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
15:20 Then Saul said to Samuel, “But I have obeyed 21 the Lord! I went on the campaign 22 the Lord sent me on. I brought back King Agag of the Amalekites after exterminating the Amalekites.
15:23 For rebellion is like the sin of divination,
and presumption is like the evil of idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,
he has rejected you as 23 king.”
15:26 Samuel said to Saul, “I will not go back with you, for you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel!”
18:18 David said to Saul, “Who am I? Who are my relatives or the clan of my father 25 in Israel that I should become the king’s son-in-law?”
20:5 David said to Jonathan, “Tomorrow is the new moon, and I am certainly expected to join the king for a meal. 27 You must send me away so I can hide in the field until the third evening from now.
22:3 Then David went from there to Mizpah in Moab, where he said to the king of Moab, “Please let my father and mother stay 28 with you until I know what God is going to do for me.”
22:18 Then the king said to Doeg, “You turn and strike down the priests!” So Doeg the Edomite turned and struck down the priests. He killed on that day eighty-five 29 men who wore the linen ephod.
24:8 Afterward David got up and went out of the cave. He called out after Saul, “My lord, O king!” When Saul looked behind him, David kneeled down and bowed with his face to the ground.
25:36 When Abigail went back to Nabal, he was holding a banquet in his house like that of the king. Nabal was having a good time 30 and was very intoxicated. She told him absolutely nothing 31 until morning’s light.
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 “judge” (also in v. 6).
8 tn Heb “Listen to the voice of the people, to all which they say to you.”
9 tn Heb “listen to their voice.”
10 tc The translation follows many medieval Hebrew
11 tn Heb “and there in Gilgal.”
12 tn Heb “anointed [one].”
13 tn Heb “that you have not found anything in my hand.”
14 tn Heb “and you listen to his voice.”
15 tn Heb “the mouth of the
16 tn The words “all will be well” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
17 tn Heb “listen to the voice of.”
18 tc The LXX reads “your king” rather than the MT’s “your fathers.” The latter makes little sense here. Some follow MT, but translate “as it was against your fathers.” See P. K. McCarter, 1 Samuel (AB), 212.
19 tn Heb “for we have added to all our sins an evil [thing] by asking for ourselves a king.”
20 tn Heb “anointed.”
21 tn Heb “listened to the voice of the
22 tn Heb “journey.”
23 tn Or “from [being].”
24 tn That is, Samuel.
25 tn Heb “Who are my relatives, the clan of my father?” The term חַי (khay), traditionally understood as “my life,” is here a rare word meaning “family, kinfolk” (see HALOT 309 s.v. III חַי). The phrase “clan of my father” may be a scribal gloss explaining the referent of this rare word.
26 tn Heb “in the ears of.”
27 tn Heb “and I must surely sit with the king to eat.” The infinitive absolute appears before the finite verb for emphasis.
28 tn Heb “go forth.”
29 tc The number is confused in the Greek
30 tn Heb “and the heart of Nabal was good upon him”; NASB, NRSV “Nabal’s heart was merry within him”; NIV “he was in high spirits”; NCV, TEV “was in a good mood”; CEV “was very drunk and feeling good.”
31 tn Heb “and she did not tell him a thing, small or large.”
32 tn Heb “gods.” The modifying participle (translated “coming up”) is plural, suggesting that underworld spirits are the referent. But in the following verse Saul understands the plural word to refer to a singular being. The reference is to the spirit of Samuel.