2 Samuel 18:18

18:18 Prior to this ¹  Absalom had set up a monument ²  and dedicated it to himself in the King’s Valley, reasoning “I have no son who will carry on my name.” He named the monument after himself, and to this day it is known as Absalom’s Memorial.

Job 18:16-19

18:16 Below his roots dry up,

and his branches wither above.

18:17 His memory perishes from the earth,

he has no name in the land. ³ 

18:18 He is driven ⁴  from light into darkness

and is banished from the world.

18:19 He has neither children nor descendants ⁵  among his people,

no survivor in those places he once stayed. ⁶ 

Isaiah 14:22

14:22 “I will rise up against them,”

says the Lord who commands armies.

“I will blot out all remembrance of Babylon and destroy all her people, ⁷ 

including the offspring she produces,” ⁸ 

says the Lord.

Jeremiah 22:30

22:30 The Lord says,

“Enroll this man in the register as though he were childless. ⁹ 

Enroll him as a man who will not enjoy success during his lifetime.

For none of his sons will succeed in occupying the throne of David

or ever succeed in ruling over Judah.”

[18:18]  ¹ tn Heb “and.” This disjunctive clause (conjunction + subject + verb) describes an occurrence that preceded the events just narrated.

[18:18]  ² tn Heb “a pillar.”

[18:17]  ³ tn Heb “outside.” Cf. ESV, “in the street,” referring to absence from his community’s memory.

[18:18]  ⁴ tn The verbs in this verse are plural; without the expressed subject they should be taken in the passive sense.

[18:19]  ⁵ tn The two words נִין (nin, “offspring”) and נֶכֶד (nekhed, “posterity”) are always together and form an alliteration. This is hard to capture in English, but some have tried: Moffatt had “son and scion,” and Tur-Sinai had “breed or brood.” But the words are best simply translated as “lineage and posterity” or as in the NIV “offspring or descendants.”

[18:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “in his sojournings.” The verb גּוּר (gur) means “to reside; to sojourn” temporarily, without land rights. Even this word has been selected to stress the temporary nature of his stay on earth.

[14:22]  ⁷ tn Heb “I will cut off from Babylon name and remnant” (ASV, NAB, and NRSV all similar).

[14:22]  ⁸ tn Heb “descendant and child.”

[22:30]  ⁹ tn Heb “Write this man childless.” For the explanation see the study note. The word translated “childless” has spawned some debate because Jeconiah was in fact not childless. There is record from both the Bible and ancient Near Eastern texts that he had children (see, e.g., 1 Chr 3:17). G. R. Driver, “Linguistic and Textual Problems: Jeremiah,” JQR 28 (1937-38): 115, has suggested that the word both here and in Lev 20:20-21 should be translated “stripped of honor.” While that would relieve some of the difficulties here, the word definitely means “childless” in Gen 15:2 and also in Sir 16:3 where it is contrasted with having godless children. The issue is not one of childlessness but of having “one of his sons” succeed to the Davidic throne. The term for “one of his sons” is literally “from his seed a man” and the word “seed” is the same one that is used to refer to his “children” who were forced into exile with him (v. 28).