2 Samuel 3:35

3:35 Then all the people came and encouraged David to eat food while it was still day. But David took an oath saying, “God will punish me severely if I taste bread or anything whatsoever before the sun sets!”

2 Samuel 5:3

5:3 When all the leaders of Israel came to the king at Hebron, King David made an agreement with them in Hebron before the Lord. They designated David as king over Israel.

2 Samuel 5:24

5:24 When you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the trees, act decisively. For at that moment the Lord is going before you to strike down the army of the Philistines.”

2 Samuel 6:16-17

6:16 As the ark of the Lord entered the City of David, Saul’s daughter Michal looked out the window. When she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she despised him. 6:17 They brought the ark of the Lord and put it in its place in the middle of the tent that David had pitched for it. Then David offered burnt sacrifices and peace offerings before the Lord.

2 Samuel 7:9

7:9 I was with you wherever you went, and I defeated all your enemies before you. Now I will make you as famous as the great men of the earth.

2 Samuel 7:18

David Offers a Prayer to God

7:18 King David went in, sat before the Lord, and said, “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my family, 10  that you should have brought me to this point?

2 Samuel 7:29

7:29 Now be willing to bless your servant’s dynasty 11  so that it may stand permanently before you, for you, O sovereign Lord, have spoken. By your blessing may your servant’s dynasty be blessed on into the future!” 12 

2 Samuel 10:18

10:18 The Arameans fled before Israel. David killed 700 Aramean charioteers and 40,000 foot soldiers. 13  He also struck down Shobach, the general in command of the army, who died there.

2 Samuel 14:33

14:33 So Joab went to the king and informed him. The king 14  summoned Absalom, and he came to the king. Absalom 15  bowed down before the king with his face toward the ground and the king kissed him. 16 

2 Samuel 16:4

16:4 The king said to Ziba, “Everything that was Mephibosheth’s now belongs to you.” Ziba replied, “I bow before you. May I find favor in your sight, my lord the king.”

2 Samuel 19:18

19:18 They crossed at the ford in order to help the king’s household cross and to do whatever he thought appropriate.

Now after he had crossed the Jordan, Shimei son of Gera threw himself down before the king.

2 Samuel 21:6

21:6 let seven of his male descendants be turned over to us, and we will execute 17  them before the Lord in Gibeah of Saul, who was the Lord’s chosen one.” 18  The king replied, “I will turn them over.”

2 Samuel 23:11

23:11 Next in command 19  was Shammah son of Agee the Hararite. When the Philistines assembled at Lehi, 20  where there happened to be an area of a field that was full of lentils, the army retreated before the Philistines.

2 Samuel 24:3

24:3 Joab replied to the king, “May the Lord your God make the army a hundred times larger right before the eyes of my lord the king! But why does my master the king want to do this?”


tn Heb “Thus God will do to me and thus he will add.”

tn Heb “elders.”

tn Heb “and the king, David, cut for them a covenant.”

tn Heb “anointed.”

tn Heb “camp” (so NAB).

tn The Hebrew text adds “in her heart.” Cf. CEV “she was disgusted (+ with him TEV)”; NLT “was filled with contempt for him”; NCV “she hated him.”

tc The Syriac Peshitta lacks “in its place.”

tn Heb “cut off.”

tn Heb “and I will make for you a great name like the name of the great ones who are in the earth.”

10 tn Heb “house.”

11 tn Heb “house” (again later in this verse). See the note on “dynastic house” in v. 27.

12 tn Or “permanently”; cf. NLT “it is an eternal blessing.”

13 tn Heb “horsemen” (so KJV, NASB, NCV, NRSV, NLT) but the Lucianic recension of the LXX reads “foot soldiers,” as does the parallel text in 1 Chr 19:18. Cf. NAB, NIV.

14 tn Heb “he.” Joab, acting on behalf of the king, may be the implied subject.

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

16 tn Heb “Absalom.” For stylistic reasons the name has been replaced by the pronoun (“him”) in the translation.

17 tn The exact nature of this execution is not altogether clear. The verb יָקַע (yaqa’) basically means “to dislocate” or “alienate.” In Gen 32:26 it is used of the dislocation of Jacob’s thigh. Figuratively it can refer to the removal of an individual from a group (e.g., Jer 6:8; Ezek 23:17) or to a type of punishment the specific identity of which is uncertain (e.g., here and Num 25:4); cf. NAB “dismember them”; NIV “to be killed and exposed.”

18 tc The LXX reads “at Gibeon on the mountain of the Lord” (cf. 21:9). The present translation follows the MT, although a number of recent English translations follow the LXX reading here (e.g., NAB, NRSV, NLT).

19 tn Heb “after him.”

20 tn The Hebrew text is difficult here. The MT reads לַחַיָּה (lachayyah), which implies a rare use of the word חַיָּה (chayyah). The word normally refers to an animal, but if the MT is accepted it would here have the sense of a troop or community of people. BDB 312 s.v. II. חַיָּה, for example, understands the similar reference in v. 13 to be to “a group of allied families, making a raid together.” But this works better in v. 13 than it does in v. 11, where the context seems to suggest a particular staging location for a military operation. (See 1 Chr 11:15.) It therefore seems best to understand the word in v. 11 as a place name with ה (he) directive. In that case the Masoretes mistook the word for the common term for an animal and then tried to make sense of it in this context.