2 Samuel 4:2

4:2 Now Saul’s son ¹  had two men who were in charge of raiding units; one was named Baanah and the other Recab. They were sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, who was a Benjaminite. (Beeroth is regarded as belonging to Benjamin,

2 Samuel 17:25

17:25 Absalom had made Amasa general in command of the army in place of Joab. (Now Amasa was the son of an Israelite man named Jether, who had married ²  Abigail the daughter of Nahash and sister of Zeruiah, Joab’s mother.)

2 Samuel 18:18

18:18 Prior to this ³  Absalom had set up a monument ⁴  and dedicated it to himself in the King’s Valley, reasoning “I have no son who will carry on my name.” He named the monument after himself, and to this day it is known as Absalom’s Memorial.

2 Samuel 20:1

Sheba’s Rebellion

20:1 Now a wicked man ⁵  named Sheba son of Bicri, a Benjaminite, ⁶  happened to be there. He blew the trumpet ⁷  and said,

“We have no share in David;

we have no inheritance in this son of Jesse!

Every man go home, ⁸  O Israel!”

2 Samuel 20:21

20:21 That’s not the way things are. There is a man from the hill country of Ephraim named Sheba son of Bicri. He has rebelled ⁹  against King David. Give me just this one man, and I will leave the city.” The woman said to Joab, “This very minute ¹⁰  his head will be thrown over the wall to you!”

---

¹ tc The present translation, “Saul’s son had two men,” is based on the reading “to the son of Saul,” rather than the MT’s “the son of Saul.” The context requires the preposition to indicate the family relationship.

² tn Heb “come to.”

³ tn Heb “and.” This disjunctive clause (conjunction + subject + verb) describes an occurrence that preceded the events just narrated.

⁴ tn Heb “a pillar.”

⁵ tn Heb “a man of worthlessness.”

⁶ tn The expression used here יְמִינִי (yÿmini) is a short form of the more common “Benjamin.” It appears elsewhere in 1 Sam 9:4 and Esth 2:5. Cf. 1 Sam 9:1.

⁷ tn Heb “the shophar” (the ram’s horn trumpet). So also v. 22.

⁸ tc The MT reads לְאֹהָלָיו (lÿ’ohalav, “to his tents”). For a similar idiom, see 19:9. An ancient scribal tradition understands the reading to be לְאלֹהָיו (le’lohav, “to his gods”). The word is a tiqqun sopherim, and the scribes indicate that they changed the word from “gods” to “tents” so as to soften its theological implications. In a consonantal Hebrew text the change involved only the metathesis of two letters.

⁹ tn Heb “lifted his hand.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “Look!”