2 Samuel 2:26

2:26 Then Abner called out to Joab, “Must the sword devour forever? Don’t you realize that this will turn bitter in the end? When will you tell the people to turn aside from pursuing their brothers?”

2 Samuel 3:18

3:18 Act now! For the Lord has said to David, ‘By the hand of my servant David I will save ¹  my people Israel from ²  the Philistines and from all their enemies.’”

2 Samuel 3:27

3:27 When Abner returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside at the gate as if to speak privately with him. Joab then stabbed him ³  in the abdomen and killed him, avenging the shed blood of his brother Asahel. ⁴ 

2 Samuel 4:12

4:12 So David issued orders to the soldiers and they put them to death. Then they cut off their hands and feet and hung them ⁵  near the pool in Hebron. But they took the head of Ish-bosheth ⁶  and buried it in the tomb of Abner ⁷  in Hebron. ⁸ 

2 Samuel 5:3

5:3 When all the leaders ⁹  of Israel came to the king at Hebron, King David made an agreement with them ¹⁰  in Hebron before the Lord. They designated ¹¹  David as king over Israel.

2 Samuel 5:17

Conflict with the Philistines

5:17 When the Philistines heard that David had been designated ¹²  king over Israel, they all ¹³  went up to search for David. When David heard about it, he went down to the fortress.

2 Samuel 6:2

6:2 David and all the men who were with him traveled ¹⁴  to ¹⁵  Baalah ¹⁶  in Judah to bring up from there the ark of God which is called by the name ¹⁷  of the Lord of hosts, who sits enthroned between the cherubim that are on it.

2 Samuel 7:8-9

7:8 “So now, say this to my servant David: ‘This is what the Lord of hosts says: I took you from the pasture and from your work as a shepherd ¹⁸  to make you leader of my people Israel. 7:9 I was with you wherever you went, and I defeated ¹⁹  all your enemies before you. Now I will make you as famous as the great men of the earth. ²⁰ 

2 Samuel 7:26

7:26 so you may gain lasting fame, ²¹  as people say, ²²  ‘The Lord of hosts is God over Israel!’ The dynasty ²³  of your servant David will be established before you,

2 Samuel 11:25

11:25 David said to the messenger, “Tell Joab, ‘Don’t let this thing upset you. ²⁴  There is no way to anticipate whom the sword will cut down. ²⁵  Press the battle against the city and conquer ²⁶  it.’ Encourage him with these words.” ²⁷ 

2 Samuel 12:8

12:8 I gave you your master’s house, and put your master’s wives into your arms. ²⁸  I also gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if all that somehow seems insignificant, I would have given you so much more as well!

2 Samuel 13:6

13:6 So Amnon lay down and pretended to be sick. When the king came in to see him, Amnon said to the king, “Please let my sister Tamar come in so she can make a couple of cakes in my sight. Then I will eat from her hand.”

2 Samuel 13:25

13:25 But the king said to Absalom, “No, my son. We shouldn’t all go. We shouldn’t burden you in that way.” Though Absalom ²⁹  pressed ³⁰  him, the king ³¹  was not willing to go. Instead, David ³²  blessed him.

2 Samuel 13:28

13:28 Absalom instructed his servants, “Look! When Amnon is drunk ³³  and I say to you, ‘Strike Amnon down,’ kill him then and there. Don’t fear! Is it not I who have given you these instructions? Be strong and courageous!” ³⁴ 

2 Samuel 14:13-14

14:13 The woman said, “Why have you devised something like this against God’s people? When the king speaks in this fashion, he makes himself guilty, for the king has not brought back the one he has banished. 14:14 Certainly we must die, and are like water spilled on the ground that cannot be gathered up again. But God does not take away life; instead he devises ways for the banished to be restored. ³⁵ 

2 Samuel 15:20

15:20 It seems like you arrived just yesterday. Today should I make you wander around by going with us? I go where I must go. But as for you, go back and take your men ³⁶  with you. May genuine loyal love ³⁷  protect ³⁸  you!”

2 Samuel 16:10

16:10 But the king said, “What do we have in common, ³⁹  you sons of Zeruiah? If he curses because the Lord has said to him, ‘Curse David!’, who can say to him, ‘Why have you done this?’”

