2 Samuel 12:16-17

12:16 Then David prayed to ¹  God for the child and fasted. ²  He would even ³  go and spend the night lying on the ground. 12:17 The elders of his house stood over him and tried to lift him from the ground, but he was unwilling, and refused to eat food with them.

2 Samuel 13:31

13:31 Then the king stood up and tore his garments and lay down on the ground. All his servants were standing there with torn garments as well.

2 Samuel 14:4

14:4 So the Tekoan woman went ⁴  to the king. She bowed down with her face to the ground in deference to him and said, “Please help me, ⁵  O king!”

2 Samuel 22:43

22:43 I grind them as fine as the dust of the ground;

I crush them and stomp on them like clay ⁶  in the streets.

2 Samuel 24:20

24:20 When Araunah looked out and saw the king and his servants approaching him, he ⁷  went out and bowed to the king with his face ⁸  to the ground.

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¹ tn Heb “sought” or “searched for.”

² tn Heb “and David fasted.”

³ tn The three Hebrew verbs that follow in this verse are perfects with prefixed vav. They may describe repeated past actions or actions which accompanied David’s praying and fasting.

⁴ tc The translation follows many medieval Hebrew mss in reading וַתַּבֹא (vattavo’, “and she went”) rather than the MT וַתֹּאמֶר (vatto’mer, “and she said”). The MT reading shows confusion with וַתֹּאמֶר later in the verse. The emendation suggested here is supported by the LXX, the Syriac Peshitta, some mss of the Targum, and Vulgate.

⁵ tn The word “me” is left to be inferred in the Hebrew text; it is present in the Syriac Peshitta and Vulgate.

⁶ tn Or “mud” (so NAB, NIV, CEV). See HALOT 374 s.v. טִיט.

⁷ tn Heb “Araunah.” The name has been replaced in the translation by the pronoun (“he”) for stylistic reasons.

⁸ tn Heb “nostrils.”