2 Samuel 8:2-4 New English Translation

²He defeated the Moabites. He made them lie on the ground and then used a rope to measure them off. He put two-thirds of them to death and spared the other third.^[a] The Moabites became David’s subjects and brought tribute.^[b] ³David defeated King Hadadezer son of Rehob of Zobah when he came to reestablish^[c] his authority^[d] over the Euphrates^[e] River. ⁴David seized from him 1,700 charioteers^[f] and 20,000 infantrymen. David cut the hamstrings of all but 100 of the chariot horses.^[g]

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Footnotes

2 Samuel 8:2 tn Heb “and he measured [with] two [lengths] of rope to put to death and [with] the fullness of the rope to keep alive.”
2 Samuel 8:2 tn Heb “and the Moabites were servants of David, carriers of tribute.”
2 Samuel 8:3 tc The LXX has ἐπιστῆσαι (epistēsai, “cause to stand”). See the parallel text in 1 Chr 18:3.
2 Samuel 8:3 tn Heb “hand.”
2 Samuel 8:3 tn The MT does not have the name “Euphrates” in the text. It is supplied in the margin (Qere) as one of ten places where the Masoretes believed that something was “to be read although it was not written” in the text as they had received it. The ancient versions (LXX, Syriac Peshitta, Vulgate) include the word. See also the parallel text in 1 Chr 18:3.
2 Samuel 8:4 tc The LXX has “1,000 chariots and 7,000 charioteers,” a reading adopted in the text of the NIV. See the parallel text in 1 Chr 18:4.
2 Samuel 8:4 tn Heb “and David cut the hamstrings of all the chariot horses, and he left from them 100 chariot horses.”

New English Translation (NET)