2 Samuel 12:9
Context12:9 Why have you shown contempt for the word of the Lord by doing evil in my 1 sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and you have taken his wife as your own! 2 You have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.
2 Samuel 1:22
Context1:22 From the blood of the slain, from the fat of warriors,
the bow of Jonathan was not turned away.
The sword of Saul never returned 3 empty.
2 Samuel 2:16
Context2:16 As they grappled with one another, each one stabbed his opponent with his sword and they fell dead together. 4 So that place is called the Field of Flints; 5 it is in Gibeon.
2 Samuel 12:10
Context12:10 So now the sword will never depart from your house. For you have despised me by taking the wife of Uriah the Hittite as your own!’
2 Samuel 18:8
Context18:8 The battle there was spread out over the whole area, and the forest consumed more soldiers than the sword devoured that day.
2 Samuel 1:12
Context1:12 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 2:26
Context2:26 Then Abner called out to Joab, “Must the sword devour forever? Don’t you realize that this will turn bitter in the end? When will you tell the people to turn aside from pursuing their brothers?”
2 Samuel 3:29
Context3:29 May his blood whirl over 6 the head of Joab and the entire house of his father! 7 May the males of Joab’s house 8 never cease to have 9 someone with a running sore or a skin disease or one who works at the spindle 10 or one who falls by the sword or one who lacks food!”
2 Samuel 11:25
Context11:25 David said to the messenger, “Tell Joab, ‘Don’t let this thing upset you. 11 There is no way to anticipate whom the sword will cut down. 12 Press the battle against the city and conquer 13 it.’ Encourage him with these words.” 14
2 Samuel 15:14
Context15:14 So David said to all his servants who were with him in Jerusalem, 15 “Come on! 16 Let’s escape! 17 Otherwise no one will be delivered from Absalom! Go immediately, or else he will quickly overtake us and bring 18 disaster on us and kill the city’s residents with the sword.” 19
2 Samuel 20:8
Context20:8 When they were near the big rock that is in Gibeon, Amasa came to them. Now Joab was dressed in military attire and had a dagger in its sheath belted to his waist. When he advanced, it fell out. 20
2 Samuel 20:10
Context20:10 Amasa did not protect himself from the knife in Joab’s other hand, and Joab 21 stabbed him in the abdomen, causing Amasa’s 22 intestines to spill out on the ground. There was no need to stab him again; the first blow was fatal. 23 Then Joab and his brother Abishai pursued Sheba son of Bicri.
2 Samuel 23:10
Context23:10 he stood his ground 24 and fought the Philistines until his hand grew so tired that it 25 seemed stuck to his sword. The Lord gave a great victory on that day. When the army returned to him, the only thing left to do was to plunder the corpses.
2 Samuel 24:9
Context24:9 Joab reported the number of warriors 26 to the king. In Israel there were 800,000 sword-wielding warriors, and in Judah there were 500,000 soldiers.


[12:9] 1 tc So the Qere; the Kethib has “his.”
[12:9] 2 tn Heb “to you for a wife.” This expression also occurs at the end of v. 10.
[1:22] 3 tn The Hebrew imperfect verbal form is used here to indicate repeated past action.
[2:16] 5 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] 6 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.”
[3:29] 7 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] 8 tc 4QSama has “of Joab” rather than “of his father” read by the MT.
[3:29] 9 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] 10 tn Heb “and may there not be cut off from the house of Joab.”
[3:29] 11 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).
[11:25] 9 tn Heb “let not this matter be evil in your eyes.”
[11:25] 10 tn Heb “according to this and according to this the sword devours.”
[11:25] 11 tn Heb “overthrow.”
[11:25] 12 tn The Hebrew text does not have “with these words.” They are supplied in the translation for clarity and for stylistic reasons.
[15:14] 11 map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
[15:14] 13 tn Heb “let’s flee.”
[15:14] 15 tn Heb “and strike the city with the edge of the sword.”
[20:8] 13 sn The significance of the statement it fell out here is unclear. If the dagger fell out of its sheath before Joab got to Amasa, how then did he kill him? Josephus, Ant. 7.11.7 (7.284), suggested that as Joab approached Amasa he deliberately caused the dagger to fall to the ground at an opportune moment as though by accident. When he bent over and picked it up, he then stabbed Amasa with it. Others have tried to make a case for thinking that two swords are referred to – the one that fell out and another that Joab kept concealed until the last moment. But nothing in the text clearly supports this view. Perhaps Josephus’ understanding is best, but it is by no means obvious in the text either.
[20:10] 15 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Joab) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[20:10] 16 tn Heb “his”; the referent (Amasa) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[20:10] 17 tn Heb “and he did not repeat concerning him, and he died.”
[24:9] 19 tn Heb “and Joab gave the number of the numbering of the people.”