1 Samuel 1:20
1:20 After some time Hannah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, thinking, “I asked the Lord for him. 1
1 Samuel 7:2
Further Conflict with the Philistines
7:2 It was quite a long time – some twenty years in all – that the ark stayed at Kiriath Jearim. All the people 2 of Israel longed for 3 the Lord.
1 Samuel 10:27
10:27 But some wicked men 4 said, “How can this man save us?” They despised him and did not even bring him a gift. But Saul said nothing about it. 5
1 Samuel 14:30
14:30 Certainly if the army had eaten some of the enemies’ provisions that they came across today, would not the slaughter of the Philistines have been even greater?”
1 Samuel 26:13
26:13 Then David crossed to the other side and stood on the top of the hill some distance away; there was a considerable distance between them.
1 Samuel 28:24
28:24 Now the woman 6 had a well-fed calf 7 at her home that she quickly slaughtered. Taking some flour, she kneaded bread and baked it without leaven.
1 tn Heb “because from the Lord I asked him.” The name “Samuel” sounds like the Hebrew verb translated “asked.” The explanation of the meaning of the name “Samuel” that is provided in v. 20 is not a strict etymology. It seems to suggest that the first part of the name is derived from the Hebrew root שׁאל (sh’l, “to ask”), but the consonants do not support this. Nor is it likely that the name comes from the root שׁמא (shm’, “to hear”), for the same reason. It more probably derives from שֶׁם (shem, “name”), so that “Samuel” means “name of God.” Verse 20 therefore does not set forth a linguistic explanation of the meaning of the name, but rather draws a parallel between similar sounds. This figure of speech is known as paronomasia.
2 tn Heb “house” (also in the following verse).
3 tn Heb “mourned after”; NIV “mourned and sought after”; KJV, NRSV “lamented after”; NAB “turned to”; NCV “began to follow…again.”
4 tn Heb “sons of worthlessness” (see 2:12).
5 tc In place of the MT (“and it was like one being silent”) the LXX has “after about a month,” taking the expression with the first part of the following chapter rather than with 10:27. Some Hebrew support for this reading appears in the corrected hand of a Qumran ms of Samuel, which has here “about a month.” However, it seems best to stay with the MT here even though it is difficult.
6 sn Masoretic mss of the Hebrew Bible mark this word as the half-way point in the book of Samuel, treating 1 and 2 Samuel as a single book. Similar notations are found at the midway point for all of the books of the Hebrew Bible.
7 tn Heb “a calf of the stall.”