2 Samuel 19:42

19:42 All the men of Judah replied to the men of Israel, “Because the king is our close relative! Why are you so upset about this? Have we eaten at the king’s expense? ¹  Or have we misappropriated anything for our own use?”

2 Samuel 20:1

Sheba’s Rebellion

20:1 Now a wicked man ²  named Sheba son of Bicri, a Benjaminite, ³  happened to be there. He blew the trumpet ⁴  and said,

“We have no share in David;

we have no inheritance in this son of Jesse!

Every man go home, ⁵  O Israel!”

[19:42]  ¹ tn Heb “from the king.”

[20:1]  ² tn Heb “a man of worthlessness.”

[20:1]  ³ tn The expression used here יְמִינִי (yÿmini) is a short form of the more common “Benjamin.” It appears elsewhere in 1 Sam 9:4 and Esth 2:5. Cf. 1 Sam 9:1.

[20:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “the shophar” (the ram’s horn trumpet). So also v. 22.

[20:1]  ⁵ tc The MT reads לְאֹהָלָיו (lÿ’ohalav, “to his tents”). For a similar idiom, see 19:9. An ancient scribal tradition understands the reading to be לְאלֹהָיו (le’lohav, “to his gods”). The word is a tiqqun sopherim, and the scribes indicate that they changed the word from “gods” to “tents” so as to soften its theological implications. In a consonantal Hebrew text the change involved only the metathesis of two letters.