2 Samuel 2:14

2:14 Abner said to Joab, “Let the soldiers get up and fight ¹  before us.” Joab said, “So be it!” ² 

2 Samuel 6:4

6:4 They brought ³  it with the ark of God up from the house of Abinadab on the hill. Ahio was walking in front of the ark,

2 Samuel 6:14

6:14 Now David, wearing a linen ephod, was dancing with all his strength before the Lord. ⁴ 

2 Samuel 7:15-16

7:15 But my loyal love will not be removed from him as I removed it from Saul, whom I removed from before you. 7:16 Your house and your kingdom will stand before me ⁵  permanently; your dynasty ⁶  will be permanent.’”

2 Samuel 10:13

10:13 So Joab and his men ⁷  marched out to do battle with the Arameans, and they fled before him.

2 Samuel 14:28

14:28 Absalom lived in Jerusalem for two years without seeing the king’s face.

2 Samuel 15:1

Absalom Leads an Insurrection against David

15:1 Some time later Absalom managed to acquire ⁸  a chariot and horses, as well as fifty men to serve as his royal guard. ⁹ 

[2:14]  ¹ tn Heb “play.” What is in view here is a gladiatorial contest in which representative groups of soldiers engage in mortal combat before the watching armies. Cf. NAB “perform for us”; NASB “hold (have NRSV) a contest before us”; NLT “put on an exhibition of hand-to-hand combat.”

[2:14]  ² tn Heb “let them arise.”

[6:4]  ³ tn Heb “lifted.”

[6:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “and David was dancing with all his strength before the Lord, and David was girded with a linen ephod.”

[7:16]  ⁷ tc Heb “before you.” A few medieval Hebrew mss read instead “before me,” which makes better sense contextually. (See also the LXX and the Syriac Peshitta.) The MT reading is probably the result of dittography (note the כ [kaf] at the beginning of the next form), with the extra כ then being interpreted as a pronominal suffix.

[7:16]  ⁸ tn Heb “throne.”

[10:13]  ⁹ tn Heb “and the army which was with him.”

[15:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “acquired for himself.”

[15:1]  ¹² tn Heb “to run ahead of him.”