Discovery Box2 Samuel 18:14 
Context18:14 Joab replied, “I will not wait around like this for you!” He took three spears in his hand and thrust them into the middle of Absalom while he was still alive in the middle of the oak tree. 1
2 Samuel 21:1
Context21:1 During David’s reign there was a famine for three consecutive years. So David inquired of the Lord. 2 The Lord said, “It is because of Saul and his bloodstained family, 3 because he murdered the Gibeonites.”
2 Samuel 21:16
Context21:16 Now Ishbi-Benob, one of the descendants of Rapha, 4 had a spear 5 that weighed three hundred bronze shekels, 6 and he was armed with a new weapon. 7 He had said that he would kill David.
2 Samuel 23:9
Context23:9 Next in command 8 was Eleazar son of Dodo, 9 the son of Ahohi. He was one of the three warriors who were with David when they defied the Philistines who were assembled there for battle. When the men of Israel retreated, 10
2 Samuel 23:13
Context23:13 At the time of 11 the harvest three 12 of the thirty leaders went down to 13 David at the cave of Adullam. A band of Philistines was camped in the valley of Rephaim.
2 Samuel 23:17
Context23:17 and said, “O Lord, I will not do this! 14 It is equivalent to the blood of the men who risked their lives by going.” 15 So he refused to drink it. Such were the exploits of the three elite warriors. 16
2 Samuel 24:12
Context24:12 “Go, tell David, ‘This is what the Lord says: I am offering you three forms of judgment. Pick one of them and I will carry it out against you.’”
1 tn There is a play on the word “heart” here that is difficult to reproduce in English. Literally the Hebrew text says “he took three spears in his hand and thrust them into the heart of Absalom while he was still alive in the heart of the oak tree.” This figure of speech involves the use of the same word in different senses and is known as antanaclasis. It is illustrated in the familiar saying from the time of the American Revolution: “If we don’t hang together, we will all hang separately.” The present translation understands “heart” to be used somewhat figuratively for “chest” (cf. TEV, CEV), which explains why Joab’s armor bearers could still “kill” Absalom after he had been stabbed with three spears through the “heart.” Since trees do not have “chests” either, the translation uses “middle.”
2 tn Heb “sought the face of the
3 tn Heb “and the house of bloodshed.”
4 tn This name has the definite article and may be intended to refer to a group of people rather than a single individual with this name.
5 tn This is the only occurrence of this Hebrew word in the OT. Its precise meaning is therefore somewhat uncertain. As early as the LXX the word was understood to refer to a “spear,” and this seems to be the most likely possibility. Some scholars have proposed emending the text of 2 Sam 21:16 to כוֹבַעוֹ (khova’o; “his helmet”), but in spite of the fact that the word “helmet” appears in 1 Sam 17:5, there is not much evidence for reading that word here.
6 tn Either the word “shekels” should be supplied here, or the Hebrew word מִשְׁקַל (mishqal, “weight”) right before “bronze” is a corrupted form of the word for shekel. If the latter is the case the problem probably resulted from another occurrence of the word מִשְׁקַל just four words earlier in the verse.
sn Three hundred bronze shekels would have weighed about 7.5 pounds (3.4 kg).
7 tn The Hebrew text reads simply “a new [thing],” prompting one to ask “A new what?” Several possibilities have been proposed to resolve the problem: perhaps a word has dropped out of the Hebrew text here; or perhaps the word “new” is the result of misreading a different, less common, word; or perhaps a word (e.g., “sword,” so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, CEV, NLT) is simply to be inferred. The translation generally follows the latter possibility, while at the same time being deliberately nonspecific (“weapon”).
8 tn Heb “after him.”
9 tc This follows the Qere and many medieval Hebrew
10 tn Heb “went up.”
11 tn The meaning of Hebrew אֶל־קָצִיר (’el qatsir) seems here to be “at the time of harvest,” although this is an unusual use of the phrase. As S. R. Driver points out, this preposition does not normally have the temporal sense of “in” or “during” (S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, 366).
12 tc The translation follows the Qere and many medieval Hebrew
13 tn Heb “went down…and approached.”
14 tn Heb “Far be it to me, O
15 tn Heb “[Is it not] the blood of the men who were going with their lives?”
16 tn Heb “These things the three warriors did.”
