2 Samuel 6:2

6:2 David and all the men who were with him traveled ¹  to ²  Baalah ³  in Judah to bring up from there the ark of God which is called by the name ⁴  of the Lord of hosts, who sits enthroned between the cherubim that are on it.

2 Samuel 16:1

David Receives Gifts from Ziba

16:1 When David had gone a short way beyond the summit, Ziba the servant of Mephibosheth was there to meet him. He had a couple of donkeys that were saddled, and on them were two hundred loaves of bread, a hundred raisin cakes, a hundred baskets of summer fruit, ⁵  and a container of wine.

2 Samuel 16:8

16:8 The Lord has punished you for ⁶  all the spilled blood of the house of Saul, in whose place you rule. Now the Lord has given the kingdom into the hand of your son Absalom. Disaster has overtaken you, for you are a man of bloodshed!”

2 Samuel 20:8

20:8 When they were near the big rock that is in Gibeon, Amasa came to them. Now Joab was dressed in military attire and had a dagger in its sheath belted to his waist. When he advanced, it fell out. ⁷ 

2 Samuel 22:6

22:6 The ropes of Sheol ⁸  tightened around me; ⁹ 

the snares of death trapped me. ¹⁰ 

2 Samuel 22:19

22:19 They confronted ¹¹  me in my day of calamity,

but the Lord helped me. ¹² 

2 Samuel 22:48

22:48 The one true God completely vindicates me; ¹³ 

he makes nations submit to me. ¹⁴ 

[6:2]  ¹ tn Heb “arose and went.”

[6:2]  ² tn Heb “from,” but the following context indicates they traveled to this location.

[6:2]  ³ tn This is another name for Kiriath-jearim (see 1 Chr 13:6).

[6:2]  ⁴ tc The MT has here a double reference to the name (שֵׁם שֵׁם, shem shem). Many medieval Hebrew mss in the first occurrence point the word differently and read the adverb שָׁם (sham, “there”). This is also the understanding of the Syriac Peshitta (Syr., taman). While this yields an acceptable understanding to the text, it is more likely that the MT dittographic here. The present translation therefore reads שֵׁם only once.

[16:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “a hundred summer fruit.”

[16:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “has brought back upon you.”

[20:8]  ¹³ sn The significance of the statement it fell out here is unclear. If the dagger fell out of its sheath before Joab got to Amasa, how then did he kill him? Josephus, Ant. 7.11.7 (7.284), suggested that as Joab approached Amasa he deliberately caused the dagger to fall to the ground at an opportune moment as though by accident. When he bent over and picked it up, he then stabbed Amasa with it. Others have tried to make a case for thinking that two swords are referred to – the one that fell out and another that Joab kept concealed until the last moment. But nothing in the text clearly supports this view. Perhaps Josephus’ understanding is best, but it is by no means obvious in the text either.

[22:6]  ¹⁷ tn “Sheol,” personified here as David’s enemy, is the underworld, place of the dead in primitive Hebrew cosmology.

[22:6]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “surrounded me.”

[22:6]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “confronted me.”

[22:19]  ²¹ tn The same verb is translated “trapped” in v. 6. In this poetic narrative context the prefixed verbal form is best understood as a preterite indicating past tense, not imperfect. Cf. NAB, NCV, TEV, NLT “attacked.”

[22:19]  ²² tn Heb “became my support.”

[22:48]  ²⁵ tn Heb “The God is the one who grants vengeance to me.” The plural form of the noun “vengeance” indicates degree here, suggesting complete vengeance or vindication. In the ancient Near East military victory was sometimes viewed as a sign that one’s God had judged in favor of the victor, avenging and/or vindicating him. See, for example, Judg 11:27, 32-33, 36.

[22:48]  ²⁶ tn Heb “and [is the one who] brings down nations beneath me.”