2 Samuel 1:5

1:5 David said to the young man ¹  who was telling him this, “How do you know that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead?” ² 

2 Samuel 1:11

1:11 David then grabbed his own clothes ³  and tore them, as did all the men who were with him.

2 Samuel 1:19

1:19 The beauty ⁴  of Israel lies slain on your high places!

How the mighty have fallen!

2 Samuel 17:24

17:24 Meanwhile David had gone to Mahanaim, while Absalom and all the men of Israel had crossed the Jordan River.

2 Samuel 20:5

20:5 So Amasa went out to call Judah together. But in doing so he took longer than the time that the king had allotted him.

2 Samuel 22:30

22:30 Indeed, ⁵ with your help ⁶  I can charge ⁷  against an army; ⁸ 

by my God’s power ⁹  I can jump over a wall. ¹⁰ 

[1:5]  ¹ 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]  ² 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.”

[1:11]  ³ tc The present translation follows the Qere and many medieval Hebrew mss in reading “his garments,” rather than “his garment,” the reading of the Kethib.

[1:19]  ⁴ sn The word beauty is used figuratively here to refer to Saul and Jonathan.

[22:30]  ⁵ tn Or “for.” The translation assumes that כִּי (ki) is asseverative here.

[22:30]  ⁶ tn Heb “by you.”

[22:30]  ⁷ tn Heb “I will run.” The imperfect verbal forms in v. 30 indicate the subject’s potential or capacity to perform an action. Though one might expect a preposition to follow the verb here, this need not be the case with the verb רוּץ (ruts; see 1 Sam 17:22). Some emend the Qal to a Hiphil form of the verb and translate, “I put to flight [literally, “cause to run”] an army.”

[22:30]  ⁸ tn More specifically, the noun refers to a raiding party or to a contingent of troops (see HALOT 177 s.v. II גְדוּד). The picture of a divinely empowered warrior charging against an army in almost superhuman fashion appears elsewhere in ancient Near Eastern literature. See R. B. Chisholm, “An Exegetical and Theological Study of Psalm 18/2 Samuel 22” (Th.D. diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 1983), 228.

[22:30]  ⁹ tn Heb “by my God.”

[22:30]  ¹⁰ tn David uses hyperbole to emphasize his God-given military superiority.