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 6:5

6:5 while David and all Israel ³  were energetically celebrating before the Lord, singing ⁴  and playing various stringed instruments, ⁵  tambourines, rattles, ⁶  and cymbals.

2 Samuel 6:21

6:21 David replied to Michal, “It was before the Lord! I was celebrating before the Lord, who chose me over your father and his entire family ⁷  and appointed me as leader over the Lord’s people Israel.

[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.”

[6:5]  ³ tn Heb “all the house of Israel.”

[6:5]  ⁴ tc Heb “were celebrating before the Lord with all woods of fir” (cf. KJV, ASV, NASB). If the text is retained, the last expression must be elliptical, referring to musical instruments made from fir wood. But it is preferable to emend the text in light of 1 Chr 13:8, which reads “were celebrating before the Lord with all strength and with songs.”

[6:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “with zithers [?] and with harps.”

[6:5]  ⁶ tn That is, “sistrums” (so NAB, NIV); ASV, NASB, NRSV, CEV, NLT “castanets.”

[6:21]  ⁵ tn Heb “all his house”; CEV “anyone else in your family.”