On the Greek text. The Greek follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint (Rahlfs-Hanhart in its main wording, itself an ancient, public-domain text); the distinctively copyrighted critical apparatus is not reproduced. Versification follows the LXX.

The Second Book of Kingdoms (2 Samuel) (LXX) — Interlinear: Themes, Outlines & Translation Notes

A consolidated companion to the 2 Kingdoms data set: every chapter of LXX 2 Kingdoms (1–24) rendered as a six-tier Greek reverse-interlinear (Greek · gloss · parsing/case · syntax · semantic force · lexical note), with per-verse discourse analysis and a chapter argument-outline.

This document gathers the theme, the argument outline (the outline movements authored into each data file), and the translation / textual / exegetical notes (the text_note of each file, reproduced verbatim) — followed by a summary of the major translation and interpretive cruxes that were deliberately annotated rather than silently resolved. 2 Kingdoms (ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Β′ — the LXX name for 2 Samuel) is the reign of David: his lament over Saul and Jonathan, his anointing over all Israel, the capture of Jerusalem and the bringing up of the ark, the everlasting covenant of Nathan's oracle, and then the long shadow of the Bathsheba affair — Amnon, Absalom's revolt, and the sword that never departs the house; it gives the New Testament the Davidic-covenant promise ('I will be his father, and he shall be my son,' 7:14 → Heb 1:5; Luke 1:32–33; Acts 2:30) and David's song of deliverance (= Psalm 18), quoted at Romans 15:9. The Greek follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint (Rahlfs–Hanhart in its main wording, itself an ancient public-domain text); the distinctively copyrighted apparatus is not reproduced, and versification follows the LXX.

Scope

Each annotated word carries Greek, a working gloss, color-coded grammatical case, parsing (Tense·Voice·Mood·Person·Number + lemma), a Wallace-style syntactic-function label, an aspectual semantic-force label (verbal forms), and a condensed lexical note. As translation Greek, the annotation additionally flags Hebraisms and the underlying Hebrew idiom where it illuminates the rendering.

The argument of the book

The macro-structure of the whole book — its major movements — under which the chapter-by-chapter detail below unfolds. 2 Kingdoms spans the non-kaige and kaige (βγ) Greek sections; the annotation flags the recension's signature Hebraisms (καί γε), the χριστὸς κυρίου anointed-of-the-LORD theology, the divine/human ambiguity of κύριος, and the LXX/MT verse offsets (notably the lament that opens ch. 19). (Section divisions are interpretive; the more common analysis is generally followed.)

• I · 1–10 — David established. The lament over Saul and Jonathan; the anointing at Hebron and the war with the house of Saul; the deaths of Abner and Ish-bosheth; the capture of Jerusalem and the ark brought up with dancing; the covenant that establishes David's throne forever; the conquests; and the kindness shown to Mephibosheth.
• II · 11–20 — Sin and the sword in the house. David and Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah; Nathan's parable and the verdict; Amnon's crime and Absalom's revenge; Absalom's conspiracy and David's flight; the counsels of Ahithophel and Hushai; Absalom's death in the oak and David's grief; the return and the revolt of Sheba.
• III · 21–24 — Appendices. The Gibeonite famine and Rizpah's vigil and the slaying of the giants; David's song of deliverance and his last words; the roll of the mighty men; and the census, the plague, and the altar on the threshing floor of Arauna — the future temple mount where the book ends.

Chapter-by-chapter

2 Kingdoms 1 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Β′ Α′

Theme. David mourns Saul and Jonathan, executes the Amalekite, and sings the lament of the fallen mighty.

Outline.

• A · 1:1–10 — The Amalekite's report: the death of Saul reaches Ziklag. After David's return from striking Amalek (v. 1), a man arrives from the camp on the third day with torn garments and earth on his head (v. 2). Under David's questioning he reports the rout of Israel and the death of Saul and Jonathan (vv. 3–5), then narrates how, finding Saul wounded and propped on his spear with the chariots closing in, he killed him at his request and took the royal diadem and armlet to bring to David (vv. 6–10). The man's self-incriminating speech, meant to win favor, seals his doom.
• B · 1:11–16 — Mourning and judgment: David rends his garments and executes the Amalekite. David and all his men tear their clothes, mourn, weep, and fast until evening over Saul, Jonathan, the people of Judah, and the house of Israel (vv. 11–12). David re-interrogates the messenger, who names himself son of an Amalekite sojourner (v. 13). David's verdict turns on the man's own words: how did he not fear to destroy the anointed of the LORD (v. 14)? A young man strikes him dead (v. 15), and David pronounces sentence: 'Your blood be upon your head, for your own mouth has testified against you' (v. 16).
• C · 1:17–18 — Superscription of the lament: the Song of the Bow in the Book of Jashar. The narrator introduces David's dirge over Saul and Jonathan (v. 17) and notes that he gave orders to teach it to the sons of Judah, citing its written source: 'it is written in the Book of the Upright' (ἐπὶ βιβλίου τοῦ εὐθοῦς, v. 18) — the LXX rendering of the Book of Jashar.
• D · 1:19–27 — The Song of the Bow: David's lament over Saul and Jonathan. The lament proper, framed by the threefold refrain πῶς ἔπεσαν δυνατοί (vv. 19, 25, 27). It opens with the slain glory of Israel on the high places (v. 19); forbids the news in Gath and Ashkelon lest the uncircumcised exult (v. 20); curses Gilboa with drought (v. 21); praises the unfailing bow of Jonathan and sword of Saul (v. 22); celebrates the two as beloved, swifter than eagles and stronger than lions, undivided in life and death (v. 23); summons the daughters of Israel to weep for Saul their benefactor (v. 24); mourns Jonathan slain on the heights (v. 25); reaches its apex in David's grief for his brother, whose love surpassed the love of women (v. 26); and closes with the final fall of the refrain over the perished weapons of war (v. 27).

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 2 Kingdoms 1 (= 2 Samuel 1) follows the Rahlfs–Hanhart critical text of the Septuagint (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. The Greek title ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Β′ ('of Kingdoms, Book 2') reflects the LXX's four-fold division of the Samuel–Kings material. The 2 Kingdoms section is widely held to be a kaige-recension text — a deliberately literalistic Greek revision toward the proto-Masoretic Hebrew — and the chapter bears this out: heavy καί-parataxis, transliterated place- and personal-names (Σεκελακ for Ziklag, Γελβουε for Gilboa, Γεθ for Gath), and wooden renderings of difficult Hebrew. The most conspicuous is στήλωσον at v. 19, where the translator, faced with the obscure הַצְּבִי יִשְׂרָאֵל ('the glory/gazelle of Israel'), construed צבי as a verb of monument-setting and produced an imperative 'erect a memorial, O Israel.' Other Hebraisms abound: the cognate accusative ἐθρήνησεν τὸν θρῆνον (v. 17, 'lamented this lamentation'), the cognate dative περιπτώματι περιέπεσον (v. 6, 'by chance I chanced upon'), the comparative ὑπέρ + accusative (vv. 23, 26, 'swifter/more than'), the instrumental ἐν ῥομφαίᾳ (v. 12), and the quotative λέγων (v. 16, rendering לֵאמֹר). The theological pivot of the prose is the phrase τὸν χριστὸν κυρίου (vv. 14, 16), 'the anointed of the LORD' — the inviolable status David had honored in Saul (1 Kgdms 24; 26) and which the Amalekite has violated. The lament's diction is notably more elevated than its narrative frame: δεινόν (v. 9), the eagle/lion comparison (v. 23), and the abstract ἀγάπησις (v. 26). At v. 21 the LXX θυρεὸς Σαουλ οὐκ ἐχρίσθη ἐν ἐλαίῳ ('the shield of Saul was not anointed with oil') poignantly turns the verb χρίω — the very root of χριστός — against the abandoned shield of the anointed king. The verb εὐαγγελίζομαι (v. 20) is, ironically, used of the 'good news' that only Israel's enemies would welcome; it later becomes the NT term for the gospel.

2 Kingdoms 2 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Β′ Β′

Theme. David is anointed in Hebron while Abner raises Saul's house against him and the civil war begins.

Outline.

• A · 2:1–4 — David inquires of the LORD and is anointed king over Judah at Hebron. David consults YHWH, is directed to Hebron, goes up with his two wives and his men, and is anointed (χρίουσιν, v. 4) king over the house of Judah; word reaches him that the men of Jabesh of Gilead had buried Saul.
• B · 2:5–7 — David's blessing on the men of Jabesh-gilead. David sends an embassy blessing them for their loyal kindness (τὸ ἔλεος τοῦτο) to Saul the LORD's anointed, invokes YHWH's ἔλεος καὶ ἀλήθειαν upon them, and exhorts them to valor now that Saul is dead and Judah has anointed him king.
• C · 2:8–11 — Abner enthrones Iebosthe over Israel at Mahanaim. Abner son of Ner, Saul's commander, makes Iebosthe king over Gilead, the Ashurite, Jezreel, Ephraim, Benjamin, and all Israel; the rival regnal formulas (Iebosthe two years; David seven years six months at Hebron) frame the divided monarchy.
• D · 2:12–17 — The combat of champions and the battle at the pool of Gibeon. The forces converge at the pool; Abner proposes a combat (παιξάτωσαν, v. 14); twelve against twelve slay one another simultaneously, naming the site 'the Portion of the Plotters'; the ensuing fierce battle routs Abner and Israel.
• E · 2:18–23 — Asahel's relentless pursuit of Abner and his death by the spear-butt. Asahel, swift as a gazelle, pursues Abner without swerving; twice warned to turn aside, he refuses and is killed by the butt of Abner's spear, dying on the spot as all who pass stand still.
• F · 2:24–32 — Abner's plea, the truce at sundown, and Asahel's burial. Joab and Abishai pursue to the hill of Ammah; Abner pleads against endless fratricidal war; Joab sounds the recall; Abner marches all night to Mahanaim; Joab musters his men (19 lost against Israel's 360), buries Asahel at Bethlehem, and reaches Hebron at dawn.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 2 Kingdoms 2 (= 2 Samuel 2) follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. The chapter is dense with verbatim transliterations characteristic of the historical books: Χεβρων (Hebron), Ιαβις (Jabesh) τῆς Γαλααδίτιδος (of Gilead), Αβεννηρ / Αβεννερ (Abner, with the v. 14 spelling-variant preserved), Ιεβοσθε (Ish-bosheth), Μαναεμ (Mahanaim), Γαβαων (Gibeon), Ασαηλ (Asahel), Αμμαν (Ammah), γαι (Giah), Βαιθλεεμ (Bethlehem). David's covenantal blessing pairs ἔλεος καὶ ἀλήθειαν (v. 6), the Greek calque of Hebrew חֶסֶד וֶאֱמֶת, and the verb ποιέω ἔλεος ('show ḥesed', vv. 5–6) recurs in a reciprocal economy of kindness binding Jabesh's deed, YHWH's recompense, and David's pledge. The combat euphemism παιξάτωσαν ('let them play', v. 14) frames mortal duel as sport, and the etiology μερὶς τῶν ἐπιβούλων (v. 16) renders חֶלְקַת הַצֻּרִים interpretively as 'the Portion of the Plotters/Treacherous'. Asahel's speed is figured by κοῦφος τοῖς ποσὶν … ὡσεὶ μία δορκὰς ἐν ἀγρῷ ('swift of foot … like a gazelle in the field', v. 18); the root ἐκκλίνω ('turn aside') threads vv. 19–21 (οὐκ ἐξέκλινεν / ἔκκλινον / οὐκ … ἐκκλῖναι). The death-blow ἐν τῷ ὀπίσω τοῦ δόρατος ('with the butt of the spear') into the ψόα (the soft belly), with the spear emerging behind (v. 23), is graphically literal. Abner's bitter plea μὴ εἰς νῖκος καταφάγεται ἡ ῥομφαία ('shall the sword devour unto victory/forever?', v. 26) exploits the dual sense of νῖκος (Hebrew נֶצַח, 'victory/perpetuity'). Joab's oath ζῇ κύριος ('as the LORD lives', v. 27 = חַי יהוה), the cognate trumpet-blast ἐσάλπισεν τῇ σάλπιγγι (v. 28), and the Hebraistic auxiliaries προσέθετο … λέγων (v. 22) and οὐ προσέθεντο … τοῦ πολεμεῖν (v. 28) are all rendered with the LXX's characteristic literalism. The Tetragrammaton stands behind κύριος at vv. 1, 5 (×2), 6, 27; the human sense 'lord/master' is used of Saul at vv. 5 (τὸν κύριον ὑμῶν) and 7 (ὁ κύριος ὑμῶν).

2 Kingdoms 3 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Β′ Γ′

Theme. Abner's defection should unite the kingdom, but Joab murders him and deepens the bloodguilt of the age.

Outline.

• A · 3:1 — The long war: David's house waxing, Saul's house waning. A summary verse frames the chapter: the war between the houses of Saul and David was prolonged (ἐπὶ πολύ), and the antithetical pair of imperfects — the house of David ἐπορεύετο καὶ ἐκραταιοῦτο, the house of Saul ἐπορεύετο καὶ ἠσθένει — establishes the irreversible trajectory of the whole narrative.
• B · 3:2–5 — David's six sons born in Hebron. A genealogical register names David's six sons born during the Hebron years, each tagged by ordinal and mother: Amnon of Achinoom, Daluia of Abigaia, Abessalom son of Maacha (daughter of king Tholmi of Gesir), Ornia, Sabatia, and Iethraam of Aigla. The list quietly seeds future dynastic conflict (Amnon, Abessalom).
• C · 3:6–11 — Abner's quarrel with Memphibosthe over Rizpah; his oath to give the kingdom to David. Ish-bosheth (Memphibosthe) accuses Abner of taking Saul's concubine Rizpah — a claim on royal succession. Enraged, Abner swears a self-imprecatory oath (τάδε ποιήσαι ὁ θεός) to transfer the kingdom from Saul's house and establish David's throne over Israel and Judah ἀπὸ Δαν ἕως Βηρσαβεε. Memphibosthe, in fear, can answer nothing.
• D · 3:12–16 — Abner's overture to David; the condition of Michal's return. Abner sends messengers proposing a covenant; David agrees on one condition — that Michal be brought back. He also sends directly to Memphibosthe demanding the wife he won for a hundred Philistine foreskins. Michal is taken from her husband Phaltiel, who follows her weeping as far as Barakim until Abner orders him back.
• E · 3:17–21 — Abner rallies Israel and Benjamin; the covenant feast at Hebron. Abner lobbies the elders of Israel and the ear of Benjamin, invoking YHWH's word that by David's hand Israel would be saved from the Philistines. He comes to David at Hebron with twenty men; David makes a feast; Abner pledges to gather all Israel and departs ἐν εἰρήνῃ.
• F · 3:22–27 — Joab's return and the treacherous murder of Abner at the gate. Joab and David's troops return from a raid to learn Abner had come and gone in peace. Joab confronts the king, charging that Abner came only to spy. Then, without David's knowledge, Joab recalls Abner, draws him aside at the gate as if to speak privately, and strikes him in the belly — vengeance for the blood of his brother Asahel.
• G · 3:28–30 — David's disclaimer of guilt and curse on Joab's house. Hearing of the murder, David declares himself and his kingdom forever innocent before YHWH of Abner's blood, and invokes a sweeping five-fold curse upon Joab and all his father's house. The narrator notes Joab and Abessa acted to avenge Asahel.
• H · 3:31–39 — Public mourning, lament, and David's fast; the people's approval. David commands rending of garments, sackcloth, and mourning before the bier, and follows it himself. At the burial he weeps and laments: did Abner die as a fool dies? — his hands unbound, fallen before sons of injustice. David fasts until sundown; all the people note and approve, knowing the king had no part in Abner's death. David closes acknowledging his weakness against the hard sons of Zeruiah, leaving requital to YHWH.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 2 Kingdoms 3 (= 2 Samuel 3) follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. The chapter belongs to the so-called καίγε / non-καίγε boundary region of 2 Kingdoms and exhibits the dense Hebraizing parataxis characteristic of the Old Greek of Samuel: long chains of καί-clauses, the idiom ἀνὰ μέσον … ἀνὰ μέσον for 'between … and' (vv. 1, 6), and transliterated proper names left largely indeclinable (Σαουλ, Δαυιδ, Αβεννηρ, Ιωαβ, Μεμφιβοσθε). The chapter opens with the protracted civil war (ὁ πόλεμος ἐπὶ πολύ, v. 1) and the antithetical formula ἐπορεύετο καὶ ἐκραταιοῦτο … ἐπορεύετο καὶ ἠσθένει. A genealogical register of David's six Hebron-born sons follows (vv. 2–5). The narrative engine is Abner: his quarrel with Ish-bosheth (here Μεμφιβοσθε) over Saul's concubine Rizpah (Ρεσφα), his furious oath (τάδε ποιήσαι ὁ θεὸς τῷ Αβεννηρ, v. 9) to transfer the kingdom ἀπὸ Δαν ἕως Βηρσαβεε, and his overture, met by David's single condition — the return of Michal (Μελχολ) — narrated with the poignant detail of her weeping husband Phaltiel following her ἕως Βαρακιμ (v. 16). After Abner rallies the elders and Benjamin and feasts with David, departing ἐν εἰρήνῃ, Joab returns, protests, recalls Abner under false pretext, and murders him at the gate ἐπὶ τὴν ψόαν ('in the belly') in blood-vengeance for Asahel (v. 27). David publicly disclaims guilt (ἀθῷός εἰμι ἐγώ, v. 28), curses Joab's house, commands mourning, fasts, and laments the fallen Abner with the rhetorical οὐκ οἴδατε ὅτι ἡγούμενος μέγας πέπτωκεν … ἐν τῷ Ισραηλ (v. 38). The κύριος-references at vv. 9, 18, 28, 39 render the Tetragrammaton; at v. 21 κύριόν μου τὸν βασιλέα is Abner's deferential human address to David.

