2 Samuel 3:29

3:29 May his blood whirl over ¹  the head of Joab and the entire house of his father! ²  May the males of Joab’s house ³  never cease to have ⁴  someone with a running sore or a skin disease or one who works at the spindle ⁵  or one who falls by the sword or one who lacks food!”

2 Samuel 9:7

9:7 David said to him, “Don’t be afraid, because I will certainly extend kindness to you for the sake of Jonathan your father. You will be a regular guest at my table.” ⁶ 

2 Samuel 10:2

10:2 David said, “I will express my loyalty ⁷  to Hanun son of Nahash just as his father was loyal ⁸  to me.” So David sent his servants with a message expressing sympathy over his father’s death. ⁹  When David’s servants entered the land of the Ammonites,

2 Samuel 17:23

17:23 When Ahithophel realized that his advice had not been followed, he saddled his donkey and returned to his house in his hometown. After setting his household in order, he hanged himself. So he died and was buried in the grave ¹⁰  of his father.

2 Samuel 19:28

19:28 After all, there was no one in the entire house of my grandfather ¹¹  who did not deserve death from my lord the king. But instead you allowed me to eat at your own table! ¹²  What further claim do I have to ask ¹³  the king for anything?”

2 Samuel 19:37

19:37 Let me ¹⁴  return so that I may die in my own city near the grave of my father and my mother. But look, here is your servant Kimham. Let him cross over with my lord the king. Do for him whatever seems appropriate to you.”

2 Samuel 24:17

24:17 When he saw the angel who was destroying the people, David said to the Lord, “Look, it is I who have sinned and done this evil thing! As for these sheep – what have they done? Attack me and my family.” ¹⁵ 

[3:29]  ¹ 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]  ² tc 4QSam^a has “of Joab” rather than “of his father” read by the MT.

[3:29]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn Heb “and may there not be cut off from the house of Joab.”

[3:29]  ⁵ 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).

[9:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “and you will eat food over my table continually.”

[10:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “do loyalty.”

[10:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “did loyalty.”

[10:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “and David sent to console him by the hand of his servants concerning his father.”

[17:23]  ¹⁰ tc The Greek recensions of Origen and Lucian have here “house” for “grave.”

[19:28]  ¹¹ tn Heb “father.”

[19:28]  ¹² tn Heb “and you placed your servant among those who eat at your table.”

[19:28]  ¹³ tn Heb “to cry out to.”

[19:37]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “your servant.”

[24:17]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “let your hand be against me and against the house of my father.”