2 Samuel 2:1

David is Anointed King

2:1 Afterward David inquired of the Lord, “Should I go up to one of the cities of Judah?” The Lord told him, “Go up.” David asked, “Where should I go?” The Lord replied, ¹  “To Hebron.”

2 Samuel 5:8

5:8 David said on that day, “Whoever attacks the Jebusites must approach the ‘lame’ and the ‘blind’ who are David’s enemies ²  by going through the water tunnel.” ³  For this reason it is said, “The blind and the lame cannot enter the palace.” ⁴ 

2 Samuel 5:20

5:20 So David marched against Baal Perazim and defeated them there. Then he said, “The Lord has burst out against my enemies like water bursts out.” So he called the name of that place Baal Perazim. ⁵ 

2 Samuel 7:27

7:27 for you, O Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, have told ⁶  your servant, ‘I will build you a dynastic house.’ ⁷  That is why your servant has had the courage ⁸  to pray this prayer to you.

2 Samuel 9:11

9:11 Ziba said to the king, “Your servant will do everything that my lord the king has instructed his servant to do.” So Mephibosheth was a regular guest ⁹  at David’s table, ¹⁰  just as though he were one of the king’s sons.

2 Samuel 14:17

14:17 So your servant said, ‘May the word of my lord the king be my security, for my lord the king is like the angel of God when it comes to deciding between right and wrong! May the Lord your God be with you!’”

2 Samuel 16:10

16:10 But the king said, “What do we have in common, ¹¹  you sons of Zeruiah? If he curses because the Lord has said to him, ‘Curse David!’, who can say to him, ‘Why have you done this?’”

2 Samuel 16:23

16:23 In those days Ahithophel’s advice was considered as valuable as a prophetic revelation. ¹²  Both David and Absalom highly regarded the advice of Ahithophel. ¹³ 

2 Samuel 18:20

18:20 But Joab said to him, “You will not be a bearer of good news today. You will bear good news some other day, but not today, ¹⁴  for the king’s son is dead.”

2 Samuel 21:14

21:14 They buried the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan in the land of Benjamin at Zela in the grave of his father Kish. After they had done everything ¹⁵  that the king had commanded, God responded to their prayers ¹⁶  for the land.

2 Samuel 23:5

23:5 My dynasty is approved by God, ¹⁷ 

for he has made a perpetual covenant with me,

arranged in all its particulars and secured.

He always delivers me,

and brings all I desire to fruition. ¹⁸ 

2 Samuel 24:10

24:10 David felt guilty ¹⁹  after he had numbered the army. David said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly by doing this! Now, O Lord, please remove the guilt of your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.”

[2:1]  ¹ tn Heb “he said.” The referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity and for stylistic reasons.

[5:8]  ² tc There is some confusion among the witnesses concerning this word. The Kethib is the Qal perfect 3cp שָׂנְאוּ (sanÿ’u, “they hated”), referring to the Jebusites’ attitude toward David. The Qere is the Qal passive participle construct plural שְׂנֻאֵי (sÿnu’e, “hated”), referring to David’s attitude toward the Jebusites. 4QSam^a has the Qal perfect 3rd person feminine singular שָׂנְאָה (sanÿ’ah, “hated”), the subject of which would be “the soul of David.” The difference is minor and the translation adopted above works for either the Kethib or the Qere.

[5:8]  ³ tn The meaning of the Hebrew term has been debated. For a survey of various views, see P. K. McCarter, II Samuel (AB), 139-40.

[5:8]  ⁴ tn Heb “the house.” TEV takes this as a reference to the temple (“the Lord’s house”).

[5:20]  ³ tn The name means “Lord of the outbursts.”

[7:27]  ⁴ tn Heb “have uncovered the ear of.”

[7:27]  ⁵ tn Heb “a house.” This maintains the wordplay from v. 11 (see the note on the word “house” there) and is continued in v. 29.

[7:27]  ⁶ tn Heb “has found his heart.”

[9:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “eating.”

[9:11]  ⁶ tc Heb “my table.” But the first person reference to David is awkward here since the quotation of David’s words has already been concluded in v. 10; nor does the “my” refer to Ziba, since the latter part of v. 11 does not seem to be part of Ziba’s response to the king. The ancient versions are not unanimous in the way that they render the phrase. The LXX has “the table of David” (τῆς τραπέζης Δαυιδ, th" trapezh" Dauid); the Syriac Peshitta has “the table of the king” (patureh demalka’); the Vulgate has “your table” (mensam tuam). The present translation follows the LXX.

[16:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “What to me and to you?”

[16:23]  ⁷ tn Heb “And the advice of Ahithophel which he advised in those days was as when one inquires of the word of God.”

[16:23]  ⁸ tn Heb “So was all the advice of Ahithophel, also to David, also to Absalom.”

[18:20]  ⁸ tn Heb “but this day you will not bear good news.”

[21:14]  ⁹ tc Many medieval Hebrew mss have here כְּכֹל (kÿkhol, “according to all”).

[21:14]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “was entreated.” The verb is an example of the so-called niphal tolerativum, with the sense that God allowed himself to be supplicated through prayer (cf. GKC 137 §51.c).

[23:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “For not thus [is] my house with God?”

[23:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “for all my deliverance and every desire, surely does he not make [it] grow?”

[24:10]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and the heart of David struck him.”