2 Samuel 12:18

12:18 On the seventh day the child died. But the servants of David were afraid to inform him that the child had died, for they said, “While the child was still alive he would not listen to us ¹  when we spoke to him. How can we tell him that the child is dead? He will do himself harm!” ² 

2 Samuel 17:12

17:12 We will come against him wherever he happens to be found. We will descend on him like the dew falls on the ground. Neither he nor any of the men who are with him will be spared alive – not one of them!

2 Samuel 19:42

19:42 All the men of Judah replied to the men of Israel, “Because the king is our close relative! Why are you so upset about this? Have we eaten at the king’s expense? ³  Or have we misappropriated anything for our own use?”

2 Samuel 20:1

Sheba’s Rebellion

20:1 Now a wicked man ⁴  named Sheba son of Bicri, a Benjaminite, ⁵  happened to be there. He blew the trumpet ⁶  and said,

“We have no share in David;

we have no inheritance in this son of Jesse!

Every man go home, ⁷  O Israel!”

2 Samuel 21:4

21:4 The Gibeonites said to him, “We ⁸  have no claim to silver or gold from Saul or from his family, ⁹  nor would we be justified in putting to death anyone in Israel.” David asked, ¹⁰  “What then are you asking me to do for you?”

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¹ tn Heb “to our voice.”

² tn Heb “he will do harm.” The object is not stated in the Hebrew text. The statement may be intentionally vague, meaning that he might harm himself or them!

³ tn Heb “from the king.”

⁴ tn Heb “a man of worthlessness.”

⁵ tn The expression used here יְמִינִי (yÿmini) is a short form of the more common “Benjamin.” It appears elsewhere in 1 Sam 9:4 and Esth 2:5. Cf. 1 Sam 9:1.

⁶ tn Heb “the shophar” (the ram’s horn trumpet). So also v. 22.

⁷ tc The MT reads לְאֹהָלָיו (lÿ’ohalav, “to his tents”). For a similar idiom, see 19:9. An ancient scribal tradition understands the reading to be לְאלֹהָיו (le’lohav, “to his gods”). The word is a tiqqun sopherim, and the scribes indicate that they changed the word from “gods” to “tents” so as to soften its theological implications. In a consonantal Hebrew text the change involved only the metathesis of two letters.

⁸ tc The translation follows the Qere and several medieval Hebrew mss in reading לָנוּ (lanu, “to us”) rather than the MT לִי (li, “to me”). But for a contrary opinion see S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, 53, 350.

⁹ tn Heb “house.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “and he said”; the referent (David) has been specified in the translation for clarity.