2 Samuel 2:7

2:7 Now be courageous ¹  and prove to be valiant warriors, for your lord Saul is dead. The people of Judah have anointed me as king over them.”

2 Samuel 3:7

3:7 Now Saul had a concubine named Rizpah daughter of Aiah. Ish-bosheth ²  said to Abner, “Why did you have sexual relations with ³  my father’s concubine?” ⁴ 

2 Samuel 7:12

7:12 When the time comes for you to die, ⁵  I will raise up your descendant, one of your own sons, to succeed you, ⁶  and I will establish his kingdom.

2 Samuel 12:15

12:15 Then Nathan went to his home. The Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and the child became very ill. ⁷ 

2 Samuel 19:20

19:20 For I, your servant, ⁸  know that I sinned, and I have come today as the first of all the house of Joseph to come down to meet my lord the king.”

[2:7]  ¹ tn Heb “let your hands be strong.”

[3:7]  ² tc The Hebrew of the MT reads simply “and he said,” with no expressed subject for the verb. It is not likely that the text originally had no expressed subject for this verb, since the antecedent is not immediately clear from the context. We should probably restore to the Hebrew text the name “Ish-bosheth.” See a few medieval Hebrew mss, Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, and Vulgate. Perhaps the name was accidentally omitted by homoioarcton. Note that both the name Ishbosheth and the following preposition אֶל (’el) begin with the letter alef.

[3:7]  ³ tn Heb “come to”; KJV, NRSV “gone in to”; NAB “been intimate with”; NIV “sleep with.”

[3:7]  ⁴ sn This accusation against Abner is a very serious one, since an act of sexual infringement on the king’s harem would probably have been understood as a blatant declaration of aspirations to kingship. As such it was not merely a matter of ethical impropriety but an act of grave political significance as well.

[7:12]  ³ tn Heb, “when your days are full and you lie down with your ancestors.”

[7:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “your seed after you who comes out from your insides.”

[12:15]  ⁴ tn Heb “and the Lord struck the child…and he was ill.” It is necessary to repeat “the child” in the translation to make clear who became ill, since “the Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and he became very ill” could be understood to mean that David himself became ill.

[19:20]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew text has simply “your servant.”