2 Samuel 1:10

1:10 So I stood over him and put him to death, since I knew that he couldn’t live in such a condition. ¹  Then I took the crown which was on his head and the ²  bracelet which was on his arm. I have brought them here to my lord.” ³ 

2 Samuel 1:21

1:21 O mountains of Gilboa,

may there be no dew or rain on you, nor fields of grain offerings! ⁴ 

For it was there that the shield of warriors was defiled; ⁵ 

the shield of Saul lies neglected without oil. ⁶ 

2 Samuel 3:29

3:29 May his blood whirl over ⁷  the head of Joab and the entire house of his father! ⁸  May the males of Joab’s house ⁹  never cease to have ¹⁰  someone with a running sore or a skin disease or one who works at the spindle ¹¹  or one who falls by the sword or one who lacks food!”

2 Samuel 4:4

4:4 Now Saul’s son Jonathan had a son who was crippled in both feet. He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan arrived from Jezreel. His nurse picked him up and fled, but in her haste to get away, he fell and was injured. ¹²  Mephibosheth was his name.

2 Samuel 4:8

4:8 They brought the head of Ish-bosheth to David in Hebron, saying to the king, “Look! The head of Ish-bosheth son of Saul, your enemy who sought your life! The Lord has granted vengeance to my lord the king this day against ¹³  Saul and his descendants!”

2 Samuel 8:2

8:2 He defeated the Moabites. He made them lie on the ground and then used a rope to measure them off. He put two-thirds of them to death and spared the other third. ¹⁴  The Moabites became David’s subjects and brought tribute. ¹⁵ 

2 Samuel 10:3

10:3 the Ammonite officials said to their lord Hanun, “Do you really think David is trying to honor your father by sending these messengers to express his sympathy? ¹⁶  No, David has sent his servants to you to get information about the city and spy on it so they can overthrow it!” ¹⁷ 

2 Samuel 11:11

11:11 Uriah replied to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah reside in temporary shelters, and my lord Joab and my lord’s soldiers are camping in the open field. Should I go to my house to eat and drink and have marital relations ¹⁸  with my wife? As surely as you are alive, ¹⁹  I will not do this thing!”

2 Samuel 11:25

11:25 David said to the messenger, “Tell Joab, ‘Don’t let this thing upset you. ²⁰  There is no way to anticipate whom the sword will cut down. ²¹  Press the battle against the city and conquer ²²  it.’ Encourage him with these words.” ²³ 

2 Samuel 14:11

14:11 She replied, “In that case, ²⁴  let the king invoke the name of ²⁵  the Lord your God so that the avenger of blood may not kill! Then they will not destroy my son!” He replied, “As surely as the Lord lives, not a single hair of your son’s head ²⁶  will fall to the ground.”

2 Samuel 16:11

16:11 Then David said to Abishai and to all his servants, “My own son, my very own flesh and blood, ²⁷  is trying to take my life. So also now this Benjaminite! Leave him alone so that he can curse, for the Lord has spoken to him.

2 Samuel 20:12

20:12 Amasa was squirming in his own blood in the middle of the path, and this man had noticed that all the soldiers stopped. Having noticed that everyone who came across Amasa ²⁸  stopped, the man ²⁹  pulled him ³⁰  away from the path and into the field and threw a garment over him.

2 Samuel 21:4

21:4 The Gibeonites said to him, “We ³¹  have no claim to silver or gold from Saul or from his family, ³²  nor would we be justified in putting to death anyone in Israel.” David asked, ³³  “What then are you asking me to do for you?”

2 Samuel 23:18

23:18 Abishai son of Zeruiah, the brother of Joab, was head of the three. ³⁴  He killed three hundred men with his spear and gained fame among the three. ³⁵ 

[1:10]  ¹ tn Heb “after his falling”; NAB “could not survive his wound”; CEV “was too badly wounded to live much longer.”

[1:10]  ² tc The MT lacks the definite article, but this is likely due to textual corruption. It is preferable to read the alef (א) of אֶצְעָדָה (’ets’adah) as a ה (he) giving הַצְּעָדָה (hatsÿ’adah). There is no reason to think that the soldier confiscated from Saul’s dead body only one of two or more bracelets that he was wearing (cf. NLT “one of his bracelets”).

