2 Samuel 7:7-8

7:7 Wherever I moved among all the Israelites, I did not say ¹  to any of the leaders ²  whom I appointed to care for ³  my people Israel, “Why have you not built me a house made from cedar?”’

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 ⁴  to make you leader of my people Israel.

2 Samuel 7:27

7:27 for you, O Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, have told ⁵  your servant, ‘I will build you a dynastic house.’ ⁶  That is why your servant has had the courage ⁷  to pray this prayer to you.

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. ⁸  The Moabites became David’s subjects and brought tribute. ⁹ 

2 Samuel 10:19

10:19 When all the kings who were subject to Hadadezer ¹⁰  saw they were defeated by Israel, they made peace with Israel and became subjects of Israel. ¹¹  The Arameans were no longer willing to help the Ammonites.

2 Samuel 11:13

11:13 Then David summoned him. He ate and drank with him, and got him drunk. But in the evening he went out to sleep on his bed with the servants of his lord; he did not go down to his own house.

2 Samuel 15:14

15:14 So David said to all his servants who were with him in Jerusalem, ¹²  “Come on! ¹³  Let’s escape! ¹⁴  Otherwise no one will be delivered from Absalom! Go immediately, or else he will quickly overtake us and bring ¹⁵  disaster on us and kill the city’s residents with the sword.” ¹⁶ 

2 Samuel 16:2

16:2 The king asked Ziba, “Why did you bring these things?” ¹⁷  Ziba replied, “The donkeys are for the king’s family to ride on, the loaves of bread ¹⁸  and the summer fruit are for the attendants to eat, and the wine is for those who get exhausted in the desert.” ¹⁹ 

2 Samuel 17:8

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. ²⁰  Your father is an experienced soldier; he will not stay overnight with the army.

2 Samuel 17:13

17:13 If he regroups in a city, all Israel will take up ropes to that city and drag it down to the valley, so that not a single pebble will be left there!”

2 Samuel 17:17-18

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. 17:18 But a young man saw them on one occasion and informed Absalom. So the two of them quickly departed and went to the house of a man in Bahurim. There was a well in his courtyard, and they got down in it.

2 Samuel 17:21

17:21 After the men had left, Ahimaaz and Jonathan ²¹  climbed out of the well. Then they left and informed King David. They advised David, “Get up and cross the stream ²²  quickly, for Ahithophel has devised a plan to catch you.” ²³ 

2 Samuel 18:2

18:2 David then sent out the army – a third under the leadership of Joab, a third under the leadership of Joab’s brother Abishai son of Zeruiah, and a third under the leadership of Ittai the Gittite. The king said to the troops, “I too will indeed march out with you.”

2 Samuel 19:9

19:9 All the people throughout all the tribes of Israel were arguing among themselves saying, “The king delivered us from the hand of our enemies. He rescued us from the hand of the Philistines, but now he has fled from the land because of Absalom.

2 Samuel 20:3

20:3 Then David went to his palace ²⁴  in Jerusalem. The king took the ten concubines he had left to care for the palace and placed them under confinement. ²⁵  Though he provided for their needs, he did not have sexual relations with them. ²⁶  They remained in confinement until the day they died, living out the rest of their lives as widows.

2 Samuel 20:8

20:8 When they were near the big rock that is in Gibeon, Amasa came to them. Now Joab was dressed in military attire and had a dagger in its sheath belted to his waist. When he advanced, it fell out. ²⁷ 

2 Samuel 20:15

20:15 So Joab’s men ²⁸  came and laid siege against him in Abel of Beth Maacah. They prepared a siege ramp outside the city which stood against its outer rampart. As all of Joab’s soldiers were trying to break through ²⁹  the wall so that it would collapse,

2 Samuel 20:21-22

20:21 That’s not the way things are. There is a man from the hill country of Ephraim named Sheba son of Bicri. He has rebelled ³⁰  against King David. Give me just this one man, and I will leave the city.” The woman said to Joab, “This very minute ³¹  his head will be thrown over the wall to you!”

20:22 Then the woman went to all the people with her wise advice and they cut off Sheba’s head and threw it out to Joab. Joab ³²  blew the trumpet, and his men ³³  dispersed from the city, each going to his own home. ³⁴  Joab returned to the king in Jerusalem.

