2 Samuel 3:7

3:7 Now Saul had a concubine named Rizpah daughter of Aiah. Ish-bosheth ¹  said to Abner, “Why did you have sexual relations with ²  my father’s concubine?” ³ 

2 Samuel 12:23

12:23 But now he is dead. Why should I fast? Am I able to bring him back? I will go to him, but he cannot return to me!’”

2 Samuel 13:26

13:26 Then Absalom said, “If you will not go, ⁴  then let my brother Amnon go with us.” The king replied to him, “Why should he go with you?”

2 Samuel 14:31

14:31 Then Joab got up and came to Absalom’s house. He said to him, “Why did your servants set my portion of field on fire?”

2 Samuel 16:9

16:9 Then Abishai son of Zeruiah said to the king, “Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over and cut off his head!”

2 Samuel 16:17

16:17 Absalom said to Hushai, “Do you call this loyalty to your friend? Why didn’t you go with your friend?”

2 Samuel 19:10

19:10 But Absalom, whom we anointed as our king, ⁵  has died in battle. So now why do you hesitate to bring the king back?” ⁶ 

2 Samuel 19:12

19:12 You are my brothers – my very own flesh and blood! ⁷  Why should you delay any further in bringing the king back?’

2 Samuel 19:25

19:25 When he came from Jerusalem to meet the king, the king asked him, “Why didn’t you go with me, Mephibosheth?”

2 Samuel 19:29

19:29 Then the king replied to him, “Why should you continue speaking like this? You and Ziba will inherit the field together.”

2 Samuel 19:36

19:36 I will cross the Jordan with the king and go a short distance. ⁸  Why should the king reward me in this way?

---

¹ tc The Hebrew of the MT reads simply “and he said,” with no expressed subject for the verb. It is not likely that the text originally had no expressed subject for this verb, since the antecedent is not immediately clear from the context. We should probably restore to the Hebrew text the name “Ish-bosheth.” See a few medieval Hebrew mss, Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, and Vulgate. Perhaps the name was accidentally omitted by homoioarcton. Note that both the name Ishbosheth and the following preposition אֶל (’el) begin with the letter alef.

² tn Heb “come to”; KJV, NRSV “gone in to”; NAB “been intimate with”; NIV “sleep with.”

³ sn This accusation against Abner is a very serious one, since an act of sexual infringement on the king’s harem would probably have been understood as a blatant declaration of aspirations to kingship. As such it was not merely a matter of ethical impropriety but an act of grave political significance as well.

⁴ tn Heb “and not.”

⁵ tn Heb “over us.”

⁶ tc The LXX includes the following words at the end of v. 11: “And what all Israel was saying came to the king’s attention.” The words are misplaced in the LXX from v. 12 (although the same statement appears there in the LXX as well).

⁷ tn Heb “my bone and my flesh.”

⁸ tn Heb “Like a little your servant will cross the Jordan with the king.”