2 Samuel 3:18

3:18 Act now! For the Lord has said to David, ‘By the hand of my servant David I will save ¹  my people Israel from ²  the Philistines and from all their enemies.’”

2 Samuel 12:7

12:7 Nathan said to David, “You are that man! This is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I chose ³  you to be king over Israel and I rescued you from the hand of Saul.

2 Samuel 13:10

13:10 Then Amnon said to Tamar, “Bring the cakes into the bedroom; then I will eat from your hand.” So Tamar took the cakes that she had prepared and brought them to her brother Amnon in the bedroom.

2 Samuel 14:16

14:16 Yes! ⁴  The king may ⁵  listen and deliver his female servant ⁶  from the hand of the man who seeks to remove ⁷  both me and my son from the inheritance God has given us!’ ⁸ 

2 Samuel 18:14

18:14 Joab replied, “I will not wait around like this for you!” He took three spears in his hand and thrust them into the middle of Absalom while he was still alive in the middle of the oak tree. ⁹ 

2 Samuel 18:31

18:31 Then the Cushite arrived and said, ¹⁰  “May my lord the king now receive the good news! The Lord has vindicated you today and delivered you from the hand of all who have rebelled against you!” ¹¹ 

2 Samuel 20:9

20:9 Joab said to Amasa, “How are you, my brother?” With his right hand Joab took hold of Amasa’s beard as if to greet him with a kiss.

2 Samuel 21:20

21:20 Yet another battle occurred in Gath. On that occasion there was a large man ¹²  who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in all! He too was a descendant of Rapha.

2 Samuel 23:21

23:21 He also killed an impressive-looking Egyptian. ¹³  The Egyptian wielded a spear, while Benaiah attacked ¹⁴  him with a club. He grabbed the spear out of the Egyptian’s hand and killed him with his own spear.

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¹ tc The present translation follows the LXX, the Syriac Peshitta, and Vulgate in reading “I will save,” rather than the MT “he saved.” The context calls for the 1st person common singular imperfect of the verb rather than the 3rd person masculine singular perfect.

² tn Heb “from the hand of.”

³ tn Heb “anointed.”

⁴ tn Or “for.”

⁵ tn Or “will.” The imperfect verbal form can have either an indicative or modal nuance. The use of “perhaps” in v. 15b suggests the latter here.

⁶ tn Heb “in order to deliver his maid.”

⁷ tn Heb “destroy.”

⁸ tn Heb “from the inheritance of God.” The expression refers to the property that was granted to her family line in the division of the land authorized by God.

⁹ tn There is a play on the word “heart” here that is difficult to reproduce in English. Literally the Hebrew text says “he took three spears in his hand and thrust them into the heart of Absalom while he was still alive in the heart of the oak tree.” This figure of speech involves the use of the same word in different senses and is known as antanaclasis. It is illustrated in the familiar saying from the time of the American Revolution: “If we don’t hang together, we will all hang separately.” The present translation understands “heart” to be used somewhat figuratively for “chest” (cf. TEV, CEV), which explains why Joab’s armor bearers could still “kill” Absalom after he had been stabbed with three spears through the “heart.” Since trees do not have “chests” either, the translation uses “middle.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “And look, the Cushite came and the Cushite said.”

¹¹ tn Heb “for the Lord has vindicated you today from the hand of all those rising against you.”

¹² tn Heb “a man of stature.”

¹³ tc The translation follows the Qere and many medieval Hebrew mss in reading אִישׁ (’ish, “man”) rather than the Kethib of the MT, אֲשֶׁר (’asher, “who”).

¹⁴ tn Heb “and he went down to.”