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.
14:24 Now the men of Israel were hard pressed that day, for Saul had made the army agree to this oath: “Cursed be the man who eats food before evening! I will get my vengeance on my enemies!” So no one in the army ate anything.
17:8 Goliath 13 stood and called to Israel’s troops, 14 “Why do you come out to prepare for battle? Am I not the Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose 15 for yourselves a man so he may come down 16 to me!
17:26 David asked the men who were standing near him, “What will be done for the man who strikes down this Philistine and frees Israel from this humiliation? 17 For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he defies the armies of the living God?”
17:55 18 Now as Saul watched David going out to fight the Philistine, he asked Abner, the general in command of the army, “Whose son is this young man, Abner?” Abner replied, “As surely as you live, O king, I don’t know.”
29:4 But the leaders of the Philistines became angry with him and said 20 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 21 our adversary in the battle. What better way to please his lord than with the heads of these men? 22
29:6 So Achish summoned David and said to him, “As surely as the Lord lives, you are an honest man, and I am glad to have you 23 serving 24 with me in the army. 25 I have found no fault with you from the day that you first came to me until the present time. But in the opinion 26 of the leaders, you are not reliable. 27
1 tn Heb “from days to days.”
2 tc Read with many medieval Hebrew
3 tn Heb “his heart was trembling.”
4 tn Heb “and the man came to report in the city.”
5 tn The infinitive absolute precedes the verb for emphasis.
6 tn Heb “our way on which we have gone.”
7 tn Heb “anoint.”
8 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.
9 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.
10 tn Heb “commanded.”
11 tn Heb “and he will play with his hand.”
12 tn Heb “and it will be better for you.”
13 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Goliath) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
14 tn The Hebrew text adds “and said to them.”
15 tc The translation follows the ancient versions in reading “choose,” (from the root בחר, bkhr), rather than the MT. The verb in MT (ברה, brh) elsewhere means “to eat food”; the sense of “to choose,” required here by the context, is not attested for this root. The MT apparently reflects an early scribal error.
16 tn Following the imperative, the prefixed verbal form (either an imperfect or jussive) with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose/result here.
17 tn Heb “and turns aside humiliation from upon Israel.”
18 tc Most LXX
19 tn Heb “all the days.”
20 tn Heb “and the leaders of the Philistines said.”
21 tn Heb “so that he might not become.”
22 tn Or perhaps, “our men.” On this use of the demonstrative pronoun see Joüon 2:532 §143.e.
23 tn Heb “it is good in my eyes.” Cf. v. 7.
24 tn Heb “your going forth and your coming in.” The expression is a merism.
25 tn Heb “camp.”
26 tn Heb “eyes.”
27 tn Heb “good.”