13:32 Jonadab, the son of David’s brother Shimeah, said, “My lord should not say, ‘They have killed all the young men who are the king’s sons.’ For only Amnon is dead. This is what Absalom has talked about 9 from the day that Amnon 10 humiliated his sister Tamar.
18:18 Prior to this 14 Absalom had set up a monument 15 and dedicated it to himself in the King’s Valley, reasoning “I have no son who will carry on my name.” He named the monument after himself, and to this day it is known as Absalom’s Memorial.
20:6 Then David said to Abishai, “Now Sheba son of Bicri will cause greater disaster for us than Absalom did! Take your lord’s servants and pursue him. Otherwise he will secure 16 fortified cities for himself and get away from us.”
21:14 They buried the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan in the land of Benjamin at Zela in the grave of his father Kish. After they had done everything 31 that the king had commanded, God responded to their prayers 32 for the land.
1 tc The present translation, “Saul’s son had two men,” is based on the reading “to the son of Saul,” rather than the MT’s “the son of Saul.” The context requires the preposition to indicate the family relationship.
2 tn Heb “from.”
3 tn Heb “Toi.” The proper name has been replaced by the pronoun in the translation for stylistic reasons.
4 tn The name appears as “Hadoram” in the parallel text in 1 Chr 18:10.
5 tn Heb “to ask concerning him for peace.”
6 tn Heb “and to bless him because he fought with Hadadezer and defeated him, for Hadadezer was a man of battles with Toi.”
7 tn Heb “and in his hand were items of silver and items of gold and items of bronze.”
8 sn The upper millstone (Heb “millstone of riding”) refers to the heavy circular stone that was commonly rolled over a circular base in order to crush and grind such things as olives.
9 tn Heb “it was placed on the mouth of Absalom.”
10 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Amnon) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
11 tn Heb “has brought back upon you.”
12 tn Heb “who came out from my entrails.” David’s point is that is his own son, his child whom he himself had fathered, was now wanting to kill him.
13 tn Heb “come to.”
14 tn Heb “and.” This disjunctive clause (conjunction + subject + verb) describes an occurrence that preceded the events just narrated.
15 tn Heb “a pillar.”
16 tn Heb “find.” The perfect verbal form is unexpected with the preceding word “otherwise.” We should probably read instead the imperfect. Although it is possible to understand the perfect here as indicating that the feared result is thought of as already having taken place (cf. BDB 814 s.v. פֶּן 2), it is more likely that the perfect is simply the result of scribal error. In this context the imperfect would be more consistent with the following verb וְהִצִּיל (vÿhitsil, “and he will get away”).
17 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Joab) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
18 tn Heb “his”; the referent (Amasa) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
19 tn Heb “and he did not repeat concerning him, and he died.”
20 tn Heb “lifted his hand.”
21 tn Heb “Look!”
22 tc The MT reads “Michal” here, but two Hebrew manuscripts read “Merab,” along with some LXX manuscripts. Cf. 1 Sam 18:19.
23 tn Heb “David.” For stylistic reasons the name has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation.
24 tn Heb “the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son.” See also v. 13.
25 tn Heb “lords.”
26 tn Heb “stolen.”
27 tc Against the MT, this word is better read without the definite article. The MT reading is probably here the result of wrong word division, with the letter ה (he) belonging with the preceding word שָׁם (sham) as the he directive (i.e., שָׁמָּה, samah, “to there”).
28 tn Heb “had hung them.”
29 tn Heb “in the day.”
30 tn Heb “Philistines.”
31 tc Many medieval Hebrew
32 tn Heb “was entreated.” The verb is an example of the so-called niphal tolerativum, with the sense that God allowed himself to be supplicated through prayer (cf. GKC 137 §51.c).