2:3 Don’t keep speaking so arrogantly, 2
letting proud talk come out of your mouth!
For the Lord is a God who knows;
he 3 evaluates what people do.
2:9 He watches over 4 his holy ones, 5
but the wicked are made speechless in the darkness,
for it is not by one’s own strength that one prevails.
3:10 Then the Lord came and stood nearby, calling as he had previously done, “Samuel! Samuel!” Samuel replied, “Speak, for your servant is listening!”
3:15 So Samuel lay down until morning. Then he opened the doors of the Lord’s house. But Samuel was afraid to tell Eli about the vision.
5:6 The Lord attacked 7 the residents of Ashdod severely, bringing devastation on them. He struck the people of 8 both Ashdod and the surrounding area with sores. 9
7:12 Samuel took a stone and placed it between Mizpah and Shen. 13 He named it Ebenezer, 14 saying, “Up to here the Lord has helped us.”
9:17 When Samuel saw Saul, the Lord said, 16 “Here is the man that I told you about! He will rule over my people.” 9:18 As Saul approached Samuel in the middle of the gate, he said, “Please tell me where the seer’s house is.”
14:49 The sons of Saul were Jonathan, Ishvi, and Malki-Shua. 22 He had two daughters; the older one was named Merab and the younger Michal.
16:12 So Jesse had him brought in. 26 Now he was ruddy, with attractive eyes and a handsome appearance. The Lord said, “Go and anoint him. This is the one!”
17:38 Then Saul clothed David with his own fighting attire and put a bronze helmet on his head. He also put body armor on him.
17:57 So when David returned from striking down the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul. He still had the head of the Philistine in his hand.
18:1 When David 32 had finished talking with Saul, Jonathan and David became bound together in close friendship. 33 Jonathan loved David as much as he did his own life. 34
19:6 Saul accepted Jonathan’s advice 35 and took an oath, “As surely as the Lord lives, he will not be put to death.”
19:8 Now once again there was war. So David went out to fight the Philistines. He defeated them thoroughly 36 and they ran away from him. 19:9 Then an evil spirit from the Lord came upon 37 Saul. He was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand, while David was playing the lyre. 38
23:5 So David and his men went to Keilah and fought the Philistines. He took away their cattle and thoroughly defeated them. 41 David delivered the inhabitants of Keilah.
25:14 But one of the servants told Nabal’s wife Abigail, “David sent messengers from the desert to greet 47 our lord, but he screamed at them.
26:17 When Saul recognized David’s voice, he said, “Is that your voice, my son David?” David replied, “Yes, it’s my voice, my lord the king.” 26:18 He went on to say, “Why is my lord chasing his servant? What have I done? What wrong have I done? 50
30:9 So David went, accompanied by his six hundred men. When he came to the Wadi Besor, those who were in the rear stayed there. 51
1 tn Heb “he,” apparently referring to Samuel (but cf. CEV “Elkanah”). A few medieval manuscripts and some ancient versions take the verb as plural (cf. TEV, NLT).
2 tn Heb “proudly, proudly.” If MT is original, the repetition of the word is for emphasis, stressing the arrogance of those addressed. However, a few medieval Hebrew manuscripts and some other textual witnesses do not reflect the repetition, suggesting that the Hebrew text may be dittographic.
3 tc The MT (Qere) reads “and by him actions are weighed.” The translation assumes that reading of the Qere וְלוֹ (vÿlo, “and by him”), which is supported by many medieval Hebrew
4 tn Heb “guards the feet of.” The expression means that God watches over and protects the godly in all of their activities and movements. The imperfect verbal forms in v. 9 are understood as indicating what is typically true. Another option is to translate them with the future tense. See v. 10b.
5 tc The translation follows the Qere and many medieval Hebrew
6 tc For “these” the LXX has “of the Lord” (κυρίου, kuriou), perhaps through the influence of the final phrase of v. 24 (“the people of the
7 tn Heb “the hand of the
8 tn The words “the people of” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
9 tc The LXX and Vulgate add the following: “And mice multiplied in their land, and the terror of death was throughout the entire city.”
tn Or “tumors” (so ASV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NCV “growths on their skin”; KJV “emerods”; NAB “hemorrhoids.”
10 tn Heb “don’t stop.”
11 tc The LXX reads “your God” rather than the MT’s “our God.”
