20:1 Now a wicked man 1 named Sheba son of Bicri, a Benjaminite, 2 happened to be there. He blew the trumpet 3 and said,
“We have no share in David;
we have no inheritance in this son of Jesse!
Every man go home, 4 O Israel!”
20:22 Then the woman went to all the people with her wise advice and they cut off Sheba’s head and threw it out to Joab. Joab 5 blew the trumpet, and his men 6 dispersed from the city, each going to his own home. 7 Joab returned to the king in Jerusalem.
1 tn Heb “a man of worthlessness.”
2 tn 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.
3 tn Heb “the shophar” (the ram’s horn trumpet). So also v. 22.
4 tc 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.
5 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Joab) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
6 tn Heb “they”; the referent (Joab’s men) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
7 tn Heb “his tents.”