¹tn The Hebrew text does not have the word “son.” So also in vv. 3-5.

²tn Heb “wife.”

³tn The Hebrew text does not have “sons.”

⁴tn Heb “was strengthening himself.” The statement may have a negative sense here, perhaps suggesting that Abner was overstepping the bounds of political propriety in a self-serving way.

⁵tc The Hebrew of the MT reads simply “and he said,” with no expressed subject for the verb. It is not likely that the text originally had no expressed subject for this verb, since the antecedent is not immediately clear from the context. We should probably restore to the Hebrew text the name “Ish-bosheth.” See a few medieval Hebrew mss, Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, and Vulgate. Perhaps the name was accidentally omitted by homoioarcton. Note that both the name Ishbosheth and the following preposition la begin with the letter alef.

⁶tn Heb “come to.”

⁷sn This accusation against Abner is a very serious one, since an act of sexual infringement on the king’s harem would probably have been understood as a blatant declaration of aspirations to kingship. As such it was not merely a matter of ethical impropriety but an act of grave political significance as well.

⁸tn Heb “I do.”

⁹tn Heb “brothers.”

¹⁰tn Heb “and you have laid upon me the guilt of the woman today.”

¹¹tn Heb “So will God do to Abner and so he will add to him.”

¹²tc Heb “has sworn to David.” The LXX, with the exception of the recension of Origen, adds “in this day.”

¹³tn Heb “he”; the referent (Ish-bosheth) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁴tn The Hebrew text adds here, “on his behalf.”

¹⁵tn Heb “cut a covenant.” So also in vv. 13, 21.

¹⁶tn Heb “and behold, my hand is with you.”

¹⁷tn The words “when you come to see my face,” though found in the Hebrew text, are somewhat redundant given the similar expression in the earlier part of the verse. The words are absent from the Syriac Peshitta.

¹⁸tn Heb “to Ish-bosheth son of Saul saying.” To avoid excessive sibilance (especially when read aloud) the translation renders “saying” as “with this demand.”

¹⁹tn Heb “whom I betrothed to myself.”

²⁰tn Heb “sent and took her.”

²¹tn In 1 Sam 25:44 this name appears as “Palti.”

²²tn Heb “Go, return.”

²³tn Heb “the word of Abner was with.”

²⁴tn Heb “you were seeking David to be king over you.”

²⁵tc The present translation follows the LXX, the Syriac Peshitta, and Vulgate in reading “I will save,” rather than the MT “he saved.” The context calls for the 1cs imperfect of the verb rather than the 3ms perfect.

²⁶tn Heb “from the hand of.”

²⁷tn Heb “into the ears of.”

²⁸tn Heb “also Abner went to speak into the ears of David in Hebron.”

²⁹tn Heb “all which was good in the eyes of Israel and in the eyes of all the house of Benjamin.”

³⁰tn After the cohortatives, the prefixed verbal form with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose or result.

³¹tn Heb “And look, the servants of David.”

³²tn Heb “he”; the referent (David) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

³³tn Heb “Look, Abner.”

³⁴tc The LXX adds “in peace.”

³⁵tn Heb “your going out and your coming in.” The expression is a merism. It specifically mentions the polar extremities of the actions but includes all activity in between the extremities as well, thus encompassing the entirety of one’s activities.

³⁶tn Heb “and he struck him down there [in] the stomach.”

³⁷tn Heb “and he [i.e., Abner] died on account of the blood of Asahel his [i.e., Joab’s] brother.”

³⁸tn Heb “and may they whirl over.” In the Hebrew text the subject of the plural verb is unexpressed. The most likely subject is Abner’s “shed blood” (v. 28), which is a masculine plural form in Hebrew. The verb lwj (“whirl”) is used with the preposition lu only here and in Jer 23:19; 30:23.

³⁹tc 4QSam^a has “of Joab” rather than “of his father” read by the MT.

⁴⁰tn Heb “and may there not be cut off from the house of Joab.”

⁴¹tn The expression used here is difficult. The translation “one who works at the spindle” follows a suggestion of S. R. Driver that the expression pejoratively describes an effeminate man who, rather than being a mighty warrior, is occupied with tasks that are normally fulfilled by women (see S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, 250-51). But McCarter, following an alleged Phoenician usage of the noun to refer to “crutches,” adopts a different view. He translates the phrase “clings to a crutch,” seeing here a further description of physical lameness (see P. K. McCarter, Jr., II Samuel, 118). Such an idea fits the present context well and is followed by NIV and NLT, although the evidence for this meaning is questionable. According to DNWSI (2:915-16), the noun consistently refers to a spindle in Phoenician, as it does in Ugaritic (see C. H. Gordon, UT 468).

⁴²tn Heb “was walking.”

⁴³tn Heb “lifted up his voice and wept.” The expression is a verbal hendiadys.

⁴⁴tc The translation follows many medieval Hebrew manuscripts and several ancient versions in reading “your hands,” rather than “your hand.”

⁴⁵tc 4QSam^a lacks the words “all the people.”

⁴⁶tn Heb “Thus God will do to me and thus he will add.”

⁴⁷tn Heb “it was good in their eyes.”

⁴⁸tn Heb “from the king.”

⁴⁹tn Heb”a leader and a great one.” The expression is a hendiadys.

⁵⁰tn Heb “are hard from me.”

⁵¹tn Heb “May the Lord repay the doer of the evil according to his evil.”