18:24 Now David was sitting between the inner and outer gates, 1 and the watchman went up to the roof over the gate at the wall. When he looked, he saw a man running by himself.
18:33 (19:1) 2 The king then became very upset. He went up to the upper room over the gate and wept. As he went he said, “My son, Absalom! My son, my son, 3 Absalom! If only I could have died in your place! Absalom, my son, my son!” 4
1 tn Heb “the two gates.”
2 sn This marks the beginning of ch. 19 in the Hebrew text. Beginning with 18:33, the verse numbers through 19:43 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 18:33 ET = 19:1 HT, 19:1 ET = 19:2 HT, 19:2 ET = 19:3 HT, etc., through 19:43 ET = 19:44 HT. From 20:1 the versification in the English Bible and the Hebrew Bible is again the same.
3 tc One medieval Hebrew
4 tc The Lucianic Greek recension and Syriac Peshitta lack this repeated occurrence of “my son” due to haplography.