2 Samuel 1:2-8

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. 2 Samuel 1:2 sn Tearing one’s clothing and throwing dirt on one’s head were outward expressions of grief in the ancient Near East, where such demonstrable reactions were a common response to tragic news.
2. 2 Samuel 1:2 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the man mentioned at the beginning of v. 2) has been specified in the translation to avoid confusion as to who fell to the ground.
3. 2 Samuel 1:2 tn Heb “he fell to the ground and did obeisance.”
4. 2 Samuel 1:4 tn Heb “What was the word?”
5. 2 Samuel 1:4 tn Heb “from the people.”
6. 2 Samuel 1:4 tn Heb “fell and died.”
7. 2 Samuel 1:5 tn In v. 2 he is called simply a “man.” The word used here in v. 5 (so also in vv. 6, 13, 15), though usually referring to a young man or servant, may in this context designate a “fighting” man, i.e., a soldier.
8. 2 Samuel 1:5 tc Instead of the MT “who was recounting this to him, ‘How do you know that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead?’” the Syriac Peshitta reads “declare to me how Saul and his son Jonathan died.”
9. 2 Samuel 1:6 tc The translation follows the Syriac Peshitta and one ms of the LXX; MT adds “who was telling him this.”
10. 2 Samuel 1:8 tc The present translation reads with the Qere and many medieval Hebrew mss “and I said,” rather than the Kethib which has “and he said.” See the LXX, Syriac Peshitta, and Vulgate, all of which have the first person.