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2 Samuel 23:16-18
New English Translation
2 Samuel 23:16-18
New English Translation
16 So the three elite warriors broke through the Philistine forces and drew some water from the cistern in Bethlehem near the gate. They carried it back to David, but he refused to drink it. He poured it out as a drink offering to the Lord 17 and said, “O Lord, I will not do this![a] It is equivalent to the blood of the men who risked their lives by going.”[b] So he refused to drink it. Such were the exploits of the three elite warriors.[c]
18 Abishai son of Zeruiah, the brother of Joab, was head of the three.[d] He killed 300 men with his spear and gained fame among the three.[e]
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- 2 Samuel 23:17 tn Heb “Far be it to me, O Lord, from doing this.”
- 2 Samuel 23:17 tn Heb “[Is it not] the blood of the men who were going with their lives?”
- 2 Samuel 23:17 tn Heb “These things the three warriors did.”
- 2 Samuel 23:18 tc The translation follows the Qere, many medieval Hebrew mss, the LXX, and Vulgate in reading הַשְּׁלֹשָׁה (hashelosha, “the three”) rather than the Kethib of the MT הַשָּׁלִשִׁי (hashalishi, “the third,” or “adjutant”). Two medieval Hebrew mss and the Syriac Peshitta have “thirty.”
- 2 Samuel 23:18 tn Heb “and he was wielding his spear against three hundred, [who were] slain, and to him there was a name among the three.”
New English Translation (NET)
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