Discovery Box2 Samuel 20:14-15
Context20:14 Sheba 1 traveled through all the tribes of Israel to Abel of 2 Beth Maacah and all the Berite region. When they had assembled, 3 they too joined him. 20:15 So Joab’s men 4 came and laid siege against him in Abel of Beth Maacah. They prepared a siege ramp outside the city which stood against its outer rampart. As all of Joab’s soldiers were trying to break through 5 the wall so that it would collapse,
2 Samuel 10:6
Context10:6 When the Ammonites realized that David was disgusted with them, 6 they 7 sent and hired 20,000 foot soldiers from Aram Beth Rehob and Aram Zobah, 8 in addition to 1,000 men from the king of Maacah and 12,000 men from Ish-tob. 9
2 Samuel 21:12
Context21:12 he 10 went and took the bones of Saul and of his son Jonathan 11 from the leaders 12 of Jabesh Gilead. (They had secretly taken 13 them from the plaza at Beth Shan. It was there that Philistines 14 publicly exposed their corpses 15 after 16 they 17 had killed Saul at Gilboa.)
2 Samuel 23:14
Context23:14 David was in the stronghold at the time, while a Philistine garrison was in Bethlehem. 18
2 Samuel 23:24
Context23:24 Included with the thirty were the following: Asahel the brother of Joab, Elhanan son of Dodo from Bethlehem, 19
2 Samuel 23:15
Context23:15 David was thirsty and said, “How I wish someone would give me some water to drink from the cistern in Bethlehem near the gate!”
2 Samuel 2:32
Context2:32 They took Asahel’s body and buried him in his father’s tomb at Bethlehem. 20 Joab and his men then traveled all that night and reached Hebron by dawn.
2 Samuel 10:8
Context10:8 The Ammonites marched out and were deployed for battle at the entrance of the city gate, while the men from Aram Zobah, Rehob, Ish-tob, and Maacah were by themselves in the field.
2 Samuel 21:19
Context21:19 Yet another battle occurred with the Philistines in Gob. On that occasion Elhanan the son of Jair 21 the Bethlehemite killed the brother of Goliath the Gittite, 22 the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.
2 Samuel 23:16
Context23:16 So the three elite warriors broke through the Philistine forces and drew some water from the cistern in Bethlehem near the gate. They carried it back to David, but he refused to drink it. He poured it out as a drink offering to the Lord
[20:14] 1 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Sheba) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[20:14] 2 tc In keeping with the form of the name in v. 15, the translation deletes the “and” found in the MT.
[20:14] 3 tc The translation follows the Qere, many medieval Hebrew
[20:15] 4 tn Heb “they.” The following context makes it clear that this refers to Joab and his army.
[20:15] 5 tc The LXX has here ἐνοοῦσαν (enoousan, “were devising”), which apparently presupposes the Hebrew word מַחֲשָׁבִים (makhashavim) rather than the MT מַשְׁחִיתִם (mashkhitim, “were destroying”). With a number of other scholars Driver thinks that the Greek variant may preserve the original reading, but this seems to be an unnecessary conclusion (but see S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, 346).
[10:6] 7 tn Heb “that they were a stench [i.e., disgusting] with David.”
[10:6] 8 tn Heb “the Ammonites.”
[10:6] 9 tn Or “Arameans of Beth Rehob and Arameans of Zobah.”
[10:6] 10 tn Or perhaps “the men of Tob.” The ancient versions (the LXX, the Syriac Peshitta, and Vulgate) understand the name to be “Ish-tob.” It is possible that “Ish” is dittographic and that we should read simply “Tob,” a reading adopted by a number of recent English versions.
[21:12] 10 tn Heb “David.” For stylistic reasons the name has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation.
[21:12] 11 tn Heb “the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son.” See also v. 13.
[21:12] 14 tc Against the MT, this word is better read without the definite article. The MT reading is probably here the result of wrong word division, with the letter ה (he) belonging with the preceding word שָׁם (sham) as the he directive (i.e., שָׁמָּה, samah, “to there”).
[21:12] 15 tn Heb “had hung them.”
[21:12] 16 tn Heb “in the day.”
[21:12] 17 tn Heb “Philistines.”
[23:14] 13 map For location see Map5 B1; Map7 E2; Map8 E2; Map10 B4.
[23:24] 16 map For location see Map5 B1; Map7 E2; Map8 E2; Map10 B4.
[2:32] 19 map For location see Map5 B1; Map7 E2; Map8 E2; Map10 B4.
[21:19] 22 tn Heb “Jaare-Oregim,” but the second word, which means “weavers,” is probably accidentally included. It appears at the end of the verse. The term is omitted in the parallel account in 1 Chr 20:5, which has simply “Jair.”
[21:19] 23 sn The Hebrew text as it stands reads, “Elhanan son of Jaare-Oregim the Bethlehemite killed Goliath the Gittite.” Who killed Goliath the Gittite? According to 1 Sam 17:4-58 it was David who killed Goliath, but according to the MT of 2 Sam 21:19 it was Elhanan who killed him. Many scholars believe that the two passages are hopelessly at variance with one another. Others have proposed various solutions to the difficulty, such as identifying David with Elhanan or positing the existence of two Goliaths. But in all likelihood the problem is the result of difficulties in the textual transmission of the Samuel passage; in fact, from a text-critical point of view the books of Samuel are the most poorly preserved of all the books of the Hebrew Bible. The parallel passage in 1 Chr 20:5 reads, “Elhanan son of Jair killed Lahmi the brother of Goliath.” Both versions are textually corrupt. The Chronicles text has misread “Bethlehemite” (בֵּית הַלַּחְמִי, bet hallakhmi) as the accusative sign followed by a proper name אֶת לַחְמִי (’et lakhmi). (See the note at 1 Chr 20:5.) The Samuel text misread the word for “brother” (אַח, ’akh) as the accusative sign (אֵת, ’et), thereby giving the impression that Elhanan, not David, killed Goliath. Thus in all probability the original text read, “Elhanan son of Jair the Bethlehemite killed the brother of Goliath.”
