1 Samuel 1:11

1:11 She made a vow saying, “O Lord of hosts, if you will look with compassion ¹  on the suffering of your female servant, ²  remembering me and not forgetting your servant, and give a male child ³  to your servant, then I will dedicate him to the Lord all the days of his life. His hair will never be cut.” ⁴ 

1 Samuel 1:23

1:23 So her husband Elkanah said to her, “Do what you think best. ⁵  Stay until you have weaned him. May the Lord fulfill his promise.” ⁶ 

So the woman stayed and nursed her son until she had weaned him.

1 Samuel 2:8

2:8 He lifts the weak ⁷  from the dust;

he raises ⁸  the poor from the ash heap

to seat them with princes

and to bestow on them an honored position. ⁹ 

The foundations of the earth belong to the Lord,

and he has placed the world on them.

1 Samuel 2:16

2:16 If the individual said to him, “First let the fat be burned away, and then take for yourself whatever you wish,” he would say, “No! ¹⁰  Hand it over right now! If you don’t, I will take it forcibly!”

1 Samuel 5:4

5:4 But when they got up early the following day, Dagon was again lying on the ground before the ark of the Lord. The head of Dagon and his two hands were sheared off and were lying at the threshold. Only Dagon’s body was left intact. ¹¹ 

1 Samuel 6:9

6:9 But keep an eye on it. If it should go up by the way of its own border to Beth Shemesh, then he has brought this great calamity on us. But if that is not the case, then we will know that it was not his hand that struck us; rather, it just happened to us by accident.”

1 Samuel 6:18

6:18 The gold mice corresponded in number to all the Philistine cities of the five leaders, from the fortified cities to hamlet villages, to greater Abel, ¹²  where they positioned the ark of the Lord until this very day in the field of Joshua who was from Beth Shemesh.

1 Samuel 11:7

11:7 He took a pair ¹³  of oxen and cut them up. Then he sent the pieces throughout the territory of Israel by the hand of messengers, who said, “Whoever does not go out after Saul and after Samuel should expect this to be done to his oxen!” Then the terror of the Lord fell on the people, and they went out as one army. ¹⁴ 

1 Samuel 16:1

Samuel Anoints David as King

16:1 The Lord said to Samuel, “How long do you intend to mourn for Saul? I have rejected him as king over Israel. ¹⁵  Fill your horn with olive oil and go! I am sending you to Jesse in Bethlehem, ¹⁶  for I have selected a king for myself from among his sons.” ¹⁷ 

1 Samuel 18:17

18:17 ¹⁸ Then Saul said to David, “Here’s my oldest daughter, Merab. I want to give her to you in marriage. Only be a brave warrior ¹⁹  for me and fight the battles of the Lord.” For Saul thought, “There’s no need for me to raise my hand against him. Let it be the hand of the Philistines!”

1 Samuel 19:5

19:5 He risked his life ²⁰  when he struck down the Philistine and the Lord gave all Israel a great victory. When you saw it, you were happy. So why would you sin against innocent blood by putting David to death for no reason?”

1 Samuel 20:3

20:3 Taking an oath, David again ²¹  said, “Your father is very much aware of the fact ²²  that I have found favor with you, and he has thought, ²³  ‘Don’t let Jonathan know about this, or he will be upset.’ But as surely as the Lord lives and you live, there is about one step between me and death!”

1 Samuel 24:4

24:4 David’s men said to him, “This is the day about which the Lord said to you, ‘I will give your enemy into your hand, and you can do to him whatever seems appropriate to you.’” ²⁴  So David got up and quietly cut off an edge of Saul’s robe.

1 Samuel 26:12

26:12 So David took the spear and the jug of water by Saul’s head, and they got out of there. No one saw them or was aware of their presence or woke up. All of them were asleep, for the Lord had caused a deep sleep to fall on them.

1 Samuel 26:16

26:16 This failure on your part isn’t good! ²⁵  As surely as the Lord lives, you people who have not protected your lord, the Lord’s chosen one, are as good as dead! ²⁶  Now look where the king’s spear and the jug of water that was by his head are!”

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¹ tn Heb “if looking you look.” The expression can refer, as here, to looking favorably upon another, in this case with compassion.

² tn Heb “handmaid.” The use of this term (translated two more times in this verse and once each in vv. 16, 17 simply as “servant” for stylistic reasons) is an expression of humility.

³ tn Heb “seed of men.”

⁴ tn Heb “a razor will not go up upon his head.”

⁵ tn Heb “what is good in your eyes.”

⁶ tn Heb “establish his word.” This apparently refers to the promise inherent in Eli’s priestly blessing (see v. 17).

⁷ tn Or “lowly”; Heb “insignificant.”

⁸ tn The imperfect verbal form, which is parallel to the participle in the preceding line, is best understood here as indicating what typically happens.

⁹ tn Heb “a seat of honor.”

¹⁰ tc The translation follows the Qere and many medieval Hebrew mss (“no”) rather than the Kethib and MT, which read “to him.”

¹¹ tc Heb “only Dagon was left.” We should probably read the word גֵּו (gev, “back”) before Dagon, understanding it to have the sense of the similar word גְּוִיָּה (gÿviyyah, “body”). This variant is supported by the following evidence: The LXX has ἡ ῥάχις (Jh rJacis, “the back” or “trunk”); the Syriac Peshitta has wegusmeh (“and the body of”); the Targum has gupyeh (“the body of”); the Vulgate has truncus (“the trunk of,” cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV, NLT). On the strength of this evidence the present translation employs the phrase “Dagon’s body.”

¹² tc A few Hebrew mss and the LXX read “villages; the large rock…[is witness] until this very day.”

¹³ tn Heb “yoke.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “like one man.”

¹⁵ tc The Lucianic recension of the Old Greek translation includes the following words: “And the Lord said to Samuel.”

¹⁶ map For location see Map5-B1; Map7-E2; Map8-E2; Map10-B4.

¹⁷ tn Heb “for I have seen among his sons for me a king.”

¹⁸ tc Much of the ms evidence for the LXX lacks vv. 17-19.

¹⁹ tn Heb “son of valor.”

²⁰ tn Heb “and he put his life into his hand.”

²¹ tc The LXX and the Syriac Peshitta lack the word “again.”

²² tn The infinitive absolute appears before the finite verb for emphasis.

²³ tn Heb “said,” that is, to himself. So also in v. 25.

²⁴ tn Heb “is good in your eyes.”

²⁵ tn Heb “Not good [is] this thing which you have done.”

²⁶ tn Heb “you are sons of death.”