2 Samuel 2:18

2:18 The three sons of Zeruiah were there – Joab, Abishai, and Asahel. (Now Asahel was as quick on his feet as one of the gazelles in the field.)

2 Samuel 3:30

3:30 So Joab and his brother Abishai killed Abner, because he had killed their brother Asahel in Gibeon during the battle.

2 Samuel 3:39

3:39 Today I am weak, even though I am anointed as king. These men, the sons of Zeruiah, are too much for me to bear! ¹  May the Lord punish appropriately the one who has done this evil thing!” ² 

2 Samuel 10:9-10

10:9 When Joab saw that the battle would be fought on two fronts, he chose some of Israel’s best men and deployed them against the Arameans. ³  10:10 He put his brother Abishai in charge of the rest of the army ⁴  and they were deployed ⁵  against the Ammonites.

2 Samuel 10:14

10:14 When the Ammonites saw the Arameans flee, they fled before his brother Abishai and went into the city. Joab withdrew from fighting the Ammonites and returned to ⁶  Jerusalem. ⁷ 

2 Samuel 18:2

18:2 David then sent out the army – a third under the leadership of Joab, a third under the leadership of Joab’s brother Abishai son of Zeruiah, and a third under the leadership of Ittai the Gittite. The king said to the troops, “I too will indeed march out with you.”

2 Samuel 18:12

18:12 The man replied to Joab, “Even if ⁸  I were receiving ⁹  a thousand pieces of silver, ¹⁰  I would not strike ¹¹  the king’s son! In our very presence ¹²  the king gave this order to you and Abishai and Ittai, ‘Protect the young man Absalom for my sake.’ ¹³ 

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 23:18

23:18 Abishai son of Zeruiah, the brother of Joab, was head of the three. ¹⁴  He killed three hundred men with his spear and gained fame among the three. ¹⁵ 

2 Samuel 23:1

David’s Final Words

23:1 These are the final words of David:

“The oracle of David son of Jesse,

the oracle of the man raised up as

the ruler chosen by the God of Jacob, ¹⁶ 

Israel’s beloved ¹⁷  singer of songs:

2 Samuel 1:6

1:6 The young man who was telling him this ¹⁸  said, “I just happened to be on Mount Gilboa and came across Saul leaning on his spear for support. The chariots and leaders of the horsemen were in hot pursuit of him.

2 Samuel 1:1

David Learns of the Deaths of Saul and Jonathan

1:1 After the death of Saul, ¹⁹  when David had returned from defeating the Amalekites, ²⁰  he stayed at Ziklag ²¹  for two days.

2 Samuel 11:20

11:20 if the king becomes angry and asks you, ‘Why did you go so close to the city to fight? Didn’t you realize they would shoot from the wall?

2 Samuel 18:12

18:12 The man replied to Joab, “Even if ²²  I were receiving ²³  a thousand pieces of silver, ²⁴  I would not strike ²⁵  the king’s son! In our very presence ²⁶  the king gave this order to you and Abishai and Ittai, ‘Protect the young man Absalom for my sake.’ ²⁷ 

[3:39]  ¹ tn Heb “are hard from me.”

[3:39]  ² tn Heb “May the Lord repay the doer of the evil according to his evil” (NASB similar).

[10:9]  ³ tn Heb “and Joab saw that the face of the battle was to him before and behind and he chose from all the best in Israel and arranged to meet Aram.”

[10:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “people.”

[10:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “he arranged.”

[10:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “and Joab returned from against the sons of Ammon and entered.”

[10:14]  ⁷ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[18:12]  ⁸ tc The translation follows the Qere and many medieval Hebrew mss in reading וְלוּ (vÿlu, “and if”) rather than MT וְלֹא (vÿlo’, “and not”).

[18:12]  ⁹ tn Heb “weighing out in my hand.”

[18:12]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “a thousand [shekels] of silver.” This would have been about 25 pounds (11.4 kg) of silver by weight.

[18:12]  ¹¹ tn Heb “extend my hand against.”

[18:12]  ¹² tn Heb “in our ears.”

[18:12]  ¹³ tc The Hebrew text is very difficult here. The MT reads מִי (mi, “who”), apparently yielding the following sense: “Show care, whoever you might be, for the youth Absalom.” The Syriac Peshitta reads li (“for me”), the Hebrew counterpart of which may also lie behind the LXX rendering μοι (moi, “for me”). This reading seems preferable here, since it restores sense to the passage and most easily explains the rise of the variant.

[23:18]  ¹⁴ tc The translation follows the Qere, many medieval Hebrew mss, the LXX, and Vulgate in reading הַשְּׁלֹשָׁה (hashÿlosa, “the three”) rather than the Kethib of the MT הַשָּׁלִשִׁי (hashalisi, “the third,” or “adjutant”). Two medieval Hebrew mss and the Syriac Peshitta have “thirty.”

[23:18]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and he was wielding his spear against three hundred, [who were] slain, and to him there was a name among the three.”

[23:1]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the anointed one of the God of Jacob.”

[23:1]  ¹⁷ tn Or “pleasant.”

[1:6]  ¹⁸ tc The Syriac Peshitta and one ms of the LXX lack the words “who was telling him this” of the MT.

[1:1]  ¹⁹ sn This chapter is closely linked to 1 Sam 31. It should be kept in mind that 1 and 2 Samuel were originally a single book, not separate volumes. Whereas in English Bible tradition the books of Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, and Ezra-Nehemiah are each regarded as two separate books, this was not the practice in ancient Hebrew tradition. Early canonical records, for example, counted them as single books respectively. The division into two books goes back to the Greek translation of the OT and was probably initiated because of the cumbersome length of copies due to the Greek practice (unlike that of Hebrew) of writing vowels. The present division into two books can be a little misleading in terms of perceiving the progression of the argument of the book; in some ways it is preferable to treat the books of 1-2 Samuel in a unified fashion.

[1:1]  ²⁰ sn The Amalekites were a nomadic people who inhabited Judah and the Transjordan. They are mentioned in Gen 36:15-16 as descendants of Amalek who in turn descended from Esau. In Exod 17:8-16 they are described as having acted in a hostile fashion toward Israel as the Israelites traveled to Canaan from Egypt. In David’s time the Amalekites were viewed as dangerous enemies who raided, looted, and burned Israelite cities (see 1 Sam 30).

[1:1]  ²¹ sn Ziklag was a city in the Negev which had been given to David by Achish king of Gath. For more than a year David used it as a base from which he conducted military expeditions (see 1 Sam 27:5-12). According to 1 Sam 30:1-19, Ziklag was destroyed by the Amalekites while Saul fought the Philistines.

[18:12]  ²² tc The translation follows the Qere and many medieval Hebrew mss in reading וְלוּ (vÿlu, “and if”) rather than MT וְלֹא (vÿlo’, “and not”).

[18:12]  ²³ tn Heb “weighing out in my hand.”

[18:12]  ²⁴ tn Heb “a thousand [shekels] of silver.” This would have been about 25 pounds (11.4 kg) of silver by weight.

[18:12]  ²⁵ tn Heb “extend my hand against.”

[18:12]  ²⁶ tn Heb “in our ears.”

[18:12]  ²⁷ tc The Hebrew text is very difficult here. The MT reads מִי (mi, “who”), apparently yielding the following sense: “Show care, whoever you might be, for the youth Absalom.” The Syriac Peshitta reads li (“for me”), the Hebrew counterpart of which may also lie behind the LXX rendering μοι (moi, “for me”). This reading seems preferable here, since it restores sense to the passage and most easily explains the rise of the variant.