2 Samuel 21:3
21:3 David said to the Gibeonites, “What can I do for you, and how can I make amends so that you will bless 1 the Lord’s inheritance?”
2 Samuel 21:9
21:9 He turned them over to the Gibeonites, and they executed them on a hill before the Lord. The seven of them 2 died 3 together; they were put to death during harvest time – during the first days of the beginning 4 of the barley harvest.
1 tn After the preceding imperfect verbal form, the subordinated imperative indicates purpose/result. S. R. Driver comments, “…the imper. is used instead of the more normal voluntative, for the purpose of expressing with somewhat greater force the intention of the previous verb” (S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, 350).
2 tc The translation follows the Qere and several medieval Hebrew mss in reading שְׁבַעְתָּם (shÿva’tam, “the seven of them”) rather than MT שִׁבַעְתִּים (shiva’tim, “seventy”).
3 tn Heb “fell.”
4 tc The translation follows the Qere and many medieval Hebrew mss in reading בִּתְחִלַּת (bithkhillat, “in the beginning”) rather than MT תְחִלַּת (tÿkhillat, “beginning of”).