1 Samuel 2:22

2:22 Now Eli was very old when he heard about everything that his sons used to do to all the people of Israel ¹  and how they used to have sex with ²  the women who were stationed at the entrance to the tent of meeting.

1 Samuel 2:29

2:29 Why are you ³  scorning my sacrifice and my offering that I commanded for my dwelling place? ⁴  You have honored your sons more than you have me by having made yourselves fat from the best parts of all the offerings of my people Israel.’

1 Samuel 5:11

5:11 So they assembled ⁵  all the leaders of the Philistines and said, “Get the ark of the God of Israel out of here! Let it go back to its own place so that it won’t kill us ⁶  and our ⁷  people!” The terror ⁸  of death was throughout the entire city; God was attacking them very severely there. ⁹ 

1 Samuel 6:15

6:15 The Levites took down the ark of the Lord and the chest that was with it, which contained the gold objects. They placed them near the big stone. At that time the people of Beth Shemesh offered burnt offerings and made sacrifices to the Lord.

1 Samuel 7:3

7:3 Samuel said to all the people of Israel, “If you are really turning to the Lord with all your hearts, remove from among you the foreign gods and the images of Ashtoreth. ¹⁰  Give your hearts to the Lord and serve only him. Then he will deliver you ¹¹  from the hand of the Philistines.”

1 Samuel 9:13

9:13 When you enter the town, you can find him before he goes up to the high place to eat. The people won’t eat until he arrives, for he must bless the sacrifice. Once that happens, those who have been invited will eat. Now go on up, for ¹²  this is the time when you can find him!”

1 Samuel 9:24

9:24 So the cook picked up the leg and brought it and set it in front of Saul. Samuel ¹³  said, “What was kept is now set before you! Eat, for it has been kept for you for this meeting time, from the time I said, ‘I have invited the people.’” So Saul ate with Samuel that day.

1 Samuel 11:7

11:7 He took a pair ¹⁴  of oxen and cut them up. Then he sent the pieces throughout the territory of Israel by the hand of messengers, who said, “Whoever does not go out after Saul and after Samuel should expect this to be done to his oxen!” Then the terror of the Lord fell on the people, and they went out as one army. ¹⁵ 

1 Samuel 13:2

13:2 Saul selected for himself three thousand men from Israel. Two thousand of these were with Saul at Micmash and in the hill country of Bethel; ¹⁶  the remaining thousand were with Jonathan at Gibeah in the territory of Benjamin. ¹⁷  He sent all the rest of the people back home. ¹⁸ 

1 Samuel 13:14

13:14 But now your kingdom will not continue! The Lord has sought out ¹⁹  for himself a man who is loyal to him ²⁰  and the Lord has appointed ²¹  him to be leader over his people, for you have not obeyed what the Lord commanded you.”

1 Samuel 14:41

14:41 Then Saul said, “O Lord God of Israel! If this sin has been committed by me or by my son Jonathan, then, O Lord God of Israel, respond with Urim. But if this sin has been committed by your people Israel, respond with Thummim.” ²²  Then Jonathan and Saul were indicated by lot, while the army was exonerated. ²³ 

1 Samuel 16:7

16:7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Don’t be impressed by ²⁴  his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. God does not view things the way men do. ²⁵  People look on the outward appearance, ²⁶  but the Lord looks at the heart.”

1 Samuel 26:16

26:16 This failure on your part isn’t good! ²⁷  As surely as the Lord lives, you people who have not protected your lord, the Lord’s chosen one, are as good as dead! ²⁸  Now look where the king’s spear and the jug of water that was by his head are!”

1 Samuel 31:4

31:4 Saul said to his armor bearer, “Draw your sword and stab me with it! Otherwise these uncircumcised people will come, stab me, and torture me.” But his armor bearer refused to do it, because he was very afraid. So Saul took his sword and fell on it.

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¹ tn Heb “to all Israel.”

² tn Heb “lie with.”

³ tc The MT has a plural “you” here, but the LXX and a Qumran ms have the singular. The singular may be the correct reading; the verb “you have honored” later in the verse is singular even in the MT. However, it is more probable that the Lord here refers to Eli and his sons. Note the plural in the second half of the verse (“you have made yourselves fat”).

⁴ tn Heb “which I commanded, dwelling place.” The noun is functioning as an adverbial accusative in relation to the verb. Since God’s dwelling place/sanctuary is in view, the pronoun “my” is supplied in the translation.

⁵ tn Heb “and they sent and gathered.”

⁶ tn Heb “me.”

⁷ tn Heb “my.”

⁸ tn Or “panic.”

⁹ tn Heb “the hand of God was very heavy there.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “the Ashtarot” (plural; also in the following verse). The words “images of” are supplied for clarity.

sn The Semitic goddess Astarte was associated with love and war in the ancient Near East. The presence of Ashtarot in Israel is a sign of pervasive pagan and idolatrous influences; hence Samuel calls for their removal. See 1 Sam 31:10, where the Philistines deposit the armor of the deceased Saul in the temple of the Ashtarot, and 1 Kgs 11:5, 33; 2 Kgs 23:13, where Solomon is faulted for worshiping the Ashtarot.

¹¹ tn Following imperatives, the jussive verbal form with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose/result.

¹² tc The MT has “him” (אֹתוֹ, ’oto) here, in addition to the “him” at the end of the verse. The ancient versions attest to only one occurrence of the pronoun, although it is possible that this is due to translation technique rather than to their having a Hebrew text with the pronoun used only once. The present translation assumes textual duplication in the MT and does not attempt to represent the pronoun twice. However, for a defense of the MT here, with the suggested translation “for him just now – you will find him,” see S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, 72-73.

¹³ tn Heb “he” (also in v. 25); the referent (Samuel) has been specified in both places in the translation for clarity.

¹⁴ tn Heb “yoke.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “like one man.”

¹⁶ map For location see Map4-G4; Map5-C1; Map6-E3; Map7-D1; Map8-G3.

¹⁷ tn Heb “at Gibeah of Benjamin.” The words “in the territory” are supplied in the translation for clarity.

¹⁸ tn Heb “each one to his tents.”

¹⁹ 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.

²⁰ 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.

²¹ tn Heb “commanded.”

²² tc Heb “to the Lord God of Israel: ‘Give what is perfect.’” The Hebrew textual tradition has accidentally omitted several words here. The present translation follows the LXX (as do several English versions, cf. NAB, NRSV, TEV). See P. K. McCarter, I Samuel (AB), 247-48, and R. W. Klein, 1 Samuel (WBC), 132.

sn The Urim and Thummim were used for lot casting in ancient Israel. Their exact identity is uncertain; they may have been specially marked stones drawn from a bag. See Exod 28:30; Lev 8:8, and Deut 33:8, as well as the discussion in R. W. Klein, 1 Samuel (WBC), 140.

²³ tn Heb “went out.”

²⁴ tn Heb “don’t look toward.”

²⁵ tn Heb “for not that which the man sees.” The translation follows the LXX, which reads, “for not as man sees does God see.” The MT has suffered from homoioteleuton or homoioarcton. See P. K. McCarter, I Samuel (AB), 274.

²⁶ tn Heb “to the eyes.”

²⁷ tn Heb “Not good [is] this thing which you have done.”

²⁸ tn Heb “you are sons of death.”