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When someone approached to bow before him, Absalom[a] would extend his hand and embrace him and kiss him. Absalom acted this way toward everyone in Israel who came to the king for justice. In this way Absalom won the loyalty[b] of the citizens[c] of Israel.

After four[d] years Absalom said to the king, “Let me go and repay my vow that I made to the Lord while I was in Hebron.

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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.”

Also, whenever anyone approached him to bow down before him, Absalom would reach out his hand, take hold of him and kiss him. Absalom behaved in this way toward all the Israelites who came to the king asking for justice, and so he stole the hearts(A) of the people of Israel.

At the end of four[a] years, Absalom said to the king, “Let me go to Hebron and fulfill a vow I made to the Lord.

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Footnotes

  1. 2 Samuel 15:7 Some Septuagint manuscripts, Syriac and Josephus; Hebrew forty