2 Samuel 4:10

4:10 when someone told me that Saul was dead – even though he thought he was bringing good news ¹  – I seized him and killed him in Ziklag. That was the good news I gave to him!

2 Samuel 15:2

15:2 Now Absalom used to get up early and stand beside the road that led to the city gate. Whenever anyone came by who had a complaint to bring to the king for arbitration, Absalom would call out to him, “What city are you from?” The person would answer, “I, your servant, ²  am from one of the tribes of Israel.”

2 Samuel 17:17

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.

2 Samuel 18:18

18:18 Prior to this ³  Absalom had set up a monument ⁴  and dedicated it to himself in the King’s Valley, reasoning “I have no son who will carry on my name.” He named the monument after himself, and to this day it is known as Absalom’s Memorial.

2 Samuel 19:22

19:22 But David said, “What do we have in common, ⁵  you sons of Zeruiah? You are like my enemy today! Should anyone be put to death in Israel today? Don’t you realize that today I am king over Israel?”

2 Samuel 20:1

Sheba’s Rebellion

20:1 Now a wicked man ⁶  named Sheba son of Bicri, a Benjaminite, ⁷  happened to be there. He blew the trumpet ⁸  and said,

“We have no share in David;

we have no inheritance in this son of Jesse!

Every man go home, ⁹  O Israel!”

[4:10]  ¹ tn Heb “and he was like a bearer of good news in his eyes.”

[15:2]  ² tn Heb “your servant.” So also in vv. 8, 15, 21.

[18:18]  ³ tn Heb “and.” This disjunctive clause (conjunction + subject + verb) describes an occurrence that preceded the events just narrated.

[18:18]  ⁴ tn Heb “a pillar.”

[19:22]  ⁵ tn Heb “what to me and to you.”

[20:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “a man of worthlessness.”

[20:1]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ tn Heb “the shophar” (the ram’s horn trumpet). So also v. 22.

[20:1]  ⁹ 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.