Footnotes

1. 2 Samuel 20:1 tn Heb “a man of worthlessness.”
2. 2 Samuel 20:1 tn The expression used here יְמִינִי (y^emini) is a short form of the more common “Benjamin.” It appears elsewhere in 1 Sam 9:4 and Esth 2:5. Cf. 1 Sam 9:1.
3. 2 Samuel 20:1 tn Heb “the shofar” (the ram’s horn trumpet). So also v. 22.
4. 2 Samuel 20:1 tc The MT reads לְאֹהָלָיו (l^eʾohalayv, “to his tents”). For a similar idiom, see 19:9. An ancient scribal tradition understands the reading to be לֵאלֹהָיו (leʾlohav, “to his gods”). The word is a tiqqun sopherim, and the scribes indicate that they changed the word from “gods” to “tents” so as to soften its theological implications. In a consonantal Hebrew text the change involved only the metathesis of two letters.
5. 2 Samuel 20:2 tn Heb “went up from after.”
6. 2 Samuel 20:2 tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
7. 2 Samuel 20:3 tn Heb “house.”
8. 2 Samuel 20:3 tn Heb “and he placed them in a guarded house.”
9. 2 Samuel 20:3 tn Heb “come to them.” The expression בּוֹא אֶל (boʾ ʾel) means “come to” or “approach,” but is also used as a euphemism for sexual relations.
10. 2 Samuel 20:4 tn The present translation follows the Masoretic accentuation, with the major mark of disjunction (i.e., the ’atnakh) placed at the word “days.” However, some scholars have suggested moving the ’atnakh to “Judah” a couple of words earlier. This would yield the following sense: “Three days, and you be present here with them.” The difference in meaning is slight, and the MT is acceptable as it stands.
11. 2 Samuel 20:6 tn Heb “find.” The perfect verbal form is unexpected with the preceding word “otherwise.” We should probably read instead the imperfect. Although it is possible to understand the perfect here as indicating that the feared result is thought of as already having taken place (cf. BDB 814 s.v. פֶּן 2), it is more likely that the perfect is simply the result of scribal error. In this context the imperfect would be more consistent with the following verb וְהִצִּיל (v^ehitsil, “and he will get away”).
12. 2 Samuel 20:8 sn The significance of the statement it fell out here is unclear. If the dagger fell out of its sheath before Joab got to Amasa, how then did he kill him? Josephus, Ant. 7.11.7 (7.284), suggested that as Joab approached Amasa he deliberately caused the dagger to fall to the ground at an opportune moment as though by accident. When he bent over and picked it up, he then stabbed Amasa with it. Others have tried to make a case for thinking that two swords are referred to—the one that fell out and another that Joab kept concealed until the last moment. But nothing in the text clearly supports this view. Perhaps Josephus’ understanding is best, but it is by no means obvious in the text either.
13. 2 Samuel 20:10 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Joab) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
14. 2 Samuel 20:10 tn Heb “his”; the referent (Amasa) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
15. 2 Samuel 20:10 tn Heb “and he did not repeat concerning him, and he died.”
16. 2 Samuel 20:11 tn Heb “takes delight in.”
17. 2 Samuel 20:12 tn Heb “him”; the referent (Amasa) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
18. 2 Samuel 20:12 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the man who spoke up in v. 11) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
19. 2 Samuel 20:12 tn Heb “Amasa.” For stylistic reasons the name has been replaced by the pronoun (“him”) in the translation.
20. 2 Samuel 20:13 tn Heb “him”; the referent (Amasa) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
21. 2 Samuel 20:14 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Sheba) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
22. 2 Samuel 20:14 tc In keeping with the form of the name in v. 15, the translation deletes the “and” found in the MT.
23. 2 Samuel 20:14 tc The translation follows the Qere, many medieval Hebrew mss, and the ancient versions in reading וַיִּקָּהֲלוּ (vayyiqqahalu, “and they were gathered together”) rather than the Kethib of the MT וַיִּקְלֻהוּ (vayyiqluhu, “and they cursed him”). The Kethib is the result of metathesis.
24. 2 Samuel 20:15 tn Heb “they.” The following context makes it clear that this refers to Joab and his army.
25. 2 Samuel 20:15 tc The LXX has here ἐνοοῦσαν (enoousan, “were devising”), which apparently presupposes the Hebrew word מַחֲשָׁבִים (makhashavim) rather than the MT מַשְׁחִיתִם (mashkhitim, “were destroying”). With a number of other scholars Driver thinks that the Greek variant may preserve the original reading, but this seems to be an unnecessary conclusion (but see S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, 346).
26. 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.
27. 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.
28. 2 Samuel 20:21 tn Heb “lifted his hand.”
29. 2 Samuel 20:21 tn Heb “Look!”
30. 2 Samuel 20:22 tn Heb “the head of Sheba son of Bikri.”
31. 2 Samuel 20:22 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Joab) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
32. 2 Samuel 20:22 tn Heb “they”; the referent (Joab’s men) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
33. 2 Samuel 20:22 tn Heb “his tents.”
34. 2 Samuel 20:24 tn Heb “Adoram” (so KJV, NAB, NRSV, CEV), but see 1 Kgs 4:6; 5:14.
35. 2 Samuel 20:24 tn Heb “was over the forced labor.”
36. 2 Samuel 20:26 tn Heb “priest for David.” KJV (“a chief ruler about David”) and ASV (“chief minister unto David”) regarded this office as political.