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 7 and appointed me as leader over the Lord’s people Israel.
7:8 “So now, say this to my servant David: ‘This is what the Lord of hosts says: I took you from the pasture and from your work as a shepherd 8 to make you leader of my people Israel.
7:18 King David went in, sat before the Lord, and said, “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my family, 12 that you should have brought me to this point?
9:9 Then the king summoned Ziba, Saul’s attendant, and said to him, “Everything that belonged to Saul and to his entire house I hereby give to your master’s grandson.
12:13 Then David exclaimed to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord!” Nathan replied to David, “Yes, and the Lord has forgiven 16 your sin. You are not going to die.
13:10 Then Amnon said to Tamar, “Bring the cakes into the bedroom; then I will eat from your hand.” So Tamar took the cakes that she had prepared and brought them to her brother Amnon in the bedroom.
13:16 But she said to him, “No I won’t, for sending me away now would be worse than what you did to me earlier!” 21 But he refused to listen to her.
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, 22 there I 23 will be as well!”
17:15 Then Hushai reported to Zadok and Abiathar the priests, “Here is what Ahithophel has advised Absalom and the leaders 24 of Israel to do, and here is what I have advised.
So the king stayed beside the city gate, while all the army marched out by hundreds and by thousands.
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. 25
23:5 My dynasty is approved by God, 32
for he has made a perpetual covenant with me,
arranged in all its particulars and secured.
He always delivers me,
and brings all I desire to fruition. 33
24:17 When he saw the angel who was destroying the people, David said to the Lord, “Look, it is I who have sinned and done this evil thing! As for these sheep – what have they done? Attack me and my family.” 37
1 tc The Syriac Peshitta and one
2 tc The present translation follows the LXX, the Syriac Peshitta, and Vulgate in reading “I will save,” rather than the MT “he saved.” The context calls for the 1st person common singular imperfect of the verb rather than the 3rd person masculine singular perfect.
3 tn Heb “from the hand of.”
4 tn Heb “Thus God will do to me and thus he will add.”
5 tn Heb “on his bed.”
6 tn See HALOT 146 s.v. II בער. Some derive the verb from a homonym meaning “to burn; to consume.”
7 tn Heb “all his house”; CEV “anyone else in your family.”
8 tn Heb “and from after the sheep.”
9 tn Heb “plant.”
10 tn Heb “shaken.”
11 tn Heb “the sons of violence.”
12 tn Heb “house.”
13 tn Heb “have uncovered the ear of.”
14 tn Heb “a house.” This maintains the wordplay from v. 11 (see the note on the word “house” there) and is continued in v. 29.
15 tn Heb “has found his heart.”
16 tn Heb “removed.”
17 tn Heb “and he said to him.”
18 tn An more idiomatic translation might be “Why are you of all people…?”
19 tn Heb “and you will be like one of the fools.”
20 tn Heb “Now.”
21 tn Heb “No, because this great evil is [worse] than the other which you did with me, by sending me away.” Perhaps the broken syntax reflects her hysteria and outrage.
22 tn Heb “whether for death or for life.”
23 tn Heb “your servant.”
24 tn Heb “elders.”
25 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.”
26 tn The words “but he said” are not in the Hebrew text. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.
27 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Joab) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
28 tn Heb “what to me and to you.”
29 tn Heb “a city and a mother.” The expression is a hendiadys, meaning that this city was an important one in Israel and had smaller cities dependent on it.
30 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.”
31 tc The LXX reads “at Gibeon on the mountain of the
32 tn Heb “For not thus [is] my house with God?”
33 tn Heb “for all my deliverance and every desire, surely does he not make [it] grow?”
34 tn Heb “Far be it to me, O
35 tn Heb “[Is it not] the blood of the men who were going with their lives?”
36 tn Heb “These things the three warriors did.”
37 tn Heb “let your hand be against me and against the house of my father.”