2 Samuel 13:5-6

13:5 Jonadab replied to him, “Lie down on your bed and pretend to be sick.¹ When your father comes in to see you, say to him, ‘Please let my sister Tamar come in so she can fix some food for me. Let her prepare the food in my sight so I can watch. Then I will eat from her hand.’”

13:6 So Amnon lay down and pretended to be sick. When the king came in to see him, Amnon said to the king, “Please let my sister Tamar come in so she can make a couple of cakes in my sight. Then I will eat from her hand.”

2 Samuel 14:15

14:15 I have now come to speak with my lord the king about this matter, because the people have made me fearful.² But your servant said, ‘I will speak to the king! Perhaps the king will do what his female servant³ asks.

2 Samuel 15:14

15:14 So David said to all his servants who were with him in Jerusalem,⁴ “Come on!⁵ Let’s escape!⁶ Otherwise no one will be delivered from Absalom! Go immediately, or else he will quickly overtake us and bring⁷ disaster on us and kill the city’s residents with the sword.”⁸

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 18:9

18:9 Then Absalom happened to come across David’s men. Now as Absalom was riding on his⁹ mule, it¹⁰ went under the branches of a large oak tree. His head got caught in the oak and he was suspended in midair,¹¹ while the mule he had been riding kept going.

2 Samuel 19:11

19:11 Then King David sent a message to Zadok and Abiathar the priests saying, “Tell the elders of Judah, ‘Why should you delay any further in bringing the king back to his palace,¹² when everything Israel is saying has come to the king’s attention.¹³

2 Samuel 24:13

24:13 Gad went to David and told him, “Shall seven¹⁴ years of famine come upon your land? Or shall you flee for three months from your enemy with him in hot pursuit? Or shall there be three days of plague in your land? Now decide¹⁵ what I should tell the one who sent me.”

¹tn This verb is used in the Hitpael stem only in this chapter of the Hebrew Bible. With the exception of v. 2 it describes not a real sickness but one pretended in order to entrap Tamar. The Hitpael sometimes, as here, describes the subject making oneself appear to be of a certain character. On this use of the stem, see GKC 149-50 §54.e.

²tc The LXX (ὄψεταί με, opsetai me) has misunderstood the Hebrew יֵרְאֻנִי (yerÿ’uni, Piel perfect, “they have made me fearful”), taking the verb to be a form of the verb רָאָה (ra’ah, “to see”) rather than the verb יָרֵא (yare’, “to fear”). The fact that the Greek translators were working with an unvocalized Hebrew text (i.e., consonants only) made them very susceptible to this type of error.

³tn Here and in v. 16 the woman refers to herself as the king’s אָמָה (’amah), a term that refers to a higher level female servant toward whom the master might have some obligation. Like the other term, this word expresses her humility, but it also suggests that the king might have some obligation to treat her in accordance with the principles of justice.

⁴map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

⁵tn Heb “Arise!”

⁶tn Heb “let’s flee.”

⁷tn Heb “thrust.”

⁸tn Heb “and strike the city with the edge of the sword.”

⁹tn Heb “the.”

¹⁰tn Heb “the donkey.”

¹¹tn Heb “between the sky and the ground.”

¹²tn Heb “his house.”

¹³tc The Hebrew text adds “to his house” (= palace), but the phrase, which also appears earlier in the verse, is probably accidentally repeated here.

¹⁴tc The LXX has here “three” rather than “seven,” and is followed by NAB, NIV, NCV, NRSV, TEV, NLT. See 1 Chr 21:12.

¹⁵tn Heb “now know and see.”