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 10:10

10:10 He put his brother Abishai in charge of the rest of the army ¹  and they were deployed ²  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 ³  Jerusalem. ⁴ 

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 20:10

20:10 Amasa did not protect himself from the knife in Joab’s other hand, and Joab ⁵  stabbed him in the abdomen, causing Amasa’s ⁶  intestines to spill out on the ground. There was no need to stab him again; the first blow was fatal. ⁷  Then Joab and his brother Abishai pursued Sheba son of Bicri.

2 Samuel 20:1

Sheba’s Rebellion

20:1 Now a wicked man ⁸  named Sheba son of Bicri, a Benjaminite, ⁹  happened to be there. He blew the trumpet ¹⁰  and said,

“We have no share in David;

we have no inheritance in this son of Jesse!

Every man go home, ¹¹  O Israel!”

2 Samuel 1:6-8

1:6 The young man who was telling him this ¹²  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. 1:7 When he turned around and saw me, he called out to me. I answered, ‘Here I am!’ 1:8 He asked me, ‘Who are you?’ I told him, ‘I’m ¹³  an Amalekite.’

2 Samuel 1:1

David Learns of the Deaths of Saul and Jonathan

1:1 After the death of Saul, ¹⁴  when David had returned from defeating the Amalekites, ¹⁵  he stayed at Ziklag ¹⁶  for two days.

2 Samuel 2:16

2:16 As they grappled with one another, each one stabbed his opponent with his sword and they fell dead together. ¹⁷  So that place is called the Field of Flints; ¹⁸  it is in Gibeon.

2 Samuel 11:20-21

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? 11:21 Who struck down Abimelech the son of Jerub-Besheth? Didn’t a woman throw an upper millstone ¹⁹  down on him from the wall so that he died in Thebez? Why did you go so close to the wall?’ just say to him, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is also dead.’”

[10:10]  ¹ tn Heb “people.”

[10:10]  ² tn Heb “he arranged.”

[10:14]  ³ tn Heb “and Joab returned from against the sons of Ammon and entered.”

[10:14]  ⁴ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[20:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Joab) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[20:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Amasa) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[20:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “and he did not repeat concerning him, and he died.”

[20:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “a man of worthlessness.”

[20:1]  ⁹ tn The expression used here יְמִינִי (yÿmini) is a short form of the more common “Benjamin.” It appears elsewhere in 1 Sam 9:4 and Esth 2:5. Cf. 1 Sam 9:1.

[20:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the shophar” (the ram’s horn trumpet). So also v. 22.

[20:1]  ¹¹ tc The MT reads לְאֹהָלָיו (lÿ’ohalav, “to his tents”). For a similar idiom, see 19:9. An ancient scribal tradition understands the reading to be לְאלֹהָיו (le’lohav, “to his gods”). The word is a tiqqun sopherim, and the scribes indicate that they changed the word from “gods” to “tents” so as to soften its theological implications. In a consonantal Hebrew text the change involved only the metathesis of two letters.

[1:6]  ¹² tc The Syriac Peshitta and one ms of the LXX lack the words “who was telling him this” of the MT.

[1:8]  ¹³ tc The present translation reads with the Qere and many medieval Hebrew mss “and I said,” rather than the Kethib which has “and he said.” See the LXX, Syriac Peshitta, and Vulgate, all of which have the first person.

[1:1]  ¹⁴ 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]  ¹⁵ 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]  ¹⁶ 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.

[2:16]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and they grabbed each one the head of his neighbor with his sword in the side of his neighbor and they fell together.”

[2:16]  ¹⁸ tn The meaning of the name “Helkath Hazzurim” (so NIV; KJV, NASB, NRSV similar) is not clear. BHK relates the name to the Hebrew term for “side,” and this is reflected in NAB “the Field of the Sides”; the Greek OT revocalizes the Hebrew to mean something like “Field of Adversaries.” Cf. also TEV, NLT “Field of Swords”; CEV “Field of Daggers.”

[11:21]  ¹⁹ sn The upper millstone (Heb “millstone of riding”) refers to the heavy circular stone that was commonly rolled over a circular base in order to crush and grind such things as olives.