1 Samuel 1:23

1:23 So her husband Elkanah said to her, “Do what you think best.¹ Stay until you have weaned him. May the Lord fulfill his promise.”²

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

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!³ Hand it over right now! If you don’t, I will take it forcibly!”

1 Samuel 2:33

2:33 Any one of you that I do not cut off from my altar, I will cause your⁴ eyes to fail⁵ and will cause you grief.⁶ All of those born to your family⁷ will die in the prime of life.⁸

1 Samuel 3:5-6

3:5 Then he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But Eli⁹ said, “I didn’t call you. Go back and lie down.” So he went back and lay down. 3:6 The Lord again called, “Samuel!” So Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But Eli¹⁰ said, “I didn’t call you, my son. Go back and lie down.”

1 Samuel 6:8

6:8 Then take the ark of the Lord and place it on the cart, and put in a chest beside it the gold objects you are sending to him as a guilt offering. You should then send it on its way.

1 Samuel 8:7

8:7 The Lord said to Samuel, “Do everything the people request of you.¹¹ For it is not you that they have rejected, but it is me that they have rejected as their king.

1 Samuel 9:20

9:20 Don’t be concerned¹² about the donkeys that you lost three days ago, for they have been found. Whom does all Israel desire? Is it not you, and all your father’s family?”¹³

1 Samuel 12:5

12:5 He said to them, “The Lord is witness against you, and his chosen king¹⁴ is witness this day, that you have not found any reason to accuse me.”¹⁵ They said, “He is witness!”

1 Samuel 12:15

12:15 But if you don’t obey¹⁶ the Lord and rebel against what the Lord says, the hand of the Lord will be against both you and your king.¹⁷

1 Samuel 12:23

12:23 As far as I am concerned, far be it from me to sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you! I will instruct you in the way that is good and upright.

1 Samuel 13:11

13:11 But Samuel said, “What have you done?” Saul replied, “When I saw that the army had started to abandon me¹⁸ and that you didn’t come at the appointed time and that the Philistines had assembled at Micmash,

1 Samuel 14:40

14:40 Then he said to all Israel, “You will be on one side, and I and my son Jonathan will be on the other side.” The army replied to Saul, “Do whatever you think is best.”

1 Samuel 15:23

15:23 For rebellion is like the sin of divination,

and presumption is like the evil of idolatry.

Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,

he has rejected you as¹⁹ king.”

1 Samuel 15:28

15:28 Samuel said to him, “The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day and has given it to one of your colleagues who is better than you!

1 Samuel 17:33

17:33 But Saul replied to David, “You aren’t able to go against this Philistine and fight him! You’re just a boy! He has been a warrior from his youth!”

1 Samuel 18:22

18:22 Then Saul instructed his servants, “Tell David secretly, ‘The king is pleased with you, and all his servants like you. So now become the king’s son-in-law.”

1 Samuel 19:11

19:11 Saul sent messengers to David’s house to guard it and to kill him in the morning. Then David’s wife Michal told him, “If you do not save yourself²⁰ tonight, tomorrow you will be dead!”

1 Samuel 19:17

19:17 Saul said to Michal, “Why have you deceived me this way by sending my enemy away? Now he has escaped!” Michal replied to Saul, “He said to me, ‘Help me get away or else I will kill you!’”²¹

1 Samuel 20:22

20:22 But if I say to the boy, “Look, the arrows are on the other side of you,’²² get away. For in that case the Lord has sent you away.

1 Samuel 20:30

20:30 Saul became angry with Jonathan²³ and said to him, “You stupid traitor!²⁴ Don’t I realize that to your own disgrace and to the disgrace of your mother’s nakedness you have chosen this son of Jesse?

1 Samuel 21:1

21:1 (21:2) David went to Ahimelech the priest in Nob. Ahimelech was shaking with fear when he met²⁵ David, and said to him, “Why are you by yourself with no one accompanying you?”

1 Samuel 23:17

23:17 He said to him, “Don’t be afraid! For the hand of my father Saul cannot find you. You will rule over Israel, and I will be your second in command. Even my father Saul realizes this.”

1 Samuel 24:19

24:19 Now if a man finds his enemy, does he send him on his way in good shape? May the Lord repay you with good this day for what you have done to me.

1 Samuel 25:8

25:8 Ask your own servants; they can tell you! May my servants find favor in your sight, for we have come²⁶ at the time of a holiday. Please provide us – your servants²⁷ and your son David – with whatever you can spare.”²⁸

1 Samuel 26:21

26:21 Saul replied, “I have sinned. Come back, my son David. I won’t harm you, for you treated my life with value²⁹ this day. I have behaved foolishly and have made a very terrible mistake!”³⁰

1 Samuel 26:25

26:25 Saul replied to David, “May you be rewarded,³¹ my son David! You will without question be successful!”³² So David went on his way, and Saul returned to his place.

1 Samuel 27:5

27:5 David said to Achish, “If I have found favor with you, let me be given a place in one of the country towns so that I can live there. Why should your servant settle in the royal city with you?”

1 Samuel 28:1-2

The Witch of Endor

28:1 In those days the Philistines gathered their troops³³ for war in order to fight Israel. Achish said to David, “You should fully understand that you and your men must go with me into the battle.”³⁴ 28:2 David replied to Achish, “That being the case, you will come to know what your servant can do!” Achish said to David, “Then I will make you my bodyguard³⁵ from now on.”³⁶

1 Samuel 28:19

28:19 The Lord will hand you and Israel over to the Philistines!³⁷ Tomorrow both you and your sons will be with me.³⁸ The Lord will also hand the army³⁹ of Israel over to the Philistines!”

