2 Samuel 12:30

12:30 He took the crown of their king ¹  from his head – it was gold, weighed about seventy-five pounds, ²  and held a precious stone – and it was placed on David’s head. He also took from the city a great deal of plunder.

2 Samuel 21:4

21:4 The Gibeonites said to him, “We ³  have no claim to silver or gold from Saul or from his family, ⁴  nor would we be justified in putting to death anyone in Israel.” David asked, ⁵  “What then are you asking me to do for you?”

[12:30]  ¹ tn Part of the Greek tradition wrongly understands Hebrew מַלְכָּם (malkam, “their king”) as a proper name (“Milcom”). Some English versions follow the Greek here, rendering the phrase “the crown of Milcom” (so NRSV; cf. also NAB, CEV). TEV takes this as a reference not to the Ammonite king but to “the idol of the Ammonite god Molech.”

[12:30]  ² tn Heb “and its weight [was] a talent of gold.” The weight of this ornamental crown was approximately 75 lbs (34 kg). See P. K. McCarter, II Samuel (AB), 313.

[21:4]  ³ tc The translation follows the Qere and several medieval Hebrew mss in reading לָנוּ (lanu, “to us”) rather than the MT לִי (li, “to me”). But for a contrary opinion see S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, 53, 350.

[21:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “house.”

[21:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “and he said”; the referent (David) has been specified in the translation for clarity.