4:3 When the army 1 came back to the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why did the Lord let us be defeated today by 2 the Philistines? Let’s take with us the ark of the covenant of the Lord from Shiloh. When it is with us, it will save us 3 from the hand of our enemies.
29:4 But the leaders of the Philistines became angry with him and said 8 to him, “Send the man back! Let him return to the place that you assigned him! Don’t let him go down with us into the battle, for he might become 9 our adversary in the battle. What better way to please his lord than with the heads of these men? 10
1 tn Or “people.”
2 tn Heb “before.”
3 tn Heb “and it will come in our midst and it will save.” After the cohortative (see “let’s take”), the prefixed verbal forms with the prefixed conjunction indicate purpose or result. The translation understands the ark to be the subject of the third masculine singular verbs, although it is possible to understand the Lord as the subject. In the latter case, one should translate, “when he is with us, he will save us.”
4 tn Heb “plunder.”
5 tn Heb “until the light of the morning.”
6 tn Heb “and there will not be left among them a man.”
7 tn Heb “all that is good in your eyes.” So also in v. 40.
8 tn Heb “and the leaders of the Philistines said.”
9 tn Heb “so that he might not become.”
10 tn Or perhaps, “our men.” On this use of the demonstrative pronoun see Joüon 2:532 §143.e.