2 Samuel 1:2

1:2 On the third day a man arrived from the camp of Saul with his clothes torn and dirt on his head. ¹  When he approached David, the man ²  threw himself to the ground. ³ 

2 Samuel 2:16

2:16 As they grappled with one another, each one stabbed his opponent with his sword and they fell dead together. ⁴  So that place is called the Field of Flints; ⁵  it is in Gibeon.

2 Samuel 2:32

2:32 They took Asahel’s body and buried him in his father’s tomb at Bethlehem. ⁶  Joab and his men then traveled all that night and reached Hebron by dawn.

2 Samuel 3:3

3:3 His second son ⁷  was Kileab, born to Abigail the widow ⁸  of Nabal the Carmelite. His third son was Absalom, the son of Maacah daughter of King Talmai of Geshur.

2 Samuel 4:11

4:11 Surely when wicked men have killed an innocent man as he slept ⁹  in his own house, should I not now require his blood from your hands and remove ¹⁰  you from the earth?”

2 Samuel 11:2

11:2 One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of his palace. ¹¹  From the roof he saw a woman bathing. Now this woman was very attractive. ¹² 

2 Samuel 11:27

11:27 When the time of mourning passed, David had her brought to his palace. ¹³  She became his wife and she bore him a son. But what David had done upset the Lord. ¹⁴ 

2 Samuel 12:19

12:19 When David saw that his servants were whispering to one another, he ¹⁵  realized that the child was dead. So David asked his servants, “Is the child dead?” They replied, “Yes, he’s dead.”

2 Samuel 14:24-25

14:24 But the king said, “Let him go over ¹⁶  to his own house. He may not see my face.” So Absalom went over ¹⁷  to his own house; he did not see the king’s face.

14:25 Now in all Israel everyone acknowledged that there was no man as handsome as Absalom. ¹⁸  From the sole of his feet to the top of his head he was perfect in appearance. ¹⁹ 

2 Samuel 16:6

16:6 He threw stones at David and all of King David’s servants, as well as all the people and the soldiers who were on his right and on his left.

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¹ sn Tearing one’s clothing and throwing dirt on one’s head were outward expressions of grief in the ancient Near East, where such demonstrable reactions were a common response to tragic news.

² tn Heb “he”; the referent (the man mentioned at the beginning of v. 2) has been specified in the translation to avoid confusion as to who fell to the ground.

³ tn Heb “he fell to the ground and did obeisance.”

⁴ tn Heb “and they grabbed each one the head of his neighbor with his sword in the side of his neighbor and they fell together.”

⁵ tn The meaning of the name “Helkath Hazzurim” (so NIV; KJV, NASB, NRSV similar) is not clear. BHK relates the name to the Hebrew term for “side,” and this is reflected in NAB “the Field of the Sides”; the Greek OT revocalizes the Hebrew to mean something like “Field of Adversaries.” Cf. also TEV, NLT “Field of Swords”; CEV “Field of Daggers.”

⁶ map For location see Map5-B1; Map7-E2; Map8-E2; Map10-B4.

⁷ tn The Hebrew text does not have the word “son.” So also in vv. 3-5.

⁸ tn Heb “wife.”

⁹ tn Heb “on his bed.”

¹⁰ tn See HALOT 146 s.v. II בער. Some derive the verb from a homonym meaning “to burn; to consume.”

¹¹ tn Heb “on the roof of the house of the king.” So also in vv. 8, 9.

¹² tn The disjunctive clause highlights this observation and builds the tension of the story.

¹³ tn Heb “David sent and gathered her to his house.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “and the thing which David had done was evil in the eyes of the Lord.” Note the verbal connection with v. 25. Though David did not regard the matter as evil, the Lord certainly did.

¹⁵ tn Heb “David.” The name has been replaced in the translation by the pronoun (“he”) for stylistic reasons.

¹⁶ tn Heb “turn aside.”

¹⁷ tn Heb “turned aside.”

¹⁸ tn Heb “Like Absalom there was not a handsome man in all Israel to boast exceedingly.”

¹⁹ tn Heb “there was not in him a blemish.”