2 Samuel 7:7

7:7 Wherever I moved among all the Israelites, I did not say ¹  to any of the leaders ²  whom I appointed to care for ³  my people Israel, “Why have you not built me a house made from cedar?”’

2 Samuel 8:2

8:2 He defeated the Moabites. He made them lie on the ground and then used a rope to measure them off. He put two-thirds of them to death and spared the other third. ⁴  The Moabites became David’s subjects and brought tribute. ⁵ 

2 Samuel 13:6

13:6 So Amnon lay down and pretended to be sick. When the king came in to see him, Amnon said to the king, “Please let my sister Tamar come in so she can make a couple of cakes in my sight. Then I will eat from her hand.”

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 ⁶  king, for you are a foreigner and an exile from your own country. ⁷ 

2 Samuel 18:11

18:11 Joab replied to the man who was telling him this, “What! You saw this? Why didn’t you strike him down right on the spot? ⁸  I would have given you ten pieces of silver ⁹  and a commemorative belt!” ¹⁰ 

2 Samuel 19:28

19:28 After all, there was no one in the entire house of my grandfather ¹¹  who did not deserve death from my lord the king. But instead you allowed me to eat at your own table! ¹²  What further claim do I have to ask ¹³  the king for anything?”

2 Samuel 19:37

19:37 Let me ¹⁴  return so that I may die in my own city near the grave of my father and my mother. But look, here is your servant Kimham. Let him cross over with my lord the king. Do for him whatever seems appropriate to you.”

2 Samuel 20:1

Sheba’s Rebellion

20:1 Now a wicked man ¹⁵  named Sheba son of Bicri, a Benjaminite, ¹⁶  happened to be there. He blew the trumpet ¹⁷  and said,

“We have no share in David;

we have no inheritance in this son of Jesse!

Every man go home, ¹⁸  O Israel!”

2 Samuel 20:3

20:3 Then David went to his palace ¹⁹  in Jerusalem. The king took the ten concubines he had left to care for the palace and placed them under confinement. ²⁰  Though he provided for their needs, he did not have sexual relations with them. ²¹  They remained in confinement until the day they died, living out the rest of their lives as widows.

2 Samuel 20:8

20:8 When they were near the big rock that is in Gibeon, Amasa came to them. Now Joab was dressed in military attire and had a dagger in its sheath belted to his waist. When he advanced, it fell out. ²² 

2 Samuel 21:10

21:10 Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it out for herself on a rock. From the beginning of the harvest until the rain fell on them, ²³  she did not allow the birds of the air to feed ²⁴  on them by day, nor the wild animals ²⁵  by night.

2 Samuel 23:10

23:10 he stood his ground ²⁶  and fought the Philistines until his hand grew so tired that it ²⁷  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 23:16

23:16 So the three elite warriors broke through the Philistine forces and drew some water from the cistern in Bethlehem near the gate. They carried it back to David, but he refused to drink it. He poured it out as a drink offering to the Lord

2 Samuel 24:22

24:22 Araunah told David, “My lord the king may take whatever he wishes ²⁸  and offer it. Look! Here are oxen for burnt offerings, and threshing sledges ²⁹  and harnesses ³⁰  for wood.

[7:7]  ¹ tn Heb “Did I speak a word?” In the Hebrew text the statement is phrased as a rhetorical question.

[7:7]  ² tn Heb “tribes” (so KJV, NASB, NCV), but the parallel passage in 1 Chr 17:6 has “judges.”

[7:7]  ³ tn Heb “whom I commanded to shepherd” (so NIV, NRSV).

[8:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “and he measured [with] two [lengths] of rope to put to death and [with] the fullness of the rope to keep alive.”

[8:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “and the Moabites were servants of David, carriers of tribute.”

[15:19]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ tn Heb “place.”

[18:11]  ⁸ tn Heb “Why did you not strike him down there to the ground.”

[18:11]  ⁹ tn Heb “ten [shekels] of silver.” This would have been about 4 ounces (114 grams) of silver by weight.

[18:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and a girdle” (so KJV); NIV “a warrior’s belt”; CEV “a special belt”; NLT “a hero’s belt.”

[19:28]  ¹¹ tn Heb “father.”

[19:28]  ¹² tn Heb “and you placed your servant among those who eat at your table.”

[19:28]  ¹³ tn Heb “to cry out to.”

[19:37]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “your servant.”

[20:1]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “a man of worthlessness.”

[20:1]  ¹⁶ tn The expression used here יְמִינִי (yÿmini) is a short form of the more common “Benjamin.” It appears elsewhere in 1 Sam 9:4 and Esth 2:5. Cf. 1 Sam 9:1.

[20:1]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the shophar” (the ram’s horn trumpet). So also v. 22.

[20:1]  ¹⁸ tc The MT reads לְאֹהָלָיו (lÿ’ohalav, “to his tents”). For a similar idiom, see 19:9. An ancient scribal tradition understands the reading to be לְאלֹהָיו (le’lohav, “to his gods”). The word is a tiqqun sopherim, and the scribes indicate that they changed the word from “gods” to “tents” so as to soften its theological implications. In a consonantal Hebrew text the change involved only the metathesis of two letters.

[20:3]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “house.”

[20:3]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and he placed them in a guarded house.”

[20:3]  ²¹ tn Heb “he did not come to them”; NAB “has no further relations with them”; NIV “did not lie with them”; TEV “did not have intercourse with them”; NLT “would no longer sleep with them.”

[20:8]  ²² sn The significance of the statement it fell out here is unclear. If the dagger fell out of its sheath before Joab got to Amasa, how then did he kill him? Josephus, Ant. 7.11.7 (7.284), suggested that as Joab approached Amasa he deliberately caused the dagger to fall to the ground at an opportune moment as though by accident. When he bent over and picked it up, he then stabbed Amasa with it. Others have tried to make a case for thinking that two swords are referred to – the one that fell out and another that Joab kept concealed until the last moment. But nothing in the text clearly supports this view. Perhaps Josephus’ understanding is best, but it is by no means obvious in the text either.

[21:10]  ²³ tn Heb “until water was poured on them from the sky.”

[21:10]  ²⁴ tn Heb “rest.”

[21:10]  ²⁵ tn Heb “the beasts of the field.”

[23:10]  ²⁶ tn Heb “arose.”

[23:10]  ²⁷ tn Heb “his hand.”

[24:22]  ²⁸ tn Heb “what is good in his eyes.”

[24:22]  ²⁹ sn Threshing sledges were heavy boards used in ancient times for loosening grain from husks. On the bottom sides of these boards sharp stones were embedded, and the boards were then dragged across the grain on a threshing floor by an ox or donkey.

[24:22]  ³⁰ tn Heb “the equipment of the oxen.”