2 Samuel 7:12

7:12 When the time comes for you to die, ¹  I will raise up your descendant, one of your own sons, to succeed you, ²  and I will establish his kingdom.

2 Samuel 7:1

The Lord Establishes a Covenant with David

7:1 The king settled into his palace, ³  for the Lord gave him relief ⁴  from all his enemies on all sides. ⁵ 

2 Samuel 1:21

1:21 O mountains of Gilboa,

may there be no dew or rain on you, nor fields of grain offerings! ⁶ 

For it was there that the shield of warriors was defiled; ⁷ 

the shield of Saul lies neglected without oil. ⁸ 

[7:12]  ¹ tn Heb, “when your days are full and you lie down with your ancestors.”

[7:12]  ² tn Heb “your seed after you who comes out from your insides.”

[7:1]  ³ tn Heb “house” (also in the following verse).

[7:1]  ⁴ tn Or “rest.”

[7:1]  ⁵ tn The translation understands the disjunctive clause in v. 1b as circumstantial-causal.

[1:21]  ⁶ tc Instead of the MT’s “fields of grain offerings” the Lucianic recension of the LXX reads “your high places are mountains of death.” Cf. the Old Latin montes mortis (“mountains of death”).

[1:21]  ⁷ tn This is the only biblical occurrence of the Niphal of the verb גָּעַל (ga’al). This verb usually has the sense of “to abhor” or “loathe.” But here it seems to refer to the now dirty and unprotected condition of a previously well-maintained instrument of battle.

[1:21]  ⁸ tc It is preferable to read here Hebrew מָשׁוּחַ (mashuakh) with many Hebrew mss, rather than מָשִׁיחַ (mashiakh) of the MT. Although the Syriac Peshitta understands the statement to pertain to Saul, the point here is not that Saul is not anointed. Rather, it is the shield of Saul that lies discarded and is no longer anointed. In ancient Near Eastern practice a warrior’s shield that was in normal use would have to be anointed regularly in order to ensure that the leather did not become dry and brittle. Like other warriors of his day Saul would have carefully maintained his tools of trade. But now that he is dead, the once-cared-for shield of the mighty warrior lies sadly discarded and woefully neglected, a silent but eloquent commentary on how different things are now compared to the way they were during Saul’s lifetime.