Discovery Box2 Samuel 9:11 
Context9:11 Ziba said to the king, “Your servant will do everything that my lord the king has instructed his servant to do.” So Mephibosheth was a regular guest 1 at David’s table, 2 just as though he were one of the king’s sons.
2 Samuel 10:3
Context10:3 the Ammonite officials said to their lord Hanun, “Do you really think David is trying to honor your father by sending these messengers to express his sympathy? 3 No, David has sent his servants to you to get information about the city and spy on it so they can overthrow it!” 4
2 Samuel 11:21
Context11:21 Who struck down Abimelech the son of Jerub-Besheth? Didn’t a woman throw an upper millstone 5 down on him from the wall so that he died in Thebez? Why did you go so close to the wall?’ just say to him, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is also dead.’”
2 Samuel 12:9
Context12:9 Why have you shown contempt for the word of the Lord by doing evil in my 6 sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and you have taken his wife as your own! 7 You have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.
2 Samuel 14:15
Context14:15 I have now come to speak with my lord the king about this matter, because the people have made me fearful. 8 But your servant said, ‘I will speak to the king! Perhaps the king will do what his female servant 9 asks.
2 Samuel 15:2
Context15:2 Now Absalom used to get up early and stand beside the road that led to the city gate. Whenever anyone came by who had a complaint to bring to the king for arbitration, Absalom would call out to him, “What city are you from?” The person would answer, “I, your servant, 10 am from one of the tribes of Israel.”
2 Samuel 15:20
Context15:20 It seems like you arrived just yesterday. Today should I make you wander around by going with us? I go where I must go. But as for you, go back and take your men 11 with you. May genuine loyal love 12 protect 13 you!”
2 Samuel 16:8
Context16:8 The Lord has punished you for 14 all the spilled blood of the house of Saul, in whose place you rule. Now the Lord has given the kingdom into the hand of your son Absalom. Disaster has overtaken you, for you are a man of bloodshed!”
2 Samuel 18:28-29
Context18:28 Then Ahimaaz called out and said to the king, “Greetings!” 15 He bowed down before the king with his face toward the ground and said, “May the Lord your God be praised because he has defeated 16 the men who opposed 17 my lord the king!”
18:29 The king replied, “How is the young man Absalom?” Ahimaaz replied, “I saw a great deal of confusion when Joab was sending the king’s servant and me, your servant, but I don’t know what it was all about.”
2 Samuel 18:33
Context18:33 (19:1) 18 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, 19 Absalom! If only I could have died in your place! Absalom, my son, my son!” 20
2 Samuel 19:19
Context19:19 He said to the king, “Don’t think badly of me, my lord, and don’t recall the sin of your servant on the day when you, my lord the king, left 21 Jerusalem! 22 Please don’t call it to mind!
2 Samuel 19:28
Context19:28 After all, there was no one in the entire house of my grandfather 23 who did not deserve death from my lord the king. But instead you allowed me to eat at your own table! 24 What further claim do I have to ask 25 the king for anything?”
2 Samuel 19:37
Context19:37 Let me 26 return so that I may die in my own city near the grave of my father and my mother. But look, here is your servant Kimham. Let him cross over with my lord the king. Do for him whatever seems appropriate to you.”
2 Samuel 20:6
Context20:6 Then David said to Abishai, “Now Sheba son of Bicri will cause greater disaster for us than Absalom did! Take your lord’s servants and pursue him. Otherwise he will secure 27 fortified cities for himself and get away from us.”
1 tn Heb “eating.”
2 tc Heb “my table.” But the first person reference to David is awkward here since the quotation of David’s words has already been concluded in v. 10; nor does the “my” refer to Ziba, since the latter part of v. 11 does not seem to be part of Ziba’s response to the king. The ancient versions are not unanimous in the way that they render the phrase. The LXX has “the table of David” (τῆς τραπέζης Δαυιδ, th" trapezh" Dauid); the Syriac Peshitta has “the table of the king” (patureh demalka’); the Vulgate has “your table” (mensam tuam). The present translation follows the LXX.
3 tn Heb “Is David honoring your father in your eyes when he sends to you ones consoling?”
4 tn Heb “Is it not to explore the city and to spy on it and to overthrow it [that] David has sent his servants to you?”
5 sn The upper millstone (Heb “millstone of riding”) refers to the heavy circular stone that was commonly rolled over a circular base in order to crush and grind such things as olives.
6 tc So the Qere; the Kethib has “his.”
7 tn Heb “to you for a wife.” This expression also occurs at the end of v. 10.
8 tc The LXX (ὄψεταί με, opsetai me) has misunderstood the Hebrew יֵרְאֻנִי (yerÿ’uni, Piel perfect, “they have made me fearful”), taking the verb to be a form of the verb רָאָה (ra’ah, “to see”) rather than the verb יָרֵא (yare’, “to fear”). The fact that the Greek translators were working with an unvocalized Hebrew text (i.e., consonants only) made them very susceptible to this type of error.
9 tn Here and in v. 16 the woman refers to herself as the king’s אָמָה (’amah), a term that refers to a higher level female servant toward whom the master might have some obligation. Like the other term, this word expresses her humility, but it also suggests that the king might have some obligation to treat her in accordance with the principles of justice.
10 tn Heb “your servant.” So also in vv. 8, 15, 21.
11 tn Heb “brothers,” but see v. 22.
12 tn Heb “loyal love and truth.” The expression is a hendiadys.
13 tn Heb “be with.”
14 tn Heb “has brought back upon you.”
15 tn Heb “Peace.”
16 tn Heb “delivered over.”
17 tn Heb “lifted their hand against.”
18 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.
19 tc One medieval Hebrew
20 tc The Lucianic Greek recension and Syriac Peshitta lack this repeated occurrence of “my son” due to haplography.
21 tn Though this verb in the MT is 3rd person masculine singular, it should probably be read as 2nd person masculine singular. It is one of fifteen places where the Masoretes placed a dot over each of the letters of the word in question in order to call attention to their suspicion of the word. Their concern in this case apparently had to do with the fact that this verb and the two preceding verbs alternate from third person to second and back again to third. Words marked in this way in Hebrew manuscripts or printed editions are said to have puncta extrordinaria, or “extraordinary points.”
22 map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
23 tn Heb “father.”
24 tn Heb “and you placed your servant among those who eat at your table.”
25 tn Heb “to cry out to.”
26 tn Heb “your servant.”
27 tn Heb “find.” The perfect verbal form is unexpected with the preceding word “otherwise.” We should probably read instead the imperfect. Although it is possible to understand the perfect here as indicating that the feared result is thought of as already having taken place (cf. BDB 814 s.v. פֶּן 2), it is more likely that the perfect is simply the result of scribal error. In this context the imperfect would be more consistent with the following verb וְהִצִּיל (vÿhitsil, “and he will get away”).
