2:10 The Lord shatters 1 his adversaries; 2
he thunders against them from 3 the heavens.
The Lord executes judgment to the ends of the earth.
He will strengthen 4 his king
and exalt the power 5 of his anointed one.” 6
17:12 20 Now David was the son of this Ephrathite named Jesse from Bethlehem 21 in Judah. He had eight sons, and in Saul’s days he was old and well advanced in years. 22
18:8 This made Saul very angry. The statement displeased him and he thought, 23 “They have attributed to David tens of thousands, but to me they have attributed only thousands. What does he lack, except the kingdom?”
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!’” 24
19:18 Now David had run away and escaped. He went to Samuel in Ramah and told him everything that Saul had done to him. Then he and Samuel went and stayed at Naioth.
20:1 David fled from Naioth in Ramah. He came to Jonathan and asked, 27 “What have I done? What is my offense? 28 How have I sinned before your father? For he is seeking my life!”
25:2 There was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel. This man was very wealthy; 34 he owned three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. At that time he was shearing his sheep in Carmel.
1 tn The imperfect verbal forms in this line and in the next two lines are understood as indicating what is typically true. Another option is to translate them with the future tense. See v. 10b.
2 tc The present translation follows the Qere, many medieval Hebrew manuscripts, the Syriac Peshitta, and the Vulgate in reading the plural (“his adversaries,” similarly many other English versions) rather than the singular (“his adversary”) of the Kethib.
3 tn The Hebrew preposition here has the sense of “from within.”
4 tn The imperfect verbal forms in this and the next line are understood as indicating what is anticipated and translated with the future tense, because at the time of Hannah’s prayer Israel did not yet have a king.
5 tn Heb “the horn,” here a metaphor for power or strength. Cf. NCV “make his appointed king strong”; NLT “increases the might of his anointed one.”
6 tc The LXX greatly expands v. 10 with an addition that seems to be taken from Jer 9:23-24.
sn The anointed one is the anticipated king of Israel, as the preceding line makes clear.
7 tn Heb “house.”
8 tn Heb “and he will walk about before my anointed one all the days.”
9 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Eli) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
10 tc The MT has וְהִגַּדְתִּי לוֹ (vÿhiggadti lo). The verb is Hiphil perfect 1st person common singular, and apparently the conjunction should be understood as vav consecutive (“I will say to him”). But the future reference makes more sense if Samuel is the subject. This would require dropping the final י (yod) and reading the 2nd person masculine singular וְהִגַּדְתָּ (vÿhiggadta). Although there is no external evidence to support it, this reading has been adopted in the present translation. The alternative is to understand the MT to mean “I said to him,” but for this we would expect the preterite with vav consecutive.
11 tn The translation understands the preposition to have a causal sense. However, the preposition could also be understood as the beth pretii, indicating in a broad sense the price attached to this action. So GKC 380 §119.p.
12 tc The translation follows the LXX θεόν (qeon, “God”) rather than the MT לָהֶם (lahem, “to them”). The MT seems to mean “they were bringing a curse on themselves” (cf. ASV, NASB). But this meaning is problematic in part because the verb qll means “to curse,” not “to bring a curse on,” and in part because it takes an accusative object rather than the equivalent of a dative. This is one of the so-called tiqqune sopherim, or “emendations of the scribes.” Why would the ancient copyists alter the original statement about Eli’s sons cursing God to the less objectionable statement that they brought a curse on themselves? Some argue that the scribes were concerned that such a direct and blasphemous affront against God could occur without an immediate response of judgment from God. Therefore they changed the text by deleting two letters א and י (alef and yod) from the word for “God,” with the result that the text then read “to them.” If this ancient scribal claim is accepted as accurate, it implies that the MT here is secondary. The present translation follows the LXX (κακολογοῦντες θεόν, kakologounte" qeon) and a few
13 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Eli) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
14 tn Heb “So God will do to you and thus he will add.” The verbal forms in this pronouncement are imperfects, not jussives, but the statement has the force of a curse or warning. One could translate, “May God do to you and thus may he add.”
15 tn Heb “anointed [one].”
16 tn Heb “that you have not found anything in my hand.”
17 tn Heb “and he returned his hand to his mouth.”
18 tc The translation follows the Qere and several medieval Hebrew
19 tn That is, Samuel.
20 tc Some
21 map For location see Map5-B1; Map7-E2; Map8-E2; Map10-B4.
22 tc The translation follows the Lucianic recension of the LXX and the Syriac Peshitta in reading “in years,” rather than MT “among men.”
23 tn Heb “said.” So also in vv. 11, 17.
24 tn 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.
25 tn Heb “he” (also in v. 23). the referent (Saul) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
26 tn Heb “and he fell down.”
27 tn Heb “and he came and said before Jonathan.”
28 tn Heb “What is my guilt?”
29 tn Heb “for he was upset concerning David for his father had humiliated him.” The referent of the pronoun “him” is not entirely clear, but the phrase “concerning David” suggests that it refers to David, rather than Jonathan.
30 tn Heb “bitter of soul.”
31 tn Heb “to.”
32 tn Heb “established.”
33 tn Heb “I will search him out.”
34 tn Heb “great.”
35 tn Heb “and foolishness is with him.”
36 tn Heb “my lord’s servants, whom you sent.”
37 tn Heb “the land.”