2 Samuel 15:19

15:19 Then the king said to Ittai the Gittite, “Why should you come with us? Go back and stay with the new ¹  king, for you are a foreigner and an exile from your own country. ² 

2 Samuel 18:17

18:17 They took Absalom, threw him into a large pit in the forest, and stacked a huge pile of stones over him. In the meantime all the Israelite soldiers fled to their homes. ³ 

2 Samuel 14:14

14:14 Certainly we must die, and are like water spilled on the ground that cannot be gathered up again. But God does not take away life; instead he devises ways for the banished to be restored. ⁴ 

2 Samuel 23:6

23:6 But evil people are like thorns –

all of them are tossed away,

for they cannot be held in the hand.

2 Samuel 14:13

14:13 The woman said, “Why have you devised something like this against God’s people? When the king speaks in this fashion, he makes himself guilty, for the king has not brought back the one he has banished.

2 Samuel 23:17

23:17 and said, “O Lord, I will not do this! ⁵  It is equivalent to the blood of the men who risked their lives by going.” ⁶  So he refused to drink it. Such were the exploits of the three elite warriors. ⁷ 

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. ⁸ 

2 Samuel 1:21

1:21 O mountains of Gilboa,

may there be no dew or rain on you, nor fields of grain offerings! ⁹ 

For it was there that the shield of warriors was defiled; ¹⁰ 

the shield of Saul lies neglected without oil. ¹¹ 

[15:19]  ¹ tn The word “new” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation to make it clear that David refers to Absalom, not himself.

[15:19]  ² tn Heb “place.”

[18:17]  ³ tn Heb “and all Israel fled, each to his tent.” In this context this refers to the supporters of Absalom (see vv. 6-7, 16).

[14:14]  ⁴ tn Heb “he devises plans for the one banished from him not to be banished.”

[23:17]  ⁵ tn Heb “Far be it to me, O Lord, from doing this.”

[23:17]  ⁶ tn Heb “[Is it not] the blood of the men who were going with their lives?”

[23:17]  ⁷ tn Heb “These things the three warriors did.”

[18:14]  ⁸ 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.”

[1:21]  ⁹ tc Instead of the MT’s “fields of grain offerings” the Lucianic recension of the LXX reads “your high places are mountains of death.” Cf. the Old Latin montes mortis (“mountains of death”).

[1:21]  ¹⁰ tn This is the only biblical occurrence of the Niphal of the verb גָּעַל (ga’al). This verb usually has the sense of “to abhor” or “loathe.” But here it seems to refer to the now dirty and unprotected condition of a previously well-maintained instrument of battle.

[1:21]  ¹¹ tc It is preferable to read here Hebrew מָשׁוּחַ (mashuakh) with many Hebrew mss, rather than מָשִׁיחַ (mashiakh) of the MT. Although the Syriac Peshitta understands the statement to pertain to Saul, the point here is not that Saul is not anointed. Rather, it is the shield of Saul that lies discarded and is no longer anointed. In ancient Near Eastern practice a warrior’s shield that was in normal use would have to be anointed regularly in order to ensure that the leather did not become dry and brittle. Like other warriors of his day Saul would have carefully maintained his tools of trade. But now that he is dead, the once-cared-for shield of the mighty warrior lies sadly discarded and woefully neglected, a silent but eloquent commentary on how different things are now compared to the way they were during Saul’s lifetime.