Lord will do what is good in his eyes.”

[10:11]  ² tn Heb “he”; the referent (Joab) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[10:11]  ³ tn Heb “if Aram is stronger than me.”

[10:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “if the sons of Ammon are stronger than you.”

[1:11]  ³ tc The present translation follows the Qere and many medieval Hebrew mss in reading “his garments,” rather than “his garment,” the reading of the Kethib.

[13:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “lie with me” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV); NCV “come and have sexual relations with me.”

[13:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “to her voice.”

[13:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “and he humiliated her and lay with her.”

[15:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Absalom) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[11:25]  ⁷ tn Heb “let not this matter be evil in your eyes.”

[11:25]  ⁸ tn Heb “according to this and according to this the sword devours.”

[11:25]  ⁹ tn Heb “overthrow.”

[11:25]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew text does not have “with these words.” They are supplied in the translation for clarity and for stylistic reasons.

[2:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “let your hands be strong.”

[2:16]  ⁹ tn Heb “and they grabbed each one the head of his neighbor with his sword in the side of his neighbor and they fell together.”

[2:16]  ¹⁰ tn The meaning of the name “Helkath Hazzurim” (so NIV; KJV, NASB, NRSV similar) is not clear. BHK relates the name to the Hebrew term for “side,” and this is reflected in NAB “the Field of the Sides”; the Greek OT revocalizes the Hebrew to mean something like “Field of Adversaries.” Cf. also TEV, NLT “Field of Swords”; CEV “Field of Daggers.”

[3:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “was strengthening himself.” The statement may have a negative sense here, perhaps suggesting that Abner was overstepping the bounds of political propriety in a self-serving way.

[3:29]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and may they whirl over.” In the Hebrew text the subject of the plural verb is unexpressed. The most likely subject is Abner’s “shed blood” (v. 28), which is a masculine plural form in Hebrew. The verb חוּל (khul, “whirl”) is used with the preposition עַל (’al) only here and in Jer 23:19; 30:23.

[3:29]  ¹² tc 4QSam^a has “of Joab” rather than “of his father” read by the MT.

[3:29]  ¹³ tn Heb “the house of Joab.” However, it is necessary to specify that David’s curse is aimed at Joab’s male descendants; otherwise it would not be clear that “one who works at the spindle” refers to a man doing woman’s work rather than a woman.

[3:29]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and may there not be cut off from the house of Joab.”

[3:29]  ¹⁵ tn The expression used here is difficult. The translation “one who works at the spindle” follows a suggestion of S. R. Driver that the expression pejoratively describes an effeminate man who, rather than being a mighty warrior, is occupied with tasks that are normally fulfilled by women (S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, 250-51; cf. NAB “one unmanly”; TEV “fit only to do a woman’s work”; CEV “cowards”). But P. K. McCarter, following an alleged Phoenician usage of the noun to refer to “crutches,” adopts a different view. He translates the phrase “clings to a crutch,” seeing here a further description of physical lameness (II Samuel [AB], 118). Such an idea fits the present context well and is followed by NIV, NCV, and NLT, although the evidence for this meaning is questionable. According to DNWSI 2:915-16, the noun consistently refers to a spindle in Phoenician, as it does in Ugaritic (see UT 468).

[13:28]  ¹² tn Heb “when good is the heart of Amnon with wine.”

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

[16:21]  ¹³ tn Heb “go to”; NAB “have (+ sexual NCV) relations with”; TEV “have intercourse with”; NLT “Go and sleep with.”

[16:21]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and the hands of all who are with you will be strengthened.”

[18:9]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the.”

[18:9]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the donkey.”

[18:9]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “between the sky and the ground.”

[24:4]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and the word of the king was stronger than.”