2 Samuel 16:21

16:21 Ahithophel replied to Absalom, “Have sex with ⁴⁰  your father’s concubines whom he left to care for the palace. All Israel will hear that you have made yourself repulsive to your father. Then your followers will be motivated to support you.” ⁴¹ 

2 Samuel 17:8-9

17:8 Hushai went on to say, “You know your father and his men – they are soldiers and are as dangerous as a bear out in the wild that has been robbed of her cubs. ⁴²  Your father is an experienced soldier; he will not stay overnight with the army. 17:9 At this very moment he is hiding out in one of the caves or in some other similar place. If it should turn out that he attacks our troops first, ⁴³  whoever hears about it will say, ‘Absalom’s army has been slaughtered!’

2 Samuel 17:11

17:11 My advice therefore is this: Let all Israel from Dan to Beer Sheba – in number like the sand by the sea! – be mustered to you, and you lead them personally into battle.

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 18:14

18:14 Joab replied, “I will not wait around like this for you!” He took three spears in his hand and thrust them into the middle of Absalom while he was still alive in the middle of the oak tree. ⁴⁴ 

2 Samuel 18:22

18:22 Ahimaaz the son of Zadok again spoke to Joab, “Whatever happens, let me go after the Cushite.” But Joab said, “Why is it that you want to go, my son? You have no good news that will bring you a reward.”

2 Samuel 18:27

18:27 The watchman said, “It appears to me that the first runner is Ahimaaz ⁴⁵  son of Zadok.” The king said, “He is a good man, and he comes with good news.”

2 Samuel 20:1

Sheba’s Rebellion

20:1 Now a wicked man ⁴⁶  named Sheba son of Bicri, a Benjaminite, ⁴⁷  happened to be there. He blew the trumpet ⁴⁸  and said,

“We have no share in David;

we have no inheritance in this son of Jesse!

Every man go home, ⁴⁹  O Israel!”

2 Samuel 20:6

20:6 Then David said to Abishai, “Now Sheba son of Bicri will cause greater disaster for us than Absalom did! Take your lord’s servants and pursue him. Otherwise he will secure ⁵⁰  fortified cities for himself and get away from us.”

2 Samuel 21:1

The Gibeonites Demand Revenge

21:1 During David’s reign there was a famine for three consecutive years. So David inquired of the Lord. ⁵¹  The Lord said, “It is because of Saul and his bloodstained family, ⁵²  because he murdered the Gibeonites.”

2 Samuel 21:4

21:4 The Gibeonites said to him, “We ⁵³  have no claim to silver or gold from Saul or from his family, ⁵⁴  nor would we be justified in putting to death anyone in Israel.” David asked, ⁵⁵  “What then are you asking me to do for you?”

2 Samuel 21:17

21:17 But Abishai the son of Zeruiah came to David’s aid, striking the Philistine down and killing him. Then David’s men took an oath saying, “You will not go out to battle with us again! You must not extinguish the lamp of Israel!”

2 Samuel 21:19

21:19 Yet another battle occurred with the Philistines in Gob. On that occasion Elhanan the son of Jair ⁵⁶  the Bethlehemite killed the brother of Goliath the Gittite, ⁵⁷  the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.

2 Samuel 23:5

23:5 My dynasty is approved by God, ⁵⁸ 

for he has made a perpetual covenant with me,

arranged in all its particulars and secured.

He always delivers me,

and brings all I desire to fruition. ⁵⁹ 

2 Samuel 23:10

23:10 he stood his ground ⁶⁰  and fought the Philistines until his hand grew so tired that it ⁶¹  seemed stuck to his sword. The Lord gave a great victory on that day. When the army returned to him, the only thing left to do was to plunder the corpses.

2 Samuel 24:3

24:3 Joab replied to the king, “May the Lord your God make the army a hundred times larger right before the eyes of my lord the king! But why does my master the king want to do this?”

2 Samuel 24:10

24:10 David felt guilty ⁶²  after he had numbered the army. David said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly by doing this! Now, O Lord, please remove the guilt of your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.”

[3:18]  ¹ tc The present translation follows the LXX, the Syriac Peshitta, and Vulgate in reading “I will save,” rather than the MT “he saved.” The context calls for the 1st person common singular imperfect of the verb rather than the 3rd person masculine singular perfect.

[3:18]  ² tn Heb “from the hand of.”

[3:27]  ³ tn Heb “and he struck him down there [in] the stomach.”

