2 Samuel 20:15-22

20:15 So Joab’s men ¹  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 ²  the wall so that it would collapse, 20:16 a wise woman called out from the city, “Listen up! Listen up! Tell Joab, ‘Come near so that I may speak to you.’”

20:17 When he approached her, the woman asked, “Are you Joab?” He replied, “I am.” She said to him, “Listen to the words of your servant.” He said, “Go ahead. I’m listening.” 20:18 She said, “In the past they would always say, ‘Let them inquire in Abel,’ and that is how they settled things. 20:19 I represent the peaceful and the faithful in Israel. You are attempting to destroy an important city ³  in Israel. Why should you swallow up the Lord’s inheritance?”

20:20 Joab answered, “Get serious! ⁴  I don’t want to swallow up or destroy anything! 20:21 That’s not the way things are. There is a man from the hill country of Ephraim named Sheba son of Bicri. He has rebelled ⁵  against King David. Give me just this one man, and I will leave the city.” The woman said to Joab, “This very minute ⁶  his head will be thrown over the wall to you!”

20:22 Then the woman went to all the people with her wise advice and they cut off Sheba’s head and threw it out to Joab. Joab ⁷  blew the trumpet, and his men ⁸  dispersed from the city, each going to his own home. ⁹  Joab returned to the king in Jerusalem.

2 Samuel 20:2

20:2 So all the men of Israel deserted ¹⁰  David and followed Sheba son of Bicri. But the men of Judah stuck by their king all the way from the Jordan River ¹¹  to Jerusalem. ¹² 

2 Samuel 6:1

David Brings the Ark to Jerusalem

6:1 David again assembled ¹³  all the best ¹⁴  men in Israel, thirty thousand in number.

2 Samuel 7:1-20

The Lord Establishes a Covenant with David

7:1 The king settled into his palace, ¹⁵  for the Lord gave him relief ¹⁶  from all his enemies on all sides. ¹⁷  7:2 The king said to Nathan the prophet, “Look! I am living in a palace made from cedar, while the ark of God sits in the middle of a tent.” 7:3 Nathan replied to the king, “You should go ¹⁸  and do whatever you have in mind, ¹⁹  for the Lord is with you.” 7:4 That night the Lord told Nathan, ²⁰  7:5 “Go, tell my servant David: ‘This is what the Lord says: Do you really intend to build a house for me to live in? 7:6 I have not lived in a house from the time I brought the Israelites up from Egypt to the present day. Instead, I was traveling with them and living in a tent. ²¹  7:7 Wherever I moved among all the Israelites, I did not say ²²  to any of the leaders ²³  whom I appointed to care for ²⁴  my people Israel, “Why have you not built me a house made from cedar?”’

7:8 “So now, say this to my servant David: ‘This is what the Lord of hosts says: I took you from the pasture and from your work as a shepherd ²⁵  to make you leader of my people Israel. 7:9 I was with you wherever you went, and I defeated ²⁶  all your enemies before you. Now I will make you as famous as the great men of the earth. ²⁷  7:10 I will establish a place for my people Israel and settle ²⁸  them there; they will live there and not be disturbed ²⁹  any more. Violent men ³⁰  will not oppress them again, as they did in the beginning 7:11 and during the time when I appointed judges to lead my people Israel. Instead, I will give you relief ³¹  from all your enemies. The Lord declares ³²  to you that he himself ³³  will build a dynastic house ³⁴  for you. 7:12 When the time comes for you to die, ³⁵  I will raise up your descendant, one of your own sons, to succeed you, ³⁶  and I will establish his kingdom. 7:13 He will build a house for my name, and I will make his dynasty permanent. ³⁷  7:14 I will become his father and he will become my son. When he sins, I will correct him with the rod of men and with wounds inflicted by human beings. 7:15 But my loyal love will not be removed from him as I removed it from Saul, whom I removed from before you. 7:16 Your house and your kingdom will stand before me ³⁸  permanently; your dynasty ³⁹  will be permanent.’” 7:17 Nathan told David all these words that were revealed to him. ⁴⁰ 

David Offers a Prayer to God

7:18 King David went in, sat before the Lord, and said, “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my family, ⁴¹  that you should have brought me to this point? 7:19 And you didn’t stop there, O Lord God! You have also spoken about the future of your servant’s family. ⁴²  Is this your usual way of dealing with men, ⁴³  O Lord God? 7:20 What more can David say to you? You have given your servant special recognition, ⁴⁴  O Lord God!

[20:15]  ¹ tn Heb “they.” The following context makes it clear that this refers to Joab and his army.

[20:15]  ² 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).

[20:19]  ³ tn Heb “a city and a mother.” The expression is a hendiadys, meaning that this city was an important one in Israel and had smaller cities dependent on it.

