2 Samuel 20:20

Joab answered, “Get serious! ¹  I don’t want to swallow up or destroy anything!

2Sa 20:10; 2Sa 23:17; Job 21:16; Job 22:18; Pr 28:13; Jer 17:9; Lu 10:29

¹ tn Heb “Far be it, far be it from me.” The expression is clearly emphatic, as may be seen in part by the repetition. P. K. McCarter, however, understands it to be coarser than the translation adopted here. He renders it as “I’ll be damned if…” (II Samuel [AB], 426, 429), which (while it is not a literal translation) may not be too far removed from the way a soldier might have expressed himself.