2 Kingdoms 4 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Β′ Δ′

Theme. The house of Saul collapses as Ish-bosheth is murdered and David judges the killers.

Outline.

• A · 4:1–3 — Abner dead, Saul's house unnerved: the captains introduced. News of Abner's death at Hebron reaches Saul's son, whose hands go slack (ἐξελύθησαν αἱ χεῖρες αὐτοῦ) while all Israel is unnerved (v. 1). The narrator introduces the two band-captains in Saul's service, Baanah and Rechab, sons of Rimmon the Beerothite of the tribe of Benjamin (v. 2), and explains the Beerothite background — their flight to Gittaim, where they remain as resident aliens to this day (v. 3).
• B · 4:4 — Parenthetical: Jonathan's lame son. A narratorial aside introduces the surviving heir of the house of Saul: Jonathan's son, struck in the feet, five years old when the report of Saul and Jonathan's death came from Jezreel; his nurse fled in haste, dropped him, and he was lamed. His name, the LXX states, is also Memphibosthe — the same Greek form used for Saul's son elsewhere in the chapter.
• C · 4:5–8 — The noonday murder and the head carried to Hebron. Rechab and Baanah enter Saul's son's house in the heat of the day while he sleeps the midday rest; slipping past the drowsing doorkeeper, they strike and kill him, behead him, and travel by the western road all night (vv. 5–7). They bring the head to David at Hebron, presenting it as YHWH's vengeance upon Saul the king's enemy and his seed (v. 8).
• D · 4:9–12 — David's oath and verdict: the Ziklag precedent and burial. David answers with the oath ζῇ κύριος ('as the LORD lives, who redeemed my life from every distress', v. 9), then cites his execution of the man who reported Saul's death at Ziklag as binding precedent (v. 10). How much more, then, wicked men who have killed a righteous man in his own house upon his bed: he will require his blood from their hand and destroy them (v. 11). David commands his servants, who kill, mutilate (hands and feet), and hang the bodies by the pool at Hebron, while the head of Saul's son is buried honorably in Abner's tomb (v. 12).

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 2 Kingdoms 4 (= 2 Samuel 4) follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. The chapter narrates the collapse of the house of Saul after Abner's death: Saul's son loses heart (v. 1), the two raiding captains Rechab and Baanah, sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, are introduced (vv. 2–3), a parenthetical notes Jonathan's lame son (v. 4), and the captains murder Saul's son in his bed at noon, carrying his head to David at Hebron (vv. 5–8); David, recalling his execution of the Amalekite at Ziklag, condemns the murderers, has them killed, mutilated, and hung by the pool, and gives the severed head honorable burial in Abner's tomb (vv. 9–12). A notable feature of the Greek (Antiochene/kaige) tradition is that the transliterated name Μεμφιβοσθε is used both for Ish-bosheth, Saul's son and rival king (vv. 1, 5, 7, 8, 12), and for Mephibosheth, Jonathan's crippled son (v. 4) — a convergence absent from the Hebrew (where they are אִישׁ־בֹּשֶׁת and מְפִיבֹשֶׁת). The verse opens with a perfect of report (τέθνηκεν Αβεννηρ, 'Abner has died') and the vivid Hebraism ἐξελύθησαν αἱ χεῖρες αὐτοῦ ('his hands went slack', rendering וַיִּרְפּוּ יָדָיו), an idiom for loss of resolve. David's oath ζῇ κύριος ὃς ἐλυτρώσατο τὴν ψυχήν μου (v. 9) echoes the redemption-language of the Psalter, and his self-citation of the Ziklag episode (v. 10; cf. 2 Kgdms 1:1–16) frames the present verdict as legal precedent: those who think they bring εὐαγγέλια ('good news') by regicide will instead receive blood-vengeance.

2 Kingdoms 5 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Β′ Ε′

Theme. David is made king over all Israel, captures Zion, and defeats the Philistines under the Lord's guidance.

Outline.

• A · 5:1–5 — All Israel anoints David king at Hebron; the regnal summary. Every tribe of Israel comes to David at Hebron, confessing covenant kinship (ὀστᾶ σου καὶ σάρκες σου ἡμεῖς) and rehearsing both his proven military leadership under Saul and the divine shepherd-mandate (σὺ ποιμανεῖς τὸν λαόν μου τὸν Ισραηλ). The elders make a covenant (διαθήκη) with David before the LORD, and anoint him king over all Israel (vv. 1–3). A regnal notice closes the unit: David was thirty at his accession and reigned forty years — seven years and six months at Hebron over Judah, and thirty-three years at Jerusalem over all Israel and Judah (vv. 4–5).
• B · 5:6–10 — The capture of Jerusalem/Zion from the Jebusites. David marches on the Jebusite-held city; the inhabitants taunt that even 'the blind and the lame' could repel him (v. 6). David nonetheless seizes the stronghold of Zion, which becomes the City of David (v. 7); his day-of-battle word about the blind and the lame and the 'house of the LORD' is recorded (v. 8). He settles in the stronghold, builds the city round about from the citadel inward (v. 9), and grows continually greater, for κύριος παντοκράτωρ μετ᾿ αὐτοῦ (v. 10).
• C · 5:11–16 — Hiram's cedars, David's house, and the sons born in Jerusalem. Hiram king of Tyre sends messengers, cedar timber, and carpenters and masons, who build David a palace (v. 11). David recognizes that the LORD has established him as king and exalted his kingdom for the sake of his people Israel (v. 12). He takes more wives and concubines in Jerusalem, and more sons and daughters are born (v. 13). The list of sons born to him in Jerusalem follows (vv. 14–16), preserved in the doubled, transliterated form characteristic of the Greek text of Samuel.
• D · 5:17–25 — Two victories over the Philistines in the Valley of the Titans. Hearing of David's anointing, the Philistines come up and deploy in the Valley of the Titans (Rephaim); David inquires of the LORD, is told to go up, and routs them at the place renamed ἐπάνω διακοπῶν ('Breakings-Through') because διέκοψεν κύριος τοὺς ἐχθρούς μου (vv. 17–21). The Philistines deploy a second time; this time the LORD directs David not to attack head-on but to circle behind and strike when he hears the sound of marching in the balsam grove (ἄλσος τοῦ κλαυθμῶνος), for the LORD will have gone out before him (vv. 22–24). David obeys and strikes the Philistines from Gabaon to Gezer (v. 25).

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 2 Kingdoms 5 (= 2 Samuel 5) follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. The chapter is governed throughout by the heavily Hebraizing καί-parataxis typical of the Greek of Samuel–Kings, and it makes frequent use of the historic present (παραγίνονται, ἔρχονται, χρίουσιν, καταλιμπάνουσιν) to enliven the narrative. Proper names are transliterated freely, and the toponym κοιλὰς τῶν τιτάνων (vv. 18, 22) renders the Hebrew Vale of Rephaim (רְפָאִים) by the Greek mythological 'Titans'. Two cognate-construction Hebraisms anchor the theology of the chapter: παραδιδοὺς παραδώσω ('I will surely give', v. 19), calquing the Hebrew infinitive absolute to guarantee victory, and the wordplay of v. 20 (διέκοψεν … ὡς διακόπτεται ὕδατα … ἐπάνω διακοπῶν), which etymologizes the place-name Baal-perazim around the root 'break through'. The kinship-idiom ὀστᾶ σου καὶ σάρκες σου (v. 1) and the predicative εἰς + accusative of office (ἔσει εἰς ἡγούμενον, v. 2; εἰς βασιλέα, vv. 3, 12) are further Hebraisms. The divine-warrior motif climaxes at v. 24: κύριος ἐξελεύσεται ἔμπροσθέν σου ('the LORD will go out before you'), the sound in the balsam grove being the tread of YHWH's vanguard. Note also that the long, doubled name-list of v. 16 reflects the conflate textual tradition of the Greek Samuel (an inline editorial marker present in the source has been removed in this edition).

2 Kingdoms 6 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Β′ Ϛ′

Theme. The ark comes to the city of David through judgment, rejoicing, and the clash between holy fear and royal joy.

Outline.

• A · 6:1–5 — David musters Israel and sets the ark on a new cart; rejoicing before the LORD. David gathers 'seventy thousand' chosen men (v. 1) and goes up with all the people to bring back the ark of God — over which the name κυρίου τῶν δυνάμεων is invoked, enthroned on the cherubim (v. 2). The ark is mounted on a new cart and led from the house of Aminadab by Oza and his brothers (vv. 3–4), while David and all Israel 'play' before the LORD with a sevenfold ensemble of instruments and song (v. 5). The mood is festal and seemingly pious — yet the new cart (rather than Levitical bearers) sets up the catastrophe of v. 6.
• B · 6:6–11 — Oza struck dead at the threshing-floor; David's fear and the ark with Abeddara. At the threshing-floor of Nodab the ox jolts the ark, Oza reaches out to steady it, and YHWH's anger blazes: God strikes him dead beside the ark (vv. 6–7). David is grieved at the breach (διακοπή) and names the place διακοπὴ Οζα (v. 8); fear of the LORD overtakes him — 'how shall the ark of the LORD come to me?' (v. 9). He diverts it to the house of Abeddara the Gittite, where it rests three months and YHWH blesses the whole household and all that is his (vv. 10–11). Holiness here is dangerous and uncontainable; the blessing on Abeddara becomes the catalyst for the corrected procession.
• C · 6:12–19 — David brings the ark up with sacrifice and dancing; offerings, blessing, and distribution. Hearing that YHWH has blessed Abeddara on account of the ark, David brings it up to the city of David ἐν εὐφροσύνῃ (v. 12), with sacrifice (v. 13). David dances and plays before the LORD (v. 14) as all the house of Israel brings up the ark with shouting and trumpet-blast (v. 15); Melchol, watching from the window, despises him in her heart (v. 16). The ark is installed in the tent, whole burnt offerings and peace offerings are made, David blesses the people in the name of the LORD of hosts and distributes bread to every Israelite from Dan to Bersabee (vv. 17–19) — kingship exercised as worship and largesse.
• D · 6:20–23 — Melchol's contempt and rebuke; David's reply; her childlessness. Returning to bless his own house, David is met by Melchol's sarcasm: how 'glorified' the king of Israel was, exposing himself before the slave-girls of his servants (v. 20). David answers that he danced before the LORD who chose him over Saul's house to be ruler over Israel, and will yet be more abased and held cheap in his own eyes — but honored before those same slave-girls (vv. 21–22). The narrator seals the conflict: Melchol bore no child to the day of her death (v. 23), the dynastic dead-end of Saul's line set against David's chosen kingship.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 2 Kingdoms 6 (= 2 Samuel 6) follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. The chapter narrates the ark's transfer to the city of David in two movements broken by a death. The ark is identified by the throne-name κυρίου τῶν δυνάμεων ('the LORD of hosts/powers', v. 2 = יהוה צְבָאוֹת) and the participial epithet καθημένου ἐπὶ τῶν Χερουβιν ('enthroned upon the cherubim'), the classic ark-throne theology, with the resumptive ἐπ᾿ αὐτῆς a Hebraizing pleonasm. The fatal procedural error is the ἅμαξα καινή ('new cart', v. 3), echoing the Philistines' handling of the ark in 1 Kgdms 6 rather than the Levitical shoulder-carry of Num 4:15; 7:9. At v. 6 the LXX names the site the threshing-floor of Νωδαβ (MT Nachon) and renders the ox's lurch περιέσπασεν ('jolted / dragged aside', for שָׁמַט). The death-scene (v. 7) deploys a grim wordplay: the festal παίζω ('make merry', v. 5) gives way to ἔπαισεν ('struck'); ἐθυμώθη κύριος renders the kindling of divine wrath (חָרָה אַף). The aetiology at v. 8 uses the figura etymologica διέκοψεν … διακοπήν (פָּרַץ … פֶּרֶץ), yielding the place-name διακοπὴ Οζα ('Breach of Oza' = Perez-uzzah) with the 'to this day' formula. The blessing of Abeddara (Obed-edom the Gittite, vv. 11–12) reverses the menace: the same holiness that kills Oza blesses the household that honors it, ἕνεκεν τῆς κιβωτοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ ('on account of the ark of God'). The second procession proceeds ἐν εὐφροσύνῃ (v. 12); v. 13 reads ἑπτὰ χοροί ('seven choirs') where the MT counts paces. At v. 14 David is ἐνδεδυκὼς στολὴν ἔξαλλον ('clothed in a distinctive robe'), the LXX's interpretive rendering of the linen ephod (אֵפוֹד בָּד). The enthronement is acclaimed μετὰ κραυγῆς … μετὰ φωνῆς σάλπιγγος (v. 15). Melchol's scene (v. 16) opens with καὶ ἐγένετο + genitive absolute and the apodotic καί; she watches διὰ τῆς θυρίδος (the window-motif of the doomed royal woman) and ἐξουδένωσεν ('despised', בָּזָה) David in her heart. The ark is set εἰς μέσον τῆς σκηνῆς David pitched (v. 17), with ὁλοκαυτώματα and εἰρηνικάς, David acting in priestly-royal capacity (εὐλόγησεν τὸν λαόν … ἐν ὀνόματι κυρίου τῶν δυνάμεων, v. 18, bracketing v. 2). The largesse of v. 19 uses a double merism (ἀπὸ Δαν ἕως Βηρσαβεε; ἀπὸ ἀνδρὸς ἕως γυναικός) and a threefold festal portion (κολλυρίδα ἄρτου, ἐσχαρίτην, λάγανον ἀπὸ τηγάνου). The closing confrontation (vv. 20–23) turns on Melchol's loaded δεδόξασται ('gloried', ironic) and the thrice-hammered ἀποκαλύπτω ('uncover / expose'), with the cognate ἀποκαλύπτεται … ἀποκαλυφθείς a Hebraizing infinitive-absolute calque. David rebuts by reclaiming her words: ὀρχήσομαι ('I will dance', vv. 21, against τῶν ὀρχουμένων, v. 20), grounding his dance in election (ἐξελέξατό με … ὑπὲρ τὸν πατέρα σου) and the title ἡγούμενον (נָגִיד); he accepts being ἀχρεῖος ('worthless', שָׁפָל) in Melchol's eyes yet expects δοξασθῆναι ('to be honored') by the very slave-girls she scorned (v. 22). The narrator's verdict (v. 23) uses the dative of possession (τῇ Μελχολ … οὐκ ἐγένετο παιδίον) to declare the dynastic dead-end of Saul's house.

