2 Samuel 15:5-7

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. 2 Samuel 15:5 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Absalom) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2. 2 Samuel 15:6 tn Heb “stole the heart.”
3. 2 Samuel 15:6 tn Heb “the men.”
4. 2 Samuel 15:7 tc The MT has here “forty,” but this is presumably a scribal error for “four.” The context will not tolerate a period of forty years prior to the rebellion of Absalom. The Lucianic Greek recension (τέσσαρα ἔτη, tessara etē), the Syriac Peshitta (ʾarbaʿ sanin), and Vulgate (post quattuor autem annos) in fact have the expected reading “four years.” Most English translations follow the versions in reading “four” here, although some (e.g. KJV, ASV, NASB, NKJV), following the MT, read “forty.”