2 Samuel 7:7

7:7 Wherever I moved among all the Israelites, I did not say ¹  to any of the leaders ²  whom I appointed to care for ³  my people Israel, “Why have you not built me a house made from cedar?”’

2 Samuel 7:1

The Lord Establishes a Covenant with David

7:1 The king settled into his palace, ⁴  for the Lord gave him relief ⁵  from all his enemies on all sides. ⁶ 

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, ⁷  and a container of wine.

2 Samuel 16:12-13

16:12 Perhaps the Lord will notice my affliction ⁸  and this day grant me good in place of his curse.” ⁹ 

16:13 So David and his men went on their way. But Shimei kept going along the side of the hill opposite him, yelling curses as he threw stones and dirt at them. ¹⁰ 

2 Samuel 1:1

David Learns of the Deaths of Saul and Jonathan

1:1 After the death of Saul, ¹¹  when David had returned from defeating the Amalekites, ¹²  he stayed at Ziklag ¹³  for two days.

Psalms 78:70-72

78:70 He chose David, his servant,

and took him from the sheepfolds.

78:71 He took him away from following the mother sheep, ¹⁴ 

and made him the shepherd of Jacob, his people,

and of Israel, his chosen nation. ¹⁵ 

78:72 David ¹⁶  cared for them with pure motives; ¹⁷ 

he led them with skill. ¹⁸ 

Isaiah 40:11

40:11 Like a shepherd he tends his flock;

he gathers up the lambs with his arm;

he carries them close to his heart; ¹⁹ 

he leads the ewes along.

Ezekiel 34:23

34:23 I will set one shepherd over them, and he will feed them – namely, my servant David. ²⁰  He will feed them and will be their shepherd.

Ezekiel 37:24-25

37:24 “‘My servant David will be king over them; there will be one shepherd for all of them. They will follow ²¹  my regulations and carefully observe my statutes. ²²  37:25 They will live in the land I gave to my servant Jacob, in which your fathers lived; they will live in it – they and their children and their grandchildren forever. David my servant will be prince over them forever.

Micah 5:4

5:4 He will assume his post ²³  and shepherd the people ²⁴  by the Lord’s strength,

by the sovereign authority of the Lord his God. ²⁵ 

They will live securely, ²⁶  for at that time he will be honored ²⁷ 

even in the distant regions of ²⁸  the earth.

Matthew 2:6

2:6 ‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,

are in no way least among the rulers of Judah,

for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’” ²⁹ 

John 10:3-4

10:3 The doorkeeper ³⁰  opens the door ³¹  for him, ³²  and the sheep hear his voice. He ³³  calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. ³⁴  10:4 When he has brought all his own sheep ³⁵  out, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they recognize ³⁶  his voice.

John 10:11

10:11 “I am the good ³⁷  shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life ³⁸  for the sheep.

[7:7]  ¹ tn Heb “Did I speak a word?” In the Hebrew text the statement is phrased as a rhetorical question.

[7:7]  ² tn Heb “tribes” (so KJV, NASB, NCV), but the parallel passage in 1 Chr 17:6 has “judges.”

[7:7]  ³ tn Heb “whom I commanded to shepherd” (so NIV, NRSV).

[7:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “house” (also in the following verse).

[7:1]  ⁵ tn Or “rest.”

[7:1]  ⁶ tn The translation understands the disjunctive clause in v. 1b as circumstantial-causal.

[16:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “a hundred summer fruit.”

[16:12]  ⁸ tc The Hebrew text is difficult here. It is probably preferable to read with the LXX, the Syriac Peshitta, and Vulgate בְּעוֹנִי (bÿ’onyi, “on my affliction”) rather than the Kethib of the MT בָּעַוֹנִי (ba’avoni, “on my wrongdoing”). While this Kethib reading is understandable as an objective genitive (i.e., “the wrong perpetrated upon me”), it does not conform to normal Hebrew idiom for this idea. The Qere of the MT בְּעֵינֵי (bÿ’eni, “on my eyes”), usually taken as synecdoche to mean “my tears,” does not commend itself as a likely meaning. The Hebrew word is one of the so-called tiqqune sopherim, or “emendations of the scribes.”

[16:12]  ⁹ tn Heb “and the Lord will restore to me good in place of his curse this day.”

[16:13]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and he cursed and threw stones, opposite him, pelting [them] with dirt.” The offline vÿqatal construction in the last clause indicates an action that was complementary to the action described in the preceding clause. He simultaneously threw stones and dirt.

[1:1]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ 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.

[78:71]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “from after the ewes he brought him.”

[78:71]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “to shepherd Jacob, his people, and Israel, his inheritance.”

[78:72]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “He”; the referent (David, God’s chosen king, mentioned in v. 70) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[78:72]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart.”

[78:72]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and with the understanding of his hands he led them.”

[40:11]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “in his bosom” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV), an expression which reflects closeness and protective care.

[34:23]  ²⁰ sn The messianic king is here called “David” (see Jer 30:9 and Hos 3:5, as well as Isa 11:1 and Mic 5:2) because he will fulfill the Davidic royal ideal depicted in the prophets and royal psalms (see Ps 2, 89).

[37:24]  ²¹ tn Heb “walk [in].”

[37:24]  ²² tn Heb “and my statutes they will guard and they will do them.”

[5:4]  ²³ tn Heb “stand up”; NAB “stand firm”; NASB “will arise.”

[5:4]  ²⁴ tn The words “the people” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[5:4]  ²⁵ tn Heb “by the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.”

[5:4]  ²⁶ tn The words “in peace” are supplied in the translation for clarification. Perhaps וְיָשָׁבוּ (vÿyashavu, “and they will live”) should be emended to וְשָׁבוּ (vÿshavu, “and they will return”).

[5:4]  ²⁷ tn Heb “be great.”

[5:4]  ²⁸ tn Or “to the ends of.”

[2:6]  ²⁹ sn A quotation from Mic 5:2.

[10:3]  ³⁰ tn Or “porter” (British English).

[10:3]  ³¹ tn The words “the door” are not in the Greek text but are implied. Direct objects in Greek were often omitted when clear from the context.

[10:3]  ³² tn Grk “For this one.”

[10:3]  ³³ tn Grk “And he.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

[10:3]  ³⁴ sn He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. Some interpreters have suggested that there was more than one flock in the fold, and there would be a process of separation where each shepherd called out his own flock. This may also be suggested by the mention of a doorkeeper in v. 3 since only the larger sheepfolds would have such a guard. But the Gospel of John never mentions a distinction among the sheep in this fold; in fact (10:16) there are other sheep which are to be brought in, but they are to be one flock and one shepherd.

[10:4]  ³⁵ tn The word “sheep” is not in the Greek text, but is implied.

[10:4]  ³⁶ tn Grk “because they know.”

[10:11]  ³⁷ tn Or “model” (see R. E. Brown, John [AB], 1:386, who argues that “model” is a more exact translation of καλός [kalos] here).

[10:11]  ³⁸ tn Or “The good shepherd dies willingly.”