2 Kingdoms 7 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Β′ Ζ′

Theme. The Lord refuses David's house-building plan and instead establishes the everlasting covenant of David's house.

Outline.

• A · 7:1–3 — David's proposal: a house for the ark, and Nathan's first word. At rest from all his enemies round about (v. 1), David observes to Nathan the disparity between his cedar house and the ark in a tent (v. 2). Nathan, before any divine word, approves: "all that is in your heart, go and do, for the LORD is with you" (v. 3).
• B · 7:4–7 — The night-word: the LORD has needed no house. That night the word of the LORD comes (v. 4): David is not to build the LORD a house (v. 5), for the LORD has dwelt in no house since the Exodus but has moved about in tent and tabernacle (v. 6), and never once commanded any tribe to build him a cedar house (v. 7).
• C · 7:8–11 — The LORD's deeds and the great reversal. The messenger-formula τάδε λέγει κύριος παντοκράτωρ (v. 8) opens the covenant prologue: the LORD took David from the sheepfold, was with him, cut off his enemies, made his name great (vv. 8–9), will plant his people Israel securely (v. 10), and give David rest. The unit climaxes in the reversal: the LORD will build David a house (v. 11).
• D · 7:12–16 — The dynastic covenant: the seed, the eternal throne, the father and son. At David's death the LORD will raise up his σπέρμα and establish his kingdom (v. 12); the seed will build the house for the LORD's name, and the LORD will establish his throne forever (v. 13); the LORD will be a father to him and he a son — chastened for iniquity but never bereft of ἔλεος as Saul was (vv. 14–15); his house, kingdom, and throne are made sure forever (v. 16). Cited messianically in Heb 1:5; Luke 1:32–33; Acts 2:30.
• E · 7:17 — Nathan reports the vision. According to all these words and this whole vision (ὅρασις), so Nathan spoke to David — faithful transmission hinging oracle to prayer.
• F · 7:18–24 — David's prayer (1): humble wonder and the LORD's incomparability. David sits before the LORD and prays: "Who am I, O Lord GOD?" (v. 18) before a promise reaching into the distant future (v. 19); he confesses the grace is all the LORD's doing, for his word's sake and to make himself known (vv. 20–21), and praises the LORD's uniqueness (v. 22) and Israel's unique redemption from Egypt to be his people forever (vv. 23–24).
• G · 7:25–29 — David's prayer (2): petition that the word be confirmed and the house blessed. David petitions: confirm (πίστωσον) the word forever (v. 25), that the LORD's name be magnified (v. 26). Because the LORD revealed he would build him a house, David has found the heart to pray (v. 27); since the LORD is God and his words are true (v. 28), David asks him now to begin and bless the house of his servant, that it may continue before him forever (v. 29).

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 2 Kingdoms 7 (= 2 Samuel 7 MT) follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. The chapter pivots on a wordplay around οἶκος ('house'): David, at rest in his cedar οἶκος (v. 2), proposes to build a οἶκος for the ark, but the night-oracle reverses it — the LORD will build David a οἶκος (a dynasty, v. 11). The covenant (vv. 12–16) promises the LORD will raise up David's σπέρμα from his own κοιλία ('belly'), establish his βασιλεία and θρόνος εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα ('forever'), and be father to son: ἐγὼ ἔσομαι αὐτῷ εἰς πατέρα καὶ αὐτὸς ἔσται μοι εἰς υἱόν (v. 14), cited verbatim in Heb 1:5. The eternal throne and kingdom echo in Gabriel's annunciation (Luke 1:32–33); the oath that the seed would come ἐκ τῆς κοιλίας σου grounds Peter's resurrection-argument (Acts 2:30). David's prayer (vv. 18–29) repeatedly addresses God as κύριέ μου κύριε, the LXX's rendering of אֲדֹנָי יהוה ('O Lord GOD' — both terms divine, the first κύριε with μου for אֲדֹנָי, the second for the Tetragrammaton). The translation reflects characteristic LXX renderings: κύριος παντοκράτωρ for יהוה צבאות ('LORD of hosts', vv. 8, 25, 27); the cognate-participle Hebraism εἰ λαλῶν ἐλάλησα ('did I ever speak?', v. 7) rendering the Hebrew infinitive absolute; the redemption-verb λυτρόω for גָּאַל/פָּדָה (v. 23); and the periphrastic ἤμην ἐμπεριπατῶν ('I was walking about', v. 6) for the LORD's mobile tent-presence. The crux οὗτος ὁ νόμος τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ('this is the law/manner of mankind', v. 19) renders an obscure Hebrew clause (cf. 1 Chr 17:17). At v. 11 the LXX gives the promise as οἶκον οἰκοδομήσεις αὐτῷ where the MT reads "the LORD will make YOU a house"; either way the theological reversal stands and is stated unambiguously at v. 27 (οἶκον οἰκοδομήσω σοι, "I will build you a house"). Ch. 7 lies in the freely-translated αβ section of 2 Kingdoms (before the kaige βγ section begins at 11:2), and its Greek is fluent and theologically rich.

2 Kingdoms 8 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Β΄ Η΄

Theme. David's victories and just rule show the Lord establishing his kingdom over surrounding nations.

Outline.

• A · 8:1–6 — David's conquests: Philistines, Moab, Hadadezer, and Aram of Damascus. A chain of victories marked by the repeated ἐπάταξεν ('he struck'): David subdues the Philistines and takes their tribute (v. 1); measures Moab with the line, devoting two-thirds to death and sparing one-third as tribute-bearing servants (v. 2); defeats Hadadezer (Αδρααζαρ) son of Rehob, king of Zobah, on his way to the Euphrates, capturing chariotry and hamstringing the horses (vv. 3–4). When Aram of Damascus comes to Hadadezer's aid, David strikes down twenty-two thousand Arameans and garrisons Damascus (vv. 5–6). The first refrain καὶ ἔσωσεν κύριος τὸν Δαυιδ (v. 6) credits the victories to YHWH.
• B · 8:7–12 — Spoils and tribute consecrated to the LORD. David carries Hadadezer's servants' gold armlets to Jerusalem (v. 7, with a proleptic gloss anticipating Shishak's later plunder) and takes vast bronze from Hadadezer's cities — the very bronze, the narrator notes, from which Solomon would make the bronze Sea, the pillars, and the lavers (v. 8). Toi (Θοου) of Hamath sends his son with greetings and gifts of silver, gold, and bronze vessels (vv. 9–10). King David consecrates these to YHWH (ἡγίασεν τῷ κυρίῳ, v. 11), together with all the dedicated metal from Edom, Moab, the Ammonites, the Philistines, Amalek, and the spoils of Hadadezer (vv. 11–12).
• C · 8:13–14 — Edom, the conquest of Idumea, and divine preservation. David 'makes a name' (ἐποίησεν ὄνομα), and on his return strikes Edom — eighteen thousand at Gaimele (the Valley of Salt) — and garrisons all Idumea, so that all the Edomites become his servants (vv. 13–14). The section closes with the second occurrence of the refrain καὶ ἔσωσεν κύριος τὸν Δαυιδ ἐν πᾶσιν οἷς ἐπορεύετο (v. 14), bracketing the whole war-catalogue (vv. 1–14).
• D · 8:15–18 — David's just reign and the roster of his officials. David reigns over all Israel, executing κρίμα καὶ δικαιοσύνην for all his people (v. 15). There follows the administrative roster (vv. 16–18): Joab son of Zeruiah over the army; Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud the recorder; Zadok son of Ahitub and Ahimelech son of Abiathar the priests; Asa the scribe; and Benaiah son of Jehoiada, with the Cherethites (Χελεθθι) and Pelethites (Φελεττι), and David's sons as chief court-officers (αὐλάρχαι) — the single closing verb ἦσαν governing the whole verbless list.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 2 Kingdoms 8 (= 2 Samuel 8 in the Hebrew/English numbering) follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. The chapter is a war-catalogue (vv. 1–14) capped by a regnal roster (vv. 15–18). The recurring ἐπάταξεν ('he struck', vv. 1, 2, 3, 9, 10, 13) drums out the rhythm of conquest, while the refrain καὶ ἔσωσεν κύριος τὸν Δαυιδ ἐν πᾶσιν οἷς ἐπορεύετο ('the LORD preserved David wherever he went', vv. 6, 14) twice attributes the victories to YHWH. The LXX renders the Philistines by ἀλλόφυλοι ('foreigners', vv. 1, 12); Moab is 'measured with the line' (διεμέτρησεν … ἐν σχοινίοις, v. 2) in a grim allotment of life and death (two σχοινίσματα to death, two kept alive). The Aramean king Hadadezer appears as Αδρααζαρ (the LXX's transliteration of הֲדַדְעֶזֶר), king of Σουβα (Zobah); Συρία Δαμασκοῦ ('Syria of Damascus', v. 5) is subdued and garrisoned (φρουρά, vv. 6, 14). David's reluctance to keep chariotry surfaces in παρέλυσεν … πάντα τὰ ἅρματα ('he hamstrung all the chariot-teams', v. 4; cf. Deut 17:16). The dedicated metals (vv. 7–8, 10–12) are consecrated (ἡγίασεν, v. 11) to YHWH, and two proleptic glosses tie David's spoils to later history: Shishak's plunder under Rehoboam (v. 7; cf. 3 Kgdms 14:25–26) and Solomon's bronze Temple-furniture (v. 8; cf. 3 Kgdms 7). The closing roster preserves several text-critical divergences from the MT, most famously αὐλάρχαι ('chief court-officers') for David's sons where the Hebrew reads כֹּהֲנִים ('priests', v. 18).

2 Kingdoms 9 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Β′ Θ′

Theme. For Jonathan's sake, David shows covenant mercy to Mephibosheth and restores him to Saul's table and land.

Outline.

• A · 9:1–4 — David seeks a survivor of Saul's house; Ziba names Mephibosheth. David asks whether anyone of Saul's house survives so that he may do ἔλεος ('covenant-loyalty') for Jonathan's sake (v. 1). Saul's former steward Ziba is summoned and identifies himself as David's servant (v. 2). Pressed by the king — who now elevates the loyalty to ἔλεος θεοῦ, 'the mercy of God' (v. 3) — Ziba reveals that a son of Jonathan survives, lame in his feet, and locates him in the house of Machir son of Ammiel at Lo-debar (vv. 3–4).
• B · 9:5–8 — David summons Mephibosheth and pledges full restoration. The king sends and fetches Mephibosheth from Lo-debar (v. 5). Mephibosheth arrives, falls on his face, and does obeisance (v. 6). David reassures him ('do not fear') and pledges a threefold ἔλεος rendered with the Hebraising cognate ποιῶν ποιήσω ('I will surely show'): the return of all Saul's land and a permanent place at the king's table (v. 7). Mephibosheth responds with radical self-abasement, calling himself 'a dead dog' (v. 8).
• C · 9:9–13 — Ziba's household assigned to farm the estate; Mephibosheth at the king's table. David commands Ziba — with his fifteen sons and twenty servants — to till the restored land and bring in its produce for Saul's heir, while Mephibosheth himself eats continually at the royal table (vv. 9–10). Ziba submits (v. 11). A genealogical note records Mephibosheth's young son Micha and Ziba's household as his servants (v. 12). The chapter closes: Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem and ate continually at the king's table, being lame in both his feet (v. 13).

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 2 Kingdoms 9 (= 2 Samuel 9 in the Hebrew tradition) follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. The chapter is a self-contained narrative of covenant-loyalty (ἔλεος, rendering Hebrew חֶסֶד): now firmly enthroned, David seeks any survivor of the house of Saul ἕνεκεν Ιωναθαν ('for Jonathan's sake', v. 1) in order to do ἔλεος with him; at v. 3 he heightens it to ἔλεος θεοῦ ('the mercy of God'), framing his loyalty as an act done coram Deo. The steward Σιβα (Ziba) discloses that a son of Jonathan survives, πεπληγὼς τοὺς πόδας ('stricken in his feet', v. 3) — Μεμφιβοσθε (Mephibosheth), retrieved from the house of Machir in Lo-debar (Λαδαβαρ). David's threefold restoration follows: he returns to Mephibosheth all of Saul's land (ἀποκαταστήσω … πάντα ἀγρὸν Σαουλ, v. 7), seats him at the royal table διὰ παντός ('continually'), and assigns Ziba's whole household to farm the estate for him (vv. 9–10). The Hebraising cognate construction ποιῶν ποιήσω ('doing I will surely do', v. 7) calques the emphatic infinitive absolute עָשֹׂה אֶעֱשֶׂה, underscoring the certainty of David's pledged ἔλεος. Mephibosheth's self-abasement — τὸν κύνα τὸν τεθνηκότα ('the dead dog', v. 8) — is the social inverse of David's grace; the chapter's refrain ('he ate at the king's table continually, as one of the king's sons', vv. 7, 10, 11, 13) makes table-fellowship the visible sign of restored covenant standing, while the closing notice that he was χωλὸς ἀμφοτέροις τοῖς ποσίν ('lame in both his feet', v. 13) frames the whole episode by the very disability that made him helpless and dependent on royal ἔλεος.

2 Kingdoms 10 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Β′ Ι′

Theme. David's kindness to Ammon is answered with humiliation and war, and the Lord gives victory through Joab and David.

Outline.

