2 Samuel 1:2

1:2 On the third day a man arrived from the camp of Saul with his clothes torn and dirt on his head. ¹  When he approached David, the man ²  threw himself to the ground. ³ 

2 Samuel 3:24

3:24 So Joab went to the king and said, “What have you done? Abner ⁴  has come to you! Why would you send him away? Now he’s gone on his way! ⁵ 

2 Samuel 6:13

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

2 Samuel 7:18

David Offers a Prayer to God

7:18 King David went in, sat before the Lord, and said, “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my family, ⁷  that you should have brought me to this point?

2 Samuel 11:10

11:10 So they informed David, “Uriah has not gone down to his house.” So David said to Uriah, “Haven’t you just arrived from a journey? Why haven’t you gone down to your house?”

2 Samuel 11:19

11:19 He instructed the messenger as follows: “When you finish giving the battle report to the king,

2 Samuel 11:23

11:23 The messenger said to David, “The men overpowered us and attacked us ⁸  in the field. But we forced them to retreat all the way ⁹  to the door of the city gate.

2 Samuel 12:21

12:21 His servants said to him, “What is this that you have done? While ¹⁰  the child was still alive, you fasted and wept. Once the child was dead you got up and ate food!”

2 Samuel 14:9

14:9 The Tekoan woman said to the king, “My lord the king, let any blame fall on me and on the house of my father. But let the king and his throne be innocent!”

2 Samuel 15:21

15:21 But Ittai replied to the king, “As surely as the Lord lives and as my lord the king lives, wherever my lord the king is, whether dead or alive, ¹¹  there I ¹²  will be as well!”

2 Samuel 15:31

15:31 Now David ¹³  had been told, “Ahithophel has sided with the conspirators who are with Absalom. So David prayed, ¹⁴  “Make the advice of Ahithophel foolish, O Lord!”

2 Samuel 16:3-4

16:3 The king asked, “Where is your master’s grandson?” ¹⁵  Ziba replied to the king, “He remains in Jerusalem, ¹⁶  for he said, ‘Today the house of Israel will give back to me my grandfather’s ¹⁷  kingdom.’” 16:4 The king said to Ziba, “Everything that was Mephibosheth’s now belongs to you.” Ziba replied, “I bow before you. May I find favor in your sight, my lord the king.”

2 Samuel 16:18

16:18 Hushai replied to Absalom, “No, I will be loyal to the one whom the Lord, these people, and all the men of Israel have chosen. ¹⁸ 

2 Samuel 18:31

18:31 Then the Cushite arrived and said, ¹⁹  “May my lord the king now receive the good news! The Lord has vindicated you today and delivered you from the hand of all who have rebelled against you!” ²⁰ 

2 Samuel 19:14

19:14 He ²¹  won over the hearts of all the men of Judah as though they were one man. Then they sent word to the king saying, “Return, you and all your servants as well.”

2 Samuel 19:19

19:19 He said to the king, “Don’t think badly of me, my lord, and don’t recall the sin of your servant on the day when you, my lord the king, left ²²  Jerusalem! ²³  Please don’t call it to mind!

2 Samuel 21:5

21:5 They replied to the king, “As for this man who exterminated us and who schemed against us so that we were destroyed and left without status throughout all the borders of Israel –

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 24:9

24:9 Joab reported the number of warriors ²⁴  to the king. In Israel there were 800,000 sword-wielding warriors, and in Judah there were 500,000 soldiers.

[1:2]  ¹ sn Tearing one’s clothing and throwing dirt on one’s head were outward expressions of grief in the ancient Near East, where such demonstrable reactions were a common response to tragic news.

[1:2]  ² tn Heb “he”; the referent (the man mentioned at the beginning of v. 2) has been specified in the translation to avoid confusion as to who fell to the ground.

[1:2]  ³ tn Heb “he fell to the ground and did obeisance.”

[3:24]  ⁴ tn Heb “Look, Abner.”

[3:24]  ⁵ tc The LXX adds “in peace.”

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

[7:18]  ⁷ tn Heb “house.”

[11:23]  ⁸ tn Heb “and came out to us.”

[11:23]  ⁹ tn Heb “but we were on them.”

[12:21]  ¹⁰ tc For the MT בַּעֲבוּר (ba’avur, “for the sake of”) we should probably read בְּעוֹד (bÿ’od, “while”). See the Lucianic Greek recension, the Syriac Peshitta, and the Targum.

[15:21]  ¹¹ tn Heb “whether for death or for life.”

[15:21]  ¹² tn Heb “your servant.”

[15:31]  ¹³ tc The translation follows 4QSam^a, part of the Greek tradition, the Syriac Peshitta, Targum, and Vulgate uldavid in reading “and to David,” rather than MT וְדָוִד (vÿdavid, “and David”). As Driver points out, the Hebrew verb הִגִּיד (higgid, “he related”) never uses the accusative for the person to whom something is told (S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, 316).

[15:31]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “said.”

[16:3]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “son.”

[16:3]  ¹⁶ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[16:3]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “my father’s.”

[16:18]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “No for with the one whom the Lord has chosen, and this people, and all the men of Israel, I will be and with him I will stay.” The translation follows the Qere and several medieval Hebrew mss in reading לוֹ (lo, “[I will be] to him”) rather than the MT לֹא (lo’, “[I will] not be”), which makes very little sense here.

[18:31]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “And look, the Cushite came and the Cushite said.”

[18:31]  ²⁰ tn Heb “for the Lord has vindicated you today from the hand of all those rising against you.”

[19:14]  ²¹ tn The referent of “he” is not entirely clear: cf. NCV “David”; TEV “David’s words”; NRSV, NLT “Amasa.”

[19:19]  ²² tn Though this verb in the MT is 3rd person masculine singular, it should probably be read as 2nd person masculine singular. It is one of fifteen places where the Masoretes placed a dot over each of the letters of the word in question in order to call attention to their suspicion of the word. Their concern in this case apparently had to do with the fact that this verb and the two preceding verbs alternate from third person to second and back again to third. Words marked in this way in Hebrew manuscripts or printed editions are said to have puncta extrordinaria, or “extraordinary points.”

[19:19]  ²³ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[24:9]  ²⁴ tn Heb “and Joab gave the number of the numbering of the people.”