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David said to the Gibeonites, “What can I do for you, and how can I make amends so that you will bless[a] the Lord’s inheritance?”

The Gibeonites said to him, “We[b] have no claim to silver or gold from Saul or from his family,[c] nor would we be justified in putting to death anyone in Israel.” David asked,[d] “What then are you asking me to do for you?” They replied to the king, “As for this man who exterminated us and who schemed against us so that we were destroyed and left without status throughout all the borders of Israel—

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Footnotes

  1. 2 Samuel 21:3 tn 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).
  2. 2 Samuel 21:4 tc 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.
  3. 2 Samuel 21:4 tn Heb “house.”
  4. 2 Samuel 21:4 tn Heb “and he said”; the referent (David) has been specified in the translation for clarity.