• A · 10:1–5 — The Ammonite insult: David's envoys of sympathy are humiliated. On the death of the Ammonite king, Hanun (Αννων) succeeds his father (v. 1). David, recalling the loyalty (ἔλεος) of Nahash, sends an embassy of condolence (vv. 1–2). The Ammonite princes poison Hanun's mind, alleging that the envoys are spies sent to search out and overthrow the city (v. 3); Hanun seizes them, shaves off half their beards, cuts their garments to the buttocks, and dismisses them (v. 4). David, hearing of their disgrace (ἠτιμασμένοι σφόδρα), orders them to remain in Jericho until their beards regrow (v. 5).
• B · 10:6–8 — Ammon hires the Arameans; the armies deploy. Realizing they have made themselves odious to David (κατῃσχύνθησαν), the Ammonites hire Aramean mercenaries — Syria of Beth-rehob (twenty thousand foot), the king of Maacah (a thousand men), and Ishtob (twelve thousand men) (v. 6). David dispatches Joab with the whole host of warriors (v. 7). The Ammonites array for battle at the city gate, while the hired Arameans (Souba, Rehob, Ishtob, Maacah) stand apart in the open field (v. 8), setting the stage for a two-front engagement.
• C · 10:9–14 — Joab and Abishai divide the army; the two-front victory and Joab's charge. Joab, seeing the battle-line set against him front and rear (ἐκ τοῦ κατὰ πρόσωπον … καὶ ἐκ τοῦ ὄπισθεν), picks the choice young men of Israel against Syria and gives the rest to his brother Abishai against Ammon (vv. 9–10). He frames a mutual-support pact (v. 11) and delivers the great battle-charge: 'Be a man, and let us be strong for our people and the cities of our God, and the LORD will do what is good in his eyes' (v. 12). Joab advances and the Arameans flee before him; seeing this, the Ammonites flee from Abishai into the city, and Joab returns to Jerusalem (vv. 13–14).
• D · 10:15–19 — Hadadezer regroups; David routs Aram at Helam; Aram makes peace. Defeated (ἔπταισεν), Syria regroups: Hadadezer summons the Arameans from beyond the River, who muster at Helam under Shobach his army-commander (vv. 15–16). David gathers all Israel, crosses the Jordan, and meets them at Helam; Syria arrays against him and is routed (vv. 17–18a). David destroys seven hundred chariots and forty thousand horsemen and strikes down Shobach, who dies there (v. 18). Seeing their defeat, all the vassal kings of Hadadezer make peace and become subject to Israel, and Syria feared to help the Ammonites any longer (v. 19).

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 2 Kingdoms 10 (= 2 Samuel 10 MT) follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. The chapter narrates the Ammonite war. On the death of the Ammonite king, David sends envoys of condolence (ποιήσω ἔλεος, v. 2) to Hanun (Αννων) son of Nahash (Ναας), but the Ammonite princes interpret the embassy as espionage and humiliate David's servants — shaving off half their beards and cutting their garments to the buttocks (vv. 3–4). The LXX renders the disgrace vividly with ἠτιμασμένοι σφόδρα ('greatly dishonored', v. 5) and the king's order to wait in Jericho until their beards regrow. The Ammonites, realizing they have become odious (κατῃσχύνθησαν), hire Aramean mercenaries — Syria of Beth-rehob (Συρίαν Βαιθροωβ), the king of Maacah, and the men of Tob/Ishtob (Ιστωβ) — for war (v. 6). Joab (Ιωαβ), facing battle on two fronts (ἀντιπρόσωπον τοῦ πολέμου … ἐκ τοῦ κατὰ πρόσωπον … καὶ ἐκ τοῦ ὄπισθεν, v. 9), divides the army with his brother Abishai (Αβεσσα) and utters the great resolve: ἀνδρίζου καὶ κραταιωθῶμεν … καὶ κύριος ποιήσει τὸ ἀγαθὸν ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖς αὐτοῦ ('be a man and let us be strong … and the LORD will do what is good in his eyes', v. 12). The Arameans flee (ἔφυγαν, v. 13), and the Ammonites with them. Hadadezer (Αδρααζαρ) then regroups the Arameans from beyond the River under Shobach (Σωβακ), his army-commander (vv. 15–16); David crosses the Jordan, routs them at Helam (Αιλαμ), kills Shobach, and the vassal kings of Hadadezer make peace and serve Israel, so that Syria feared to help Ammon any longer (vv. 17–19). The verb πταίω ('stumble / be defeated', vv. 15, 19) and the repeated φεύγω ('flee') frame the collapse; ηὐτομόλησαν ('they deserted / defected', v. 19) marks the political realignment of the Aramean vassals to David.

2 Kingdoms 11 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Β′ ΙΑ′

Theme. David's adultery with Bathsheba and murder of Uriah become the great turning point of his reign.

Outline.

• A · 11:1–5 — The siege, the sight, and the sin: David takes Bathsheba. At the turn of the year, when kings campaign, David sends Joab and all Israel to ravage Ammon and besiege Rabbah, but David himself stays in Jerusalem (v. 1) — the narrative gap from which everything follows. Rising at evening and walking on the palace roof, he sees a beautiful woman bathing (v. 2), inquires and learns she is Bathsheba, wife of Uriah the Hittite (v. 3), sends for her, and lies with her — the narrator carefully noting she had just been purified from her uncleanness (v. 4). She conceives and sends word: 'I am pregnant' (v. 5).
• B · 11:6–13 — David recalls Uriah and twice fails to send him home. To mask the pregnancy, David summons Uriah from the front under pretext of a war-report (vv. 6–7) and twice urges him to go down to his house and wash his feet (v. 8). But Uriah, in soldierly piety, sleeps at the palace door with the king's servants, refusing the comforts of home while the ark, Israel, and Joab encamp in the open field (vv. 9–11). David detains him a second day, makes him drunk, yet still Uriah will not go down to his house (vv. 12–13). The cover-up has failed.
• C · 11:14–25 — The death-warrant and Uriah's death at the wall. David writes Joab a letter — carried by Uriah's own hand — ordering that Uriah be set in the fiercest fighting and abandoned to die (vv. 14–15). Joab complies, stationing Uriah where he knows valiant defenders are; the men of the city sally out and Uriah the Hittite falls with others (vv. 16–17). Joab sends a measured report, anticipating David's anger about approaching the wall (citing Abimelech's death at Thebez) and instructing the messenger to add the news of Uriah's death (vv. 18–24). David's reply normalizes the murder as the fortune of war — 'the sword devours now one and now another' — and urges Joab to press the siege (v. 25).
• D · 11:26–27 — Bathsheba mourns; David takes her; the LORD's verdict. Uriah's wife mourns her husband (v. 26); when the mourning is past, David sends, gathers her into his house, and she becomes his wife and bears him a son (v. 27a). The chapter — and with it the apparent success of the cover-up — is overturned by the narrator's single decisive clause: 'but the thing that David had done was evil in the eyes of the LORD' (v. 27b), the verdict that launches Nathan's confrontation in chapter 12 and the long unraveling of David's house.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 2 Kingdoms 11 (= 2 Samuel 11 MT) follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. 2 Kingdoms 11 is the theological hinge of the whole David narrative: while Joab besieges Rabbah of the Ammonites, David remains in Jerusalem (v. 1), and the chapter charts his descent from idleness, through the sight of Bathsheba bathing (γυναῖκα λουομένην, v. 2), to adultery (vv. 3–4), conspiracy, and the judicial murder of Uriah the Hittite (vv. 14–25), closing on the narrator's verdict that 'the thing that David had done was evil in the eyes of the LORD' (καὶ πονηρὸν ἐφάνη τὸ ῥῆμα ὃ ἐποίησεν Δαυιδ ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖς κυρίου, v. 27). The translation Greek is consistently paratactic, reproducing the Hebrew waw-consecutive with the chain of καί + aorist that drives the narrative. Several features deserve note: the opening genitive absolute ἐπιστρέψαντος τοῦ ἐνιαυτοῦ ('at the return of the year', v. 1) renders לִתְשׁוּבַת הַשָּׁנָה and sets the campaigning season against which David's absence from the field is conspicuous; the parenthetical αὐτὴ ἁγιαζομένη ἀπὸ ἀκαθαρσίας αὐτῆς (v. 4) renders the Hebrew note on Bathsheba's purification from her uncleanness (וְהִיא מִתְקַדֶּשֶׁת מִטֻּמְאָתָהּ), establishing both that she was ritually clean and that the resulting pregnancy could only be David's; Uriah's pious refusal in v. 11 invokes the ark and the army encamped ἐπὶ πρόσωπον τοῦ ἀγροῦ with the oath πῶς ζῇ ἡ ψυχή σου ('as your soul lives'), a Hebraism (חֵי נַפְשְׁךָ); the death-warrant carried in Uriah's own hand (v. 14) and Joab's anticipated rebuke citing the death of Abimelech son of Jerubbaal at Thebez (vv. 20–21, with the doublet at v. 22) frame the killing as a calculated military deceit; and David's chilling proverb μὴ πονηρὸν ἔστω … ὅτι ποτὲ μὲν οὕτως καὶ ποτὲ οὕτως φάγεται ἡ μάχαιρα ('the sword devours now one and now another', v. 25) exposes his attempt to normalize Uriah's murder as the ordinary attrition of war — an evaluative πονηρόν that the narrator deliberately turns back upon David in the closing πονηρὸν ἐφάνη of v. 27.

2 Kingdoms 12 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Β′ ΙΒ′

Theme. Nathan confronts David, judgment enters his house, the child dies, and Solomon is born under mercy.

Outline.

• A · 12:1–4 — Nathan's parable: the rich man and the poor man's ewe lamb. The LORD sends Nathan, who frames a case-parable: in one city a rich man with flocks 'exceedingly many' (πολλὰ σφόδρα) and a poor man with one little ewe lamb, raised in his bosom 'as a daughter' (ὡς θυγάτηρ). A traveler comes; the rich man spares his own herds and seizes the poor man's lamb.
• B · 12:5–6 — David's self-condemnation. Kindled with anger, David swears by the living LORD that the offender is 'a son of death' (υἱὸς θανάτου) and must repay sevenfold (ἑπταπλασίονα) — unwittingly sentencing himself.
• C · 12:7–12 — "You are the man": the oracle of indictment and judgment. σὺ εἶ ὁ ἀνήρ collapses parable into accusation. The messenger-formula introduces the recital of YHWH's gifts, the charge of despising the word of the LORD (the sword against Uriah, the taking of his wife), and the twofold sentence: the perpetual sword (v. 10) and the public, talionic seizure of David's wives 'in the sight of this sun' (vv. 11–12).
• D · 12:13–14 — Confession and the deferred sentence. David confesses ἡμάρτηκα τῷ κυρίῳ; the LORD has 'put away' (παρεβίβασεν) his sin — he shall not die — but the child born to him shall surely die (θανάτῳ ἀποθανεῖται).
• E · 12:15–23 — The child's death, David's fast, and his response to grief. The LORD strikes the child; David fasts in sackcloth on the ground. On the seventh day it dies; the servants fear to tell him. Perceiving their whispering, David rises, washes, worships, and eats — explaining that fasting in hope was meaningful while the child lived, but 'now he is dead … I shall go to him, but he will not return to me' (v. 23).
• F · 12:24–25 — The birth of Solomon, beloved of the LORD (Jedidiah). David comforts Bathsheba his wife; she bears Solomon (Σαλωμων), and the LORD loved him. Through Nathan the child is named Ιδεδι (Jedidiah, 'beloved of the LORD').
• G · 12:26–31 — The capture of Rabbah and the Ammonite cities. Joab takes the 'city of waters' and summons David lest the conquest bear Joab's name. David captures Rabbah, takes the crown (a talent of gold and precious stone) for his own head and great spoil, subjects the Ammonite cities, and returns with all the people to Jerusalem.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 2 Kingdoms 12 (= 2 Samuel 12 MT) follows the Rahlfs–Hanhart critical text of the Septuagint (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the apparatus is not reproduced. The chapter renders its Hebrew Vorlage closely. The parable (vv. 1–4) is a juridical māšāl whose pathos (the lamb that ate of his bread, drank of his cup, slept in his bosom, ἦν αὐτῷ ὡς θυγάτηρ) conceals its trap; the deliberate repetition of κόλπος ('bosom') from the lamb (v. 3) to David's God-given wives (v. 8) and to his wives taken by the neighbor (v. 11) binds the parable to its application. The verbs of theft (λαμβάνω) and gift (δίδωμι) are played against each other across vv. 4–11: David 'took' what the LORD had 'given,' so the LORD will 'take' David's wives and 'give' them away. Several Hebraisms appear: the cognate constructions ἐθυμώθη ὀργῇ (v. 5), παροξύνων παρώξυνας and θανάτῳ ἀποθανεῖται (v. 14), ἐνήστευσεν νηστείαν (v. 16); the oath-formula ζῇ κύριος (v. 5); the idiom υἱὸς θανάτου (v. 5); the double-causal ἀνθ᾿ ὧν ὅτι (vv. 6, 10); ἐν χειρί ('by the hand of', v. 25); and the temporal ἐν τῷ + infinitive (vv. 18, 22). The LXX reads ἑπταπλασίονα ('sevenfold', v. 6) where MT has 'fourfold,' heightening the restitution toward symbolic completeness. At v. 13 the LORD παρεβίβασεν ('caused to pass over / put away') David's sin — the image of removal rather than mere pardon. At v. 30 Μελχολ renders Hebrew מַלְכָּם (Milcom, the Ammonite god, or 'their king'), and the crown's weight of a talent of gold suggests it was suspended above rather than literally worn. The closing labor/punishment of the Ammonites (vv. 31: saw, iron threshing-sledges, brick-kiln) is textually and interpretively debated between forced labor and harsh execution.

2 Kingdoms 13 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Β′ ΙΓ′

Theme. Amnon's violation of Tamar unleashes grief, hatred, and the revenge that drives Absalom into exile.

Outline.

• A · 13:1–2 — Amnon's consuming desire for his half-sister Tamar. The narrator introduces Tamar, Absalom's beautiful full-sister, and Amnon's love (ἠγάπησεν) for her (v. 1). His passion turns to physical distress (ἐθλίβετο … ὥστε ἀρρωστεῖν) because, she being a virgin, access seemed ὑπέρογκον ('out of reach', v. 2).
• B · 13:3–5 — Jonadab's counsel: the feigned illness. Amnon's shrewd friend Jonadab draws out the cause and devises the stratagem: feign sickness (μαλακίσθητι), and when the king visits, request that Tamar prepare food in his sight, to eat from her hand (v. 5).
• C · 13:6–10 — The king sends Tamar; she prepares food in Amnon's house. Amnon feigns illness, the king comes, Amnon requests Tamar (v. 6); David sends her (v. 7); she kneads and cooks the cakes before his eyes (v. 8). Amnon refuses to eat, clears the room (v. 9), and summons her with the food into the inner bedchamber (v. 10).
• D · 13:11–14 — The assault. Amnon seizes Tamar and demands she lie with him (v. 11). She refuses with a fourfold appeal — kinship, the outrage's foreignness to Israel (ἀφροσύνη), her ruin and his shame, the lawful alternative of asking the king (vv. 12–13). He overpowers and violates her (ἐκραταίωσεν … ἐταπείνωσεν, v. 14).
• E · 13:15–17 — Amnon's hatred and his command to expel her. Amnon's lust collapses into a hatred greater than his former love (v. 15); Tamar protests the expulsion is a worse evil than the first (v. 16), but he orders his attendant to put her out and bolt the door (v. 17).
• F · 13:18–20 — Tamar's torn robe and desolation in Absalom's house. The narrator notes her royal virgin's long-sleeved robe (χιτὼν καρπωτός, v. 18); expelled, Tamar mourns — ashes, torn robe, hands on head, crying (v. 19). Absalom counsels silence, and Tamar remains desolate (χηρεύουσα) in his house (v. 20).
• G · 13:21–22 — David's anger; Absalom's silent hatred. David hears and is greatly angered, yet does not grieve Amnon, his firstborn (v. 21). Absalom speaks not a word to Amnon, good or bad (a merism for total estrangement), nursing hatred over the violation (v. 22).
• H · 13:23–27 — The sheepshearing feast at Baal-hazor. Two years later, at sheepshearing near Ephraim, Absalom invites all the king's sons (v. 23) and presses the king to attend (v. 24). David declines but blesses him (v. 25); Absalom asks that Amnon come instead (v. 26), and on his insistence the king sends Amnon and all the sons (v. 27).
• I · 13:28–29 — The killing of Amnon. Absalom orders his servants to strike Amnon dead when his heart is merry with wine, on his own authority (v. 28). They obey; the other sons rise, mount their mules, and flee (v. 29).
• J · 13:30–33 — The false report and Jonadab's correction. A report reaches David that Absalom has struck down all the king's sons (v. 30); the king tears his garments and lies on the ground (v. 31). Jonadab corrects it: only Amnon is dead, for this was determined from the day he violated Tamar (vv. 32–33).
• K · 13:34–36 — The watchman's sighting; the sons return weeping. Absalom flees; the watchman sees a great crowd descending the mountain road (v. 34). Jonadab declares the sons are arriving as he said (v. 35), and they arrive weeping, the king and household weeping with them (v. 36).
• L · 13:37–39 — Absalom's flight to Geshur; David's mourning and longing. Absalom flees to Talmai of Geshur while David mourns for his son continually (v. 37); Absalom stays three years (v. 38). At last the king's spirit ceases to go out against Absalom, consoled over Amnon's death (v. 39).

