2 Samuel 20:1

Sheba’s Rebellion

20:1 Now a wicked man ¹  named Sheba son of Bicri, a Benjaminite, ²  happened to be there. He blew the trumpet ³  and said,

“We have no share in David;

we have no inheritance in this son of Jesse!

Every man go home, ⁴  O Israel!”

2 Samuel 20:22

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 ⁵  blew the trumpet, and his men ⁶  dispersed from the city, each going to his own home. ⁷  Joab returned to the king in Jerusalem.

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

[20:1]  ² 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]  ³ tn Heb “the shophar” (the ram’s horn trumpet). So also v. 22.

[20:1]  ⁴ 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.

[20:22]  ⁵ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Joab) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[20:22]  ⁶ tn Heb “they”; the referent (Joab’s men) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[20:22]  ⁷ tn Heb “his tents.”