2 Samuel 22:24

22:24 I was blameless before him;

I kept myself from sinning. ¹ 

2 Samuel 22:22

22:22 For I have obeyed the Lord’s commands; ² 

I have not rebelled against my God. ³ 

2 Samuel 22:44

22:44 You rescue me from a hostile army; ⁴ 

you preserve me as a leader of nations;

people over whom I had no authority are now my subjects. ⁵ 

2 Samuel 11:16

11:16 So as Joab kept watch on the city, he stationed Uriah at the place where he knew the best enemy soldiers ⁶  were.

2 Samuel 15:16

15:16 So the king and all the members of his royal court ⁷  set out on foot, though the king left behind ten concubines ⁸  to attend to the palace.

2 Samuel 16:21

16:21 Ahithophel replied to Absalom, “Have sex with ⁹  your father’s concubines whom he left to care for the palace. All Israel will hear that you have made yourself repulsive to your father. Then your followers will be motivated to support you.” ¹⁰ 

2 Samuel 20:3

20:3 Then David went to his palace ¹¹  in Jerusalem. The king took the ten concubines he had left to care for the palace and placed them under confinement. ¹²  Though he provided for their needs, he did not have sexual relations with them. ¹³  They remained in confinement until the day they died, living out the rest of their lives as widows.

2 Samuel 20:10

20:10 Amasa did not protect himself from the knife in Joab’s other hand, and Joab ¹⁴  stabbed him in the abdomen, causing Amasa’s ¹⁵  intestines to spill out on the ground. There was no need to stab him again; the first blow was fatal. ¹⁶  Then Joab and his brother Abishai pursued Sheba son of Bicri.

2 Samuel 23:5

23:5 My dynasty is approved by God, ¹⁷ 

for he has made a perpetual covenant with me,

arranged in all its particulars and secured.

He always delivers me,

and brings all I desire to fruition. ¹⁸ 

2 Samuel 18:12

18:12 The man replied to Joab, “Even if ¹⁹  I were receiving ²⁰  a thousand pieces of silver, ²¹  I would not strike ²²  the king’s son! In our very presence ²³  the king gave this order to you and Abishai and Ittai, ‘Protect the young man Absalom for my sake.’ ²⁴ 

[22:24]  ¹ tn Heb “from my sin,” that is, from making it my own in any way. Leading a “blameless” life meant that the king would be loyal to God’s covenant, purge the government and society of evil and unjust officials, and reward loyalty to the Lord (see Ps 101).

[22:22]  ² tn Heb “for I have kept the ways of the Lord.” The phrase “ways of the Lord” refers here to the “conduct required” by the Lord (see HALOT 232 s.v. דֶרֶךְ). In Ps 25 the Lord’s “ways” are associated with his covenantal demands (see vv. 4, 9-10). See also Ps 119:3 (cf. vv. 1, 4), as well as Deut 8:6; 10:12; 11:22; 19:9; 26:17; 28:9; 30:16.

[22:22]  ³ tn Heb “I have not acted wickedly from my God.” The statement is elliptical, the idea being, “I have not acted wickedly and, in so doing, departed from my God.”

[22:44]  ³ tn Heb “from the strivings of my people.” In this context רִיב (riv, “striving”) probably has a militaristic sense (as in Judg 12:2; Isa 41:11), and עַם (’am, “people”) probably refers more specifically to an army (for other examples, see the verses listed in BDB 766 s.v. עַם 2.d). The suffix “my” suggests David is referring to attacks by his own countrymen, the “people” being Israel. However, the parallel text in Ps 18:43 omits the suffix.

[22:44]  ⁴ tn Heb “a people whom I did not know serve me.” In this context the verb “know” (יָדַע, yada’) probably refers to formal recognition by treaty. People who were once not under the psalmist’s authority now willingly submit to his rulership to avoid being conquered militarily (see vv. 45-46). The language may recall the events recorded in 2 Sam 8:9-10 and 10:19.

[11:16]  ⁴ tn Heb “the valiant men.” This refers in context to the strongest or most valiant defenders of the city Joab and the Israelite army were besieging, so the present translation uses “the best enemy soldiers” for clarity.

[15:16]  ⁵ tn Heb “and all his house.”

[15:16]  ⁶ tn Heb “women, concubines.”

[16:21]  ⁶ tn Heb “go to”; NAB “have (+ sexual NCV) relations with”; TEV “have intercourse with”; NLT “Go and sleep with.”

[16:21]  ⁷ tn Heb “and the hands of all who are with you will be strengthened.”

[20:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “house.”

[20:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “and he placed them in a guarded house.”

[20:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “he did not come to them”; NAB “has no further relations with them”; NIV “did not lie with them”; TEV “did not have intercourse with them”; NLT “would no longer sleep with them.”

[20:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Joab) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[20:10]  ⁹ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Amasa) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

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

[23:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “For not thus [is] my house with God?”

[23:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “for all my deliverance and every desire, surely does he not make [it] grow?”

[18:12]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ tn Heb “weighing out in my hand.”

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

[18:12]  ¹³ tn Heb “extend my hand against.”

[18:12]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “in our ears.”

[18:12]  ¹⁵ 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.