translation_id: net-engnet

label: NET translator note

text: Heb “sought the face of the Lord .”


text: Heb “and the house of bloodshed.”


text: Heb “swore an oath to.”


text: After the preceding imperfect verbal form, the subordinated imperative indicates purpose/result. S. R. Driver comments, “…the imper. is used instead of the more normal voluntative, for the purpose of expressing with somewhat greater force the intention of the previous verb” (S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel , 350).


label: NET textual note

text: The translation follows the Qere and several medieval Hebrew mss in reading לָנוּ ( lanu , “to us”) rather than the MT לִי ( li , “to me”). But for a contrary opinion see S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel , 53, 350.


text: Heb “house.”


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


text: The exact nature of this execution is not altogether clear. The verb יָקַע ( yaqa ’) basically means “to dislocate” or “alienate.” In Gen 32:26 it is used of the dislocation of Jacob’s thigh. Figuratively it can refer to the removal of an individual from a group (e.g., Jer 6:8 ; Ezek 23:17 ) or to a type of punishment the specific identity of which is uncertain (e.g., here and Num 25:4 ); cf. NAB “dismember them”; NIV “to be killed and exposed.”


text: The LXX reads “at Gibeon on the mountain of the Lord ” (cf. 21:9 ). The present translation follows the MT, although a number of recent English translations follow the LXX reading here (e.g., NAB, NRSV, NLT).


text: The MT reads “Michal” here, but two Hebrew manuscripts read “Merab,” along with some LXX manuscripts. Cf. 1 Sam 18:19 .


text: The translation follows the Qere and several medieval Hebrew mss in reading שְׁבַעְתָּם ( shÿva ’ tam , “the seven of them”) rather than MT שִׁבַעְתִּים ( shiva ’ tim , “seventy”).


text: Heb “fell.”


text: The translation follows the Qere and many medieval Hebrew mss in reading בִּתְחִלַּת ( bithkhillat , “in the beginning”) rather than MT תְחִלַּת ( tÿkhillat , “beginning of”).


text: Heb “until water was poured on them from the sky.”


text: Heb “rest.”


text: Heb “the beasts of the field.”


text: Heb “David.” For stylistic reasons the name has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation.


text: Heb “the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son.” See also v. 13 .


text: Heb “lords.”


text: Heb “stolen.”


text: Against the MT, this word is better read without the definite article. The MT reading is probably here the result of wrong word division, with the letter ה ( he ) belonging with the preceding word שָׁם ( sham ) as the he directive (i.e., שָׁמָּה , samah , “to there”).


text: Heb “had hung them.”


text: Heb “in the day.”


text: Heb “Philistines.”


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


text: Many medieval Hebrew mss have here כְּכֹל ( kÿkhol , “according to all”).


text: Heb “was entreated.” The verb is an example of the so-called niphal tolerativum , with the sense that God allowed himself to be supplicated through prayer (cf. GKC 137 §51. c ).


text: Heb “his servants.”


text: This name has the definite article and may be intended to refer to a group of people rather than a single individual with this name.


text: This is the only occurrence of this Hebrew word in the OT. Its precise meaning is therefore somewhat uncertain. As early as the LXX the word was understood to refer to a “spear,” and this seems to be the most likely possibility. Some scholars have proposed emending the text of 2 Sam 21:16 to כוֹבַעוֹ ( khova ’ o ; “his helmet”), but in spite of the fact that the word “helmet” appears in 1 Sam 17:5 , there is not much evidence for reading that word here.


text: Either the word “shekels” should be supplied here, or the Hebrew word מִשְׁקַל ( mishqal , “weight”) right before “bronze” is a corrupted form of the word for shekel. If the latter is the case the problem probably resulted from another occurrence of the word מִשְׁקַל just four words earlier in the verse. sn Three hundred bronze shekels would have weighed about 7.5 pounds (3.4 kg).


text: The Hebrew text reads simply “a new [thing],” prompting one to ask “A new what ?” Several possibilities have been proposed to resolve the problem: perhaps a word has dropped out of the Hebrew text here; or perhaps the word “new” is the result of misreading a different, less common, word; or perhaps a word (e.g., “sword,” so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, CEV, NLT) is simply to be inferred. The translation generally follows the latter possibility, while at the same time being deliberately nonspecific (“weapon”).


text: Heb “Jaare-Oregim,” but the second word, which means “weavers,” is probably accidentally included. It appears at the end of the verse. The term is omitted in the parallel account in 1 Chr 20:5 , which has simply “Jair.”


text: Heb “a man of stature.”


text: Heb “they fell.”