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 23:10

23:10 he stood his ground ³⁵  and fought the Philistines until his hand grew so tired that it ³⁶  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 23:17

23:17 and said, “O Lord, I will not do this! ³⁷  It is equivalent to the blood of the men who risked their lives by going.” ³⁸  So he refused to drink it. Such were the exploits of the three elite warriors. ³⁹ 

[7:7]  ¹ tn Heb “Did I speak a word?” In the Hebrew text the statement is phrased as a rhetorical question.

[7:7]  ² tn Heb “tribes” (so KJV, NASB, NCV), but the parallel passage in 1 Chr 17:6 has “judges.”

[7:7]  ³ tn Heb “whom I commanded to shepherd” (so NIV, NRSV).

[7:8]  ⁴ tn Heb “and from after the sheep.”

[7:27]  ⁵ tn Heb “have uncovered the ear of.”

[7:27]  ⁶ tn Heb “a house.” This maintains the wordplay from v. 11 (see the note on the word “house” there) and is continued in v. 29.

[7:27]  ⁷ tn Heb “has found his heart.”

[8:2]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ tn Heb “and the Moabites were servants of David, carriers of tribute.”

[10:19]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the servants of Hadadezer.”

[10:19]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and they served them.”

[15:14]  ¹² map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[15:14]  ¹³ tn Heb “Arise!”

[15:14]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “let’s flee.”

[15:14]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “thrust.”

[15:14]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and strike the city with the edge of the sword.”

[16:2]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “What are these to you?”

[16:2]  ¹⁸ tc The translation follows the Qere and many medieval Hebrew mss in reading וְהַלֶּחֶם (vÿhallekhem, “and the bread”) rather than וּלְהַלֶּחֶם (ulÿhallekhem, “and to the bread”) of the Kethib. The syntax of the MT is confused here by the needless repetition of the preposition, probably taken from the preceding word.

[16:2]  ¹⁹ tn The Hebrew text adds “to drink.”

[17:8]  ²⁰ 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.”

[17:21]  ²¹ tn Heb “they”; the referents (Ahimaaz and Jonathan) have been specified in the translation for clarity.

[17:21]  ²² tn Heb “the water.”

[17:21]  ²³ tn Heb “for thus Ahithophel has devised against you.” The expression “thus” is narrative shorthand, referring to the plan outlined by Ahithophel (see vv. 1-3). The men would surely have outlined the plan in as much detail as they had been given by the messenger.

[20:3]  ²⁴ tn Heb “house.”

[20:3]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and he placed them in a guarded house.”

[20:3]  ²⁶ tn Heb “he did not come to them”; NAB “has no further relations with them”; NIV “did not lie with them”; TEV “did not have intercourse with them”; NLT “would no longer sleep with them.”

[20:8]  ²⁷ sn The significance of the statement it fell out here is unclear. If the dagger fell out of its sheath before Joab got to Amasa, how then did he kill him? Josephus, Ant. 7.11.7 (7.284), suggested that as Joab approached Amasa he deliberately caused the dagger to fall to the ground at an opportune moment as though by accident. When he bent over and picked it up, he then stabbed Amasa with it. Others have tried to make a case for thinking that two swords are referred to – the one that fell out and another that Joab kept concealed until the last moment. But nothing in the text clearly supports this view. Perhaps Josephus’ understanding is best, but it is by no means obvious in the text either.

[20:15]  ²⁸ tn Heb “they.” The following context makes it clear that this refers to Joab and his army.

[20:15]  ²⁹ tc The LXX has here ἐνοοῦσαν (enoousan, “were devising”), which apparently presupposes the Hebrew word מַחֲשָׁבִים (makhashavim) rather than the MT מַשְׁחִיתִם (mashkhitim, “were destroying”). With a number of other scholars Driver thinks that the Greek variant may preserve the original reading, but this seems to be an unnecessary conclusion (but see S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, 346).

[20:21]  ³⁰ tn Heb “lifted his hand.”

[20:21]  ³¹ tn Heb “Look!”

[20:22]  ³² tn Heb “he”; the referent (Joab) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[20:22]  ³³ tn Heb “they”; the referent (Joab’s men) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[20:22]  ³⁴ tn Heb “his tents.”

[23:10]  ³⁵ tn Heb “arose.”

[23:10]  ³⁶ tn Heb “his hand.”

[23:17]  ³⁷ tn Heb “Far be it to me, O Lord, from doing this.”

[23:17]  ³⁸ tn Heb “[Is it not] the blood of the men who were going with their lives?”

[23:17]  ³⁹ tn Heb “These things the three warriors did.”