2 Samuel 3:21-22

3:21 Abner said to David, “Let me leave so that I may go and gather all Israel to my lord the king so that they may make an agreement ¹  with you. Then you will rule over all that you desire.” So David sent Abner away, and he left in peace.

Abner Is Killed

3:22 Now David’s soldiers ²  and Joab were coming back from a raid, bringing a great deal of plunder with them. Abner was no longer with David in Hebron, for David ³  had sent him away and he had left in peace.

2 Samuel 14:19

14:19 The king said, “Did Joab put you up to all of this?” ⁴  The woman answered, “As surely as you live, my lord the king, there is no deviation to the right or to the left from all that my lord the king has said. For your servant Joab gave me instructions. He has put all these words in your servant’s mouth.

2 Samuel 16:21

16:21 Ahithophel replied to Absalom, “Have sex with ⁵  your father’s concubines whom he left to care for the palace. All Israel will hear that you have made yourself repulsive to your father. Then your followers will be motivated to support you.” ⁶ 

2 Samuel 19:19

19:19 He said to the king, “Don’t think badly of me, my lord, and don’t recall the sin of your servant on the day when you, my lord the king, left ⁷  Jerusalem! ⁸  Please don’t call it to mind!

2 Samuel 20:3

20:3 Then David went to his palace ⁹  in Jerusalem. The king took the ten concubines he had left to care for the palace and placed them under confinement. ¹⁰  Though he provided for their needs, he did not have sexual relations with them. ¹¹  They remained in confinement until the day they died, living out the rest of their lives as widows.

2 Samuel 23:10

23:10 he stood his ground ¹²  and fought the Philistines until his hand grew so tired that it ¹³  seemed stuck to his sword. The Lord gave a great victory on that day. When the army returned to him, the only thing left to do was to plunder the corpses.

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¹ tn After the cohortatives, the prefixed verbal form with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose or result.

² tn Heb “And look, the servants of David.”

³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (David) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁴ tn Heb “Is the hand of Joab with you in all this?”

⁵ tn Heb “go to”; NAB “have (+ sexual NCV) relations with”; TEV “have intercourse with”; NLT “Go and sleep with.”

⁶ tn Heb “and the hands of all who are with you will be strengthened.”

⁷ tn Though this verb in the MT is 3rd person masculine singular, it should probably be read as 2nd person masculine singular. It is one of fifteen places where the Masoretes placed a dot over each of the letters of the word in question in order to call attention to their suspicion of the word. Their concern in this case apparently had to do with the fact that this verb and the two preceding verbs alternate from third person to second and back again to third. Words marked in this way in Hebrew manuscripts or printed editions are said to have puncta extrordinaria, or “extraordinary points.”

⁸ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

⁹ tn Heb “house.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “and he placed them in a guarded house.”

¹¹ tn Heb “he did not come to them”; NAB “has no further relations with them”; NIV “did not lie with them”; TEV “did not have intercourse with them”; NLT “would no longer sleep with them.”

¹² tn Heb “arose.”

¹³ tn Heb “his hand.”