17:12 6 Now David was the son of this Ephrathite named Jesse from Bethlehem 7 in Judah. He had eight sons, and in Saul’s days he was old and well advanced in years. 8 17:13 Jesse’s three oldest sons had followed Saul to war. The names of the 9 three sons who went to war were Eliab, his firstborn, Abinadab, the second oldest, and Shammah, the third oldest.
20:30 Saul became angry with Jonathan 10 and said to him, “You stupid traitor! 11 Don’t I realize that to your own disgrace and to the disgrace of your mother’s nakedness you have chosen this son of Jesse? 20:31 For as long as 12 this son of Jesse is alive on the earth, you and your kingdom will not be established. Now, send some men 13 and bring him to me. For he is as good as dead!” 14
1 tn Heb “answered and said.”
2 map For location see Map5-B1; Map7-E2; Map8-E2; Map10-B4.
3 tn Heb “mighty man of valor and a man of war.”
4 tn Heb “discerning of word.”
5 tn Heb “a man of form.”
6 tc Some
7 map For location see Map5-B1; Map7-E2; Map8-E2; Map10-B4.
8 tc The translation follows the Lucianic recension of the LXX and the Syriac Peshitta in reading “in years,” rather than MT “among men.”
9 tn Heb “his.”
10 tc Many medieval Hebrew
11 tn Heb “son of a perverse woman of rebelliousness.” But such an overly literal and domesticated translation of the Hebrew expression fails to capture the force of Saul’s unrestrained reaction. Saul, now incensed and enraged over Jonathan’s liaison with David, is actually hurling very coarse and emotionally charged words at his son. The translation of this phrase suggested by Koehler and Baumgartner is “bastard of a wayward woman” (HALOT 796 s.v. עוה), but this is not an expression commonly used in English. A better English approximation of the sentiments expressed here by the Hebrew phrase would be “You stupid son of a bitch!” However, sensitivity to the various public formats in which the Bible is read aloud has led to a less startling English rendering which focuses on the semantic value of Saul’s utterance (i.e., the behavior of his own son Jonathan, which he viewed as both a personal and a political betrayal [= “traitor”]). But this concession should not obscure the fact that Saul is full of bitterness and frustration. That he would address his son Jonathan with such language, not to mention his apparent readiness even to kill his own son over this friendship with David (v. 33), indicates something of the extreme depth of Saul’s jealousy and hatred of David.
12 tn Heb “all the days that.”
13 tn The words “some men” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
14 tn Heb “a son of death.”
15 tc The MT has “to all of you.” If this reading is correct, we have here an example of a prepositional phrase functioning as the equivalent of a dative of advantage, which is not impossible from a grammatical point of view. However, the LXX, the Syriac Peshitta, and Vulgate all have “and.” A conjunction rather than a preposition should probably be read on the front of this phrase.
16 tn Heb “officers of a thousand and officers of a hundred.”