2 Samuel 4:8

4:8 They brought the head of Ish-bosheth to David in Hebron, saying to the king, “Look! The head of Ish-bosheth son of Saul, your enemy who sought your life! The Lord has granted vengeance to my lord the king this day against ¹  Saul and his descendants!”

2 Samuel 5:8

5:8 David said on that day, “Whoever attacks the Jebusites must approach the ‘lame’ and the ‘blind’ who are David’s enemies ²  by going through the water tunnel.” ³  For this reason it is said, “The blind and the lame cannot enter the palace.” ⁴ 

2 Samuel 6:20

6:20 When David went home to pronounce a blessing on his own house, ⁵  Michal, Saul’s daughter, came out to meet him. ⁶  She said, “How the king of Israel has distinguished ⁷  himself this day! He has exposed himself today before his servants’ slave girls the way a vulgar fool ⁸  might do!”

2 Samuel 12:18

12:18 On the seventh day the child died. But the servants of David were afraid to inform him that the child had died, for they said, “While the child was still alive he would not listen to us ⁹  when we spoke to him. How can we tell him that the child is dead? He will do himself harm!” ¹⁰ 

2 Samuel 13:32

13:32 Jonadab, the son of David’s brother Shimeah, said, “My lord should not say, ‘They have killed all the young men who are the king’s sons.’ For only Amnon is dead. This is what Absalom has talked about ¹¹  from the day that Amnon ¹²  humiliated his sister Tamar.

2 Samuel 18:18

18:18 Prior to this ¹³  Absalom had set up a monument ¹⁴  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 19:19

19:19 He said to the king, “Don’t think badly of me, my lord, and don’t recall the sin of your servant on the day when you, my lord the king, left ¹⁵  Jerusalem! ¹⁶  Please don’t call it to mind!

2 Samuel 20:3

20:3 Then David went to his palace ¹⁷  in Jerusalem. The king took the ten concubines he had left to care for the palace and placed them under confinement. ¹⁸  Though he provided for their needs, he did not have sexual relations with them. ¹⁹  They remained in confinement until the day they died, living out the rest of their lives as widows.

2 Samuel 21:10

21:10 Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it out for herself on a rock. From the beginning of the harvest until the rain fell on them, ²⁰  she did not allow the birds of the air to feed ²¹  on them by day, nor the wild animals ²²  by night.

2 Samuel 23:10

23:10 he stood his ground ²³  and fought the Philistines until his hand grew so tired that it ²⁴  seemed stuck to his sword. The Lord gave a great victory on that day. When the army returned to him, the only thing left to do was to plunder the corpses.

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¹ tn Heb “from.”

² tc There is some confusion among the witnesses concerning this word. The Kethib is the Qal perfect 3cp שָׂנְאוּ (sanÿ’u, “they hated”), referring to the Jebusites’ attitude toward David. The Qere is the Qal passive participle construct plural שְׂנֻאֵי (sÿnu’e, “hated”), referring to David’s attitude toward the Jebusites. 4QSam^a has the Qal perfect 3rd person feminine singular שָׂנְאָה (sanÿ’ah, “hated”), the subject of which would be “the soul of David.” The difference is minor and the translation adopted above works for either the Kethib or the Qere.

³ tn The meaning of the Hebrew term has been debated. For a survey of various views, see P. K. McCarter, II Samuel (AB), 139-40.

sn If a water tunnel is in view here, it is probably the so-called Warren’s Shaft that extends up from Hezekiah’s tunnel. It would have provided a means for surprise attack against the occupants of the city of David. The LXX seems not to understand the reference here, translating “by the water shaft” as “with a small knife.”

⁴ tn Heb “the house.” TEV takes this as a reference to the temple (“the Lord’s house”).

⁵ tn Heb “and David returned to bless his house.”

⁶ tn Heb “David.” The name has been replaced by the pronoun (“him”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

⁷ tn Heb “honored.”

⁸ tn Heb “one of the foolish ones.”

⁹ tn Heb “to our voice.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “he will do harm.” The object is not stated in the Hebrew text. The statement may be intentionally vague, meaning that he might harm himself or them!

¹¹ tn Heb “it was placed on the mouth of Absalom.”

¹² tn Heb “he”; the referent (Amnon) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹³ tn Heb “and.” This disjunctive clause (conjunction + subject + verb) describes an occurrence that preceded the events just narrated.

¹⁴ tn Heb “a pillar.”

¹⁵ tn Though this verb in the MT is 3rd person masculine singular, it should probably be read as 2nd person masculine singular. It is one of fifteen places where the Masoretes placed a dot over each of the letters of the word in question in order to call attention to their suspicion of the word. Their concern in this case apparently had to do with the fact that this verb and the two preceding verbs alternate from third person to second and back again to third. Words marked in this way in Hebrew manuscripts or printed editions are said to have puncta extrordinaria, or “extraordinary points.”

¹⁶ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

¹⁷ tn Heb “house.”

¹⁸ tn Heb “and he placed them in a guarded house.”

¹⁹ tn Heb “he did not come to them”; NAB “has no further relations with them”; NIV “did not lie with them”; TEV “did not have intercourse with them”; NLT “would no longer sleep with them.”

²⁰ tn Heb “until water was poured on them from the sky.”

²¹ tn Heb “rest.”

²² tn Heb “the beasts of the field.”

²³ tn Heb “arose.”

²⁴ tn Heb “his hand.”