1:3 Year after year 1 this man would go up from his city to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of hosts at Shiloh. It was there that the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phineas, served as the Lord’s priests.
2:22 Now Eli was very old when he heard about everything that his sons used to do to all the people of Israel 2 and how they used to have sex with 3 the women who were stationed at the entrance to the tent of meeting.
4:19 His daughter-in-law, the wife of Phineas, was pregnant and close to giving birth. When she heard that the ark of God was captured and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she doubled over and gave birth. But her labor pains were too much for her.
6:3 They replied, “If you are going to send the ark of 7 the God of Israel back, don’t send it away empty. Be sure to return it with a guilt offering. Then you will be healed, and you will understand why his hand is not removed from you.”
14:6 Jonathan said to his armor bearer, “Come on, let’s go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised men. Perhaps the Lord will intervene 16 for us. Nothing can prevent the Lord from delivering, whether by many or by a few.”
14:45 But the army said to Saul, “Should Jonathan, who won this great victory in Israel, die? May it never be! As surely as the Lord lives, not a single hair of his head will fall to the ground! For it is with the help of God that he has acted today.” So the army rescued Jonathan from death. 18
16:1 The Lord said to Samuel, “How long do you intend to mourn for Saul? I have rejected him as king over Israel. 19 Fill your horn with olive oil and go! I am sending you to Jesse in Bethlehem, 20 for I have selected a king for myself from among his sons.” 21
26:5 So David set out and went to the place where Saul was camped. David saw the place where Saul and Abner son of Ner, the general in command of his army, were sleeping. Now Saul was lying in the entrenchment, and the army was camped all around him.
27:1 David thought to himself, 33 “One of these days I’m going to be swept away by the hand of Saul! There is nothing better for me than to escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will despair of searching for me through all the territory of Israel and I will escape from his hand.”
29:3 The leaders of the Philistines asked, “What about these Hebrews?” Achish said to the leaders of the Philistines, “Isn’t this David, the servant of King Saul of Israel, who has been with me for quite some time? 35 I have found no fault with him from the day of his defection until the present time!” 36
29:4 But the leaders of the Philistines became angry with him and said 37 to him, “Send the man back! Let him return to the place that you assigned him! Don’t let him go down with us into the battle, for he might become 38 our adversary in the battle. What better way to please his lord than with the heads of these men? 39
31:7 When the men of Israel who were in the valley and across the Jordan saw that the men of Israel had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned the cities and fled. The Philistines came and occupied them.
1 tn Heb “from days to days.”
2 tn Heb “to all Israel.”
3 tn Heb “lie with.”
4 tn Heb “they”; the referent (Eli’s sons) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
5 tn Heb “desired.”
6 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.”
7 tc The LXX and a Qumran
8 tn Heb “look.”
9 tn Heb “yoke.”
10 tn Heb “like one man.”
11 tn Heb “anointed [one].”
12 tn The words “tell me” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
13 tn This verb form, as well as the one that follows (“appointed”), indicates completed action from the standpoint of the speaker. This does not necessarily mean that the Lord had already conducted his search and made his choice, however. The forms may be used for rhetorical effect to emphasize the certainty of the action. The divine search for a new king is as good as done, emphasizing that the days of Saul’s dynasty are numbered.
14 tn Heb “according to his heart.” The idiomatic expression means to be like-minded with another, as its use in 1 Sam 14:7 indicates.
15 tn Heb “commanded.”
16 tn Heb “act.”
17 tn Heb “and all the army brought near, each his ox by his hand, and they slaughtered there.”
18 tn Heb “and he did not die.”
19 tc The Lucianic recension of the Old Greek translation includes the following words: “And the Lord said to Samuel.”
20 map For location see Map5-B1; Map7-E2; Map8-E2; Map10-B4.
21 tn Heb “for I have seen among his sons for me a king.”
22 tn Heb “and he will play with his hand.”
23 tn Heb “and it will be better for you.”
24 tn Heb “the king’s.”
25 tn Heb “and he put his life into his hand.”
26 tn Heb “by giving.”
27 tn Heb “rises up against.”
28 tn Heb “anointed.”
29 tn Or “for.”
30 tn Heb “anointed.”
31 tn Heb “Not good [is] this thing which you have done.”
32 tn Heb “you are sons of death.”
33 tn Heb “said to his heart.”
34 tn Heb “all the days.”
35 tn Heb “these days or these years.”
36 tn Heb “from the day of his falling [away] until this day.”
37 tn Heb “and the leaders of the Philistines said.”
38 tn Heb “so that he might not become.”
39 tn Or perhaps, “our men.” On this use of the demonstrative pronoun see Joüon 2:532 §143.e.