4:12 So David issued orders to the soldiers and they put them to death. Then they cut off their hands and feet and hung them 1 near the pool in Hebron. But they took the head of Ish-bosheth 2 and buried it in the tomb of Abner 3 in Hebron. 4
5:1 All the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron saying, “Look, we are your very flesh and blood! 5
1 tn The antecedent of the pronoun “them” (which is not present in the Hebrew text, but implied) is not entirely clear. Presumably it is the corpses that were hung and not merely the detached hands and feet; cf. NIV “hung the (their NRSV, NLT) bodies”; the alternative is represented by TEV “cut off their hands and feet, which they hung up.”
2 tc 4QSama mistakenly reads “Mephibosheth” here.
3 tc The LXX adds “the son of Ner” by conformity with common phraseology elsewhere.
4 tc Some
5 tn Heb “look we are your bone and your flesh.”