12 tn After the negated jussive, the prefixed verbal form with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose/result.
13 tn Cf. NAB, NRSV, NLT “Jeshanah.”
14 sn The name Ebenezer (אֶבֶן הָעָזֶר) means “stone of help” in Hebrew (cf. TEV); NLT adds the meaning parenthetically after the name.
15 tn Or “eunuchs” (so NAB); NIV “officials”; KJV, NASB, NRSV, NLT “officers.”
16 tn Heb “responded.”
17 tn Or “baggage” (so many English versions); KJV “stuff”; TEV “supplies.”
18 tn Heb “on account of his great name.”
19 tn This apparently refers to the instructions given by Samuel in 1 Sam 10:8. If so, several years had passed. On the relationship between chs. 10 and 13, see V. P. Long, The Art of Biblical History (FCI), 201-23.
20 tn Heb “dispersed from upon him”; NAB, NRSV “began to slip away.”
21 tn Heb “to bless him.”
22 sn The list differs from others. In 1 Sam 31:2 (= 1 Chr 10:2), Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malki-Shua are listed as Saul’s sons, while 1 Chr 8:33 and 9:39 list Jonathan, Malki-Shua, Abinadab, and Eshbaal.
23 tn Heb “splendor,” used here by metonymy as a title for the
24 tn Or perhaps “does not lie.”
25 sn This observation marks the preceding statement (v. 28) as an unconditional, unalterable decree. When God makes such a decree he will not alter it or change his mind. This does not mean that God never deviates from his stated intentions or changes his mind. On the contrary, several passages describe him as changing his mind. In fact, his willingness to do so is one of his fundamental divine attributes (see Joel 2:13; Jonah 4:2). For a fuller discussion see R. B. Chisholm, Jr., “Does God Change His Mind?” BSac 152 (1995): 387-99.
26 tn Heb “and he sent and brought him.”
27 sn Although the exact weight of Goliath’s defensive body armor is difficult to estimate in terms of modern equivalency, it was obviously quite heavy. Driver, following Kennedy, suggests a modern equivalent of about 220 pounds (100 kg); see S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, 139. Klein, taking the shekel to be equal to .403 ounces, arrives at a somewhat smaller weight of about 126 pounds (57 kg); see R. W. Klein, 1 Samuel (WBC), 175. But by any estimate it is clear that Goliath presented himself as a formidable foe indeed.
28 tn Heb “and spoke according to this word.”
29 tn Heb “the people.”
30 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
31 tn Heb “his”; the referent (Goliath) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
32 tn Heb “he”; the referent (David) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
33 tn Heb “the soul of Jonathan was bound with the soul of David.”
34 tn Heb “like his [own] soul.”
sn On the nature of Jonathan’s love for David, see J. A. Thompson, “The Significance of the Verb Love in the David-Jonathan Narratives in 1 Samuel,” VT 24 (1974): 334-38.
35 tn Heb “and Saul listened to the voice of Jonathan.”
36 tn Heb “and he struck them down with a great blow.”
37 tn Heb “[was] to.”
38 tn The Hebrew text adds here “with his hand.”
39 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jonathan) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
40 tn Heb “all the days.”
41 tn Heb “and struck them down with a great blow.”
42 tn Or “righteous” (so KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NAB “you are in the right”; NLT “are a better man than I am.”
43 tn Heb “David”; for stylistic reasons the pronoun has been used in the translation.
44 tn Or “young men.”
45 tn Heb “and David said to the young men.”
46 tn Heb “and inquire concerning him in my name in regard to peace.”
47 tn Heb “bless.”
48 tn Heb “when the wine had gone out from Nabal.”
49 tn Heb “and his heart died within him and he became a stone.” Cf. TEV, NLT “stroke”; CEV “heart attack.” For an alternative interpretation than that presented above, see Marjorie O’Rourke Boyle, “The Law of the Heart: The Death of a Fool (1 Samuel 25),” JBL 120 (2001): 401-27, who argues that a medical diagnosis is not necessary here. Instead, the passage makes a connection between the heart and the law; Nabal dies for his lawlessness.
50 tn Heb “What in my hand [is] evil?”
51 tn Heb “stood.” So also in v. 10.
52 tn Heb “there was nothing missing to them, from the small even unto the great, and unto sons and daughters, and from loot even unto all which they had taken for themselves.”