Discovery Box2 Samuel 1:6 
Context1:6 The young man who was telling him this 1 said, “I just happened to be on Mount Gilboa and came across Saul leaning on his spear for support. The chariots and leaders of the horsemen were in hot pursuit of him.
2 Samuel 10:5
Context10:5 Messengers 2 told David what had happened, 3 so he summoned them, for the men were thoroughly humiliated. The king said, “Stay in Jericho 4 until your beards have grown again; then you may come back.”
2 Samuel 23:11
Context23:11 Next in command 5 was Shammah son of Agee the Hararite. When the Philistines assembled at Lehi, 6 where there happened to be an area of a field that was full of lentils, the army retreated before the Philistines.
1 tc The Syriac Peshitta and one
2 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the messengers) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
3 tn The words “what had happened” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
4 map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.
5 tn Heb “after him.”
6 tn The Hebrew text is difficult here. The MT reads לַחַיָּה (lachayyah), which implies a rare use of the word חַיָּה (chayyah). The word normally refers to an animal, but if the MT is accepted it would here have the sense of a troop or community of people. BDB 312 s.v. II. חַיָּה, for example, understands the similar reference in v. 13 to be to “a group of allied families, making a raid together.” But this works better in v. 13 than it does in v. 11, where the context seems to suggest a particular staging location for a military operation. (See 1 Chr 11:15.) It therefore seems best to understand the word in v. 11 as a place name with ה (he) directive. In that case the Masoretes mistook the word for the common term for an animal and then tried to make sense of it in this context.