[20:20]  ⁴ tn Heb “Far be it, far be it from me.” The expression is clearly emphatic, as may be seen in part by the repetition. P. K. McCarter, however, understands it to be coarser than the translation adopted here. He renders it as “I’ll be damned if…” (II Samuel [AB], 426, 429), which (while it is not a literal translation) may not be too far removed from the way a soldier might have expressed himself.

[20:21]  ⁵ tn Heb “lifted his hand.”

[20:21]  ⁶ tn Heb “Look!”

[20:22]  ⁷ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Joab) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[20:22]  ⁸ tn Heb “they”; the referent (Joab’s men) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[20:22]  ⁹ tn Heb “his tents.”

[20:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “went up from after.”

[20:2]  ¹¹ tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[20:2]  ¹² map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[6:1]  ¹³ tn The translation understands the verb to be a defective spelling of וַיְּאֱסֹף (vayyÿ’esof) due to quiescence of the letter א (alef). The root therefore is אסף (’sf, “to gather”). The Masoretes, however, pointed the verb as וַיֹּסֶף (vayyosef), understanding it to be a form of יָסַף (yasaf, “to add”). This does not fit the context, which calls for a verb of gathering.

[6:1]  ¹⁴ tn Or “chosen.”

[7:1]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “house” (also in the following verse).

[7:1]  ¹⁶ tn Or “rest.”

[7:1]  ¹⁷ tn The translation understands the disjunctive clause in v. 1b as circumstantial-causal.

[7:3]  ¹⁸ tc Several medieval Hebrew mss and the Syriac Peshitta lack this word.

[7:3]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “all that is in your heart.”

[7:4]  ²⁰ tn Heb “the word of the Lord was [i.e., came] to Nathan.”

[7:6]  ²¹ tn Heb “in a tent and in a dwelling.” The expression is a hendiadys, using two terms to express one idea.

[7:7]  ²² tn Heb “Did I speak a word?” In the Hebrew text the statement is phrased as a rhetorical question.

[7:7]  ²³ tn Heb “tribes” (so KJV, NASB, NCV), but the parallel passage in 1 Chr 17:6 has “judges.”

[7:7]  ²⁴ tn Heb “whom I commanded to shepherd” (so NIV, NRSV).

[7:8]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and from after the sheep.”

[7:9]  ²⁶ tn Heb “cut off.”

[7:9]  ²⁷ tn Heb “and I will make for you a great name like the name of the great ones who are in the earth.”

[7:10]  ²⁸ tn Heb “plant.”

[7:10]  ²⁹ tn Heb “shaken.”

[7:10]  ³⁰ tn Heb “the sons of violence.”

[7:11]  ³¹ tn Or “rest.”

[7:11]  ³² tn In the Hebrew text the verb is apparently perfect with vav consecutive, which would normally suggest a future sense (“he will declare”; so the LXX, ἀπαγγελεῖ [apangelei]). But the context seems instead to call for a present or past nuance (“he declares” or “he has declared”). The synoptic passage in 1 Chr 17:10 has וָאַגִּד (va’aggid, “and I declared”). The construction used in 2 Sam 7:11 highlights this important statement.

[7:11]  ³³ tn Heb “the Lord.”

[7:11]  ³⁴ tn Heb “house,” but used here in a metaphorical sense, referring to a royal dynasty. Here the Lord’s use of the word plays off the literal sense that David had in mind as he contemplated building a temple for the Lord. To reflect this in the English translation the adjective “dynastic” has been supplied.

[7:12]  ³⁵ tn Heb, “when your days are full and you lie down with your ancestors.”

[7:12]  ³⁶ tn Heb “your seed after you who comes out from your insides.”

[7:13]  ³⁷ tn Heb “and I will establish the throne of his kingdom permanently.”

[7:16]  ³⁸ tc Heb “before you.” A few medieval Hebrew mss read instead “before me,” which makes better sense contextually. (See also the LXX and the Syriac Peshitta.) The MT reading is probably the result of dittography (note the כ [kaf] at the beginning of the next form), with the extra כ then being interpreted as a pronominal suffix.

[7:16]  ³⁹ tn Heb “throne.”

[7:17]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “according to all these words and according to all this revelation, so Nathan said to David.”

[7:18]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “house.”

[7:19]  ⁴² tn Heb “and this was small in your eyes, O Lord God, so you spoke concerning the house of your servant for a distance.”

[7:19]  ⁴³ tn Heb “and this [is] the law of man”; KJV “is this the manner of man, O Lord God?”; NAB “this too you have shown to man”; NRSV “May this be instruction for the people, O Lord God!” This part of the verse is very enigmatic; no completely satisfying solution has yet been suggested. The present translation tries to make sense of the MT by understanding the phrase as a question that underscores the uniqueness of God’s dealings with David as described here. The parallel passage in 1 Chr 17:17 reads differently (see the note there).

[7:20]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “and you know your servant.” The verb here refers to recognizing another in a special way and giving them special treatment (see 1 Chr 17:18). Some English versions take this to refer to the Lord’s knowledge of David himself: CEV “you know my thoughts”; NLT “know what I am really like.”