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19 I represent the peaceful and the faithful in Israel. You are attempting to destroy an important city[a] in Israel. Why should you swallow up the Lord’s inheritance?”

20 Joab answered, “Not at all![b] I don’t intend to swallow up or destroy anything! 21 That’s not the way things are. There is a man from the hill country of Ephraim named Sheba son of Bikri. He has rebelled[c] against King David. Give me just this one man, and I will leave the city.” The woman said to Joab, “This very minute[d] his head will be thrown over the wall to you!”

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Footnotes

  1. 2 Samuel 20:19 tn Heb “a city and a mother.” The expression is a hendiadys, meaning that this city was an important one in Israel and had smaller cities dependent on it.
  2. 2 Samuel 20:20 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.
  3. 2 Samuel 20:21 tn Heb “lifted his hand.”
  4. 2 Samuel 20:21 tn Heb “Look!”