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 2 Kingdoms (= 2 Samuel) 13 follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. Chapter 13 falls within the so-called kaige (καίγε) recension of 2 Kingdoms (the βγ section, 2 Kgdms 11:2–3 Kgdms 2:11), marked by literalistic, Hebraizing translation technique — visible here in the chained καί-parataxis rendering the wāw-consecutive, the periphrastic ἦν κείμενος (v. 32) and ἦσαν κείροντες (v. 23), the genitive absolute αὐτῶν ὄντων (v. 30), the figura etymologica ἐπορεύθη πορευομένη (v. 19), the merism ἀπὸ πονηροῦ ἕως ἀγαθοῦ ('from bad to good', v. 22), the articular-infinitive purpose phrases (τοῦ ποιῆσαί, v. 2; τοῦ ἀκοῦσαι, v. 14; τοῦ λαλῆσαι, v. 20; τοῦ ἐξελθεῖν, v. 39), and above all the signature καί γε rendering of Hebrew וְגַם at v. 36, the construction from which the recension takes its name. The assault is handled with sober precision: ἐκραταίωσεν ὑπὲρ αὐτήν ('he overpowered her', v. 14) renders the comparative חָזַק מִמֶּנָּה, and ἐταπείνωσεν ('he violated/humiliated her', vv. 14, 22, 32) renders עָנָה, the technical verb for sexual violation; Tamar's protest invokes ἀφροσύνη ('folly/outrage', v. 12), the standard rendering of נְבָלָה, the term for a grave covenant-breaching crime (cf. Gen 34:7; Deut 22:21; Judg 19:23). The narrative pivots on the love/hatred antithesis (ἠγάπησεν, vv. 1, 4 → μῖσος μέγα … ὑπὲρ τὴν ἀγάπην, v. 15), exposing Amnon's ἀγάπη as appetite. The royal-virgin robe χιτὼν καρπωτός (vv. 18–19) is the same rare phrase used of Joseph's robe (Gen 37:3 LXX), its tearing the symbolic undoing of Tamar's status. At v. 21 the LXX (with 4QSamᵃ) adds the explanatory clause that David 'did not grieve the spirit of Amnon … because he loved him, because he was his firstborn', absent from the MT. Place-names are transliterated (Βελασωρ = Baal-hazor; Γεδσουρ = Geshur; Θολμαι = Talmai; Εμιουδ = Ammihud); the road-name τῆς Ωρωνην (v. 34) and the region Μαχαδ (v. 37) reflect a difficult and uncertain Hebrew Vorlage. The chapter closes on the textually and exegetically vexed v. 39 — ἐκόπασεν τὸ πνεῦμα τοῦ βασιλέως τοῦ ἐξελθεῖν ὀπίσω Αβεσσαλωμ — where κοπάζω ('subside / be spent') and the articular τοῦ ἐξελθεῖν leave open whether David's grief toward the exile abated or his longing now reached out to him.

2 Kingdoms 14 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Β′ ΙΔ′

Theme. Through Joab and the wise woman, Absalom returns to Jerusalem, but unreconciled ambition keeps ripening toward revolt.

Outline.

• A · 14:1–3 — Joab's stratagem: the wise woman of Tekoa commissioned. Joab son of Zeruiah perceives that David's heart yearns for Absalom (v. 1) and devises an indirect approach. He sends to Tekoa for a 'wise woman' (γυνὴ σοφή), instructs her to assume the dress and manner of long mourning (πένθησον δή ... ἔνδυσαι ἱμάτια πενθικά, v. 2), and puts the very words in her mouth (ἔθηκεν ... τοὺς λόγους ἐν τῷ στόματι αὐτῆς, v. 3).
• B · 14:4–11 — The widow's parable before the king. The Tekoite woman prostrates herself and cries 'Save, O king!' (v. 4). She unfolds a fabricated case: a widow with two sons, one of whom killed the other in the field with no one to part them; now the whole clan demands the slayer's life, which would extinguish her husband's last 'coal' and leave him neither remnant nor name on the earth (vv. 5–7). David twice gives reassuring but vague rulings (vv. 8, 10), until the woman extracts a binding oath in YHWH's name that not a hair of her son shall fall to the ground (vv. 9, 11).
• C · 14:12–17 — The application: God devises means for the banished. Having secured the oath, the woman turns the parable on the king himself: in refusing to bring back his own banished one (τὸν ἐξωσμένον αὐτοῦ, v. 13), David convicts himself before the people of God. The theological center follows (v. 14): all must die, like water spilt on the ground that cannot be regathered, yet God does not simply take life but 'devises means' (λογιζόμενος) that the banished not remain cast out. She frames her petition as fear of the people (vv. 15–16) and closes by likening the king's discernment to that of an angel of God (v. 17).
• D · 14:18–20 — David discerns Joab's hand. David presses the woman: is not the hand of Joab with her in all this (v. 19)? She concedes with elaborate courtly deference — none can turn to the right or the left from the king's word — that Joab indeed commissioned her and placed the words in her mouth, to give the matter a new 'face' (περιελθεῖν τὸ πρόσωπον τοῦ ῥήματος, v. 20); the king's wisdom is as the wisdom of an angel of God, knowing all things on the earth.
• E · 14:21–24 — Absalom recalled but barred from the king's face. David yields to Joab: 'Go, bring back the young man Absalom' (v. 21). Joab falls down, blesses the king, and fetches Absalom from Geshur to Jerusalem (vv. 22–23). But the reconciliation is conditional: 'Let him return to his own house, and let him not see my face' (v. 24). Absalom dwells apart, not beholding the king.
• F · 14:25–27 — Absalom's beauty, hair, and children. A narratorial portrait: in all Israel there was no man so praised for beauty as Absalom — flawless from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head (v. 25). His hair, cut yearly because it grew heavy, weighed two hundred royal shekels (v. 26). To him were born three sons and one daughter, Tamar, a woman of great beauty (v. 27).
• G · 14:28–33 — The burning of Joab's field and the reconciliation kiss. After two years still barred from the king's face (v. 28), Absalom twice summons Joab in vain (v. 29), then has his servants burn Joab's barley field to force a meeting (vv. 30–31). Absalom demands resolution — let the king see him, or let him be put to death if there is iniquity in him (v. 32). Joab reports to David, who summons Absalom; the prince prostrates himself, and the king kisses him (v. 33).

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 2 Kingdoms 14 follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. 2 Kingdoms (= 2 Samuel) 14 belongs to the so-called 'kaige' recension stratum of Samuel–Kings, where the Greek hews closely and often woodenly to a Hebrew Vorlage near the Masoretic Text. The chapter is a sustained study in indirect persuasion: Joab (Ιωαβ), perceiving that the king's heart is 'toward Absalom' (ἐπὶ Αβεσσαλωμ, v. 1), engineers a recall of the exiled prince by means of a parable delivered by a coached 'wise woman' from Tekoa (γυνὴ σοφή, v. 2). She enters in mourning dress (ἱμάτια πενθικά) and plays the role of a widow whose two sons have quarreled, one slaying the other, so that the clan now demands the surviving heir's life — which would 'quench the coal that is left to me' (σβέσουσιν τὸν ἄνθρακά μου τὸν καταλειφθέντα, v. 7), an idiom for extinguishing the family line. Her speech climaxes in the chapter's theological heart (v. 14): 'we shall surely die (θανάτῳ ἀποθανούμεθα), and we are like water poured out on the ground that cannot be gathered up — yet God does not take away a life (λήμψεται ὁ θεὸς ψυχήν), but devises means (λογιζόμενος) that the banished one (ἐξωσμένον) be not utterly cast out from him.' The cognate-accusative θανάτῳ ἀποθανούμεθα is a classic LXX rendering of the Hebrew emphatic infinitive absolute (מוֹת נָמוּת), and the participle ἐξωσμένος ('the banished/expelled one,' from ἐξωθέω) is the verbal thread tying the parable to Absalom. Throughout her audience the woman addresses David as ὁ κύριός μου ὁ βασιλεύς ('my lord the king') — human-master κύριος, not the divine name; the divine κύριος appears only at v. 11 (τὸν κύριον θεὸν αὐτοῦ; ζῇ κύριος, 'as the LORD lives') and v. 17 (κύριος ὁ θεός σου). David swiftly detects Joab's hand behind the ruse (μὴ ἡ χεὶρ Ιωαβ ... μετὰ σοῦ, v. 19) and grants the recall (vv. 21–23), yet bars Absalom from the royal presence: 'let him not see my face' (τὸ πρόσωπόν μου μὴ βλεπέτω, v. 24). The narrator then turns to Absalom's celebrated beauty — flawless 'from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head' (vv. 25–26) — and the famous annual weighing of his cut hair at two hundred royal shekels. After two years of estrangement (v. 28), Absalom forces Joab's attention by burning his barley field (vv. 29–31), demands either reconciliation or death ('if there is iniquity in me, then put me to death,' v. 32), and the chapter closes with the king's reconciling kiss (κατεφίλησεν ὁ βασιλεὺς τὸν Αβεσσαλωμ, v. 33) — a resolution whose hollowness the following chapters will expose.

2 Kingdoms 15 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Β′ ΙΕ′

Theme. Absalom steals Israel's heart, drives David from Jerusalem, and turns the kingdom into open rebellion.

Outline.

• A · 15:1–6 — Absalom steals the heart of Israel. Absalom equips himself with the trappings of royalty — chariots, horses, and fifty runners (v. 1) — and stations himself at the city gate, intercepting every litigant on his way to the king's court (v. 2). By flattering the petitioners, lamenting that the king has appointed no one to hear them, and wishing aloud that he were judge (vv. 3–4), and by embracing rather than receiving homage from each man (v. 5), he "appropriates to himself" (ἰδιοποιεῖτο) the heart of the men of Israel (v. 6).
• B · 15:7–12 — The revolt raised at Hebron. Under the pretext of paying a vow made in exile at Geshur (vv. 7–8), Absalom obtains David's blessing to go to Hebron (v. 9). There he plants spies through all the tribes to proclaim his kingship at the trumpet-blast (v. 10); two hundred unwitting guests from Jerusalem accompany him in their innocence (v. 11); and he summons David's own counsellor Ahithophel, so that the conspiracy grows strong and the people with Absalom increase (v. 12).
• C · 15:13–23 — David's flight and Ittai's oath of loyalty. Warned that the heart of Israel has gone after Absalom (v. 13), David orders immediate flight to escape the coming slaughter (v. 14); his servants pledge total obedience (v. 15). The king goes out on foot with all his household, leaving ten concubines to keep the house (vv. 16–17), and the loyal foreign guard passes before him (v. 18). David urges Ittai the Gittite, a recent immigrant, to turn back (vv. 19–20), but Ittai swears the great oath of fidelity — life or death, wherever the king is (v. 21) — and crosses over with all his men (v. 22). The whole land weeps as David crosses the Kidron toward the wilderness (v. 23).
• D · 15:24–29 — The ark sent back to the city. Zadok and the Levites come bearing the ark of the covenant, and Abiathar comes up until all the people have passed out of the city (v. 24). David refuses to make the ark a talisman of flight: he sends it back, submitting himself to the LORD's verdict — restoration if he finds favor, acceptance if not (vv. 25–26). He charges Zadok the priest to return in peace with the two sons, while David himself waits in the wilderness plains for word (vv. 27–28); so the priests return the ark to Jerusalem (v. 29).
• E · 15:30–37 — Olivet, the prayer against Ahithophel, and Hushai sent back. David ascends the Mount of Olives weeping, head covered and barefoot, the whole mourning company with him (v. 30). On learning that Ahithophel has joined the conspirators, he prays that the LORD turn Ahithophel's counsel to folly (v. 31). At the summit he meets Hushai the Archite, his companion, with torn garment and earth on his head (v. 32). David sends him back as a counter-agent (vv. 33–34): in the city Hushai is to feign allegiance to Absalom and so frustrate Ahithophel's counsel, relaying all he hears through the priests Zadok and Abiathar and their two sons (vv. 35–36). So Hushai enters the city just as Absalom enters Jerusalem (v. 37).

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 2 Kingdoms 15 (= 2 Samuel 15) follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. The chapter is a sustained narrative of betrayal and faithful loyalty. Absalom's self-aggrandizing ἐποίησεν ἑαυτῷ ἅρματα (v. 1) deliberately echoes the later usurper Adonijah (3 Kgdms 1:5). His theft of allegiance is captured by the rare verb ἰδιοποιεῖτο … τὴν καρδίαν (v. 6, "appropriated to himself the heart"), rendering וַיְגַנֵּב אֶת־לֵב. The chronological note ἀπὸ τέλους τεσσαράκοντα ἐτῶν (v. 7) gives the LXX figure "forty years," rendered verbatim (English versions commonly read "four"). The flight narrative is rich in mourning idiom: the household goes out τοῖς ποσὶν αὐτῶν / πεζῇ ("on foot," vv. 16–17), and David ascends Olivet κλαίων … τὴν κεφαλὴν ἐπικεκαλυμμένος … ἀνυπόδετος ("weeping, head covered, barefoot," v. 30). The muster of v. 18 is textually overloaded in the Greek tradition, doubling the foreign guard (Χεττι/Χερεθθι, Φελετθι/Φελεθθι) alongside the six hundred Γεθθαῖοι. Ittai's oath (v. 21) pairs the divine oath-formula ζῇ κύριος (the Tetragrammaton) with the human-honorific ζῇ ὁ κύριός μου ὁ βασιλεύς — the same dual κύριος appears throughout the servants' and Ittai's addresses to David (vv. 15, 21), where κύριος is the human master, distinguished from the Tetragrammaton in David's vow (v. 8), prayer (v. 31, κύριε ὁ θεός μου), and the ark's title (v. 24, κιβωτὸν διαθήκης κυρίου). David's submission of the ark (vv. 25–26) hinges on the conditional ἐὰν εὕρω χάριν ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖς κυρίου and the surrender ποιείτω μοι κατὰ τὸ ἀγαθὸν ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖς αὐτοῦ. The prayer διασκέδασον … τὴν βουλὴν Αχιτοφελ (v. 31) is verbally answered when David commissions Hushai with the same verb (διασκεδάσεις, v. 34) and theologically fulfilled at 17:14. Several place-names are transliterated (Χεβρων, Γεδσουρ, Γωλα, Κεδρων, Βαιθαρ, Αραβωθ, Ροως), the last three reflecting Greek text-traditions that diverge from the MT.

2 Kingdoms 16 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Β′ ΙϚ′

Theme. David's humiliation on the road contrasts with Absalom's usurpation and the deepening fracture of the kingdom.

Outline.

