2 Samuel 1:12

1:12 They lamented and wept and fasted until evening because Saul, his son Jonathan, the Lord’s people, and the house of Israel had fallen by the sword.

2 Samuel 2:27

2:27 Joab replied, “As surely as God lives, if you had not said this, it would have been morning before the people would have abandoned pursuit ¹  of their brothers!”

2 Samuel 3:7

3:7 Now Saul had a concubine named Rizpah daughter of Aiah. Ish-bosheth ²  said to Abner, “Why did you have sexual relations with ³  my father’s concubine?” ⁴ 

2 Samuel 4:1

Ish-bosheth is killed

4:1 When Ish-bosheth ⁵  the son of Saul heard that Abner had died in Hebron, he was very disheartened, ⁶  and all Israel was afraid.

2 Samuel 9:12

9:12 Now Mephibosheth had a young son whose name was Mica. All the members of Ziba’s household were Mephibosheth’s servants.

2 Samuel 12:15

12:15 Then Nathan went to his home. The Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and the child became very ill. ⁷ 

2 Samuel 13:1

The Rape of Tamar

13:1 Now David’s son Absalom had a beautiful sister named Tamar. In the course of time David’s son Amnon fell madly in love with her. ⁸ 

2 Samuel 13:3

13:3 Now Amnon had a friend named Jonadab, the son of David’s brother Shimeah. Jonadab was a very crafty man.

2 Samuel 13:15

13:15 Then Amnon greatly despised her. ⁹  His disdain toward her surpassed the love he had previously felt toward her. ¹⁰  Amnon said to her, “Get up and leave!”

2 Samuel 13:22

13:22 But Absalom said nothing to Amnon, either bad or good, yet Absalom hated Amnon because he had humiliated his sister Tamar.

2 Samuel 15:11

15:11 Now two hundred men had gone with Absalom from Jerusalem. Since they were invited, they went naively and were unaware of what Absalom was planning. ¹¹ 

2 Samuel 15:31

15:31 Now David ¹²  had been told, “Ahithophel has sided with the conspirators who are with Absalom. So David prayed, ¹³  “Make the advice of Ahithophel foolish, O Lord!”

2 Samuel 16:22

16:22 So they pitched a tent for Absalom on the roof, ¹⁴  and Absalom had sex with ¹⁵  his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel.

2 Samuel 18:16

18:16 Then Joab blew the trumpet ¹⁶  and the army turned back from chasing Israel, for Joab had called for the army to halt.

2 Samuel 19:31

19:31 Now when Barzillai the Gileadite had come down from Rogelim, he crossed the Jordan with the king so he could send him on his way from there. ¹⁷ 

2 Samuel 19:39

19:39 So all the people crossed the Jordan, as did the king. After the king had kissed him and blessed him, Barzillai returned to his home. ¹⁸ 

2 Samuel 20:5

20:5 So Amasa went out to call Judah together. But in doing so he took longer than the time that the king had allotted him.

2 Samuel 20:14

20:14 Sheba ¹⁹  traveled through all the tribes of Israel to Abel of ²⁰  Beth Maacah and all the Berite region. When they had assembled, ²¹  they too joined him.

2 Samuel 21:13

21:13 David ²²  brought the bones of Saul and of Jonathan his son from there; they also gathered up the bones of those who had been executed.

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¹ tn The Hebrew verb נַעֲלָה (na’alah) used here is the Niphal perfect 3rd person masculine singular of עָלָה (’alah, “to go up”). In the Niphal this verb “is used idiomatically, of getting away from so as to abandon…especially of an army raising a siege…” (see S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, 244).

² tc The Hebrew of the MT reads simply “and he said,” with no expressed subject for the verb. It is not likely that the text originally had no expressed subject for this verb, since the antecedent is not immediately clear from the context. We should probably restore to the Hebrew text the name “Ish-bosheth.” See a few medieval Hebrew mss, Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, and Vulgate. Perhaps the name was accidentally omitted by homoioarcton. Note that both the name Ishbosheth and the following preposition אֶל (’el) begin with the letter alef.

³ tn Heb “come to”; KJV, NRSV “gone in to”; NAB “been intimate with”; NIV “sleep with.”

⁴ sn This accusation against Abner is a very serious one, since an act of sexual infringement on the king’s harem would probably have been understood as a blatant declaration of aspirations to kingship. As such it was not merely a matter of ethical impropriety but an act of grave political significance as well.

⁵ tn The MT does not specify the subject of the verb here, but the reference is to Ish-bosheth, so the name has been supplied in the translation for clarity. 4QSam^a and the LXX mistakenly read “Mephibosheth.”

⁶ tn Heb “his hands went slack.”

⁷ tn Heb “and the Lord struck the child…and he was ill.” It is necessary to repeat “the child” in the translation to make clear who became ill, since “the Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and he became very ill” could be understood to mean that David himself became ill.

⁸ tn Heb “Amnon the son of David loved her.” The following verse indicates the extreme nature of his infatuation, so the translation uses “madly in love” here.

sn Amnon was the half-brother of Tamar; Absalom was her full blood-brother.

⁹ tn Heb “and Amnon hated her with very great hatred.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “for greater was the hatred with which he hated her than the love with which he loved her.”

¹¹ tn Heb “being invited and going naively and they did not know anything.”

¹² tc The translation follows 4QSam^a, part of the Greek tradition, the Syriac Peshitta, Targum, and Vulgate uldavid in reading “and to David,” rather than MT וְדָוִד (vÿdavid, “and David”). As Driver points out, the Hebrew verb הִגִּיד (higgid, “he related”) never uses the accusative for the person to whom something is told (S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, 316).

¹³ tn Heb “said.”

¹⁴ sn That is, on top of the flat roof of the palace, so it would be visible to the public.

¹⁵ tn Heb “went to”; NAB “he visited his father’s concubines”; NIV “lay with his father’s concubines”; TEV “went in and had intercourse with.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “the shophar” (the ram’s horn trumpet).

¹⁷ tc The MT reading אֶת־בַיַּרְדֵּן (’et-vayyarden, “in the Jordan”) is odd syntactically. The use of the preposition after the object marker אֶת (’et) is difficult to explain. Graphic confusion is likely in the MT; the translation assumes the reading מִיַּרְדֵּן (miyyarden, “from the Jordan”). Another possibility is to read the definite article on the front of “Jordan” (הַיַּרְדֵּן, hayyarden; “the Jordan”).

¹⁸ tn Heb “to his place.”

¹⁹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Sheba) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

²⁰ tc In keeping with the form of the name in v. 15, the translation deletes the “and” found in the MT.

²¹ tc The translation follows the Qere, many medieval Hebrew mss, and the ancient versions in reading וַיִּקָּהֲלוּ (vayyiqqahalu, “and they were gathered together”) rather than the Kethib of the MT וַיִּקְלֻהוּ (vayyiqluhu, “and they cursed him”). The Kethib is the result of metathesis.

²² tn Heb “he”; the referent (David) has been specified in the translation for clarity.