2 Samuel 1:4

1:4 David inquired, “How were things going? ¹  Tell me!” He replied, “The people fled from the battle and many of them ²  fell dead. ³  Even Saul and his son Jonathan are dead!”

2 Samuel 1:6

1:6 The young man who was telling him this ⁴  said, “I just happened to be on Mount Gilboa and came across Saul leaning on his spear for support. The chariots and leaders of the horsemen were in hot pursuit of him.

2 Samuel 5:2

5:2 In the past, when Saul was our king, you were the real leader in Israel. ⁵  The Lord said to you, ‘You will shepherd my people Israel; you will rule over Israel.’”

2 Samuel 6:3

6:3 They loaded the ark of God on a new cart and carried it from the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, were guiding the new cart.

2 Samuel 10:4-5

10:4 So Hanun seized David’s servants and shaved off half of each one’s beard. He cut the lower part of their robes off so that their buttocks were exposed, ⁶  and then sent them away. 10:5 Messengers ⁷  told David what had happened, ⁸  so he summoned them, for the men were thoroughly humiliated. The king said, “Stay in Jericho ⁹  until your beards have grown again; then you may come back.”

2 Samuel 12:19

12:19 When David saw that his servants were whispering to one another, he ¹⁰  realized that the child was dead. So David asked his servants, “Is the child dead?” They replied, “Yes, he’s dead.”

2 Samuel 15:12

15:12 While he was offering sacrifices, Absalom sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David’s adviser, ¹¹  to come from his city, Giloh. ¹²  The conspiracy was gaining momentum, and the people were starting to side with Absalom.

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.

2 Samuel 17:17

17:17 Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz were staying in En Rogel. A female servant would go and inform them, and they would then go and inform King David. It was not advisable for them to be seen going into the city.

2 Samuel 17:22

17:22 So David and all the people who were with him got up and crossed the Jordan River. ¹³  By dawn there was not one person left who had not crossed the Jordan.

2 Samuel 19:2

19:2 So the victory of that day was turned to mourning as far as all the people were concerned. For the people heard on that day, “The king is grieved over his son.”

2 Samuel 19:14

19:14 He ¹⁴  won over the hearts of all the men of Judah as though they were one man. Then they sent word to the king saying, “Return, you and all your servants as well.”

2 Samuel 19:17

19:17 There were a thousand men from Benjamin with him, along with Ziba the servant ¹⁵  of Saul’s household, and with him his fifteen sons and twenty servants. They hurriedly crossed ¹⁶  the Jordan within sight of the king.

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. ¹⁷ 

2 Samuel 21:5

21:5 They replied to the king, “As for this man who exterminated us and who schemed against us so that we were destroyed and left without status throughout all the borders of Israel –

2 Samuel 23:17

23:17 and said, “O Lord, I will not do this! ¹⁸  It is equivalent to the blood of the men who risked their lives by going.” ¹⁹  So he refused to drink it. Such were the exploits of the three elite warriors. ²⁰ 

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¹ tn Heb “What was the word?”

² tn Heb “from the people.”

³ tn Heb “fell and died.”

⁴ tc The Syriac Peshitta and one ms of the LXX lack the words “who was telling him this” of the MT.

⁵ tn Heb “you were the one leading out and the one leading in Israel.”

⁶ tn Heb “and he cut their robes in the middle unto their buttocks.”

⁷ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the messengers) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁸ tn The words “what had happened” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

⁹ map For location see Map5-B2; Map6-E1; Map7-E1; Map8-E3; Map10-A2; Map11-A1.

¹⁰ tn Heb “David.” The name has been replaced in the translation by the pronoun (“he”) for stylistic reasons.

¹¹ tn Traditionally, “counselor,” but this term is more often associated with psychological counseling today, so “adviser” was used in the translation instead.

¹² tn Heb “Absalom sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, the adviser of David, from his city, from Giloh, while he was sacrificing.” It is not entirely clear who (Absalom or Ahithophel) was offering the sacrifices.

¹³ tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text here or in v. 24, but has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

¹⁴ tn The referent of “he” is not entirely clear: cf. NCV “David”; TEV “David’s words”; NRSV, NLT “Amasa.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “youth.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “rushed into.”

¹⁷ 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.

¹⁸ tn Heb “Far be it to me, O Lord, from doing this.”

¹⁹ tn Heb “[Is it not] the blood of the men who were going with their lives?”

²⁰ tn Heb “These things the three warriors did.”