2:9 He watches over 1 his holy ones, 2
but the wicked are made speechless in the darkness,
for it is not by one’s own strength that one prevails.
3:2 Eli’s eyes had begun to fail, so that he was unable to see well. At that time he was lying down in his place,
10:23 So they ran and brought him from there. When he took his position among the people, he stood head and shoulders above them all.
15:1 Then Samuel said to Saul, “I was the one the Lord sent to anoint you as king over his people Israel. Now listen to what the Lord says. 8
17:4 Then a champion 12 came out from the camp of the Philistines. His name was Goliath; he was from Gath. He was close to seven feet tall. 13
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 18 had finished talking with Saul, Jonathan and David became bound together in close friendship. 19 Jonathan loved David as much as he did his own life. 20
18:26 So his servants told David these things and David agreed 24 to become the king’s son-in-law. Now the specified time had not yet expired 25
19:15 Then Saul sent the messengers back to see David, saying, “Bring him up to me on his bed so I can kill him.”
23:5 So David and his men went to Keilah and fought the Philistines. He took away their cattle and thoroughly defeated them. 28 David delivered the inhabitants of Keilah.
25:1 Samuel died, and all Israel assembled and mourned him. They buried him at his home in Ramah. Then David left and went down to the desert of Paran. 34
25:20 Riding on her donkey, she went down under cover of the mountain. David and his men were coming down to meet her, and she encountered them.
25:40 So the servants of David went to Abigail at Carmel and said to her, “David has sent us to you to bring you back to be his wife.”
26:9 But David said to Abishai, “Don’t kill him! Who can extend his hand against the Lord’s chosen one 38 and remain guiltless?”
29:11 So David and his men got up early in the morning to return 45 to the land of the Philistines, but the Philistines went up to Jezreel.
30:1 On the third day David and his men came to Ziklag. Now the Amalekites had raided the Negev and Ziklag. They attacked Ziklag and burned it. 46
30:3 When David and his men came to the city, they found it burned. 47 Their wives, sons, and daughters had been taken captive.
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. 48
31:8 The next day, when the Philistines came to strip loot from the corpses, they discovered Saul and his three sons lying dead 51 on Mount Gilboa.
1 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.
2 tc The translation follows the Qere and many medieval Hebrew
3 tn The Hebrew text adds “so that” here, formally connecting this clause with the next.
4 tn Or perhaps “settled disputes for” (cf. NLT “would hear cases there”; NRSV “administered justice there”).
5 tn The juxtaposition of disjunctive clauses in v.16 indicates synchronic action.
6 tn Heb “in your heart.”
7 tn Heb “Look, I am with you, according to your heart.” See the note at 13:14.
8 tn Heb “to the voice of the words of the
9 tn Heb “caused seven of his sons to pass before Samuel.” This could be taken as referring to seven sons in addition to the three mentioned before this, but 1 Sam 17:12 says Jesse had eight sons, not eleven. 1 Chr 2:13-15 lists only seven sons, including David. However, 1 Chr 27:18 mentions an additional son, named Elihu.
10 tn Heb “a kid of the goats.”
11 tn Heb “by the hand of.”
12 tn Heb “the man of the space between the two [armies].” See v. 23.
13 tc Heb “his height was six cubits and a span” (cf. KJV, NASB, NRSV). A cubit was approximately eighteen inches, a span nine inches. So, according to the Hebrew tradition, Goliath was about nine feet, nine inches tall (cf. NIV, CEV, NLT “over nine feet”; NCV “nine feet, four inches”; TEV “nearly 3 metres”). However, some Greek witnesses, Josephus, and a manuscript of 1 Samuel from Qumran read “four cubits and a span” here, that is, about six feet, nine inches (cf. NAB “six and a half feet”). This seems more reasonable; it is likely that Goliath’s height was exaggerated as the story was retold. See P. K. McCarter, I Samuel (AB), 286, 291.
14 tn Heb “run.”
15 sn Sticks is a pejorative reference to David’s staff (v. 40); the same Hebrew word (מַקֵּל, maqqel) is used for both.
16 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
17 tn Heb “his”; the referent (Goliath) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
18 tn Heb “he”; the referent (David) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
19 tn Heb “the soul of Jonathan was bound with the soul of David.”
20 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.
21 tn Heb “him”; the referent (David) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
22 tn Heb “an officer of a thousand.”
23 tn Heb “and he went out and came in before the people.” See v. 16.
24 tn Heb “and it was acceptable in the eyes of David.”
25 tn Heb “the days were not fulfilled.”
26 tn Heb “for [with] the love of his [own] life he loved him.”
27 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jonathan) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
28 tn Heb “and struck them down with a great blow.”
29 tn Heb “saw.”
30 tn Heb “to search [for].”
31 tn Heb “upon the face of.”
32 tn Or “the region of the Rocks of the Mountain Goats,” if this expression is understood as a place name (cf. NASB, NIV, NRSV, TEV, CEV).
33 tn Heb “went on.”
34 tc The LXX reads “Maon” here instead of “Paran,” perhaps because the following account of Nabal is said to be in Maon (v. 2). This reading is followed by a number of English versions (e.g., NAB, NIV, NCV, NLT). The MT, however, reads “Paran,” a location which would parallel this portion of David’s life with that of the nation Israel which also spent time in Paran (Num 10:12). Also, the desert of Paran was on the southern border of Judah’s territory and would be the most isolated location for hiding from Saul.
35 tn Heb “when the wine had gone out from Nabal.”
36 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.
37 tn Heb “going at her feet.”
38 tn Heb “anointed” (also in vv. 11, 16, 23).
39 tn Heb “What in my hand [is] evil?”
40 tn Heb “saying.”
41 tn Heb “he really stinks.” The expression is used figuratively here to describe the rejection and ostracism that David had experienced as a result of Saul’s hatred of him.
42 tc Many medieval Hebrew
43 tn Heb “permanently.”
44 tn Heb “listen to the voice of the
45 tc Heb “to go in the morning to return.” With the exception of Origen and the Lucianic recension, the Old Greek tradition lacks the phrase “in the morning.” The Syriac Peshitta also omits it.
46 tn The Hebrew text adds “with fire.”
47 tn Heb “and David and his men came to the city, and look, it was burned with fire.”
48 tn Heb “stood.” So also in v. 10.
49 tn Heb “stuck close after.”
50 tn Heb “the Philistines.”
51 tn Heb “fallen.”
52 sn The Semitic goddess Astarte was associated with love and war in the ancient Near East. See the note on the same term in 7:3.