2 Samuel 6:5

6:5 while David and all Israel ¹  were energetically celebrating before the Lord, singing ²  and playing various stringed instruments, ³  tambourines, rattles, ⁴  and cymbals.

2 Samuel 12:22

12:22 He replied, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept because I thought, ⁵  ‘Perhaps ⁶  the Lord will show pity and the child will live.

2 Samuel 13:30

13:30 While they were still on their way, the following report reached David: “Absalom has killed all the king’s sons; not one of them is left!”

2 Samuel 15:7

15:7 After four ⁷  years Absalom said to the king, “Let me go and repay my vow that I made to the Lord while I was in Hebron.

2 Samuel 19:33

19:33 So the king said to Barzillai, “Cross over with me, and I will take care of you while you are with me in Jerusalem.”

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¹ tn Heb “all the house of Israel.”

² tc Heb “were celebrating before the Lord with all woods of fir” (cf. KJV, ASV, NASB). If the text is retained, the last expression must be elliptical, referring to musical instruments made from fir wood. But it is preferable to emend the text in light of 1 Chr 13:8, which reads “were celebrating before the Lord with all strength and with songs.”

³ tn Heb “with zithers [?] and with harps.”

⁴ tn That is, “sistrums” (so NAB, NIV); ASV, NASB, NRSV, CEV, NLT “castanets.”

⁵ tn Heb “said.”

⁶ tn Heb “Who knows?”

⁷ tc The MT has here “forty,” but this is presumably a scribal error for “four.” The context will not tolerate a period of forty years prior to the rebellion of Absalom. The Lucianic Greek recension (τέσσαρα ἔτη, tessara ete), the Syriac Peshitta (’arba’ sanin), and Vulgate (post quattuor autem annos) in fact have the expected reading “four years.” Most English translations follow the versions in reading “four” here, although some (e.g. KJV, ASV, NASB, NKJV), following the MT, read “forty.”