Font Size
2 Samuel 20:20-22
New English Translation
2 Samuel 20:20-22
New English Translation
20 Joab answered, “Not at all![a] 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[b] against King David. Give me just this one man, and I will leave the city.” The woman said to Joab, “This very minute[c] his head will be thrown over the wall to you!”
22 Then the woman went to all the people with her wise advice and they cut off Sheba’s head[d] and threw it out to Joab. Joab[e] blew the trumpet, and his men[f] dispersed from the city, each going to his own home.[g] Joab returned to the king in Jerusalem.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 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.
- 2 Samuel 20:21 tn Heb “lifted his hand.”
- 2 Samuel 20:21 tn Heb “Look!”
- 2 Samuel 20:22 tn Heb “the head of Sheba son of Bikri.”
- 2 Samuel 20:22 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Joab) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
- 2 Samuel 20:22 tn Heb “they”; the referent (Joab’s men) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
- 2 Samuel 20:22 tn Heb “his tents.”
New English Translation (NET)
NET Bible® copyright ©1996-2017 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com All rights reserved.