• A · 16:1–4 — Ziba's provisions and the slander of Mephibosheth. As David passes a little beyond the summit, Ziba the servant of Mephibosheth intercepts him with a generous supply-train of donkeys, bread, raisins, dates, and wine (v. 1). Questioned, Ziba explains the provisions (v. 2), then slanders his absent master: Mephibosheth, he says, has stayed in Jerusalem expecting that Israel will restore to him the kingdom of his grandfather Saul (v. 3). David, accepting the report at face value in the pressure of flight, transfers to Ziba all that belonged to Mephibosheth, and Ziba responds with obsequious homage (v. 4).
• B · 16:5–14 — Shimei curses David; David restrains Abishai. At Bahurim, Shimei son of Gera, of the house of Saul, comes out cursing and stoning David and his servants (vv. 5–6), denouncing him as 'a man of blood' on whom the LORD has avenged the blood of Saul's house and given the kingdom to Absalom (vv. 7–8). Abishai son of Zeruiah offers to behead 'this dead dog' (v. 9), but David twice restrains him (vv. 10–11) with a providential reading — the LORD himself has bidden Shimei to curse — and hopes the LORD will look on his affliction and repay good for the curse (v. 12). David's company passes on while Shimei keeps pace along the ridge, cursing and flinging dust and stones (v. 13), until the king and his people arrive exhausted and are refreshed (v. 14).
• C · 16:15–19 — Absalom enters Jerusalem; Hushai feigns allegiance. Absalom and all the men of Israel enter Jerusalem, Ahithophel with him (v. 15). Hushai the Archite, David's 'companion,' comes to Absalom and hails him with ζήτω ὁ βασιλεύς ('long live the king', v. 16). Absalom challenges the apparent disloyalty of David's friend (v. 17); Hushai parries that he belongs to the one whom the LORD and the people have chosen (v. 18) and argues that, as he served the father, so he will serve the son (v. 19) — a double-tongued allegiance masking his role as David's planted counter-counselor.
• D · 16:20–23 — Ahithophel's counsel: Absalom and the concubines. Absalom asks Ahithophel for counsel (v. 20). Ahithophel advises him to go in to his father's concubines, whom David left to keep the house, so that all Israel will learn Absalom has made himself odious to his father and the hands of his followers will be strengthened (v. 21). A tent is pitched on the roof, and Absalom goes in to the concubines in the sight of all Israel (v. 22), fulfilling Nathan's oracle (12:11–12). The narrator closes by rating Ahithophel's counsel, in those days, as the very oracle of God, esteemed alike by David and by Absalom (v. 23).

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 2 Kingdoms 16 (= 2 Samuel 16) follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. The chapter belongs to the so-called kaige section of 2 Kingdoms, where the Greek tracks its Hebrew Vorlage closely and reflects a recension toward the proto-Masoretic text — visible at v. 23 in the signature καί γε … καί γε ('both … and') rendering of Hebrew וְגַם, the very phrase that gives the kaige recension its name. The chapter falls into four scenes. In vv. 1–4 Ziba meets the fleeing David with a laden train — διακόσιοι ἄρτοι, ἑκατὸν σταφίδες, ἑκατὸν φοίνικες, and a skin of wine (Νεβελ οἴνου, where the LXX simply transliterates the Hebrew measure-word נֵבֶל rather than translating it). In vv. 5–14 Shimei (Σεμεϊ) son of Gera comes out 'cursing' (καταρώμενος, the leitmotif verb καταράομαι recurring six times in the episode), branding David ἀνὴρ αἱμάτων ('a man of blood[s]', the Hebrew plural דָּמִים of bloodguilt) and ἀνὴρ ὁ παράνομος (the LXX's interpretive rendering of אִישׁ הַבְּלִיַּעַל, 'man of Belial'). David's restraint rests on a striking theology of providence: κύριος εἶπεν αὐτῷ καταρᾶσθαι ('the LORD has told him to curse'), and his hope εἴ πως ἴδοι κύριος ἐν τῇ ταπεινώσει μου ('it may be the LORD will look on my affliction') deliberately echoes and reverses Shimei's own ἐπέστρεψεν … κύριος (v. 8) with David's ἐπιστρέψει μοι ἀγαθά (v. 12). In vv. 15–19 Hushai (Χουσι ὁ Αρχι), called ἑταῖρος Δαυιδ ('David's companion', the court title רֵעֶה), professes a studiously ambiguous loyalty 'to the one whom the LORD has chosen' (ἐξελέξατο κύριος). In vv. 20–23 the euphemism εἴσελθε πρὸς τὰς παλλακάς ('go in to the concubines', בּוֹא אֶל) names the act of usurpation, set ἐπὶ τὸ δῶμα ('on the roof', the same rooftop as 11:2) and κατ᾿ ὀφθαλμοὺς παντὸς Ισραηλ ('in the sight of all Israel'), in exact fulfilment of Nathan's word at 12:11–12. Throughout, the LXX uses κύριος discriminatingly: it renders the Tetragrammaton at vv. 8, 10, 11, 12, 18, but designates a human master in 'the son of your master' (Saul's house, v. 3) and the court honorific κύριέ μου βασιλεῦ / τὸν κύριόν μου τὸν βασιλέα ('my lord the king', for David, vv. 4, 9).

2 Kingdoms 17 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Β′ ΙΖ′

Theme. Counsel, prayer, and providence overturn Ahithophel's strategy and preserve David in the crisis of Absalom's revolt.

Outline.

• A · 17:1–4 — Ahithophel's counsel: the swift night strike. Ahithophel proposes picking twelve thousand men to pursue David that very night (v. 1), falling on him while weary and slack-handed and striking the king alone (μονώτατον) so the people return in peace (vv. 2–3). The plan is at once approved as εὐθὴς ὁ λόγος in the eyes of Absalom and all the elders (v. 4).
• B · 17:5–14 — Hushai's counter-counsel and the LORD's overruling. Absalom summons Hushai (vv. 5–6), who pronounces Ahithophel's counsel 'not good this time' (v. 7) and argues from David's reputation (vv. 8–10), proposing instead a total levy 'like the sand' with Absalom leading in person (vv. 11–13). All Israel judges Hushai's counsel better, for the LORD had ordained to defeat (διασκεδάσαι) Ahithophel's good counsel, to bring evil on Absalom (v. 14).
• C · 17:15–22 — The warning relayed; David crosses the Jordan. Hushai briefs Zadok and Abiathar and urges immediate warning (vv. 15–16). Jonathan and Ahimaaz at the spring Rogel are alerted by a maidservant (v. 17); spotted by a boy, they hide in a well at Bahurim, the woman covering it with groats (vv. 18–19); the pursuers are turned away by her lie (v. 20); the messengers warn David, who crosses the Jordan by daybreak, none left behind (vv. 21–22).
• D · 17:23 — Ahithophel sets his house in order and hangs himself. Seeing his counsel rejected, Ahithophel saddles his donkey, returns home, gives orders to his household, and hangs himself (ἀπήγξατο), buried in his father's tomb — the personal counterpart of the divine frustration of his plan.
• E · 17:24–26 — David to Mahanaim; Absalom and Amasa cross into Gilead. David reaches Mahanaim while Absalom crosses the Jordan with all Israel (v. 24); Absalom appoints Amasa over the army in Joab's place, the narrator detailing Amasa's kinship to Joab through Abigail and Zeruiah (v. 25); the host encamps in Gilead (v. 26).
• F · 17:27–29 — Provisions brought to David at Mahanaim. Shobi son of Nahash from Rabbah, Machir son of Ammiel from Lo-debar, and Barzillai the Gileadite from Rogelim (v. 27) bring beds, coverlets, basins, earthenware, grain, pulses, honey, butter, sheep, and cheese (vv. 28–29) for the king and his people, 'for the people is hungry and faint and thirsty in the wilderness.'

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 2 Kingdoms 17 (= 2 Samuel 17) follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. The chapter is one of the great set-pieces of the Succession Narrative: a duel of counsels. Ahithophel proposes a lean, surgical night-strike on the weary, dispirited David (vv. 1–3), and the plan is at first approved (v. 4); but Absalom summons Hushai the Archite, whose counter-counsel — built on the terror of David's veteran warriors (δυνατοί … κατάπικροι τῇ ψυχῇ, 'mighty men, bitter of soul', v. 8), the image of David as a bereaved bear (ἄρκος ἠτεκνωμένη) and a lion-hearted son of valour (υἱὸς δυνάμεως), and the grandiose vision of all Israel gathered ὡς ἡ ἄμμος ἡ ἐπὶ τῆς θαλάσσης ('like the sand on the seashore', v. 11) with Absalom himself in the field — wins the day (vv. 5–14). The narrator unveils the theological hinge in v. 14: καὶ κύριος ἐνετείλατο διασκεδάσαι τὴν βουλὴν Αχιτοφελ τὴν ἀγαθήν ('and the LORD commanded that the good counsel of Ahithophel be scattered'), so that the LORD might bring evil upon Absalom. Hushai relays the alarm through the priests Zadok and Abiathar (v. 15), and the priests' sons Jonathan and Ahimaaz, waiting at the spring Rogel, carry the warning to David (vv. 16–22): a maidservant, a boy who spies them, the man at Bahurim whose well (λάκκος) hides them under a covering spread by the woman, and the lie that turns Absalom's servants back. David crosses the Jordan by daybreak, not one man left behind (v. 22). Ahithophel, seeing his counsel rejected, saddles his donkey, sets his house in order, and hangs himself (ἀπήγξατο, v. 23) — the only suicide of the kind in the historical books outside Saul. The chapter closes at Mahanaim, where Shobi son of Nahash, Machir son of Ammiel, and Barzillai the Gileadite bring beds, basins, and a great provision of grain, honey, butter, sheep, and cheese to the famished king and his people (vv. 24–29). The translation reflects the markedly Hebraic, paratactic καί-style of this section of Kingdoms (the kaige recension): heavy verb-initial clauses, the idiomatic καί γε ('and indeed', rendering וְגַם), and a dense crop of transliterated place- and personal-names (Αχιτοφελ, Αβεσσαλωμ, Χουσι ὁ Αραχι, Ρωγηλ, Βαουριμ, Μαναϊμ, Λωδαβαρ) left indeclinable.

2 Kingdoms 18 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Β′ ΙΗ′

Theme. Absalom's revolt ends in defeat and his death, leaving David victorious but shattered in grief.

Outline.

• A · 18:1–5 — Muster, division into thirds, and David's charge to spare Absalom. David numbers his people and sets over them commanders of thousands and hundreds (v. 1), dividing the army into three under Joab, Abishai son of Zeruiah, and Ittai the Gittite, and announces his own intent to march out (v. 2). The people refuse to let him go, valuing him as ten thousand of them (vv. 3–4). The king yields and stands beside the gate as the army files out, but charges the three captains in the hearing of all: φείσασθέ μοι τοῦ παιδαρίου τοῦ Αβεσσαλωμ ('deal gently for my sake with the young man Absalom', v. 5).
• B · 18:6–8 — The battle in the forest of Ephraim: the forest devours more than the sword. The army goes out against Israel, and the battle is joined ἐν τῷ δρυμῷ Εφραιμ (v. 6). Israel is struck down before David's servants, twenty thousand falling in a great slaughter that day (v. 7). The battle scatters over the face of the whole land, and the LXX's grim epigram caps the scene: the terrain itself consumed more men than the sword (v. 8).
• C · 18:9–15 — Absalom caught in the great oak; Joab's three darts. Absalom, riding his mule, meets David's servants; the mule passes under the great oak and his head is caught, leaving him hanging 'between heaven and earth' (v. 9). A soldier reports it but, when rebuked for not killing him, invokes the king's charge and refuses the bribe (vv. 10–13). Joab takes three darts and drives them into Absalom's heart while he yet lives in the heart of the oak (v. 14); ten armor-bearers finish him (v. 15).
• D · 18:16–18 — The pursuit halted; Absalom's burial-pit and his monument. Joab sounds the trumpet to recall the people, sparing them (v. 16). Absalom's body is flung into the great pit in the forest under a very great heap of stones, as all Israel flees home (v. 17). The narrator recalls that Absalom, having no son to keep his name alive, had raised a pillar for himself in the King's Valley and called it Χεὶρ Αβεσσαλωμ, so named to this day (v. 18).
• E · 18:19–23 — The two runners: Ahimaaz, the Cushite, and the race. Ahimaaz son of Zadok asks to run and carry the εὐαγγελία that the LORD has judged for the king (v. 19); Joab refuses him ('not on this day, because the king's son is dead', v. 20) and sends the Cushite instead (v. 21). Ahimaaz presses again and, granted leave, runs by the way of the Kechar and overtakes the Cushite (vv. 22–23).
• F · 18:24–32 — The watchman, the arrivals, and the news of Absalom's death. David sits between the two gates while the watchman sees first one runner, then a second, and recognizes the foremost as Ahimaaz (vv. 24–27). Ahimaaz arrives crying εἰρήνη and blessing the LORD, but evades the king's question about the young man (vv. 28–30). Then the Cushite arrives with the victory-report (v. 31); and to the king's question εἰ εἰρήνη τῷ παιδαρίῳ τῷ Αβεσσαλωμ he answers with the fatal circumlocution γένοιντο ὡς τὸ παιδάριον οἱ ἐχθροὶ τοῦ κυρίου μου τοῦ βασιλέως (v. 32) — confirming Absalom's death and igniting David's lament.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 2 Kingdoms 18 (= 2 Samuel 18) follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. The chapter divides into the muster and charge (vv. 1–5), the battle (vv. 6–8), Absalom's death (vv. 9–15), the disposal of his body and the flashback to his monument (vv. 16–18), and the runner-narrative culminating in the death-notice (vv. 19–32). The threefold τὸ τρίτον … ἐν χειρὶ X (v. 2) renders the Hebrew בְּיַד ('by the hand of' = under the command of); David's resolve ἐξελθὼν ἐξελεύσομαι (v. 2) and the people's φυγῇ φύγωμεν (v. 3) are infinitive-absolute calques. The pivotal charge φείσασθέ μοι τοῦ παιδαρίου (v. 5) uses φείδομαι + genitive, the same verb the narrator pointedly reuses of Joab sparing the army (ἐφείδετο … τοῦ λαοῦ, v. 16) — he spares the troops but not the son. The battle's epigram ἐπλεόνασεν ὁ δρυμὸς τοῦ καταφαγεῖν (v. 8) personifies the terrain with the verb κατεσθίω used of both forest and sword. Absalom hangs ἀνὰ μέσον τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καὶ ἀνὰ μέσον τῆς γῆς (v. 9), and the haunting wordplay ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ Αβεσσαλωμ … ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ τῆς δρυὸς (v. 14) fuses the dying man with the oak. The burial εἰς τὸν βόθυνον … σωρὸν λίθων μέγαν σφόδρα (v. 17) is the cairn of the cursed (cf. Josh 7:26; 8:29), ironically counterpointed by the στήλη Absalom had built ἕνεκεν τοῦ ἀναμνῆσαι τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ, named Χεὶρ Αβεσσαλωμ (v. 18; the LXX of this verse is notoriously rough). The runner-section rings the changes on εὐαγγελ- (vv. 19, 20, 22, 25, 26, 27, 31), framing the deliverance as YHWH's judgment (ἔκρινεν … κύριος, vv. 19, 31). The Hebraizing intensive ἐπορεύετο πορευόμενος καὶ ἐγγίζων (v. 25) renders הָלוֹךְ וְקָרֵב. Throughout, κύριος renders the Tetragrammaton at vv. 19, 28, and 31 (YHWH who judges/vindicates David), whereas ὁ κύριός μου ὁ βασιλεύς ('my lord the king', vv. 28, 31, 32) is the human honorific. The chapter ends not with the lament itself — which the Rahlfs versification places at 19:1 — but with the Cushite's optative death-notice (v. 32), leaving David's grief poised to erupt.

