20:3 Taking an oath, David again 2 said, “Your father is very much aware of the fact 3 that I have found favor with you, and he has thought, 4 ‘Don’t let Jonathan know about this, or he will be upset.’ But as surely as the Lord lives and you live, there is about one step between me and death!”
1 tc Heb “only Dagon was left.” We should probably read the word גֵּו (gev, “back”) before Dagon, understanding it to have the sense of the similar word גְּוִיָּה (gÿviyyah, “body”). This variant is supported by the following evidence: The LXX has ἡ ῥάχις (Jh rJacis, “the back” or “trunk”); the Syriac Peshitta has wegusmeh (“and the body of”); the Targum has gupyeh (“the body of”); the Vulgate has truncus (“the trunk of,” cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV, NLT). On the strength of this evidence the present translation employs the phrase “Dagon’s body.”
2 tc The LXX and the Syriac Peshitta lack the word “again.”
3 tn The infinitive absolute appears before the finite verb for emphasis.
4 tn Heb “said,” that is, to himself. So also in v. 25.