2 Samuel 2:13

2:13 Joab son of Zeruiah and the servants of David also went out and confronted them at the pool of Gibeon. One group stationed themselves on one side of the pool, and the other group on the other side of the pool.

2 Samuel 2:23

2:23 But Asahel ¹  refused to turn aside. So Abner struck him in the abdomen with the back end of his ²  spear. The spear came out his back; Asahel ³  collapsed on the spot and died there right before Abner. ⁴  Everyone who now comes to the place where Asahel fell dead pauses in respect. ⁵ 

2 Samuel 5:2

5:2 In the past, when Saul was our king, you were the real leader in Israel. ⁶  The Lord said to you, ‘You will shepherd my people Israel; you will rule over Israel.’”

2 Samuel 6:20

6:20 When David went home to pronounce a blessing on his own house, ⁷  Michal, Saul’s daughter, came out to meet him. ⁸  She said, “How the king of Israel has distinguished ⁹  himself this day! He has exposed himself today before his servants’ slave girls the way a vulgar fool ¹⁰  might do!”

2 Samuel 11:1

David Commits Adultery with Bathsheba

11:1 In the spring of the year, at the time when kings ¹¹  normally conduct wars, ¹²  David sent out Joab with his officers ¹³  and the entire Israelite army. ¹⁴  They defeated the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed behind in Jerusalem. ¹⁵ 

2 Samuel 12:30-31

12:30 He took the crown of their king ¹⁶  from his head – it was gold, weighed about seventy-five pounds, ¹⁷  and held a precious stone – and it was placed on David’s head. He also took from the city a great deal of plunder. 12:31 He removed ¹⁸  the people who were in it and made them do hard labor with saws, iron picks, and iron axes, putting them to work at the brick kiln. This was his policy ¹⁹  with all the Ammonite cities. Then David and all the army returned to Jerusalem. ²⁰ 

2 Samuel 16:11

16:11 Then David said to Abishai and to all his servants, “My own son, my very own flesh and blood, ²¹  is trying to take my life. So also now this Benjaminite! Leave him alone so that he can curse, for the Lord has spoken to him.

2 Samuel 19:19

19:19 He said to the king, “Don’t think badly of me, my lord, and don’t recall the sin of your servant on the day when you, my lord the king, left ²²  Jerusalem! ²³  Please don’t call it to mind!

2 Samuel 20:8

20:8 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. ²⁴ 

2 Samuel 21:17

21:17 But Abishai the son of Zeruiah came to David’s aid, striking the Philistine down and killing him. Then David’s men took an oath saying, “You will not go out to battle with us again! You must not extinguish the lamp of Israel!”

2 Samuel 24:4

24:4 But the king’s edict stood, despite the objections of ²⁵  Joab and the leaders of the army. So Joab and the leaders of the army left the king’s presence in order to muster the Israelite army.

[2:23]  ¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Asahel) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:23]  ² tn Heb “the.” The article functions here as a possessive pronoun.

[2:23]  ³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Asahel) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:23]  ⁴ tn Heb “him”; the referent (Abner) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:23]  ⁵ tn Heb “and they stand.”

[5:2]  ¹ tn Heb “you were the one leading out and the one leading in Israel.”

[6:20]  ¹ tn Heb “and David returned to bless his house.”

[6:20]  ² tn Heb “David.” The name has been replaced by the pronoun (“him”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[6:20]  ³ tn Heb “honored.”

[6:20]  ⁴ tn Heb “one of the foolish ones.”

[11:1]  ¹ tc Codex Leningrad (B19A), on which BHS is based, has here “messengers” (הַמַּלְאכִים, hammal’khim), probably as the result of contamination from the occurrence of that word in v. 4. The present translation follows most Hebrew mss and the ancient versions, which read “kings” (הַמֶּלָאכִים, hammela’kim).

[11:1]  ² tn Heb “go out.”

[11:1]  ³ tn Heb “and his servants with him.”

[11:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “all Israel.”

[11:1]  ⁵ tn The disjunctive clause contrasts David’s inactivity with the army’s activity.

[12:30]  ¹ tn Part of the Greek tradition wrongly understands Hebrew מַלְכָּם (malkam, “their king”) as a proper name (“Milcom”). Some English versions follow the Greek here, rendering the phrase “the crown of Milcom” (so NRSV; cf. also NAB, CEV). TEV takes this as a reference not to the Ammonite king but to “the idol of the Ammonite god Molech.”

[12:30]  ² tn Heb “and its weight [was] a talent of gold.” The weight of this ornamental crown was approximately 75 lbs (34 kg). See P. K. McCarter, II Samuel (AB), 313.

[12:31]  ¹ tn Heb “brought out.”

[12:31]  ² tn Heb “and so he would do.”

[12:31]  ³ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[16:11]  ¹ tn Heb “who came out from my entrails.” David’s point is that is his own son, his child whom he himself had fathered, was now wanting to kill him.

[19:19]  ¹ tn Though this verb in the MT is 3rd person masculine singular, it should probably be read as 2nd person masculine singular. It is one of fifteen places where the Masoretes placed a dot over each of the letters of the word in question in order to call attention to their suspicion of the word. Their concern in this case apparently had to do with the fact that this verb and the two preceding verbs alternate from third person to second and back again to third. Words marked in this way in Hebrew manuscripts or printed editions are said to have puncta extrordinaria, or “extraordinary points.”

[19:19]  ² map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[20:8]  ¹ 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.

[24:4]  ¹ tn Heb “and the word of the king was stronger than.”