2 Samuel 23 Introduction

Structure and Formatting

This chapter continues the supplemental information about David’s reign as king of Israel that the author provides at the end of the book. It presents the fourth and fifth parts of that information, a song that presents David’s last words and a description of his greatest warriors.Some translations set each line of poetry farther to the right than the rest of the text to make it easier to read. The ULT does this with the poetry in [23:2–7](../23/02.md).2 Samuel [23:8–39](../23/08.md) is a list of the famous people in David’s army along with some of the special deeds some of them did. Consider how you have been presenting the lists in 2 Samuel in your translation and how you might present the list in [verses 24–29](../23/24.md) similarly. You may choose to put one name, rather than two, on each line.