3:12 Then Abner sent messengers 2 to David saying, “To whom does the land belong? Make an agreement 3 with me, and I will do whatever I can 4 to cause all Israel to turn to you.”
10:4 So Hanun seized David’s servants and shaved off half of each one’s beard. He cut the lower part of their robes off so that their buttocks were exposed, 5 and then sent them away.
11:1 In the spring of the year, at the time when kings 6 normally conduct wars, 7 David sent out Joab with his officers 8 and the entire Israelite army. 9 They defeated the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed behind in Jerusalem. 10
11:4 David sent some messengers to get her. 11 She came to him and he had sexual relations with her. 12 (Now at that time she was in the process of purifying herself from her menstrual uncleanness.) 13 Then she returned to her home.
19:14 He 16 won over the hearts of all the men of Judah as though they were one man. Then they sent word to the king saying, “Return, you and all your servants as well.”
1 tn Or “loyalty.”
2 tn The Hebrew text adds here, “on his behalf.”
3 tn Heb “cut a covenant.” So also in vv. 13, 21.
4 tn Heb “and behold, my hand is with you.”
5 tn Heb “and he cut their robes in the middle unto their buttocks.”
6 tc Codex Leningrad (B19A), on which BHS is based, has here “messengers” (הַמַּלְאכִים, hammal’khim), probably as the result of contamination from the occurrence of that word in v. 4. The present translation follows most Hebrew
7 tn Heb “go out.”
8 tn Heb “and his servants with him.”
9 tn Heb “all Israel.”
10 tn The disjunctive clause contrasts David’s inactivity with the army’s activity.
map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
11 tn Heb “and David sent messengers and he took her.”
12 tn Heb “he lay with her” (so NASB, NRSV); TEV “he made love to her”; NIV, CEV, NLT “he slept with her.”
13 tn The parenthetical disjunctive clause further heightens the tension by letting the reader know that Bathsheba, having just completed her menstrual cycle, is ripe for conception. See P. K. McCarter, II Samuel (AB), 286. Since she just had her period, it will also be obvious to those close to the scene that Uriah, who has been away fighting, cannot be the father of the child.
14 tn Traditionally, “counselor,” but this term is more often associated with psychological counseling today, so “adviser” was used in the translation instead.
15 tn Heb “Absalom sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, the adviser of David, from his city, from Giloh, while he was sacrificing.” It is not entirely clear who (Absalom or Ahithophel) was offering the sacrifices.
16 tn The referent of “he” is not entirely clear: cf. NCV “David”; TEV “David’s words”; NRSV, NLT “Amasa.”