2 Samuel 2:23

2:23 But Asahel¹ refused to turn aside. So Abner struck him in the abdomen with the back end of his² spear. The spear came out his back; Asahel³ collapsed on the spot and died there right before Abner.⁴ Everyone who now comes to the place where Asahel fell dead pauses in respect.⁵

2 Samuel 6:2

6:2 David and all the men who were with him traveled⁶ to⁷ Baalah⁸ in Judah to bring up from there the ark of God which is called by the name⁹ of the Lord of hosts, who sits enthroned between the cherubim that are on it.

2 Samuel 9:3

9:3 The king asked, “Is there not someone left from Saul’s family,¹⁰ that I may extend God’s kindness to him?” Ziba said to the king, “One of Jonathan’s sons is left; both of his feet are crippled.”

2 Samuel 11:25

11:25 David said to the messenger, “Tell Joab, ‘Don’t let this thing upset you.¹¹ There is no way to anticipate whom the sword will cut down.¹² Press the battle against the city and conquer¹³ it.’ Encourage him with these words.”¹⁴

2 Samuel 14:2

14:2 So Joab sent to Tekoa and brought from there a wise woman. He told her, “Pretend to be in mourning¹⁵ and put on garments for mourning. Don’t anoint yourself with oil. Instead, act like a woman who has been mourning for the dead for some time.¹⁶

2 Samuel 14:19

14:19 The king said, “Did Joab put you up to all of this?”¹⁷ The woman answered, “As surely as you live, my lord the king, there is no deviation to the right or to the left from all that my lord the king has said. For your servant Joab gave me instructions. He has put all these words in your servant’s mouth.

2 Samuel 14:30

14:30 So he said to his servants, “Look, Joab has a portion of field adjacent to mine and he has some barley there. Go and set it on fire.”¹⁸ So Absalom’s servants set Joab’s¹⁹ portion of the field on fire.

2 Samuel 16:1

David Receives Gifts from Ziba

16:1 When David had gone a short way beyond the summit, Ziba the servant of Mephibosheth was there to meet him. He had a couple of donkeys that were saddled, and on them were two hundred loaves of bread, a hundred raisin cakes, a hundred baskets of summer fruit,²⁰ and a container of wine.

2 Samuel 17:18

17:18 But a young man saw them on one occasion and informed Absalom. So the two of them quickly departed and went to the house of a man in Bahurim. There was a well in his courtyard, and they got down in it.

2 Samuel 19:7

19:7 So get up now and go out and give some encouragement to²¹ your servants. For I swear by the Lord that if you don’t go out there, not a single man will stay here with you tonight! This disaster will be worse for you than any disaster that has overtaken you from your youth right to the present time!”

2 Samuel 19:28

19:28 After all, there was no one in the entire house of my grandfather²² who did not deserve death from my lord the king. But instead you allowed me to eat at your own table!²³ What further claim do I have to ask²⁴ the king for anything?”

2 Samuel 20:1

Sheba’s Rebellion

20:1 Now a wicked man²⁵ named Sheba son of Bicri, a Benjaminite,²⁶ happened to be there. He blew the trumpet²⁷ and said,

“We have no share in David;

we have no inheritance in this son of Jesse!

Every man go home,²⁸ O Israel!”

2 Samuel 20:10

20:10 Amasa did not protect himself from the knife in Joab’s other hand, and Joab²⁹ stabbed him in the abdomen, causing Amasa’s³⁰ intestines to spill out on the ground. There was no need to stab him again; the first blow was fatal.³¹ Then Joab and his brother Abishai pursued Sheba son of Bicri.

2 Samuel 20:21

20:21 That’s not the way things are. There is a man from the hill country of Ephraim named Sheba son of Bicri. He has rebelled³² against King David. Give me just this one man, and I will leave the city.” The woman said to Joab, “This very minute³³ his head will be thrown over the wall to you!”

2 Samuel 21:12

21:12 he³⁴ went and took the bones of Saul and of his son Jonathan³⁵ from the leaders³⁶ of Jabesh Gilead. (They had secretly taken³⁷ them from the plaza at Beth Shan. It was there that Philistines³⁸ publicly exposed their corpses³⁹ after⁴⁰ they⁴¹ had killed Saul at Gilboa.)

2 Samuel 24:13

24:13 Gad went to David and told him, “Shall seven⁴² 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 decide⁴³ what I should tell the one who sent me.”

¹tn Heb “he”; the referent (Asahel) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

²tn Heb “the.” The article functions here as a possessive pronoun.

³tn Heb “he”; the referent (Asahel) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁴tn Heb “him”; the referent (Abner) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁵tn Heb “and they stand.”

⁶tn Heb “arose and went.”

⁷tn Heb “from,” but the following context indicates they traveled to this location.

⁸tn This is another name for Kiriath-jearim (see 1 Chr 13:6).

⁹tc The MT has here a double reference to the name (שֵׁם שֵׁם, shem shem). Many medieval Hebrew mss in the first occurrence point the word differently and read the adverb שָׁם (sham, “there”). This is also the understanding of the Syriac Peshitta (Syr., taman). While this yields an acceptable understanding to the text, it is more likely that the MT dittographic here. The present translation therefore reads שֵׁם only once.

¹⁰tn Heb “house.”

¹¹tn Heb “let not this matter be evil in your eyes.”

¹²tn Heb “according to this and according to this the sword devours.”

¹³tn Heb “overthrow.”

¹⁴tn The Hebrew text does not have “with these words.” They are supplied in the translation for clarity and for stylistic reasons.

¹⁵tn The Hebrew Hitpael verbal form here indicates pretended rather than genuine action.

¹⁶tn Heb “these many days.”

¹⁷tn Heb “Is the hand of Joab with you in all this?”

¹⁸tc The LXX adds here the following words: “And the servants of Absalom burned them up. And the servants of Joab came to him, rending their garments. They said….”

¹⁹tn The word “Joab’s” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

²⁰tn Heb “a hundred summer fruit.”

²¹tn Heb “and speak to the heart of.”

²²tn Heb “father.”

²³tn Heb “and you placed your servant among those who eat at your table.”

²⁴tn Heb “to cry out to.”

²⁵tn Heb “a man of worthlessness.”

²⁶tn 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.

²⁷tn Heb “the shophar” (the ram’s horn trumpet). So also v. 22.

²⁸tc 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.

²⁹tn Heb “he”; the referent (Joab) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

³⁰tn Heb “his”; the referent (Amasa) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

³¹tn Heb “and he did not repeat concerning him, and he died.”

³²tn Heb “lifted his hand.”

³³tn Heb “Look!”

³⁴tn Heb “David.” For stylistic reasons the name has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation.

³⁵tn Heb “the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son.” See also v. 13.

³⁶tn Heb “lords.”

³⁷tn Heb “stolen.”

³⁸tc 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”).

³⁹tn Heb “had hung them.”

⁴⁰tn Heb “in the day.”

⁴¹tn Heb “Philistines.”

⁴²tc The LXX has here “three” rather than “seven,” and is followed by NAB, NIV, NCV, NRSV, TEV, NLT. See 1 Chr 21:12.

⁴³tn Heb “now know and see.”