11:10 So they informed David, “Uriah has not gone down to his house.” So David said to Uriah, “Haven’t you just arrived from a journey? Why haven’t you gone down to your house?”
12:13 Then David exclaimed to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord!” Nathan replied to David, “Yes, and the Lord has forgiven 8 your sin. You are not going to die.
13:25 But the king said to Absalom, “No, my son. We shouldn’t all go. We shouldn’t burden you in that way.” Though Absalom 11 pressed 12 him, the king 13 was not willing to go. Instead, David 14 blessed him.
13:28 Absalom instructed his servants, “Look! When Amnon is drunk 15 and I say to you, ‘Strike Amnon down,’ kill him then and there. Don’t fear! Is it not I who have given you these instructions? Be strong and courageous!” 16
17:17 Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz were staying in En Rogel. A female servant would go and inform them, and they would then go and inform King David. It was not advisable for them to be seen going into the city.
18:14 Joab replied, “I will not wait around like this for you!” He took three spears in his hand and thrust them into the middle of Absalom while he was still alive in the middle of the oak tree. 18
19:24 Now Mephibosheth, Saul’s grandson, 19 came down to meet the king. From the day the king had left until the day he safely 20 returned, Mephibosheth 21 had not cared for his feet 22 nor trimmed 23 his mustache nor washed his clothes.
1 tn Heb “young men.” So also elsewhere.
2 tn Heb “Why should I strike you to the ground?”
3 tn Heb “lift.”
4 tn The words “when you come to see my face,” though found in the Hebrew text, are somewhat redundant given the similar expression in the earlier part of the verse. The words are absent from the Syriac Peshitta.
5 tn Heb “on his bed.”
6 tn See HALOT 146 s.v. II בער. Some derive the verb from a homonym meaning “to burn; to consume.”
7 tn Heb “in a tent and in a dwelling.” The expression is a hendiadys, using two terms to express one idea.
8 tn Heb “removed.”
9 tn Heb “and you will be like one of the fools.”
10 tn Heb “Now.”
11 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Absalom) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
12 tc Here and in v. 27 the translation follows 4QSama ויצפר (vayyitspar, “and he pressed”) rather than the MT וַיִּפְרָץ (vayyiprats, “and he broke through”). This emended reading seems also to underlie the translations of the LXX (καὶ ἐβιάσατο, kai ebiasato), the Syriac Peshitta (we’alseh), and Vulgate (cogeret eum).
13 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
14 tn Heb “he”; the referent (David) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
15 tn Heb “when good is the heart of Amnon with wine.”
16 tn Heb “and become sons of valor.”
17 tn Heb “he devises plans for the one banished from him not to be banished.”
18 tn There is a play on the word “heart” here that is difficult to reproduce in English. Literally the Hebrew text says “he took three spears in his hand and thrust them into the heart of Absalom while he was still alive in the heart of the oak tree.” This figure of speech involves the use of the same word in different senses and is known as antanaclasis. It is illustrated in the familiar saying from the time of the American Revolution: “If we don’t hang together, we will all hang separately.” The present translation understands “heart” to be used somewhat figuratively for “chest” (cf. TEV, CEV), which explains why Joab’s armor bearers could still “kill” Absalom after he had been stabbed with three spears through the “heart.” Since trees do not have “chests” either, the translation uses “middle.”
19 tn Heb “son.”
20 tn Heb “in peace.” So also in v. 31.
21 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Mephibosheth) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
22 tn Heb “done his feet.”
23 tn Heb “done.”
24 tn Heb “Far be it to me, O
25 tn Heb “[Is it not] the blood of the men who were going with their lives?”
26 tn Heb “These things the three warriors did.”