2 Samuel 2:19

2:19 Asahel chased Abner, without turning to the right or to the left as he followed Abner.

2 Samuel 3:26

3:26 Then Joab left David and sent messengers after Abner. They brought him back from the well of Sirah. (But David was not aware of it.)

2 Samuel 3:37-38

3:37 All the people and all Israel realized on that day that the killing of Abner son of Ner was not done at the king’s instigation. ¹ 

3:38 Then the king said to his servants, “Do you not realize that a great leader ²  has fallen this day in Israel?

2 Samuel 5:23

5:23 So David asked the Lord what he should do. ³  This time ⁴  the Lord ⁵  said to him, “Don’t march straight up. Instead, circle around behind them and come against them opposite the trees. ⁶ 

2 Samuel 6:10

6:10 So David was no longer willing to bring the ark of the Lord to be with him in the City of David. David left it in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite.

2 Samuel 7:6

7:6 I have not lived in a house from the time I brought the Israelites up from Egypt to the present day. Instead, I was traveling with them and living in a tent. ⁷ 

2 Samuel 11:3

11:3 So David sent someone to inquire about the woman. The messenger ⁸  said, “Isn’t this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?”

2 Samuel 11:9

11:9 But Uriah stayed at the door of the palace with all ⁹  the servants of his lord. He did not go down to his house.

2 Samuel 11:13

11:13 Then David summoned him. He ate and drank with him, and got him drunk. But in the evening he went out to sleep on his bed with the servants of his lord; he did not go down to his own house.

2 Samuel 12:6

12:6 Because he committed this cold-hearted crime, he must pay for the lamb four times over!” ¹⁰ 

2 Samuel 12:10

12:10 So now the sword will never depart from your house. For you have despised me by taking the wife of Uriah the Hittite as your own!’

2 Samuel 12:13

12:13 Then David exclaimed to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord!” Nathan replied to David, “Yes, and the Lord has forgiven ¹¹  your sin. You are not going to die.

2 Samuel 12:23

12:23 But now he is dead. Why should I fast? Am I able to bring him back? I will go to him, but he cannot return to me!’”

2 Samuel 13:12

13:12 But she said to him, “No, my brother! Don’t humiliate me! This just isn’t done in Israel! Don’t do this foolish thing!

2 Samuel 13:16

13:16 But she said to him, “No I won’t, for sending me away now would be worse than what you did to me earlier!” ¹²  But he refused to listen to her.

2 Samuel 13:26

13:26 Then Absalom said, “If you will not go, ¹³  then let my brother Amnon go with us.” The king replied to him, “Why should he go with you?”

2 Samuel 13:30

13:30 While they were still on their way, the following report reached David: “Absalom has killed all the king’s sons; not one of them is left!”

2 Samuel 15:11

15:11 Now two hundred men had gone with Absalom from Jerusalem. Since they were invited, they went naively and were unaware of what Absalom was planning. ¹⁴ 

2 Samuel 15:35

15:35 Zadok and Abiathar the priests will be there with you. ¹⁵  Everything you hear in the king’s palace ¹⁶  you must tell Zadok and Abiathar the priests.

2 Samuel 16:17

16:17 Absalom said to Hushai, “Do you call this loyalty to your friend? Why didn’t you go with your friend?”

2 Samuel 16:19

16:19 Moreover, whom should I serve? Should it not be his son? Just as I served your father, so I will serve you.” ¹⁷ 

2 Samuel 17:19

17:19 His wife then took the covering and spread it over the top of the well and scattered some grain over it. No one was aware of what she had done.

2 Samuel 18:13-14

18:13 If I had acted at risk of my own life ¹⁸  – and nothing is hidden from the king! – you would have abandoned me.” ¹⁹ 

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. ²⁰ 

2 Samuel 19:21

19:21 Abishai son of Zeruiah replied, “For this should not Shimei be put to death? After all, he cursed the Lord’s anointed!”

2 Samuel 19:25

19:25 When he came from Jerusalem to meet the king, the king asked him, “Why didn’t you go with me, Mephibosheth?”

2 Samuel 23:17

23:17 and said, “O Lord, I will not do this! ²¹  It is equivalent to the blood of the men who risked their lives by going.” ²²  So he refused to drink it. Such were the exploits of the three elite warriors. ²³ 

[3:37]  ¹ tn Heb “from the king.”

[3:38]  ² tn Heb “a leader and a great one.” The expression is a hendiadys.

[5:23]  ³ tn The words “what to do” are not in the Hebrew text.

[5:23]  ⁴ tn The words “this time” are not in the Hebrew text.

[5:23]  ⁵ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[5:23]  ⁶ tn Some translate as “balsam trees” (cf. NASB, NIV, NRSV, NJB, NLT); cf. KJV, NKJV, ASV “mulberry trees”; NAB “mastic trees”; NEB, REB “aspens.” The exact identification of the type of tree or plant is uncertain.

[7:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “in a tent and in a dwelling.” The expression is a hendiadys, using two terms to express one idea.

[11:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the messenger) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[11:9]  ⁹ tc The Lucianic recension of the Old Greek translation lacks the word “all.”

[12:6]  ¹⁰ tc With the exception of the Lucianic recension, the Old Greek translation has here “sevenfold” rather than “fourfold,” a reading that S. R. Driver thought probably to be the original reading (S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, 291). However, Exod 22:1 [21:37 HT] specifies fourfold repayment for a stolen sheep, which is consistent with 2 Sam 12:6. Some mss of the Targum and the Syriac Peshitta exaggerate the idea to “fortyfold.”

[12:6]  tn Heb “the lamb he must repay fourfold because he did this thing and because he did not have compassion.”

[12:13]  ¹¹ tn Heb “removed.”

[13:16]  ¹² tn Heb “No, because this great evil is [worse] than the other which you did with me, by sending me away.” Perhaps the broken syntax reflects her hysteria and outrage.

[13:26]  ¹³ tn Heb “and not.”

[15:11]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “being invited and going naively and they did not know anything.”

[15:35]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Will not Zadok and Abiathar the priests be there with you?” The rhetorical question draws attention to the fact that Hushai will not be alone.

[15:35]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “from the house of the king.”

[16:19]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Just as I served before your father, so I will be before you.”

[18:13]  ¹⁸ tc The translation follows the Qere, many medieval Hebrew mss, and a number of the ancient versions in reading בְנַפְשִׁי (vÿnafshi, “against my life”) rather than the MT בְנַפְשׁוֹ (vÿnafsho, “against his life”).

[18:13]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “stood aloof.”

[18:14]  ²⁰ 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.”

[23:17]  ²¹ tn Heb “Far be it to me, O Lord, from doing this.”

[23:17]  ²² tn Heb “[Is it not] the blood of the men who were going with their lives?”

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