2 Samuel 7:12-17

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. 7:13 He will build a house for my name, and I will make his dynasty permanent. ³  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 ⁴  permanently; your dynasty ⁵  will be permanent.’” 7:17 Nathan told David all these words that were revealed to him. ⁶ 

2 Samuel 12:24-25

12:24 So David comforted his wife Bathsheba. He went to her and had marital relations with her. ⁷  She gave birth to a son, and David ⁸  named him Solomon. Now the Lord loved the child ⁹  12:25 and sent word through Nathan the prophet that he should be named Jedidiah ¹⁰  for the Lord’s sake.

2 Samuel 12:1

Nathan the Prophet Confronts David

12:1 So the Lord sent Nathan ¹¹  to David. When he came to David, ¹²  Nathan ¹³  said, ¹⁴  “There were two men in a certain city, one rich and the other poor.

2 Samuel 22:9-10

22:9 Smoke ascended from ¹⁵  his nose; ¹⁶ 

fire devoured as it came from his mouth; ¹⁷ 

he hurled down fiery coals. ¹⁸ 

22:10 He made the sky sink ¹⁹  as he descended;

a thick cloud was under his feet.

2 Samuel 1:4-5

1:4 David inquired, “How were things going? ²⁰  Tell me!” He replied, “The people fled from the battle and many of them ²¹  fell dead. ²²  Even Saul and his son Jonathan are dead!” 1:5 David said to the young man ²³  who was telling him this, “How do you know that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead?” ²⁴ 

2 Samuel 1:1

David Learns of the Deaths of Saul and Jonathan

1:1 After the death of Saul, ²⁵  when David had returned from defeating the Amalekites, ²⁶  he stayed at Ziklag ²⁷  for two days.

[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.”

[7:13]  ³ tn Heb “and I will establish the throne of his kingdom permanently.”

[7:16]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn Heb “throne.”

[7:17]  ⁶ tn Heb “according to all these words and according to all this revelation, so Nathan said to David.”

[12:24]  ⁷ tn Heb “and he lay with her.”

[12:24]  ⁸ tn Heb “he”; the referent (David) has been specified in the translation for clarity. While some translations render the pronoun as third person plural (“they”), implying that both David and Bathsheba together named the child, it is likely that the name “Solomon,” which is related to the Hebrew word for “peace” (and may be derived from it) had special significance for David, who would have regarded the birth of a second child to Bathsheba as a confirming sign that God had forgiven his sin and was at peace with him.

[12:24]  ⁹ tn Heb “him,” referring to the child.

[12:25]  ¹⁰ sn The name Jedidiah means “loved by the Lord.”

[12:1]  ¹¹ tc A few medieval Hebrew mss, the LXX, and the Syriac Peshitta add “the prophet.” The words are included in a few modern English version (e.g., TEV, CEV, NLT).

[12:1]  ¹² tn Heb “him”; the referent (David) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[12:1]  ¹³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Nathan) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[12:1]  ¹⁴ tn The Hebrew text repeats “to him.”

[22:9]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “within” or “[from] within.” For a discussion of the use of the preposition בְּ (bet) here, see R. B. Chisholm, “An Exegetical and Theological Study of Psalm 18/2 Samuel 22” (Th.D. diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 1983), 163-64.

[22:9]  ¹⁶ tn Or “in his anger.” The noun אַף (’af) can carry the abstract meaning “anger,” but the parallelism (note “from his mouth”) suggests the more concrete meaning “nose” here (most English versions, “nostrils”). See also v. 16, “the powerful breath of your nose.”

[22:9]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “fire from his mouth devoured.” In this poetic narrative the prefixed verbal form is best understood as a preterite indicating past tense, not an imperfect. Note the two perfect verbal forms in the verse.

[22:9]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “coals burned from him.” Perhaps the psalmist pictures God’s fiery breath igniting coals (see Job 41:21), which he then hurls as weapons (see Ps 120:4).

[22:10]  ¹⁹ tn The verb נָטָה (natah) can carry the sense “[to cause to] bend; [to cause to] bow down” (see HALOT 693 s.v. נָטָה). For example, Gen 49:15 pictures Issachar as a donkey that “bends” its shoulder or back under a burden (cf. KJV, NASB, NRSV “He bowed the heavens”; NAB “He inclined the heavens”). Here the Lord causes the sky, pictured as a dome or vault, to bend or sink down as he descends in the storm.

[1:4]  ²⁰ tn Heb “What was the word?”

[1:4]  ²¹ tn Heb “from the people.”

[1:4]  ²² tn Heb “fell and died.”

[1:5]  ²³ tn In v. 2 he is called simply a “man.” The word used here in v. 5 (so also in vv. 6, 13, 15), though usually referring to a young man or servant, may in this context designate a “fighting” man, i.e., a soldier.

[1:5]  ²⁴ tc Instead of the MT “who was recounting this to him, ‘How do you know that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead?’” the Syriac Peshitta reads “declare to me how Saul and his son Jonathan died.”

[1:1]  ²⁵ sn This chapter is closely linked to 1 Sam 31. It should be kept in mind that 1 and 2 Samuel were originally a single book, not separate volumes. Whereas in English Bible tradition the books of Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, and Ezra-Nehemiah are each regarded as two separate books, this was not the practice in ancient Hebrew tradition. Early canonical records, for example, counted them as single books respectively. The division into two books goes back to the Greek translation of the OT and was probably initiated because of the cumbersome length of copies due to the Greek practice (unlike that of Hebrew) of writing vowels. The present division into two books can be a little misleading in terms of perceiving the progression of the argument of the book; in some ways it is preferable to treat the books of 1-2 Samuel in a unified fashion.

[1:1]  ²⁶ sn The Amalekites were a nomadic people who inhabited Judah and the Transjordan. They are mentioned in Gen 36:15-16 as descendants of Amalek who in turn descended from Esau. In Exod 17:8-16 they are described as having acted in a hostile fashion toward Israel as the Israelites traveled to Canaan from Egypt. In David’s time the Amalekites were viewed as dangerous enemies who raided, looted, and burned Israelite cities (see 1 Sam 30).

[1:1]  ²⁷ sn Ziklag was a city in the Negev which had been given to David by Achish king of Gath. For more than a year David used it as a base from which he conducted military expeditions (see 1 Sam 27:5-12). According to 1 Sam 30:1-19, Ziklag was destroyed by the Amalekites while Saul fought the Philistines.