2 Kingdoms 19 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Β′ ΙΘ′

Theme. David's return to Jerusalem exposes lingering bitterness, contested loyalties, and the fragile work of restoration.

Outline.

• A · 19:1–5 — David's inconsolable mourning for Absalom. The king is shaken (ἐταράχθη), weeps in the gate-chamber, and repeats υἱέ μου Αβεσσαλωμ; the day's σωτηρία turns εἰς πένθος (v. 3) and the victorious army steals back into the city like shamed fugitives (v. 4).
• B · 19:6–8 — Joab's blunt rebuke. Joab charges David with shaming the servants who saved him, loving his haters and hating his lovers (vv. 6–7), and swears ἐν κυρίῳ that unless the king goes out and speaks εἰς τὴν καρδίαν of his servants no man will lodge with him that night (v. 8).
• C · 19:9–16 — The king's return negotiated through Judah and Amasa. David sits in the gate; Israel debates his recall (vv. 9–11); David presses Judah via Σαδωκ and Αβιαθαρ (vv. 12–13) and appoints Αμεσσαϊ over Joab (v. 14), winning Judah ὡς ἀνδρὸς ἑνός (v. 15) so the king returns to the Jordan (v. 16).
• D · 19:17–24 — The crossing of the Jordan and Shimei's pardon. Σεμεϊ rushes down with a thousand Benjamites and Σιβα (vv. 17–19), confesses his sin (vv. 20–21); Αβεσσα demands death for cursing τὸν χριστὸν κυρίου (v. 22), but David refuses bloodshed on the day of his restoration and swears Shimei shall not die (vv. 23–24).
• E · 19:25–31 — Mephibosheth's defense. Μεμφιβοσθε comes down unkempt in mourning (v. 25); accused of staying behind, he blames Ziba's deception, calls the king ὡς ἄγγελος τοῦ θεοῦ (vv. 26–28), and waives all claim (v. 29); when David splits the field, he renounces even his half (vv. 30–31).
• F · 19:32–41 — Barzillai the Gileadite declines the court; Chimham sent. The eighty-year-old Βερζελλι, who had sustained David at Mahanaim (vv. 32–33), declines the court — μὴ γνώσομαι ἀνὰ μέσον ἀγαθοῦ καὶ κακοῦ (v. 36) — asking to die by his parents' grave and sending Χαμααμ in his place (vv. 34–38); the king kisses and blesses him, and crosses to Gilgal (vv. 39–41).
• G · 19:42–44 — The quarrel between Israel and Judah over the king. Israel accuses Judah of 'stealing' the king (v. 42); Judah answers by kinship and disinterest (v. 43); Israel claims ten shares and the firstborn's precedence (v. 44) — and the narrator closes with ἐσκληρύνθη, Judah's word prevailing harshly over Israel's.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 2 Kingdoms 19 (= 2 Samuel 19) follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. The LXX versification runs one verse ahead of the Masoretic/English in places: David's lament 'O Absalom my son' stands here at 19:1 (following the death-notice that English numbers 18:33). The chapter is dominated by the recall-verb ἐπιστρέφω ('bring back / restore', vv. 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 40, 44) and by the meeting-idiom εἰς ἀπαντήν / εἰς ἀπάντησιν τοῦ βασιλέως (vv. 16, 17, 21, 25–26), which organizes the procession of suppliants who come down to the Jordan ford. Joab's rebuke turns on the αἰσχύνω / καταισχύνω word-group: the soldiers slink home like men ashamed (οἱ αἰσχυνόμενοι, v. 4), and David has shamed them (κατῄσχυνας, v. 6). The divine name κύριος renders the Tetragrammaton at only two points — Joab's oath ἐν κυρίῳ ὤμοσα (v. 8) and the charge that Shimei cursed τὸν χριστὸν κυρίου (v. 22) — while the very frequent ὁ κύριός μου ὁ βασιλεύς ('my lord the king', vv. 20, 21, 28, 29, 31, 36, 38) is throughout the human honorific for David. Several Hebraisms are notable: the oath-idiom εἰ μή / εἰ as emphatic asseveration (v. 8) and the self-imprecation τάδε ποιήσαι μοι ὁ θεὸς καὶ τάδε προσθείη (v. 14); the kinship formula ὀστᾶ μου καὶ σάρκες μου (vv. 13–14); the cognate constructions ἐλειτούργησαν τὴν λειτουργίαν (v. 19), βρώσει ἐφάγαμεν and ἄρσιν ἦρεν (v. 43); the age-idiom υἱὸς ὀγδοήκοντα ἐτῶν (vv. 33, 36); and 'ten hands/shares' δέκα χεῖρες (v. 44) for the ten northern tribes. The chapter's final word ἐσκληρύνθη (σκληρύνω, rendering קָשָׁה) seals the north-south rupture that the narrative will develop in chapter 20.

2 Kingdoms 20 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Β′ Κ′

Theme. Sheba's revolt briefly reopens civil war until Joab's violence and a wise woman's intervention end the threat.

Outline.

• A · 20:1–2 — Sheba's revolt: 'no portion in David' and the secession of Israel. A worthless Benjaminite, Σαβεε (Sheba) son of Βοχορι, blows the ram's-horn and raises the secession-cry οὐκ ἔστιν ἡμῖν μερὶς ἐν Δαυιδ ('we have no portion in David', v. 1) — the same slogan that will later split the kingdom under Jeroboam (3 Kgdms 12:16). Every man of Israel deserts David to follow Sheba, while the men of Judah cleave (ἐκολλήθη) to their king from the Jordan up to Jerusalem (v. 2).
• B · 20:3 — David's ten concubines shut up as living widows. Returning to his house in Jerusalem, David takes the ten concubines whom Absalom had publicly violated (cf. 16:21–22) and places them in a guarded house, providing for them but never again going in to them; they remain shut up until the day of their death as χῆραι ζῶσαι ('living widows', v. 3) — a poignant casualty of the rebellion.
• C · 20:4–13 — Amasa's delay and Joab's treacherous murder at the great stone. David orders Αμεσσαϊ (Amasa) to muster Judah in three days (v. 4), but Amasa delays (ἐχρόνισεν, v. 5). Fearing Sheba more than Absalom, David sends Αβεσσα (Abishai) and Joab's men in pursuit (vv. 6–7). At the great stone in Gibeon, Joab — his sword loosely girded so that it falls out — greets Amasa, seizes his beard to kiss him, and runs him through the belly, spilling his entrails on the ground (vv. 8–10). A young man of Joab stands over the corpse rallying the troops to follow Joab and David (v. 11), and only when the body is dragged from the road and covered does all Israel pass on after Joab to pursue Sheba (vv. 12–13).
• D · 20:14–22 — The siege of Abel and the wise woman who saves the city. Sheba is pursued through all the tribes to Αβελ of Βαιθμαχα, where Joab's forces throw up a siege-mound and begin to batter the wall (vv. 14–15). A γυνὴ σοφή ('wise woman') calls out from the wall and parleys with Joab (vv. 16–17), invoking the proverbial wisdom once 'asked at Abel' (v. 18) and protesting against the destruction of a peaceable mother-city in Israel, an inheritance of the LORD (v. 19). Joab disclaims any wish to destroy and asks only for the rebel Sheba (vv. 20–21); the woman, by her wisdom, has Sheba's head cut off and thrown over the wall, and Joab withdraws to Jerusalem (vv. 21–22).
• E · 20:23–26 — Roster of David's officials. A concluding administrative list, a near-doublet of 8:16–18: Joab over all the army; Benaiah son of Jehoiada over the Cherethites and Pelethites; Adoniram over the forced labor; Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud the recorder; Susa the scribe; Zadok and Abiathar the priests; and Ira the Jairite, priest to David (vv. 23–26).

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 2 Kingdoms 20 (= 2 Samuel 20) follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. The chapter belongs to the so-called καίγε section of 2 Kingdoms, the recensional zone in which the Greek has been revised toward a proto-Masoretic Hebrew, producing markedly literal, Hebraizing renderings: heavy καί-parataxis, the doubled emphatic infinitives ἠρωτημένος ἠρωτήθη and ἐρωτῶντες ἐπερωτήσουσιν (v. 18), the cognate construction οὐκ ἐδευτέρωσεν αὐτῷ (v. 10, 'he did not repeat [the blow] to him'), and transliterated rather than translated names (Χερεθθι, Φελεθθι for the Cherethites and Pelethites; Βαιθμαχα for Beth-maacah). The chapter narrates the revolt of Σαβεε (Sheba) son of Βοχορι, the worthless Benjaminite who blows the κερατίνη ('ram's-horn trumpet') and cries οὐκ ἔστιν ἡμῖν μερὶς ἐν Δαυιδ ('we have no portion in David', v. 1); David's ten concubines shut up as χῆραι ζῶσαι ('living widows', v. 3); the muster delegated to Αμεσσαϊ (Amasa), his fatal delay, and his treacherous assassination by Ιωαβ (Joab) at the great stone in Gibeon — the kiss of the right hand to the beard, the unguarded sword, the belly poured out upon the ground (ἐξεχύθη ἡ κοιλία αὐτοῦ, v. 10); the soldier rallying the men over the bloodied corpse (vv. 11–13); the pursuit of Sheba to Αβελ of Βαιθμαχα and the siege-mound (πρόσχωμα, v. 15); and the climactic dialogue with the γυνὴ σοφή ('wise woman') of Abel, who invokes the proverbial counsel sought 'at Abel', declares herself εἰρηνικὰ τῶν στηριγμάτων Ισραηλ ('one of the peaceable, faithful supports of Israel', v. 19), and secures the city's deliverance by having Sheba's head thrown over the wall (vv. 16–22). The chapter closes with a roster of David's officials (vv. 23–26), a near-doublet of the list at 8:16–18.

2 Kingdoms 21 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Β′ ΚΑ′

Theme. Famine, atonement, and battles with Philistine giants show both the weight of Saul's bloodguilt and the Lord's deliverance.

Outline.

• A · 21:1–6 — The three-year famine and the Gibeonites' demand for blood-expiation. A famine of three years drives David to seek the face of the LORD, who answers that bloodguilt rests on Saul and his house for slaying the Gibeonites (v. 1) — a remnant of the Amorites whom Israel had sworn to spare, but whom Saul sought to destroy in his zeal for Israel and Judah (v. 2). David asks how he may make expiation (ἐξιλάσομαι) so that they will bless the LORD's inheritance (v. 3). They refuse silver and gold and disclaim the right to put any man in Israel to death by their own hand (vv. 4–5), demanding instead seven of Saul's male descendants to be impaled "before the LORD" at Gibeah; the king agrees: "I will give them" (v. 6).
• B · 21:7–9 — David spares Mephibosheth; the seven impaled before the LORD. David spares Mephibosheth son of Jonathan because of the oath of the LORD between David and Jonathan (v. 7). He takes instead the two sons Rizpah bore to Saul and the five sons of Saul's daughter, and delivers them to the Gibeonites (v. 8), who impale them on the mountain before the LORD; the seven fall together and are put to death at the beginning of the barley harvest (v. 9).
• C · 21:10–14 — Rizpah's vigil and the burial of the bones of Saul and Jonathan. Rizpah daughter of Aiah spreads sackcloth on the rock and keeps watch over the bodies from the barley harvest until the rains, allowing neither birds by day nor beasts by night to settle on them (v. 10). When David is told what Saul's concubine has done (v. 11), he gathers the bones of Saul and Jonathan from the men of Jabesh-gilead, who had stolen them from the square of Beth-shan where the Philistines had hung them (v. 12); he brings up these bones with those of the impaled (v. 13) and buries them all in the tomb of Kish, Saul's father, in Benjamin — and after these things God heeded the land (v. 14).
• D · 21:15–22 — Four exploits against the Philistine giants, descendants of Rapha. Renewed war finds David exhausted (ἐξελύθη, v. 15) and nearly slain by Ishbi of the offspring of Rapha, until Abishai son of Zeruiah strikes the Philistine down; thereafter David's men swear that he shall go out to battle no more, lest he quench the lamp of Israel (vv. 16–17). Three further battles follow: Sebocha strikes Saph at Gath (v. 18); Elhanan strikes Goliath the Gittite, whose spear-shaft was like a weaver's beam, at Gob (v. 19); and a giant of Madon with twenty-four fingers and toes, who taunted Israel, is struck down by Jonathan son of Shimei, David's brother (vv. 20–21). These four were born to Rapha in Gath and fell by the hand of David and his servants (v. 22).

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 2 Kingdoms 21 (= 2 Samuel 21 MT) follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. The chapter is one of the "appendices" to the books of Samuel and falls outside the kaige recension's main span, preserving a relatively Old-Greek character marked by transliterated names and heavy καί-parataxis. It opens with a three-year famine attributed to the bloodguilt of Saul's house against the Gibeonites (Γαβαωνῖται, vv. 1–2), spared by Israel's ancient oath (Josh 9). David's expiation-inquiry (ἐν τίνι ἐξιλάσομαι, v. 3) yields the Gibeonites' demand for seven of Saul's descendants, "sunned" / impaled before the LORD at Gibeah; the distinctive LXX verb ἐξηλιάζω / ἐξηλιάσωμεν (vv. 6, 9; cf. ἐξηλιασμένων v. 13, ἡλιασθέντων v. 14) renders Hebrew יָקַע ("expose / impale in the sun"). David spares Mephibosheth for the oath sworn between him and Jonathan (v. 7). The pathos centers on Rizpah daughter of Aiah (Ρεσφα θυγάτηρ Αια), who keeps vigil over the bodies from the barley harvest until the rains, driving off the birds of heaven by day and the beasts of the field by night (v. 10). David then gathers the bones of Saul and Jonathan from Jabesh-gilead and buries them with the seven in the tomb of Kish (vv. 12–14), "and after these things God heeded the land." The chapter closes with four exploits against the Philistine giants, the offspring of Rapha (ἐκγόνων / ἀπογόνων τοῦ Ραφα): the rescue of an exhausted David from Ishbi (Ιεσβι) by Abishai, with the army's vow that David go out no more "lest you quench the lamp of Israel" (οὐ μὴ σβέσῃς τὸν λύχνον Ισραηλ, v. 17), and the felling of Saph, of Goliath the Gittite (whose spear-shaft is "like a weaver's beam"), and of the man of Madon with six fingers and toes.

2 Kingdoms 22 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Β′ ΚΒ′

Theme. David's great song praises the Lord as rock, warrior, and deliverer who rescued him from all his enemies.

Outline.

