translation_id: net-engnet

label: NET translator note

text: Heb “acquired for himself.”


text: Heb “to run ahead of him.”


text: Heb “your servant.” So also in vv. 8, 15, 21 .


text: Heb “good and straight.”


text: Heb “Who will make me?”


text: Heb “a complaint and a judgment.” The expression is a hendiadys.


text: Heb “he”; the referent (Absalom) has been specified in the translation for clarity.


text: Heb “stole the heart.”


text: Heb “the men.”


label: NET textual note

text: The MT has here “forty,” but this is presumably a scribal error for “four.” The context will not tolerate a period of forty years prior to the rebellion of Absalom. The Lucianic Greek recension ( τέσσαρα ἔτη , tessara ete ), the Syriac Peshitta (’ arba ’ sanin ), and Vulgate ( post quattuor autem annos ) in fact have the expected reading “four years.” Most English translations follow the versions in reading “four” here, although some (e.g. KJV, ASV, NASB, NKJV), following the MT, read “forty.”


text: Heb “for your servant vowed a vow.” The formal court style of referring to one’s self in third person (“your servant”) has been translated here as first person for clarity.


text: For location see Map5-B1 ; Map6-F3 ; Map7-E2 ; Map8-F2 ; Map10-B3 ; JP1-F4 ; JP2-F4 ; JP3-F4 ; JP4-F4 .


text: Heb “say.”


text: Heb “being invited and going naively and they did not know anything.”


text: Traditionally, “counselor,” but this term is more often associated with psychological counseling today, so “adviser” was used in the translation instead.


text: Heb “Absalom sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, the adviser of David, from his city, from Giloh, while he was sacrificing.” It is not entirely clear who (Absalom or Ahithophel) was offering the sacrifices.


text: Heb “the heart of the men of Israel is with Absalom.”


text: Heb “Arise!”


text: Heb “let’s flee.”


text: Heb “thrust.”


text: Heb “and strike the city with the edge of the sword.”


text: Heb “according to all that my lord the king will choose, behold your servants!”


text: Heb “and all his house.”


text: Heb “women, concubines.”


text: Heb “and they stood.”


text: Heb “house.”


text: Heb “crossing over near his hand.”


text: Heb “crossing over near the face of.”


text: The word “new” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation to make it clear that David refers to Absalom, not himself.


text: Heb “place.”


text: Heb “brothers,” but see v. 22 .


text: Heb “loyal love and truth.” The expression is a hendiadys.


text: Heb “be with.”


text: Heb “whether for death or for life.”


text: Heb “Come and cross over.”


text: Heb “crossed over.”


text: Heb “all the little ones.”


text: Heb “with a great voice.”


text: Heb “crossing over.”


text: Heb “crossing near the face of.”


text: Heb “crossing from.”


text: Heb “as [is] good in his eyes.”


text: The Greek tradition understands the Hebrew word as an imperative (“see”). Most Greek mss have ἴδετε ( idete ); the Lucianic recension has βλέπε ( blepe ). It could just as well be taken as a question: “Don’t you see what is happening?” The present translation takes the word as a question, with the implication that Zadok is a priest and not a prophet (i.e., “seer”) and therefore unable to know what the future holds.


text: Heb “And Ahimaaz your son, and Jonathan the son of Abiathar, two of your sons, with you.” The pronominal suffix on the last word is plural, referring to Zadok and Abiathar.


text: The pronoun is plural, referring to Zadok and Abiathar.


text: , part of the Greek tradition, the Syriac Peshitta, Targum, and Vulgate uldavid in reading “and to David,” rather than MT וְדָוִד ( vÿdavid , “and David”). As Driver points out, the Hebrew verb הִגִּיד ( higgid , “he related”) never uses the accusative for the person to whom something is told (S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel , 316).


text: Heb “said.”


text: Heb “cross over.”


text: Heb “Will not Zadok and Abiathar the priests be there with you?” The rhetorical question draws attention to the fact that Hushai will not be alone.


text: Heb “from the house of the king.”


text: Heb “and you must send by their hand to me every word which you hear.” Both of the second person verb forms are plural with Zadok, Abiathar, and Hushai being the understood subjects.