2 Samuel 1:6

1:6 The young man who was telling him this ¹  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 10:5

10:5 Messengers ²  told David what had happened, ³  so he summoned them, for the men were thoroughly humiliated. The king said, “Stay in Jericho ⁴  until your beards have grown again; then you may come back.”

2 Samuel 23:11

23:11 Next in command ⁵  was Shammah son of Agee the Hararite. When the Philistines assembled at Lehi, ⁶  where there happened to be an area of a field that was full of lentils, the army retreated before the Philistines.

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¹ tc The Syriac Peshitta and one ms of the LXX lack the words “who was telling him this” of the MT.

² tn Heb “they”; the referent (the messengers) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

³ tn The words “what had happened” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

⁴ map For location see Map5-B2; Map6-E1; Map7-E1; Map8-E3; Map10-A2; Map11-A1.

⁵ tn Heb “after him.”

⁶ tn The Hebrew text is difficult here. The MT reads לַחַיָּה (lachayyah), which implies a rare use of the word חַיָּה (chayyah). The word normally refers to an animal, but if the MT is accepted it would here have the sense of a troop or community of people. BDB 312 s.v. II. חַיָּה, for example, understands the similar reference in v. 13 to be to “a group of allied families, making a raid together.” But this works better in v. 13 than it does in v. 11, where the context seems to suggest a particular staging location for a military operation. (See 1 Chr 11:15.) It therefore seems best to understand the word in v. 11 as a place name with ה (he) directive. In that case the Masoretes mistook the word for the common term for an animal and then tried to make sense of it in this context.