2 Samuel 3:39

3:39 Today I am weak, even though I am anointed as king. These men, the sons of Zeruiah, are too much for me to bear! ¹  May the Lord punish appropriately the one who has done this evil thing!” ² 

2 Samuel 18:5

18:5 The king gave this order to Joab, Abishai, and Ittai: “For my sake deal gently with the young man Absalom.” Now the entire army was listening when the king gave all the leaders this order concerning Absalom.

2 Samuel 18:12

18:12 The man replied to Joab, “Even if ³  I were receiving ⁴  a thousand pieces of silver, ⁵  I would not strike ⁶  the king’s son! In our very presence ⁷  the king gave this order to you and Abishai and Ittai, ‘Protect the young man Absalom for my sake.’ ⁸ 

2 Samuel 18:14

18:14 Joab replied, “I will not wait around like this for you!” He took three spears in his hand and thrust them into the middle of Absalom while he was still alive in the middle of the oak tree. ⁹ 

2 Samuel 19:5-7

19:5 So Joab visited ¹⁰  the king at his home. He said, “Today you have embarrassed all your servants who have saved your life this day, as well as the lives of your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your concubines. 19:6 You seem to love your enemies and hate your friends! For you have as much as declared today that leaders and servants don’t matter to you. I realize now ¹¹  that if ¹²  Absalom were alive and all of us were dead today, ¹³  it would be all right with you. 19:7 So get up now and go out and give some encouragement to ¹⁴  your servants. For I swear by the Lord that if you don’t go out there, not a single man will stay here with you tonight! This disaster will be worse for you than any disaster that has overtaken you from your youth right to the present time!”

[3:39]  ¹ tn Heb “are hard from me.”

[3:39]  ² tn Heb “May the Lord repay the doer of the evil according to his evil” (NASB similar).

[18:12]  ³ tc The translation follows the Qere and many medieval Hebrew mss in reading וְלוּ (vÿlu, “and if”) rather than MT וְלֹא (vÿlo’, “and not”).

[18:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “weighing out in my hand.”

[18:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “a thousand [shekels] of silver.” This would have been about 25 pounds (11.4 kg) of silver by weight.

[18:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “extend my hand against.”

[18:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “in our ears.”

[18:12]  ⁸ tc The Hebrew text is very difficult here. The MT reads מִי (mi, “who”), apparently yielding the following sense: “Show care, whoever you might be, for the youth Absalom.” The Syriac Peshitta reads li (“for me”), the Hebrew counterpart of which may also lie behind the LXX rendering μοι (moi, “for me”). This reading seems preferable here, since it restores sense to the passage and most easily explains the rise of the variant.

[18:14]  ⁹ tn There is a play on the word “heart” here that is difficult to reproduce in English. Literally the Hebrew text says “he took three spears in his hand and thrust them into the heart of Absalom while he was still alive in the heart of the oak tree.” This figure of speech involves the use of the same word in different senses and is known as antanaclasis. It is illustrated in the familiar saying from the time of the American Revolution: “If we don’t hang together, we will all hang separately.” The present translation understands “heart” to be used somewhat figuratively for “chest” (cf. TEV, CEV), which explains why Joab’s armor bearers could still “kill” Absalom after he had been stabbed with three spears through the “heart.” Since trees do not have “chests” either, the translation uses “middle.”

[19:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “came to.”

[19:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “today.”

[19:6]  ¹² tc The translation follows the Qere, 4QSam^a, and many medieval Hebrew mss in reading לוּ (lu, “if”) rather than MT לֹא (lo’, “not”).

[19:6]  ¹³ tc The Lucianic Greek recension and Syriac Peshitta lack “today.”

[19:7]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and speak to the heart of.”