2 Samuel 4:2

4:2 Now Saul’s son ¹  had two men who were in charge of raiding units; one was named Baanah and the other Recab. They were sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, who was a Benjaminite. (Beeroth is regarded as belonging to Benjamin,

2 Samuel 4:4

4:4 Now Saul’s son Jonathan had a son who was crippled in both feet. He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan arrived from Jezreel. His nurse picked him up and fled, but in her haste to get away, he fell and was injured. ²  Mephibosheth was his name.

2 Samuel 20:1

Sheba’s Rebellion

20:1 Now a wicked man ³  named Sheba son of Bicri, a Benjaminite, ⁴  happened to be there. He blew the trumpet ⁵  and said,

“We have no share in David;

we have no inheritance in this son of Jesse!

Every man go home, ⁶  O Israel!”

[4:2]  ¹ tc The present translation, “Saul’s son had two men,” is based on the reading “to the son of Saul,” rather than the MT’s “the son of Saul.” The context requires the preposition to indicate the family relationship.

[4:4]  ² tn Heb “and was lame.”

[20:1]  ³ tn Heb “a man of worthlessness.”

[20:1]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn Heb “the shophar” (the ram’s horn trumpet). So also v. 22.

[20:1]  ⁶ 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.