1 Samuel 28:21

28:21 When the woman came to Saul and saw how terrified he was, she said to him, “Your servant has done what you asked.⁴⁰ I took my life into my own hands and did what you told me.⁴¹

1 Samuel 29:10

29:10 So get up early in the morning along with the servants of your lord who have come with you.⁴² When you get up early in the morning, as soon as it is light enough to see, leave.”⁴³

1 Samuel 30:13

30:13 David said to him, “To whom do you belong, and where are you from?” The young man said, “I am an Egyptian, the servant of an Amalekite man. My master abandoned me when I was ill for three days.

¹tn Heb “what is good in your eyes.”

²tn Heb “establish his word.” This apparently refers to the promise inherent in Eli’s priestly blessing (see v. 17).

³tc The translation follows the Qere and many medieval Hebrew mss (“no”) rather than the Kethib and MT, which read “to him.”

⁴tc The LXX, a Qumran ms, and a few old Latin mss have the third person pronominal suffix “his” here.

⁵tn Heb “to cause your eyes to fail.” Elsewhere this verb, when used of eyes, refers to bloodshot eyes resulting from weeping, prolonged staring, or illness (see Lev 26:16; Pss 69:3; 119:82; Lam 2:11; 4:17).

⁶tn Heb “and to cause your soul grief.”

⁷tn Heb “and all the increase of your house.”

⁸tc The text is difficult. The MT literally says “they will die [as] men.” Apparently the meaning is that they will be cut off in the prime of their life without reaching old age. The LXX and a Qumran ms, however, have the additional word “sword” (“they will die by the sword of men”). This is an easier reading (cf. NAB, NRSV, TEV, CEV, NLT), but that fact is not in favor of its originality.

⁹tn Heb “he”; the referent (Eli) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁰tn Heb “he”; the referent (Eli) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹¹tn Heb “Listen to the voice of the people, to all which they say to you.”

¹²tn Heb “do not fix your heart.”

¹³tn Heb “and all the house of your father.”

¹⁴tn Heb “anointed [one].”

¹⁵tn Heb “that you have not found anything in my hand.”

¹⁶tn Heb “listen to the voice of.”

¹⁷tc The LXX reads “your king” rather than the MT’s “your fathers.” The latter makes little sense here. Some follow MT, but translate “as it was against your fathers.” See P. K. McCarter, 1 Samuel (AB), 212.

¹⁸tn Heb “dispersed from upon me.”

¹⁹tn Or “from [being].”

²⁰tn Heb “your life.”

²¹tn Heb “Send me away! Why should I kill you?” The question has the force of a threat in this context. See P. K. McCarter, I Samuel (AB), 325, 26.

²²tn Heb “from you and onward.”

²³tc Many medieval Hebrew mss include the words “his son” here.

²⁴tn Heb “son of a perverse woman of rebelliousness.” But such an overly literal and domesticated translation of the Hebrew expression fails to capture the force of Saul’s unrestrained reaction. Saul, now incensed and enraged over Jonathan’s liaison with David, is actually hurling very coarse and emotionally charged words at his son. The translation of this phrase suggested by Koehler and Baumgartner is “bastard of a wayward woman” (HALOT 796 s.v. עוה), but this is not an expression commonly used in English. A better English approximation of the sentiments expressed here by the Hebrew phrase would be “You stupid son of a bitch!” However, sensitivity to the various public formats in which the Bible is read aloud has led to a less startling English rendering which focuses on the semantic value of Saul’s utterance (i.e., the behavior of his own son Jonathan, which he viewed as both a personal and a political betrayal [= “traitor”]). But this concession should not obscure the fact that Saul is full of bitterness and frustration. That he would address his son Jonathan with such language, not to mention his apparent readiness even to kill his own son over this friendship with David (v. 33), indicates something of the extreme depth of Saul’s jealousy and hatred of David.

²⁵tn Heb “trembled to meet.”

²⁶tc The translation follows many medieval Hebrew mss in reading בָּאנוּ (ba’nu, “we have come”) rather than the MT’s בָּנוּ (banu, “we have built”).

²⁷tn This refers to the ten servants sent by David.

²⁸tn Heb “whatever your hand will find.”

²⁹tn Heb “my life was valuable in your eyes.”

³⁰tn Heb “and I have erred very greatly.”

³¹tn Heb “blessed.”

³²tn Heb “you will certainly do and also you will certainly be able.” The infinitive absolutes placed before the finite verbal forms lend emphasis to the statement.

³³tn Heb “their camps.”

³⁴tc The translation follows the LXX (εἰς πόλεμον, eis polemon) and a Qumran ms מלחמה במלחמה ([m]lkhmh) bammilkhamah (“in the battle”) rather than the MT’s בַמַּחֲנֶה (bammakhaneh, “in the camp”; cf. NASB). While the MT reading is not impossible here, and although admittedly it is the harder reading, the variant fits the context better. The MT can be explained as a scribal error caused in part by the earlier occurrence of “camp” in this verse.

³⁵tn Heb “the guardian for my head.”

³⁶tn Heb “all the days.”

³⁷tn Heb “And the Lord will give also Israel along with you into the hand of the Philistines.”

³⁸tc With the exception of the Lucianic recension, the LXX has here “and tomorrow you and your sons with you will fall.”

³⁹tn Heb “camp.”

⁴⁰tn Heb “listened to your voice.”

⁴¹tn Heb “listened to your words that you spoke to me.”

⁴²tc The LXX and a couple of Old Latin mss include here the following words: “and you shall go to the place that I have appointed you. Don’t place an evil thing in your heart, for you are good before me.”

⁴³tn Heb “when you get up early in the morning and you have light, go.”