2 Samuel 15:7

15:7 After four ¹  years Absalom said to the king, “Let me go and repay my vow that I made to the Lord while I was in Hebron.

2 Samuel 14:26

14:26 When he would shave his head – at the end of every year he used to shave his head, for it grew too long ²  and he would shave it – he used to weigh the hair of his head at three pounds ³  according to the king’s weight.

[15:7]  ¹ tc The MT has here “forty,” but this is presumably a scribal error for “four.” The context will not tolerate a period of forty years prior to the rebellion of Absalom. The Lucianic Greek recension (τέσσαρα ἔτη, tessara ete), the Syriac Peshitta (’arba’ sanin), and Vulgate (post quattuor autem annos) in fact have the expected reading “four years.” Most English translations follow the versions in reading “four” here, although some (e.g. KJV, ASV, NASB, NKJV), following the MT, read “forty.”

[14:26]  ² tn Heb “for it was heavy upon him.”

[14:26]  ³ tn Heb “two hundred shekels.” The modern equivalent would be about three pounds (1.4 kg).