2:1 Afterward David inquired of the Lord, “Should I go up to one of the cities of Judah?” The Lord told him, “Go up.” David asked, “Where should I go?” The Lord replied, 4 “To Hebron.”
6:21 David replied to Michal, “It was before the Lord! I was celebrating before the Lord, who chose me over your father and his entire family 5 and appointed me as leader over the Lord’s people Israel.
9:2 Now there was a servant from Saul’s house named Ziba, so he was summoned to David. The king asked him, “Are you Ziba?” He replied, “At your service.” 6
12:13 Then David exclaimed to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord!” Nathan replied to David, “Yes, and the Lord has forgiven 9 your sin. You are not going to die.
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.”
15:21 But Ittai replied to the king, “As surely as the Lord lives and as my lord the king lives, wherever my lord the king is, whether dead or alive, 11 there I 12 will be as well!”
18:14 Joab replied, “I will not wait around like this for you!” He took three spears in his hand and thrust them into the middle of Absalom while he was still alive in the middle of the oak tree. 16
20:17 When he approached her, the woman asked, “Are you Joab?” He replied, “I am.” She said to him, “Listen to the words of your servant.” He said, “Go ahead. I’m listening.”
24:3 Joab replied to the king, “May the Lord your God make the army a hundred times larger right before the eyes of my lord the king! But why does my master the king want to do this?”
1 tn Heb “What was the word?”
2 tn Heb “from the people.”
3 tn Heb “fell and died.”
4 tn Heb “he said.” The referent (the
5 tn Heb “all his house”; CEV “anyone else in your family.”
6 tn Heb “your servant.”
7 tn Heb “he fell on his face and bowed down.”
8 tn Heb “Look, your servant.”
9 tn Heb “removed.”
10 tn Heb “David.” The name has been replaced in the translation by the pronoun (“he”) for stylistic reasons.
11 tn Heb “whether for death or for life.”
12 tn Heb “your servant.”
13 tn Heb “son.”
14 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
15 tn Heb “my father’s.”
16 tn There is a play on the word “heart” here that is difficult to reproduce in English. Literally the Hebrew text says “he took three spears in his hand and thrust them into the heart of Absalom while he was still alive in the heart of the oak tree.” This figure of speech involves the use of the same word in different senses and is known as antanaclasis. It is illustrated in the familiar saying from the time of the American Revolution: “If we don’t hang together, we will all hang separately.” The present translation understands “heart” to be used somewhat figuratively for “chest” (cf. TEV, CEV), which explains why Joab’s armor bearers could still “kill” Absalom after he had been stabbed with three spears through the “heart.” Since trees do not have “chests” either, the translation uses “middle.”
17 tn Heb “and all those rising against you for evil.”
18 tn Heb “your servant.”
19 tn Heb “your servant.”
20 tn The exact nature of this execution is not altogether clear. The verb יָקַע (yaqa’) basically means “to dislocate” or “alienate.” In Gen 32:26 it is used of the dislocation of Jacob’s thigh. Figuratively it can refer to the removal of an individual from a group (e.g., Jer 6:8; Ezek 23:17) or to a type of punishment the specific identity of which is uncertain (e.g., here and Num 25:4); cf. NAB “dismember them”; NIV “to be killed and exposed.”
21 tc The LXX reads “at Gibeon on the mountain of the