2 Samuel 2:14

2:14 Abner said to Joab, “Let the soldiers get up and fight ¹  before us.” Joab said, “So be it!” ² 

2 Samuel 17:5

17:5 But Absalom said, “Call for ³  Hushai the Arkite, and let’s hear what he has to say.” ⁴ 

---

¹ tn Heb “play.” What is in view here is a gladiatorial contest in which representative groups of soldiers engage in mortal combat before the watching armies. Cf. NAB “perform for us”; NASB “hold (have NRSV) a contest before us”; NLT “put on an exhibition of hand-to-hand combat.”

² tn Heb “let them arise.”

³ tc In the MT the verb is singular, but in the LXX, the Syriac Peshitta, and Vulgate it is plural.

⁴ tn Heb “what is in his mouth.”