2 Samuel 13:32

13:32 Jonadab, the son of David’s brother Shimeah, said, “My lord should not say, ‘They have killed all the young men who are the king’s sons.’ For only Amnon is dead. This is what Absalom has talked about ¹  from the day that Amnon ²  humiliated his sister Tamar.

2 Samuel 17:17

17:17 Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz were staying in En Rogel. A female servant would go and inform them, and they would then go and inform King David. It was not advisable for them to be seen going into the city.

2 Samuel 23:11

23:11 Next in command ³  was Shammah son of Agee the Hararite. When the Philistines assembled at Lehi, ⁴  where there happened to be an area of a field that was full of lentils, the army retreated before the Philistines.

2 Samuel 23:17

23:17 and said, “O Lord, I will not do this! ⁵  It is equivalent to the blood of the men who risked their lives by going.” ⁶  So he refused to drink it. Such were the exploits of the three elite warriors. ⁷ 

[13:32]  ¹ tn Heb “it was placed on the mouth of Absalom.”

[13:32]  ² tn Heb “he”; the referent (Amnon) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[23:11]  ³ tn Heb “after him.”

[23:11]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew text is difficult here. The MT reads לַחַיָּה (lachayyah), which implies a rare use of the word חַיָּה (chayyah). The word normally refers to an animal, but if the MT is accepted it would here have the sense of a troop or community of people. BDB 312 s.v. II. חַיָּה, for example, understands the similar reference in v. 13 to be to “a group of allied families, making a raid together.” But this works better in v. 13 than it does in v. 11, where the context seems to suggest a particular staging location for a military operation. (See 1 Chr 11:15.) It therefore seems best to understand the word in v. 11 as a place name with ה (he) directive. In that case the Masoretes mistook the word for the common term for an animal and then tried to make sense of it in this context.

[23:17]  ⁵ tn Heb “Far be it to me, O Lord, from doing this.”

[23:17]  ⁶ tn Heb “[Is it not] the blood of the men who were going with their lives?”

[23:17]  ⁷ tn Heb “These things the three warriors did.”