2 Samuel 2:5

2:5 So David sent messengers to the people of Jabesh Gilead and told them, “May you be blessed by the Lord because you have shown this kindness¹ to your lord Saul by burying him.

2 Samuel 2:26

2:26 Then Abner called out to Joab, “Must the sword devour forever? Don’t you realize that this will turn bitter in the end? When will you tell the people to turn aside from pursuing their brothers?”

2 Samuel 5:19

5:19 So David asked the Lord, “Should I march up against the Philistines? Will you hand them over to me?” The Lord said to David, “March up, for I will indeed² hand the Philistines over to you.”

2 Samuel 5:24

5:24 When you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the trees, act decisively. For at that moment the Lord is going before you to strike down the army³ of the Philistines.”

2 Samuel 7:8

7:8 “So now, say this to my servant David: ‘This is what the Lord of hosts says: I took you from the pasture and from your work as a shepherd⁴ to make you leader of my people Israel.

2 Samuel 7:19

7:19 And you didn’t stop there, O Lord God! You have also spoken about the future of your servant’s family.⁵ Is this your usual way of dealing with men,⁶ O Lord God?

2 Samuel 7:29

7:29 Now be willing to bless your servant’s dynasty⁷ so that it may stand permanently before you, for you, O sovereign Lord, have spoken. By your blessing may your servant’s dynasty be blessed on into the future!”⁸

2 Samuel 11:10

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?”

2 Samuel 13:4

13:4 He asked Amnon,⁹ “Why are you, the king’s son,¹⁰ so depressed every morning? Can’t you tell me?” So Amnon said to him, “I’m in love with Tamar the sister of my brother Absalom.”

2 Samuel 13:13

13:13 How could I ever be rid of my humiliation? And you would be considered one of the fools¹¹ in Israel! Just¹² speak to the king, for he will not withhold me from you.”

2 Samuel 13:28

13:28 Absalom instructed his servants, “Look! When Amnon is drunk¹³ 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!”¹⁴

2 Samuel 15:19

15:19 Then the king said to Ittai the Gittite, “Why should you come with us? Go back and stay with the new¹⁵ king, for you are a foreigner and an exile from your own country.¹⁶

2 Samuel 15:27

15:27 The king said to Zadok the priest, “Are you a seer?¹⁷ Go back to the city in peace! Your son Ahimaaz and Abiathar’s son Jonathan may go with you and Abiathar.¹⁸

2 Samuel 15:36

15:36 Furthermore, their two sons are there with them, Zadok’s son Ahimaaz and Abiathar’s son Jonathan. You must send them to me with any information you hear.”¹⁹

2 Samuel 16:4

16:4 The king said to Ziba, “Everything that was Mephibosheth’s now belongs to you.” Ziba replied, “I bow before you. May I find favor in your sight, my lord the king.”

2 Samuel 16:10

16:10 But the king said, “What do we have in common,²⁰ you sons of Zeruiah? If he curses because the Lord has said to him, ‘Curse David!’, who can say to him, ‘Why have you done this?’”

2 Samuel 18:20

18:20 But Joab said to him, “You will not be a bearer of good news today. You will bear good news some other day, but not today,²¹ for the king’s son is dead.”

2 Samuel 19:13

19:13 Say to Amasa, ‘Are you not my flesh and blood?²² God will punish me severely,²³ if from this time on you are not the commander of my army in place of Joab!’”

2 Samuel 20:19

20:19 I represent the peaceful and the faithful in Israel. You are attempting to destroy an important city²⁴ in Israel. Why should you swallow up the Lord’s inheritance?”

2 Samuel 24:12

24:12 “Go, tell David, ‘This is what the Lord says: I am offering you three forms of judgment. Pick one of them and I will carry it out against you.’”

¹tn Or “loyalty.”

²tn The infinitive absolute lends emphasis to the following verb.

³tn Heb “camp” (so NAB).

⁴tn Heb “and from after the sheep.”

⁵tn Heb “and this was small in your eyes, O Lord God, so you spoke concerning the house of your servant for a distance.”

⁶tn Heb “and this [is] the law of man”; KJV “is this the manner of man, O Lord God?”; NAB “this too you have shown to man”; NRSV “May this be instruction for the people, O Lord God!” This part of the verse is very enigmatic; no completely satisfying solution has yet been suggested. The present translation tries to make sense of the MT by understanding the phrase as a question that underscores the uniqueness of God’s dealings with David as described here. The parallel passage in 1 Chr 17:17 reads differently (see the note there).

⁷tn Heb “house” (again later in this verse). See the note on “dynastic house” in v. 27.

⁸tn Or “permanently”; cf. NLT “it is an eternal blessing.”

⁹tn Heb “and he said to him.”

¹⁰tn An more idiomatic translation might be “Why are you of all people…?”

¹¹tn Heb “and you will be like one of the fools.”

¹²tn Heb “Now.”

¹³tn Heb “when good is the heart of Amnon with wine.”

¹⁴tn Heb “and become sons of valor.”

¹⁵tn The word “new” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation to make it clear that David refers to Absalom, not himself.

¹⁶tn Heb “place.”

¹⁷tn The Greek tradition understands the Hebrew word as an imperative (“see”). Most Greek mss have ἴδετε (idete); the Lucianic recension has βλέπε (blepe). It could just as well be taken as a question: “Don’t you see what is happening?” The present translation takes the word as a question, with the implication that Zadok is a priest and not a prophet (i.e., “seer”) and therefore unable to know what the future holds.

¹⁸tn Heb “And Ahimaaz your son, and Jonathan the son of Abiathar, two of your sons, with you.” The pronominal suffix on the last word is plural, referring to Zadok and Abiathar.

¹⁹tn Heb “and you must send by their hand to me every word which you hear.” Both of the second person verb forms are plural with Zadok, Abiathar, and Hushai being the understood subjects.

²⁰tn Heb “What to me and to you?”

²¹tn Heb “but this day you will not bear good news.”

²²tn Heb “my bone and my flesh.”

²³tn Heb “Thus God will do to me and thus he will add.”

²⁴tn Heb “a city and a mother.” The expression is a hendiadys, meaning that this city was an important one in Israel and had smaller cities dependent on it.