2 Samuel 7:23

7:23 Who is like your people, Israel, a unique nation¹ on the earth? Their God² went³ to claim⁴ a nation for himself and to make a name for himself! You did great and awesome acts for your land,⁵ before your people whom you delivered for yourself from the Egyptian empire and its gods.⁶

2 Samuel 12:31

12:31 He removed⁷ the people who were in it and made them do hard labor with saws, iron picks, and iron axes, putting them to work at the brick kiln. This was his policy⁸ with all the Ammonite cities. Then David and all the army returned to Jerusalem.⁹

2 Samuel 13:5

13:5 Jonadab replied to him, “Lie down on your bed and pretend to be sick.¹⁰ When your father comes in to see you, say to him, ‘Please let my sister Tamar come in so she can fix some food for me. Let her prepare the food in my sight so I can watch. Then I will eat from her hand.’”

2 Samuel 16:11

16:11 Then David said to Abishai and to all his servants, “My own son, my very own flesh and blood,¹¹ is trying to take my life. So also now this Benjaminite! Leave him alone so that he can curse, for the Lord has spoken to him.

2 Samuel 21:4

21:4 The Gibeonites said to him, “We¹² have no claim to silver or gold from Saul or from his family,¹³ nor would we be justified in putting to death anyone in Israel.” David asked,¹⁴ “What then are you asking me to do for you?”

2 Samuel 22:6

22:6 The ropes of Sheol¹⁵ tightened around me;¹⁶

the snares of death trapped me.¹⁷

¹tn Heb “a nation, one.”

²tn Heb “whose God” or “because God.” In the Hebrew text this clause is subordinated to what precedes. The clauses are separated in the translation for stylistic reasons.

³tn The verb is plural in Hebrew, agreeing grammatically with the divine name, which is a plural of degree.

⁴tn Heb “redeem.”

⁵tn Heb “and to do for you [plural form] the great [thing] and awesome [things] for your land.”

⁶tn Heb “from Egypt, nations and their gods.” The LXX has “nations and tents,” which reflects a mistaken metathesis of letters in אֶלֹהָיו (e’lohav, “its gods”) and אֹהָלָיו (’ohalav, “its tents”).

⁷tn Heb “brought out.”

⁸tn Heb “and so he would do.”

⁹map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

¹⁰tn This verb is used in the Hitpael stem only in this chapter of the Hebrew Bible. With the exception of v. 2 it describes not a real sickness but one pretended in order to entrap Tamar. The Hitpael sometimes, as here, describes the subject making oneself appear to be of a certain character. On this use of the stem, see GKC 149-50 §54.e.

¹¹tn Heb “who came out from my entrails.” David’s point is that is his own son, his child whom he himself had fathered, was now wanting to kill him.

¹²tc The translation follows the Qere and several medieval Hebrew mss in reading לָנוּ (lanu, “to us”) rather than the MT לִי (li, “to me”). But for a contrary opinion see S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, 53, 350.

¹³tn Heb “house.”

¹⁴tn Heb “and he said”; the referent (David) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁵tn “Sheol,” personified here as David’s enemy, is the underworld, place of the dead in primitive Hebrew cosmology.

¹⁶tn Heb “surrounded me.”

¹⁷tn Heb “confronted me.”