2 Samuel 11:2

11:2 One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of his palace. ¹  From the roof he saw a woman bathing. Now this woman was very attractive. ² 

2 Samuel 11:1

David Commits Adultery with Bathsheba

11:1 In the spring of the year, at the time when kings ³  normally conduct wars, ⁴  David sent out Joab with his officers ⁵  and the entire Israelite army. ⁶  They defeated the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed behind in Jerusalem. ⁷ 

2 Samuel 16:9

16:9 Then Abishai son of Zeruiah said to the king, “Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over and cut off his head!”

Proverbs 24:33-34

24:33 “A little sleep, a little slumber,

a little folding of the hands to relax,

24:34 and your poverty will come like a bandit,

and your need like an armed robber.” ⁸ 

Proverbs 24:1

24:1 Do not envy evil people, ⁹ 

do not desire ¹⁰  to be with them;

Proverbs 5:3-7

5:3 For the lips ¹¹  of the adulterous woman drip honey,

and her seductive words ¹²  are smoother than olive oil,

5:4 but in the end ¹³  she is bitter ¹⁴  as wormwood, ¹⁵ 

sharp as a two-edged ¹⁶  sword.

5:5 Her feet go down to death;

her steps lead straight to the grave. ¹⁷ 

5:6 Lest ¹⁸  she should make level the path leading to life, ¹⁹ 

her paths are unstable ²⁰  but she does not know it. ²¹ 

5:7 So now, children, ²²  listen to me;

do not turn aside from the words I speak. ²³ 

[11:2]  ¹ tn Heb “on the roof of the house of the king.” So also in vv. 8, 9.

[11:2]  ² tn The disjunctive clause highlights this observation and builds the tension of the story.

[11:1]  ³ tc Codex Leningrad (B19A), on which BHS is based, has here “messengers” (הַמַּלְאכִים, hammal’khim), probably as the result of contamination from the occurrence of that word in v. 4. The present translation follows most Hebrew mss and the ancient versions, which read “kings” (הַמֶּלָאכִים, hammela’kim).

[11:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “go out.”

[11:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “and his servants with him.”

[11:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “all Israel.”

[11:1]  ⁷ tn The disjunctive clause contrasts David’s inactivity with the army’s activity.

[24:34]  ⁸ tn Heb “a man of shield.” This could refer to an armed warrior (so NRSV) but in this context, in collocation with the other word for “robber” in the previous line, it must refer to an armed criminal.

[24:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “evil men,” although the context indicates a generic sense.

[24:1]  ¹⁰ tn The Hitpael jussive is from the verb that means “to crave; to desire.” This is more of a coveting, an intense desire.

[5:3]  ¹¹ sn “Lips” is a metonymy of cause, referring to her words. Dripping honey is an implied comparison between the product and her words, which are flattering and smooth (cf. Song 4:11). See M. Dahood, “Honey That Drips. Notes on Proverbs 5:2-3,” Bib 54 (1973): 65-66.

[5:3]  ¹² tn Heb “her palate.” The word חֵךְ (khekh, “palate; roof of the mouth; gums”) is a metonymy of cause (= organ of speech) for what is said (= her seductive speech). The present translation clarifies this metonymy with the phrase “her seductive words.”

[5:4]  ¹³ sn Heb “her end” (so KJV). D. Kidner notes that Proverbs does not allow us to forget that there is an afterward (Proverbs [TOTC], 65).

[5:4]  ¹⁴ sn The verb “to be bitter” (מָרַר, marar) describes things that are harmful and destructive for life, such as the death of the members of the family of Naomi (Ruth 1:20) or finding water that was undrinkable (Exod 15:22-27). The word indicates that the sweet talking will turn out badly.

[5:4]  ¹⁵ tn The Hebrew term translated “wormwood” refers to the aromatic plant that contrasts with the sweetness of honey. Some follow the LXX and translate it as “gall” (cf. NIV). The point is that there was sweetness when the tryst had alluring glamour, but afterward it had an ugly ring (W. G. Plaut, Proverbs, 74).

[5:4]  ¹⁶ sn The Hebrew has “like a sword of [two] mouths,” meaning a double-edged sword that devours/cuts either way. There is no movement without damage. There may be a wordplay here with this description of the “sword with two mouths,” and the subject of the passage being the words of her mouth which also have two sides to them. The irony is cut by the idiom.

[5:5]  ¹⁷ tn The term שְׁאוֹל (she’ol, “grave”) is paralleled to “death,” so it does not refer here to the realm of the unblessed.

[5:6]  ¹⁸ tn The particle פֶּן (pen) means “lest” (probably from “for the aversion of”). It occurs this once, unusually, preceding the principal clause (BDB 814 s.v.). It means that some action has been taken to avert or avoid what follows. She avoids the path of life, albeit ignorantly.

[5:6]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the path of life.” The noun חַיִּים (khayyim, “of life”) functions as a genitive of direction (“leading to”).

[5:6]  ²⁰ sn The verb נוּעַ (nua’) means “to quiver; to wave; to waver; to tremble”; cf. KJV “her ways are moveable”; NAB “her paths will ramble”; NLT “She staggers down a crooked trail.” The ways of the adulterous woman are unstable (BDB 631 s.v.).

[5:6]  ²¹ sn The sadder part of the description is that this woman does not know how unstable her life is, or how uneven. However, Thomas suggests that it means, “she is not tranquil.” See D. W. Thomas, “A Note on לא תדע in Proverbs v 6,” JTS 37 (1936): 59.

[5:7]  ²² tn Heb “sons.”

[5:7]  ²³ tn Heb “the words of my mouth” (so KJV, NAB, NRSV).