[3:27]  ⁴ tn Heb “and he [i.e., Abner] died on account of the blood of Asahel his [i.e., Joab’s] brother.”

[4:12]  ⁵ tn The antecedent of the pronoun “them” (which is not present in the Hebrew text, but implied) is not entirely clear. Presumably it is the corpses that were hung and not merely the detached hands and feet; cf. NIV “hung the (their NRSV, NLT) bodies”; the alternative is represented by TEV “cut off their hands and feet, which they hung up.”

[4:12]  ⁶ tc 4QSam^a mistakenly reads “Mephibosheth” here.

[4:12]  ⁷ tc The LXX adds “the son of Ner” by conformity with common phraseology elsewhere.

[4:12]  ⁸ tc Some mss of the LXX lack the phrase “in Hebron.”

[5:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “elders.”

[5:3]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and the king, David, cut for them a covenant.”

[5:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “anointed.”

[5:17]  ¹² tn Heb “anointed.”

[5:17]  ¹³ tn Heb “all the Philistines.”

[6:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “arose and went.”

[6:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “from,” but the following context indicates they traveled to this location.

[6:2]  ¹⁶ tn This is another name for Kiriath-jearim (see 1 Chr 13:6).

[6:2]  ¹⁷ tc The MT has here a double reference to the name (שֵׁם שֵׁם, shem shem). Many medieval Hebrew mss in the first occurrence point the word differently and read the adverb שָׁם (sham, “there”). This is also the understanding of the Syriac Peshitta (Syr., taman). While this yields an acceptable understanding to the text, it is more likely that the MT dittographic here. The present translation therefore reads שֵׁם only once.

[7:8]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and from after the sheep.”

[7:9]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “cut off.”

[7:9]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and I will make for you a great name like the name of the great ones who are in the earth.”

[7:26]  ²¹ tn Heb “and your name might be great permanently.” Following the imperative in v. 23b, the prefixed verbal form with vav conjunctive indicates purpose/result.

[7:26]  ²² tn Heb “saying.” The words “as people” are supplied in the translation for clarification and stylistic reasons.

[7:26]  ²³ tn Heb “the house.” See the note on “dynastic house” in the following verse.

[11:25]  ²⁴ tn Heb “let not this matter be evil in your eyes.”

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

[11:25]  ²⁶ tn Heb “overthrow.”

[11:25]  ²⁷ tn The Hebrew text does not have “with these words.” They are supplied in the translation for clarity and for stylistic reasons.

[12:8]  ²⁸ tn Heb “and the wives of your lord into your chest [or “lap”].” The words “I put” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons and for clarification.

[13:25]  ²⁹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Absalom) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[13:25]  ³⁰ tc Here and in v. 27 the translation follows 4QSam^a ויצפר (vayyitspar, “and he pressed”) rather than the MT וַיִּפְרָץ (vayyiprats, “and he broke through”). This emended reading seems also to underlie the translations of the LXX (καὶ ἐβιάσατο, kai ebiasato), the Syriac Peshitta (we’alseh), and Vulgate (cogeret eum).

[13:25]  ³¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[13:25]  ³² tn Heb “he”; the referent (David) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[13:28]  ³³ tn Heb “when good is the heart of Amnon with wine.”

[13:28]  ³⁴ tn Heb “and become sons of valor.”

[14:14]  ³⁵ tn Heb “he devises plans for the one banished from him not to be banished.”

[15:20]  ³⁶ tn Heb “brothers,” but see v. 22.

[15:20]  ³⁷ tn Heb “loyal love and truth.” The expression is a hendiadys.

[15:20]  ³⁸ tn Heb “be with.”

[16:10]  ³⁹ tn Heb “What to me and to you?”

[16:21]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “go to”; NAB “have (+ sexual NCV) relations with”; TEV “have intercourse with”; NLT “Go and sleep with.”

[16:21]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “and the hands of all who are with you will be strengthened.”

[17:8]  ⁴² tc The LXX (with the exception of the recensions of Origen and Lucian) repeats the description as follows: “Just as a female bear bereft of cubs in a field.”

[17:9]  ⁴³ tn Heb “that he falls on them [i.e., Absalom’s troops] at the first [encounter]; or “that some of them [i.e., Absalom’s troops] fall at the first [encounter].”

