2 Samuel 12:16

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.

2 Samuel 15:31

15:31 Now David ⁴  had been told, “Ahithophel has sided with the conspirators who are with Absalom. So David prayed, ⁵  “Make the advice of Ahithophel foolish, O Lord!”

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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 4QSam^a, part of the Greek tradition, the Syriac Peshitta, Targum, and Vulgate uldavid in reading “and to David,” rather than MT וְדָוִד (vÿdavid, “and David”). As Driver points out, the Hebrew verb הִגִּיד (higgid, “he related”) never uses the accusative for the person to whom something is told (S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, 316).

⁵ tn Heb “said.”