[1:10]  ³ sn The claims that the soldier is making here seem to contradict the story of Saul’s death as presented in 1 Sam 31:3-5. In that passage it appears that Saul took his own life, not that he was slain by a passerby who happened on the scene. Some scholars account for the discrepancy by supposing that conflicting accounts have been brought together in the MT. However, it is likely that the young man is here fabricating the account in a self-serving way so as to gain favor with David, or so he supposes. He probably had come across Saul’s corpse, stolen the crown and bracelet from the body, and now hopes to curry favor with David by handing over to him these emblems of Saul’s royalty. But in so doing the Amalekite greatly miscalculated David’s response to this alleged participation in Saul’s death. The consequence of his lies will instead be his own death.

[1:21]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ 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.

[3:29]  ⁷ tn Heb “and may they whirl over.” In the Hebrew text the subject of the plural verb is unexpressed. The most likely subject is Abner’s “shed blood” (v. 28), which is a masculine plural form in Hebrew. The verb חוּל (khul, “whirl”) is used with the preposition עַל (’al) only here and in Jer 23:19; 30:23.

[3:29]  ⁸ tc 4QSam^a has “of Joab” rather than “of his father” read by the MT.

[3:29]  ⁹ tn Heb “the house of Joab.” However, it is necessary to specify that David’s curse is aimed at Joab’s male descendants; otherwise it would not be clear that “one who works at the spindle” refers to a man doing woman’s work rather than a woman.

[3:29]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and may there not be cut off from the house of Joab.”

[3:29]  ¹¹ tn The expression used here is difficult. The translation “one who works at the spindle” follows a suggestion of S. R. Driver that the expression pejoratively describes an effeminate man who, rather than being a mighty warrior, is occupied with tasks that are normally fulfilled by women (S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, 250-51; cf. NAB “one unmanly”; TEV “fit only to do a woman’s work”; CEV “cowards”). But P. K. McCarter, following an alleged Phoenician usage of the noun to refer to “crutches,” adopts a different view. He translates the phrase “clings to a crutch,” seeing here a further description of physical lameness (II Samuel [AB], 118). Such an idea fits the present context well and is followed by NIV, NCV, and NLT, although the evidence for this meaning is questionable. According to DNWSI 2:915-16, the noun consistently refers to a spindle in Phoenician, as it does in Ugaritic (see UT 468).

[4:4]  ¹² tn Heb “and was lame.”

[4:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “from.”

[8:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and he measured [with] two [lengths] of rope to put to death and [with] the fullness of the rope to keep alive.”

[8:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and the Moabites were servants of David, carriers of tribute.”

[10:3]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Is David honoring your father in your eyes when he sends to you ones consoling?”

[10:3]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Is it not to explore the city and to spy on it and to overthrow it [that] David has sent his servants to you?”

[11:11]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and lay.”

[11:11]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “as you live and as your soul lives.”

[11:25]  ²⁰ tn Heb “let not this matter be evil in your eyes.”

[11:25]  ²¹ tn Heb “according to this and according to this the sword devours.”

[11:25]  ²² tn Heb “overthrow.”

[11:25]  ²³ tn The Hebrew text does not have “with these words.” They are supplied in the translation for clarity and for stylistic reasons.

[14:11]  ²⁴ tn The words “in that case” are not in the Hebrew text, but may be inferred from the context. They are supplied in the translation for the sake of clarification.

[14:11]  ²⁵ tn Heb “let the king remember.”

[14:11]  ²⁶ tn Heb “of your son.”

[16:11]  ²⁷ tn Heb “who came out from my entrails.” David’s point is that is his own son, his child whom he himself had fathered, was now wanting to kill him.

[20:12]  ²⁸ tn Heb “him”; the referent (Amasa) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[20:12]  ²⁹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the man who spoke up in v. 11) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[20:12]  ³⁰ tn Heb “Amasa.” For stylistic reasons the name has been replaced by the pronoun (“him”) in the translation.

[21:4]  ³¹ tc The translation follows the Qere and several medieval Hebrew mss in reading לָנוּ (lanu, “to us”) rather than the MT לִי (li, “to me”). But for a contrary opinion see S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, 53, 350.

[21:4]  ³² tn Heb “house.”

[21:4]  ³³ tn Heb “and he said”; the referent (David) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[23:18]  ³⁴ tc The translation follows the Qere, many medieval Hebrew mss, the LXX, and Vulgate in reading הַשְּׁלֹשָׁה (hashÿlosa, “the three”) rather than the Kethib of the MT הַשָּׁלִשִׁי (hashalisi, “the third,” or “adjutant”). Two medieval Hebrew mss and the Syriac Peshitta have “thirty.”

[23:18]  ³⁵ tn Heb “and he was wielding his spear against three hundred, [who were] slain, and to him there was a name among the three.”