[18:14]  ⁴⁴ tn There is a play on the word “heart” here that is difficult to reproduce in English. Literally the Hebrew text says “he took three spears in his hand and thrust them into the heart of Absalom while he was still alive in the heart of the oak tree.” This figure of speech involves the use of the same word in different senses and is known as antanaclasis. It is illustrated in the familiar saying from the time of the American Revolution: “If we don’t hang together, we will all hang separately.” The present translation understands “heart” to be used somewhat figuratively for “chest” (cf. TEV, CEV), which explains why Joab’s armor bearers could still “kill” Absalom after he had been stabbed with three spears through the “heart.” Since trees do not have “chests” either, the translation uses “middle.”

[18:27]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “I am seeing the running of the first one like the running of Ahimaaz.”

[20:1]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “a man of worthlessness.”

[20:1]  ⁴⁷ tn The expression used here יְמִינִי (yÿmini) is a short form of the more common “Benjamin.” It appears elsewhere in 1 Sam 9:4 and Esth 2:5. Cf. 1 Sam 9:1.

[20:1]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “the shophar” (the ram’s horn trumpet). So also v. 22.

[20:1]  ⁴⁹ tc The MT reads לְאֹהָלָיו (lÿ’ohalav, “to his tents”). For a similar idiom, see 19:9. An ancient scribal tradition understands the reading to be לְאלֹהָיו (le’lohav, “to his gods”). The word is a tiqqun sopherim, and the scribes indicate that they changed the word from “gods” to “tents” so as to soften its theological implications. In a consonantal Hebrew text the change involved only the metathesis of two letters.

[20:6]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “find.” The perfect verbal form is unexpected with the preceding word “otherwise.” We should probably read instead the imperfect. Although it is possible to understand the perfect here as indicating that the feared result is thought of as already having taken place (cf. BDB 814 s.v. פֶּן 2), it is more likely that the perfect is simply the result of scribal error. In this context the imperfect would be more consistent with the following verb וְהִצִּיל (vÿhitsil, “and he will get away”).

[21:1]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “sought the face of the Lord.”

[21:1]  ⁵² tn Heb “and the house of bloodshed.”

[21:4]  ⁵³ 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]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “house.”

[21:4]  ⁵⁵ tn Heb “and he said”; the referent (David) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[21:19]  ⁵⁶ tn Heb “Jaare-Oregim,” but the second word, which means “weavers,” is probably accidentally included. It appears at the end of the verse. The term is omitted in the parallel account in 1 Chr 20:5, which has simply “Jair.”

[21:19]  ⁵⁷ sn The Hebrew text as it stands reads, “Elhanan son of Jaare-Oregim the Bethlehemite killed Goliath the Gittite.” Who killed Goliath the Gittite? According to 1 Sam 17:4-58 it was David who killed Goliath, but according to the MT of 2 Sam 21:19 it was Elhanan who killed him. Many scholars believe that the two passages are hopelessly at variance with one another. Others have proposed various solutions to the difficulty, such as identifying David with Elhanan or positing the existence of two Goliaths. But in all likelihood the problem is the result of difficulties in the textual transmission of the Samuel passage; in fact, from a text-critical point of view the books of Samuel are the most poorly preserved of all the books of the Hebrew Bible. The parallel passage in 1 Chr 20:5 reads, “Elhanan son of Jair killed Lahmi the brother of Goliath.” Both versions are textually corrupt. The Chronicles text has misread “Bethlehemite” (בֵּית הַלַּחְמִי, bet hallakhmi) as the accusative sign followed by a proper name אֶת לַחְמִי (’et lakhmi). (See the note at 1 Chr 20:5.) The Samuel text misread the word for “brother” (אַח, ’akh) as the accusative sign (אֵת, ’et), thereby giving the impression that Elhanan, not David, killed Goliath. Thus in all probability the original text read, “Elhanan son of Jair the Bethlehemite killed the brother of Goliath.”

[23:5]  ⁵⁸ tn Heb “For not thus [is] my house with God?”

[23:5]  ⁵⁹ tn Heb “for all my deliverance and every desire, surely does he not make [it] grow?”

[23:10]  ⁶⁰ tn Heb “arose.”

[23:10]  ⁶¹ tn Heb “his hand.”

[24:10]  ⁶² tn Heb “and the heart of David struck him.”