1 Samuel 1:5

1:5 But he would give a double ¹  portion to Hannah, because he especially loved her. ²  Now the Lord had not enabled her to have children. ³ 

1 Samuel 3:2

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,

1 Samuel 3:18

3:18 So Samuel told him everything. He did not hold back anything from him. Eli ⁴  said, “The Lord will do what he pleases.” ⁵ 

1 Samuel 7:16-17

7:16 Year after year he used to travel the circuit of Bethel, ⁶  Gilgal, and Mizpah; he used to judge Israel in all of these places. 7:17 Then he would return to Ramah, because his home was there. He also judged ⁷  Israel there and built an altar to the Lord there.

1 Samuel 10:23

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.

1 Samuel 17:4

17:4 Then a champion ⁸  came out from the camp of the Philistines. His name was Goliath; he was from Gath. He was close to seven feet tall. ⁹ 

1 Samuel 19:7

19:7 Then Jonathan called David and told him all these things. Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he served him as he had done formerly. ¹⁰ 

1 Samuel 19:23

19:23 So Saul went to Naioth in Ramah. The Spirit of God came upon him as well, and he walked along prophesying until he came to Naioth in Ramah.

1 Samuel 20:17

20:17 Jonathan once again took an oath with David, because he loved him. In fact Jonathan loved him as much as he did his own life. ¹¹ 

1 Samuel 20:26

20:26 However, Saul said nothing about it ¹²  that day, for he thought, ¹³  “Something has happened to make him ceremonially unclean. Yes, he must be unclean.”

1 Samuel 22:10

22:10 He inquired of the Lord for him and gave him provisions. He also gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.”

1 Samuel 23:22

23:22 Go and make further arrangements. Determine precisely ¹⁴  where he is ¹⁵  and who has seen him there, for I am told that he is extremely cunning.

1 Samuel 25:30

25:30 The Lord will do for my lord everything that he promised you, ¹⁶  and he will make ¹⁷  you a leader over Israel.

1 Samuel 27:12

27:12 So Achish trusted David, thinking to himself, ¹⁸  “He is really hated ¹⁹  among his own people in ²⁰  Israel! From now on ²¹  he will be my servant.”

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¹ tn The exact sense of the Hebrew word אַפָּיִם (’appayim, “two faces”) is not certain here. It is most likely used with the preceding expression (“one portion of two faces”) to mean a portion double than normally received. Although evidence for this use of the word derives primarily from Aramaic rather than from Hebrew usage, it provides an understanding that fits the context here better than other suggestions for the word do. The meaning “double” is therefore adopted in the present translation. Other possibilities for the meaning of the word include the following: “heavily” (cf. Vulg., tristis) and “worthy” or “choice” (cf. KJV and Targum). Some scholars have followed the LXX here, emending the word to אֶפֶס (’efes) and translating it as “but” or “however.” This seems unnecessary. The translators of the LXX may simply have been struggling to make sense of the word rather than following a Hebrew text that was different from the MT here.

² tn Heb “for Hannah he loved.” Repetition of the proper name would seem redundant in contemporary English, so the pronoun (“her”) has been used here for clarity. The translation also adds the adverb “especially” to clarify the meaning of the text. Without this addition one might get the impression that only Hannah, not Peninnah, was loved by her husband. But the point of the text is that Hannah was his favorite.

³ tn Heb “and the Lord had closed her womb.” So also in v. 6. The disjunctive clause provides supplemental information that is pertinent to the story.

⁴ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Eli) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁵ tn Heb “what is good in his eyes.”

⁶ map For location see Map4-G4; Map5-C1; Map6-E3; Map7-D1; Map8-G3.

⁷ tn Or perhaps “settled disputes for” (cf. NLT “would hear cases there”; NRSV “administered justice there”).

⁸ tn Heb “the man of the space between the two [armies].” See v. 23.

⁹ 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.

¹⁰ tn Heb “and he was before him as before.”

¹¹ tn Heb “for [with] the love of his [own] life he loved him.”

¹² tn The words “about it” are not present in the Hebrew text, although they are implied.

¹³ tn Heb “said,” that is, to himself.

¹⁴ tn Heb “know and see.” The expression is a hendiadys. See also v. 23.

¹⁵ tn Heb “his place where his foot is.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “according to all which he spoke, the good concerning you.”

¹⁷ tn Heb “appoint.”

¹⁸ tn Heb “saying.”

¹⁹ 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.

²⁰ tc Many medieval Hebrew mss lack the preposition “in.”

²¹ tn Heb “permanently.”