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 5:25

5:25 David did just as the Lord commanded him, and he struck down the Philistines from Gibeon all the way to Gezer. ⁴ 

2 Samuel 11:9

11:9 But Uriah stayed at the door of the palace with all ⁵  the servants of his lord. He did not go down to his house.

2 Samuel 12:5

12:5 Then David became very angry at this man. He said to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this deserves to die! ⁶ 

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 19:39

19:39 So all the people crossed the Jordan, as did the king. After the king had kissed him and blessed him, Barzillai returned to his home. ⁷ 

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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 “from Gibeon until you enter Gezer.”

⁵ tc The Lucianic recension of the Old Greek translation lacks the word “all.”

⁶ tn Heb “the man doing this [is] a son of death.” See 1 Sam 20:31 for another use of this expression, which must mean “he is as good as dead” or “he deserves to die,” as 1 Sam 20:32 makes clear.

⁷ tn Heb “to his place.”