2 Samuel 2:23

2:23 But Asahel ¹  refused to turn aside. So Abner struck him in the abdomen with the back end of his ²  spear. The spear came out his back; Asahel ³  collapsed on the spot and died there right before Abner. ⁴  Everyone who now comes to the place where Asahel fell dead pauses in respect. ⁵ 

2 Samuel 3:29

3:29 May his blood whirl over ⁶  the head of Joab and the entire house of his father! ⁷  May the males of Joab’s house ⁸  never cease to have ⁹  someone with a running sore or a skin disease or one who works at the spindle ¹⁰  or one who falls by the sword or one who lacks food!”

2 Samuel 3:35

3:35 Then all the people came and encouraged David to eat food while it was still day. But David took an oath saying, “God will punish me severely ¹¹  if I taste bread or anything whatsoever before the sun sets!”

2 Samuel 9:3

9:3 The king asked, “Is there not someone left from Saul’s family, ¹²  that I may extend God’s kindness to him?” Ziba said to the king, “One of Jonathan’s sons is left; both of his feet are crippled.”

2 Samuel 11:25

11:25 David said to the messenger, “Tell Joab, ‘Don’t let this thing upset you. ¹³  There is no way to anticipate whom the sword will cut down. ¹⁴  Press the battle against the city and conquer ¹⁵  it.’ Encourage him with these words.” ¹⁶ 

2 Samuel 11:27

11:27 When the time of mourning passed, David had her brought to his palace. ¹⁷  She became his wife and she bore him a son. But what David had done upset the Lord. ¹⁸ 

2 Samuel 12:9

12:9 Why have you shown contempt for the word of the Lord by doing evil in my ¹⁹  sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and you have taken his wife as your own! ²⁰  You have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.

2 Samuel 15:20

15:20 It seems like you arrived just yesterday. Today should I make you wander around by going with us? I go where I must go. But as for you, go back and take your men ²¹  with you. May genuine loyal love ²²  protect ²³  you!”

2 Samuel 17:13

17:13 If he regroups in a city, all Israel will take up ropes to that city and drag it down to the valley, so that not a single pebble will be left there!”

2 Samuel 19:9

19:9 All the people throughout all the tribes of Israel were arguing among themselves saying, “The king delivered us from the hand of our enemies. He rescued us from the hand of the Philistines, but now he has fled from the land because of Absalom.

2 Samuel 23:10

23:10 he stood his ground ²⁴  and fought the Philistines until his hand grew so tired that it ²⁵  seemed stuck to his sword. The Lord gave a great victory on that day. When the army returned to him, the only thing left to do was to plunder the corpses.

2 Samuel 23:18

23:18 Abishai son of Zeruiah, the brother of Joab, was head of the three. ²⁶  He killed three hundred men with his spear and gained fame among the three. ²⁷ 

[2:23]  ¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Asahel) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:23]  ² tn Heb “the.” The article functions here as a possessive pronoun.

[2:23]  ³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Asahel) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:23]  ⁴ tn Heb “him”; the referent (Abner) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:23]  ⁵ tn Heb “and they stand.”

[3:29]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ tc 4QSam^a has “of Joab” rather than “of his father” read by the MT.

[3:29]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ tn Heb “and may there not be cut off from the house of Joab.”

[3:29]  ¹⁰ 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).

[3:35]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Thus God will do to me and thus he will add.”

[9:3]  ¹² tn Heb “house.”

[11:25]  ¹³ tn Heb “let not this matter be evil in your eyes.”

[11:25]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “according to this and according to this the sword devours.”

[11:25]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “overthrow.”

[11:25]  ¹⁶ tn The Hebrew text does not have “with these words.” They are supplied in the translation for clarity and for stylistic reasons.

[11:27]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “David sent and gathered her to his house.”

[11:27]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and the thing which David had done was evil in the eyes of the Lord.” Note the verbal connection with v. 25. Though David did not regard the matter as evil, the Lord certainly did.

[12:9]  ¹⁹ tc So the Qere; the Kethib has “his.”

[12:9]  ²⁰ tn Heb “to you for a wife.” This expression also occurs at the end of v. 10.

[15:20]  ²¹ tn Heb “brothers,” but see v. 22.

[15:20]  ²² tn Heb “loyal love and truth.” The expression is a hendiadys.

[15:20]  ²³ tn Heb “be with.”

[23:10]  ²⁴ tn Heb “arose.”

[23:10]  ²⁵ tn Heb “his hand.”

[23:18]  ²⁶ tc The translation follows the Qere, many medieval Hebrew mss, the LXX, and Vulgate in reading הַשְּׁלֹשָׁה (hashÿlosa, “the three”) rather than the Kethib of the MT הַשָּׁלִשִׁי (hashalisi, “the third,” or “adjutant”). Two medieval Hebrew mss and the Syriac Peshitta have “thirty.”

[23:18]  ²⁷ tn Heb “and he was wielding his spear against three hundred, [who were] slain, and to him there was a name among the three.”