translation_id: net-engnet

label: NET translator note

text: The Hebrew text does not have the word “son.” So also in vv. 3-5 .


text: Heb “wife.”


text: The Hebrew text does not have “sons.”


text: Heb “was strengthening himself.” The statement may have a negative sense here, perhaps suggesting that Abner was overstepping the bounds of political propriety in a self-serving way.


label: NET textual note

text: The Hebrew of the MT reads simply “and he said,” with no expressed subject for the verb. It is not likely that the text originally had no expressed subject for this verb, since the antecedent is not immediately clear from the context. We should probably restore to the Hebrew text the name “Ish-bosheth.” See a few medieval Hebrew mss , Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, and Vulgate. Perhaps the name was accidentally omitted by homoioarcton. Note that both the name Ishbosheth and the following preposition אֶל (’ el ) begin with the letter alef .


text: Heb “come to”; KJV, NRSV “gone in to”; NAB “been intimate with”; NIV “sleep with.”


text: Heb “I do.”


text: Heb “brothers.”


text: Heb “and you have laid upon me the guilt of the woman today.”


text: Heb “So will God do to Abner and so he will add to him.”


text: Heb “has sworn to David.” The LXX, with the exception of the recension of Origen, adds “in this day.”


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


text: The Hebrew text adds here, “on his behalf.”


text: Heb “cut a covenant.” So also in vv. 13, 21 .


text: Heb “and behold, my hand is with you.”


text: The words “when you come to see my face,” though found in the Hebrew text, are somewhat redundant given the similar expression in the earlier part of the verse. The words are absent from the Syriac Peshitta.


text: Heb “to Ish-bosheth son of Saul saying.” To avoid excessive sibilance (especially when read aloud) the translation renders “saying” as “with this demand.”


text: Heb “whom I betrothed to myself.”


text: Heb “sent and took her.”


text: In 1 Sam 25:44 this name appears as “Palti.”


text: Heb “Go, return.”


text: Heb “the word of Abner was with.”


text: Heb “you were seeking David to be king over you.”


text: The present translation follows the LXX, the Syriac Peshitta, and Vulgate in reading “I will save,” rather than the MT “he saved.” The context calls for the 1st person common singular imperfect of the verb rather than the 3rd person masculine singular perfect.


text: Heb “from the hand of.”


text: Heb “into the ears of.”


text: Heb “also Abner went to speak into the ears of David in Hebron.”


text: Heb “all which was good in the eyes of Israel and in the eyes of all the house of Benjamin.”


text: After the cohortatives, the prefixed verbal form with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose or result.


text: Heb “And look, the servants of David.”


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


text: Heb “Look, Abner.”


text: The LXX adds “in peace.”


text: Heb “your going out and your coming in.” The expression is a merism. It specifically mentions the polar extremities of the actions but includes all activity in between the extremities as well, thus encompassing the entirety of one’s activities.


text: Heb “and he struck him down there [in] the stomach.”


text: Heb “and he [i.e., Abner] died on account of the blood of Asahel his [i.e., Joab’s] brother.”


text: Heb “and may they whirl over.” In the Hebrew text the subject of the plural verb is unexpressed. The most likely subject is Abner’s “shed blood” (v. 28 ), which is a masculine plural form in Hebrew. The verb חוּל ( khul , “whirl”) is used with the preposition עַל (’ al ) only here and in Jer 23:19; 30:23 .


text: has “of Joab” rather than “of his father” read by the MT.


text: Heb “the house of Joab.” However, it is necessary to specify that David’s curse is aimed at Joab’s male descendants; otherwise it would not be clear that “one who works at the spindle” refers to a man doing woman’s work rather than a woman.


text: Heb “and may there not be cut off from the house of Joab.”


text: The expression used here is difficult. The translation “one who works at the spindle” follows a suggestion of S. R. Driver that the expression pejoratively describes an effeminate man who, rather than being a mighty warrior, is occupied with tasks that are normally fulfilled by women (S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel , 250-51; cf. NAB “one unmanly”; TEV “fit only to do a woman’s work”; CEV “cowards”). But P. K. McCarter, following an alleged Phoenician usage of the noun to refer to “crutches,” adopts a different view. He translates the phrase “clings to a crutch,” seeing here a further description of physical lameness ( II Samuel [AB], 118). Such an idea fits the present context well and is followed by NIV, NCV, and NLT, although the evidence for this meaning is questionable. According to DNWSI 2:915-16, the noun consistently refers to a spindle in Phoenician, as it does in Ugaritic (see UT 468).


text: Heb “was walking.”


text: Heb “lifted up his voice and wept.” The expression is a verbal hendiadys.


text: The translation follows many medieval Hebrew manuscripts and several ancient versions in reading “your hands,” rather than “your hand.”


text: lacks the words “all the people.”


text: Heb “Thus God will do to me and thus he will add.”


text: Heb “it was good in their eyes.”


text: Heb “from the king.”


text: Heb “a leader and a great one.” The expression is a hendiadys.


text: Heb “are hard from me.”


text: Heb “May the Lord repay the doer of the evil according to his evil” (NASB similar).