• A · 22:1 — Superscription: the day the LORD delivered David. The narrator frames the entire poem as the song David sang to YHWH on the day of deliverance from all his enemies and from the hand of Saul (ἐκ χειρὸς Σαουλ), locating the psalm at the climax of David's career.
• B · 22:2–4 — Invocation: the LORD my rock, my fortress, my deliverer. A dense cluster of refuge-metaphors addressed directly to YHWH — rock, fortress, deliverer, shield, horn of salvation, helper, refuge — closing with the programmatic vow: "praiseworthy, I will call upon the LORD, and from my enemies I shall be saved" (v. 4).
• C · 22:5–7 — Distress: the cords of death and the cry to God. The peril is figured as the breakers/pangs of death and torrents of lawlessness; in his affliction David calls upon the LORD, and the cry rises ἐκ ναοῦ αὐτοῦ to God's ears (v. 7) — the hinge that triggers the theophany.
• D · 22:8–16 — Theophany: the LORD descends in storm to rescue. YHWH answers in a cosmic storm: earthquake, smoke and fire (vv. 8–9); he bows the heavens, descends on thick darkness, rides the cherub on the wings of the wind (vv. 10–12); thunders from heaven, scattering the foe with lightning-arrows (vv. 13–15); at his rebuke the sea-channels and foundations of the world are laid bare (v. 16).
• E · 22:17–20 — The rescue: drawn from many waters into a broad place. YHWH reaches down from on high, takes hold of David, draws him from many waters (v. 17), rescues him from his too-strong foes (v. 18), brings him out εἰς πλατυσμόν, and delivers him "because he delighted in me" (v. 20).
• F · 22:21–25 — Reward according to righteousness. David interprets the deliverance as YHWH's recompense according to his righteousness and the cleanness of his hands (vv. 21, 25): he has kept the ways of the LORD and kept himself blameless (ἄμωμος) before God (vv. 22–24).
• G · 22:26–30 — Character-correspondence: with the merciful you show yourself merciful. A wisdom-strophe: with the holy God is holy, with the blameless blameless, with the crooked shrewd (vv. 26–27); he saves the lowly and humbles the haughty (v. 28), for he is David's lamp who lightens his darkness and empowers him to leap walls (vv. 29–30).
• H · 22:31–37 — The LORD's blameless way and the king's equipping for battle. God's way is blameless and his word tested by fire (v. 31); there is no Strong One but the LORD (v. 32); it is he who girds David with strength, makes his feet like a deer's, trains his hands for war, and gives him the shield of salvation (vv. 33–37).
• I · 22:38–43 — Victory over enemies. Empowered by God, David pursues and destroys his enemies, who fall under his feet and cannot rise (vv. 38–40); YHWH gives him the necks of his foes, who cry out but find no savior (vv. 41–42), and he beats them fine as the dust of the earth and the mire of the streets (v. 43).
• J · 22:44–46 — Dominion over the nations. YHWH delivers David from the strife of peoples and sets him as head of the nations; a people he did not know serves him, foreigners cringe and obey at the hearing of him (vv. 44–45), and the sons of strangers fade and stumble out of their strongholds (v. 46).
• K · 22:47–51 — Doxology: the LORD lives — praise among the nations and mercy to his anointed. "The LORD lives, and blessed be my guardian" (v. 47); it is the Strong One who gives David vindication and subdues peoples (v. 48) and delivers him from violent men (v. 49). "Therefore I will praise you, O LORD, among the nations, and to your name I will sing" (v. 50, cited at Rom 15:9) — for he magnifies the salvation of his king and shows mercy to his anointed (χριστῷ αὐτοῦ), to David and his seed forever (v. 51).

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 2 Kingdoms 22 follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. 2 Kingdoms 22 is David's great song of deliverance, a 51-verse royal thanksgiving psalm virtually identical to Psalm 17 LXX (= Ps 18 MT), the two being parallel transmissions of a single ancient poem. The chapter opens with a narrative superscription (v. 1: ἐν ᾗ ἡμέρᾳ ἐξείλατο αὐτὸν κύριος ἐκ χειρὸς πάντων τῶν ἐχθρῶν αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐκ χειρὸς Σαουλ) and then unfolds as direct address to YHWH. The opening invocation piles up the rock-and-fortress metaphors (κύριε πέτρα μου καὶ ὀχύρωμά μου καὶ ἐξαιρούμενός με, vv. 2–4); a cry from the cords of death (vv. 5–7); a storm theophany in which YHWH descends, rides the cherub, and thunders from heaven (vv. 8–16); the deliverance into a broad place "because he delighted in me" (εὐδόκησεν ἐν ἐμοί, vv. 17–20); reward according to righteousness (vv. 21–25); the principle of character-correspondence (μετὰ ὁσίου ὁσιωθήσῃ, vv. 26–30); God's blameless way and the king's military equipping (vv. 31–37); victory over enemies (vv. 38–43); dominion over the nations (vv. 44–46); and a closing doxology (vv. 47–51) culminating in v. 51 (ποιῶν ἔλεος τῷ χριστῷ αὐτοῦ τῷ Δαυιδ καὶ τῷ σπέρματι αὐτοῦ ἕως αἰῶνος). The LXX renders κύριος throughout for the Tetragrammaton, and twice renders the Hebrew divine epithet אֵל ("God / the Mighty One") by the substantivized adjective ὁ ἰσχυρός ("the Strong One", vv. 31, 33, 48; cf. the question τίς ἰσχυρὸς πλὴν κυρίου, v. 32). The closing couplet is of high importance for the New Testament: Paul cites v. 50 (ἐξομολογήσομαί σοι ... ἐν τοῖς ἔθνεσιν) at Rom 15:9 as the first of his catena of texts proving that the Gentiles glorify God for his mercy, reading David's vow of praise "among the nations" as a prophecy of the Gentile mission; the immediately following χριστῷ αὐτοῦ (v. 51) gives the song a messianic horizon already in the Greek.

2 Kingdoms 23 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Β′ ΚΓ′

Theme. David's last words and the deeds of his mighty men frame the kingdom in promise, loyalty, and blood-forged service.

Outline.

• A · 23:1–7 — The last words of David: the oracle of the anointed and the just ruler. The superscription marks these as David's final, weighty words (vv. 1–2): he is the man raised up, the anointed of the God of Jacob, the sweet psalmist of Israel, and the Spirit of the LORD speaks through him. The God of Israel declares that one who rules over men justly, in the fear of God, is like the light of morning at sunrise after rain (vv. 3–4). David affirms that God has established an everlasting covenant with his house (v. 5), while the lawless are like thrown-away thorns, not gathered by hand but burnt with iron and fire (vv. 6–7).
• B · 23:8–12 — The roll of the Three: Iebosthe, Eleazar, and Samaia. Iebosthe the Chananite, chief of the Three, slew eight hundred at one stroke (v. 8). Eleazar stood with David against the Philistines until his hand grew weary and clave to the sword, and the LORD wrought a great deliverance (vv. 9–10). Samaia son of Asa held a plot full of lentils when the people fled, and the LORD again wrought a great deliverance (vv. 11–12).
• C · 23:13–17 — The water of the well of Bethlehem poured out to the LORD. Three of the thirty came down to David at the cave of Odollam while a Philistine garrison held Bethlehem (vv. 13–14). David longed for water from the well at Bethlehem's gate (v. 15); the three broke through the Philistine camp, drew the water, and brought it to David (v. 16). He refused to drink it, pouring it out to the LORD as the blood of the men who risked their lives (v. 17).
• D · 23:18–23 — Abessa and Banaias: champions ranked beside the Three. Abessa brother of Joab was chief of the Three and slew three hundred (vv. 18–19). Banaias son of Iodae struck down two sons of Ariel of Moab, killed a lion in a pit on a snowy day (v. 20), and slew a formidable Egyptian with the Egyptian's own spear (v. 21). For these deeds he won renown among the Thirty and was set over David's bodyguard (vv. 22–23).
• E · 23:24–39 — The catalogue of the Thirty. The long roll of the Thirty follows: Asael brother of Joab, Eleanan, and a sequence of warriors identified by patronymic and clan-gentilic across the towns and regions of Israel (vv. 24–38). The list closes with Ourias the Hittite (v. 39), the husband of Bathsheba whose name silently recalls David's gravest sin, and a final summary tally: thirty-seven in all.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 2 Kingdoms 23 (= 2 Samuel 23) follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. The chapter falls into two sharply contrasting halves. Verses 1–7 preserve 'the last words of David' (οἱ λόγοι Δαυιδ οἱ ἔσχατοι), a dense, archaic poetic oracle of self-presentation: David is the man raised on high (ὃν ἀνέστησεν κύριος), the anointed of the God of Jacob (χριστὸν θεοῦ Ιακωβ), and the sweet psalmist of Israel (εὐπρεπεῖς ψαλμοὶ Ισραηλ); the Spirit of the LORD speaks by him (πνεῦμα κυρίου ἐλάλησεν ἐν ἐμοί), and the just ruler is likened to the morning light at sunrise (φωτὶ πρωίας). The oracle is notoriously difficult in both Hebrew and Greek, and the LXX of vv. 4–7 is in places obscure, reproducing the compression of its Vorlage rather than smoothing it. Verse 5 invokes the everlasting covenant (διαθήκην αἰώνιον) that YHWH has 'set in order' for David's house, while v. 6 dismisses the lawless (ὁ παράνομος) as thorns to be burnt. Verses 8–39 are an entirely different genre: the roll of David's mighty men (τῶν δυνατῶν Δαυιδ). The Three are named first (vv. 8–12) — Iebosthe/Adino, who slew eight hundred at one stroke; Eleazar, whose hand clave to the sword (προσεκολλήθη ἡ χεὶρ αὐτοῦ πρὸς τὴν μάχαιραν); and Samaia, who held the plot of lentils. The exploit of the water drawn from the well of Bethlehem and poured out to the LORD (ἔσπεισεν αὐτὸ τῷ κυρίῳ, vv. 13–17) crowns the section. Then come Abessa and Banaias (vv. 18–23), the latter killing two sons of Ariel of Moab and a lion in a pit on a snowy day, and finally the long list of the Thirty (vv. 24–39), a catalogue of names and gentilics that is heavily transliterated and textually unstable, closing with Ourias the Hittite (Ουριας ὁ Χετταῖος) and the summary tally 'thirty-seven in all.' In the names list the LXX simply transcribes the Hebrew proper nouns and clan-gentilics; most are indeclinable and are treated here as kind 'x' with no case.

2 Kingdoms 24 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Β′ ΚΔ′

Theme. David's census brings plague and mercy, and the threshing floor altar closes the book in judgment, sacrifice, and hope.

Outline.

• A · 24:1–9 — The census: divine incitement, Joab's protest, and the count of Israel and Judah. The renewed anger of the LORD incites David to number Israel and Judah (v. 1). David commissions Joab, commander of the army, to traverse the tribes from Dan to Beersheba (v. 2). Joab protests, wishing the people a hundredfold increase and questioning the king's purpose (v. 3), but the king's word prevails (v. 4). The commanders make a wide circuit — Transjordan, Gilead, Tyre, the Canaanite cities, Beersheba — returning after nine months and twenty days (vv. 5–8). Joab reports eight hundred thousand men of valor in Israel and five hundred thousand in Judah (v. 9).
• B · 24:10–14 — David's confession and the choice of three judgments. David's heart strikes him; he confesses ἥμαρτον σφόδρα and begs that his iniquity be removed (v. 10). The word of the LORD comes through Gad the seer (vv. 11–12), who sets three options before David — three years' famine, three months' flight, or three days' pestilence (v. 13). Hemmed in on every side, David chooses to fall into the hand of the LORD, trusting the greatness of divine mercy (v. 14).
• C · 24:15–17 — The plague, the staying of the destroying angel, and David's intercession. The LORD sends pestilence from morning to noon; seventy thousand die from Dan to Beersheba (v. 15). As the angel stretches his hand toward Jerusalem the LORD relents and halts him at Arauna's threshing floor (v. 16). Seeing the angel striking the people, David interposes as the guilty shepherd, pleading that the LORD's hand fall on him and his father's house, not the innocent flock (v. 17).
• D · 24:18–25 — The threshing floor of Arauna: the altar, the costly offering, and the plague stayed. Gad bids David raise an altar at Arauna's threshing floor (v. 18); David obeys (v. 19). Arauna prostrates himself and offers everything freely — floor, oxen, and gear (vv. 20–23). David refuses to offer what costs nothing (v. 24) and buys the floor and oxen for fifty silver shekels. He builds an altar, offers burnt and peace offerings; the LORD heeds the land and the plague is stayed from Israel — closing the book at the future Temple site (v. 25).

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 2 Kingdoms 24 (= 2 Samuel 24 MT) follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. This final chapter of 2 Kingdoms recounts the census of Israel and the plague that follows. The LXX, like the MT (and unlike the parallel at 1 Chr 21:1, which names Σατάν), attributes the incitement directly to the LORD: ὀργὴ κυρίου … ἐπέσεισεν τὸν Δαυιδ (v. 1). The opening προσέθετο ('added [to be kindled]') is a Hebraism rendering יָסַף, marking renewed divine wrath. Joab's protest invokes a hundredfold blessing (ἑκατονταπλασίονα, v. 3), and the census figures (ὀκτακόσιαι χιλιάδες for Israel, πεντακόσιαι χιλιάδες for Judah, v. 9) differ from the Chronicles parallel. David's conscience 'strikes' him (ἐπάταξεν καρδία Δαυιδ αὐτόν, v. 10), and through Gad the seer (Γαδ τὸν ὁρῶντα) the LORD offers three judgments (v. 13); David chooses the three-day θάνατος ('pestilence', the LXX's regular rendering of דֶּבֶר), declaring ἐμπεσοῦμαι δὴ ἐν χειρὶ κυρίου ὅτι πολλοὶ οἱ οἰκτιρμοὶ αὐτοῦ (v. 14). Seventy thousand fall (v. 15). The destroying angel is stayed at the threshing floor of Ορνα (Arauna) the Jebusite (v. 16); the LORD is 'moved to compassion' over the calamity (παρεκλήθη κύριος ἐπὶ τῇ κακίᾳ, rendering נָחַם). David confesses as the shepherd whose sheep are innocent (v. 17). At Gad's word David buys the floor and oxen, refusing a free offering — οὐκ ἀνοίσω τῷ κυρίῳ θεῷ μου ὁλοκαύτωμα δωρεάν (v. 24) — for fifty silver shekels, builds an altar, offers burnt and peace offerings, and the plague is stayed (συνεσχέθη ἡ θραῦσις ἐπάνωθεν Ισραηλ, v. 25). The closing verse adds an editorial note (absent from the MT) that Solomon later enlarged the altar — the site is the future Temple Mount (cf. 2 Chr 3:1). So 2 Kingdoms ends on a sacrificial act of atonement that anchors the central sanctuary of Israel. The itinerary of vv. 5–7 preserves several textually difficult transliterated toponyms (Αροηρ, Θαβασων, Αδασαι, Δανιδαν, Ουδαν, Μαψαρ).

Major translation & exegetical cruxes

Where the Greek legitimately admits more than one rendering or reading — or where the LXX diverges from the Hebrew — the point was flagged in the lexical notes and chapter text_notes rather than decided silently; the more common analysis was generally taken and the alternative noted. The principal cruxes in LXX 2 Kingdoms:

How the data set is organized

• lxx-interlinear/data/2kingdoms{1..24}.json — the durable scholarly content: one JSON object per chapter (reference, titles, text-note, outline, and verses with per-word annotation and per-verse discourse notes). The data set shares the nt-interlinear toolkit and schema with the New Testament volumes.
• lxx-interlinear/ — the LXX data home and index builder; rendering reuses the chapter-agnostic nt-interlinear toolkit (stdlib-only HTML; headless-Chromium PDF). Adding a chapter (or a book) requires no code changes.
• Rendered artifacts — 2Kingdoms{1..24}.html and .pdf under lxxsite/2Kingdoms/, linked from its index.html in the Septuagint site root.

The interpretive tiers (syntactic function, semantic force, discourse structure, and the proposed argument outlines) are interpretive by nature; where readings legitimately differ, the more common analysis was generally chosen, and the lexical notes are condensed orientation rather than a substitute for a lexicon (e.g. LEH / Muraoka) or a full commentary.