2 Samuel 2:5

2:5 So David sent messengers to the people of Jabesh Gilead and told them, “May you be blessed by the Lord because you have shown this kindness ¹  to your lord Saul by burying him.

2 Samuel 2:7

2:7 Now be courageous ²  and prove to be valiant warriors, for your lord Saul is dead. The people of Judah have anointed me as king over them.”

2 Samuel 3:39

3:39 Today I am weak, even though I am anointed as king. These men, the sons of Zeruiah, are too much for me to bear! ³  May the Lord punish appropriately the one who has done this evil thing!” ⁴ 

2 Samuel 6:13

6:13 Those who carried the ark of the Lord took six steps and then David ⁵  sacrificed an ox and a fatling calf.

2 Samuel 12:5

12:5 Then David became very angry at this man. He said to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this deserves to die! ⁶ 

2 Samuel 13:9

13:9 But when she took the pan and set it before him, he refused to eat. Instead Amnon said, “Get everyone out of here!” ⁷  So everyone left. ⁸ 

2 Samuel 15:10

15:10 Then Absalom sent spies through all the tribes of Israel who said, “When you hear the sound of the horn, you may assume ⁹  that Absalom rules in Hebron.”

2 Samuel 17:12

17:12 We will come against him wherever he happens to be found. We will descend on him like the dew falls on the ground. Neither he nor any of the men who are with him will be spared alive – not one of them!

2 Samuel 19:17

19:17 There were a thousand men from Benjamin with him, along with Ziba the servant ¹⁰  of Saul’s household, and with him his fifteen sons and twenty servants. They hurriedly crossed ¹¹  the Jordan within sight of the king.

2 Samuel 20:19

20:19 I represent the peaceful and the faithful in Israel. You are attempting to destroy an important city ¹²  in Israel. Why should you swallow up the Lord’s inheritance?”

2 Samuel 21:3

21:3 David said to the Gibeonites, “What can I do for you, and how can I make amends so that you will bless ¹³  the Lord’s inheritance?”

2 Samuel 23:8

David’s Warriors

23:8 These are the names of David’s warriors:

Josheb-Basshebeth, a Tahkemonite, was head of the officers. ¹⁴  He killed eight hundred men with his spear in one battle. ¹⁵ 

2 Samuel 24:1

David Displeases the Lord by Taking a Census

24:1 The Lord’s anger again raged against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, “Go count Israel and Judah.” ¹⁶ 

[2:5]  ¹ tn Or “loyalty.”

[2:7]  ² tn Heb “let your hands be strong.”

[3:39]  ³ tn Heb “are hard from me.”

[3:39]  ⁴ tn Heb “May the Lord repay the doer of the evil according to his evil” (NASB similar).

[6:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “he”; the referent (David) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[12:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “the man doing this [is] a son of death.” See 1 Sam 20:31 for another use of this expression, which must mean “he is as good as dead” or “he deserves to die,” as 1 Sam 20:32 makes clear.

[13:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “from upon me.”

[13:9]  ⁸ tc A few medieval Hebrew mss have “and they removed everyone” (Hiphil preterite with vav consecutive 3cp, rather than Qal preterite with vav consecutive 3cp).

[15:10]  ⁹ tn Heb “say.”

[19:17]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “youth.”

[19:17]  ¹¹ tn Heb “rushed into.”

[20:19]  ¹² tn Heb “a city and a mother.” The expression is a hendiadys, meaning that this city was an important one in Israel and had smaller cities dependent on it.

[21:3]  ¹³ tn After the preceding imperfect verbal form, the subordinated imperative indicates purpose/result. S. R. Driver comments, “…the imper. is used instead of the more normal voluntative, for the purpose of expressing with somewhat greater force the intention of the previous verb” (S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, 350).

[23:8]  ¹⁴ tn The Hebrew word is sometimes rendered as “the three,” but BDB is probably correct in taking it to refer to military officers (BDB 1026 s.v. שְׁלִישִׁי). In that case the etymological connection of this word to the Hebrew numerical adjective for “three” can be explained as originating with a designation for the third warrior in a chariot.

[23:8]  ¹⁵ tc The translation follows some LXX mss (see 1 Chr 11:11 as well) in reading הוּא עוֹרֵר אֶת־חֲנִיתוֹ (hu’ ’orer ’et khanito, “he raised up his spear”) rather than the MT’s הוּא עֲדִינוֹ הָעֶצְנִי (hu’ ’adino ha’etsni [Kethib = הָעֶצְנוֹ, ha’etsno]; “Adino the Ezenite”). The emended text reads literally “he was wielding his spear against eight hundred, [who were] slain at one time.”

[24:1]  ¹⁶ sn The parallel text in 1 Chr 21:1 says, “An adversary opposed Israel, inciting David to count how many warriors Israel had.” The Samuel version gives an underlying theological perspective, while the Chronicler simply describes what happened from a human perspective. The adversary in 1 Chr 21:1 is likely a human enemy, probably a nearby nation whose hostility against Israel pressured David into numbering the people so he could assess his military strength. See the note at 1 Chr 21:1.