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 2:28

2:28 Then Joab blew the ram’s horn and all the people stopped in their tracks. ⁵  They stopped chasing Israel and ceased fighting. ⁶ 

2 Samuel 18:16

18:16 Then Joab blew the trumpet ⁷  and the army turned back from chasing Israel, for Joab had called for the army to halt.

[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.

[2:28]  ⁵ tn Heb “stood.”

[2:28]  ⁶ tn Heb “they no longer chased after Israel and they no longer fought.”

[18:16]  ⁷ tn Heb “the shophar” (the ram’s horn trumpet).