2 Samuel 3:29

3:29 May his blood whirl over ¹  the head of Joab and the entire house of his father! ²  May the males of Joab’s house ³  never cease to have ⁴  someone with a running sore or a skin disease or one who works at the spindle ⁵  or one who falls by the sword or one who lacks food!”

2 Samuel 6:19

6:19 He then handed out to each member of the entire assembly of Israel, ⁶  both men and women, a portion of bread, a date cake, ⁷  and a raisin cake. Then all the people went home. ⁸ 

2 Samuel 7:29

7:29 Now be willing to bless your servant’s dynasty ⁹  so that it may stand permanently before you, for you, O sovereign Lord, have spoken. By your blessing may your servant’s dynasty be blessed on into the future!” ¹⁰ 

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 13:20

13:20 Her brother Absalom said to her, “Was Amnon your brother with you? Now be quiet, my sister. He is your brother. Don’t take it so seriously!” ¹¹  Tamar, devastated, lived in the house of her brother Absalom.

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. ¹² 

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 ¹³  king, for you are a foreigner and an exile from your own country. ¹⁴ 

2 Samuel 17:8-9

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. ¹⁵  Your father is an experienced soldier; he will not stay overnight with the army. 17:9 At this very moment he is hiding out in one of the caves or in some other similar place. If it should turn out that he attacks our troops first, ¹⁶  whoever hears about it will say, ‘Absalom’s army has been slaughtered!’

2 Samuel 18:3

18:3 But the soldiers replied, ¹⁷  “You should not do this! ¹⁸  For if we should have to make a rapid retreat, they won’t be too concerned about us. ¹⁹  Even if half of us should die, they won’t be too concerned about us. But you ²⁰  are like ten thousand of us! So it is better if you remain in the city for support.”

2 Samuel 19:6

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 ²¹  that if ²²  Absalom were alive and all of us were dead today, ²³  it would be all right with you.

2 Samuel 20:22

20:22 Then the woman went to all the people with her wise advice and they cut off Sheba’s head and threw it out to Joab. Joab ²⁴  blew the trumpet, and his men ²⁵  dispersed from the city, each going to his own home. ²⁶  Joab returned to the king in Jerusalem.

[3:29]  ¹ 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]  ² tc 4QSam^a has “of Joab” rather than “of his father” read by the MT.

[3:29]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn Heb “and may there not be cut off from the house of Joab.”

[3:29]  ⁵ 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).

[6:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “to all the people, to all the throng of Israel.”

[6:19]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew word used here אֶשְׁפָּר (’espar) is found in the OT only here and in the parallel passage found in 1 Chr 16:3. Its exact meaning is uncertain, although the context indicates that it was a food of some sort (cf. KJV “a good piece of flesh”; NRSV “a portion of meat”). The translation adopted here (“date cake”) follows the lead of the Greek translations of the LXX, Aquila, and Symmachus (cf. NASB, NIV, NLT).

[6:19]  ⁸ tn Heb “and all the people went, each to his house.”

[7:29]  ⁹ tn Heb “house” (again later in this verse). See the note on “dynastic house” in v. 27.

[7:29]  ¹⁰ tn Or “permanently”; cf. NLT “it is an eternal blessing.”

[13:20]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Don’t set your heart to this thing!”

[14:14]  ¹² tn Heb “he devises plans for the one banished from him not to be banished.”

[15:19]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “place.”

[17:8]  ¹⁵ 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.”

[17:9]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “that he falls on them [i.e., Absalom’s troops] at the first [encounter]; or “that some of them [i.e., Absalom’s troops] fall at the first [encounter].”

[18:3]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the people said.”

[18:3]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “march out.”

[18:3]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “they will not place to us heart.”

[18:3]  ²⁰ tc The translation follows the LXX (except for the Lucianic recension), Symmachus, and Vulgate in reading אָתָּה (’atta, “you”) rather than MT עָתָּה (’atta, “now”).

[19:6]  ²¹ tn Heb “today.”

[19:6]  ²² 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]  ²³ tc The Lucianic Greek recension and Syriac Peshitta lack “today.”

[20:22]  ²⁴ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Joab) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[20:22]  ²⁵ tn Heb “they”; the referent (Joab’s men) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[20:22]  ²⁶ tn Heb “his tents.”