Discovery Box2 Samuel 3:22 
Context3:22 Now David’s soldiers 1 and Joab were coming back from a raid, bringing a great deal of plunder with them. Abner was no longer with David in Hebron, for David 2 had sent him away and he had left in peace.
2 Samuel 4:12
Context4:12 So David issued orders to the soldiers and they put them to death. Then they cut off their hands and feet and hung them 3 near the pool in Hebron. But they took the head of Ish-bosheth 4 and buried it in the tomb of Abner 5 in Hebron. 6
2 Samuel 10:6
Context10:6 When the Ammonites realized that David was disgusted with them, 7 they 8 sent and hired 20,000 foot soldiers from Aram Beth Rehob and Aram Zobah, 9 in addition to 1,000 men from the king of Maacah and 12,000 men from Ish-tob. 10
2 Samuel 11:11
Context11:11 Uriah replied to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah reside in temporary shelters, and my lord Joab and my lord’s soldiers are camping in the open field. Should I go to my house to eat and drink and have marital relations 11 with my wife? As surely as you are alive, 12 I will not do this thing!”
2 Samuel 17:8
Context17:8 Hushai went on to say, “You know your father and his men – they are soldiers and are as dangerous as a bear out in the wild that has been robbed of her cubs. 13 Your father is an experienced soldier; he will not stay overnight with the army.
2 Samuel 18:3
Context18:3 But the soldiers replied, 14 “You should not do this! 15 For if we should have to make a rapid retreat, they won’t be too concerned about us. 16 Even if half of us should die, they won’t be too concerned about us. But you 17 are like ten thousand of us! So it is better if you remain in the city for support.”
2 Samuel 19:8
Context19:8 So the king got up and sat at the city gate. When all the people were informed that the king was sitting at the city gate, they 18 all came before him.
But the Israelite soldiers 19 had all fled to their own homes. 20
2 Samuel 20:12
Context20:12 Amasa was squirming in his own blood in the middle of the path, and this man had noticed that all the soldiers stopped. Having noticed that everyone who came across Amasa 21 stopped, the man 22 pulled him 23 away from the path and into the field and threw a garment over him.
2 Samuel 20:15
Context20:15 So Joab’s men 24 came and laid siege against him in Abel of Beth Maacah. They prepared a siege ramp outside the city which stood against its outer rampart. As all of Joab’s soldiers were trying to break through 25 the wall so that it would collapse,
1 tn Heb “And look, the servants of David.”
2 tn Heb “he”; the referent (David) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
3 tn The antecedent of the pronoun “them” (which is not present in the Hebrew text, but implied) is not entirely clear. Presumably it is the corpses that were hung and not merely the detached hands and feet; cf. NIV “hung the (their NRSV, NLT) bodies”; the alternative is represented by TEV “cut off their hands and feet, which they hung up.”
4 tc 4QSama mistakenly reads “Mephibosheth” here.
5 tc The LXX adds “the son of Ner” by conformity with common phraseology elsewhere.
6 tc Some
7 tn Heb “that they were a stench [i.e., disgusting] with David.”
8 tn Heb “the Ammonites.”
9 tn Or “Arameans of Beth Rehob and Arameans of Zobah.”
10 tn Or perhaps “the men of Tob.” The ancient versions (the LXX, the Syriac Peshitta, and Vulgate) understand the name to be “Ish-tob.” It is possible that “Ish” is dittographic and that we should read simply “Tob,” a reading adopted by a number of recent English versions.
11 tn Heb “and lay.”
12 tn Heb “as you live and as your soul lives.”
13 tc The LXX (with the exception of the recensions of Origen and Lucian) repeats the description as follows: “Just as a female bear bereft of cubs in a field.”
14 tn Heb “the people said.”
15 tn Heb “march out.”
16 tn Heb “they will not place to us heart.”
17 tc The translation follows the LXX (except for the Lucianic recension), Symmachus, and Vulgate in reading אָתָּה (’atta, “you”) rather than MT עָתָּה (’atta, “now”).
18 tn Heb “all the people.”
19 tn The Hebrew text has simply “Israel” (see 18:16-17).
20 tn Heb “had fled, each to his tent.”
21 tn Heb “him”; the referent (Amasa) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
22 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the man who spoke up in v. 11) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
23 tn Heb “Amasa.” For stylistic reasons the name has been replaced by the pronoun (“him”) in the translation.
24 tn Heb “they.” The following context makes it clear that this refers to Joab and his army.
25 tc The LXX has here ἐνοοῦσαν (enoousan, “were devising”), which apparently presupposes the Hebrew word מַחֲשָׁבִים (makhashavim) rather than the MT מַשְׁחִיתִם (mashkhitim, “were destroying”). With a number of other scholars Driver thinks that the Greek variant may preserve the original reading, but this seems to be an unnecessary conclusion (but see S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, 346).
