2 Samuel 2:1

David is Anointed King

2:1 Afterward David inquired of the Lord, “Should I go up to one of the cities of Judah?” The Lord told him, “Go up.” David asked, “Where should I go?” The Lord replied, ¹  “To Hebron.”

2 Samuel 3:29

3:29 May his blood whirl over ²  the head of Joab and the entire house of his father! ³  May the males of Joab’s house ⁴  never cease to have ⁵  someone with a running sore or a skin disease or one who works at the spindle ⁶  or one who falls by the sword or one who lacks food!”

2 Samuel 12:8

12:8 I gave you your master’s house, and put your master’s wives into your arms. ⁷  I also gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if all that somehow seems insignificant, I would have given you so much more as well!

2 Samuel 12:11

12:11 This is what the Lord says: ‘I am about to bring disaster on you ⁸  from inside your own household! ⁹  Right before your eyes I will take your wives and hand them over to your companion. ¹⁰  He will have sexual relations with ¹¹  your wives in broad daylight! ¹² 

2 Samuel 16:11

16:11 Then David said to Abishai and to all his servants, “My own son, my very own flesh and blood, ¹³  is trying to take my life. So also now this Benjaminite! Leave him alone so that he can curse, for the Lord has spoken to him.

2 Samuel 17:8

17:8 Hushai went on to say, “You know your father and his men – they are soldiers and are as dangerous as a bear out in the wild that has been robbed of her cubs. ¹⁴  Your father is an experienced soldier; he will not stay overnight with the army.

2 Samuel 17:20

17:20 When the servants of Absalom approached the woman at her home, they asked, “Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan?” The woman replied to them, “They crossed over the stream.” Absalom’s men ¹⁵  searched but did not find them, so they returned to Jerusalem. ¹⁶ 

2 Samuel 19:5-6

19:5 So Joab visited ¹⁷  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 ¹⁸  that if ¹⁹  Absalom were alive and all of us were dead today, ²⁰  it would be all right with you.

2 Samuel 20:6

20:6 Then David said to Abishai, “Now Sheba son of Bicri will cause greater disaster for us than Absalom did! Take your lord’s servants and pursue him. Otherwise he will secure ²¹  fortified cities for himself and get away from us.”

[2:1]  ¹ tn Heb “he said.” The referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity and for stylistic reasons.

[3:29]  ² tn Heb “and may they whirl over.” In the Hebrew text the subject of the plural verb is unexpressed. The most likely subject is Abner’s “shed blood” (v. 28), which is a masculine plural form in Hebrew. The verb חוּל (khul, “whirl”) is used with the preposition עַל (’al) only here and in Jer 23:19; 30:23.

[3:29]  ³ tc 4QSam^a has “of Joab” rather than “of his father” read by the MT.

[3:29]  ⁴ tn Heb “the house of Joab.” However, it is necessary to specify that David’s curse is aimed at Joab’s male descendants; otherwise it would not be clear that “one who works at the spindle” refers to a man doing woman’s work rather than a woman.

[3:29]  ⁵ tn Heb “and may there not be cut off from the house of Joab.”

[3:29]  ⁶ tn The expression used here is difficult. The translation “one who works at the spindle” follows a suggestion of S. R. Driver that the expression pejoratively describes an effeminate man who, rather than being a mighty warrior, is occupied with tasks that are normally fulfilled by women (S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, 250-51; cf. NAB “one unmanly”; TEV “fit only to do a woman’s work”; CEV “cowards”). But P. K. McCarter, following an alleged Phoenician usage of the noun to refer to “crutches,” adopts a different view. He translates the phrase “clings to a crutch,” seeing here a further description of physical lameness (II Samuel [AB], 118). Such an idea fits the present context well and is followed by NIV, NCV, and NLT, although the evidence for this meaning is questionable. According to DNWSI 2:915-16, the noun consistently refers to a spindle in Phoenician, as it does in Ugaritic (see UT 468).

[12:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “and the wives of your lord into your chest [or “lap”].” The words “I put” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons and for clarification.

[12:11]  ⁸ tn Heb “raise up against you disaster.”

[12:11]  ⁹ tn Heb “house” (so NAB, NRSV); NCV, TEV, CEV “family.”

[12:11]  ¹⁰ tn Or “friend.”

[12:11]  ¹¹ tn Heb “will lie with” (so NIV, NRSV); TEV “will have intercourse with”; CEV, NLT “will go to bed with.”

[12:11]  ¹² tn Heb “in the eyes of this sun.”

[16:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “who came out from my entrails.” David’s point is that is his own son, his child whom he himself had fathered, was now wanting to kill him.

[17:8]  ¹⁴ tc The LXX (with the exception of the recensions of Origen and Lucian) repeats the description as follows: “Just as a female bear bereft of cubs in a field.”

[17:20]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “they”; the referents (Absalom’s men) have been specified in the translation for clarity.

[17:20]  ¹⁶ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[19:5]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “came to.”

[19:6]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “today.”

[19:6]  ¹⁹ 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]  ²⁰ tc The Lucianic Greek recension and Syriac Peshitta lack “today.”

[20:6]  ²¹ tn Heb “find.” The perfect verbal form is unexpected with the preceding word “otherwise.” We should probably read instead the imperfect. Although it is possible to understand the perfect here as indicating that the feared result is thought of as already having taken place (cf. BDB 814 s.v. פֶּן 2), it is more likely that the perfect is simply the result of scribal error. In this context the imperfect would be more consistent with the following verb וְהִצִּיל (vÿhitsil, “and he will get away”).