1 Samuel 4:3-4

4:3 When the army¹ came back to the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why did the Lord let us be defeated today by² 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 us³ from the hand of our enemies.

4:4 So the army⁴ sent to Shiloh, and they took from there the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts who sits between the cherubim. Now the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phineas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.

1 Samuel 11:7

11:7 He took a pair⁵ 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.⁶

1 Samuel 12:9

12:9 “But they forgot the Lord their God, so he gave⁷ them into the hand of Sisera, the general in command of Hazor’s⁸ army,⁹ and into the hand of the Philistines and into the hand of the king of Moab, and they fought against them.

1 Samuel 14:3

14:3 Now Ahijah was carrying¹⁰ an ephod. He was the son of Ahitub, who was the brother of Ichabod and a son of Phineas, son of Eli, the priest of the Lord in Shiloh. The army was unaware that Jonathan had left.

1 Samuel 14:34

14:34 Then Saul said, “Scatter out among the army and say to them, ‘Each of you bring to me your ox and sheep and slaughter them in this spot and eat. But don’t sin against the Lord by eating the blood.” So that night each one brought his ox and slaughtered it there.¹¹

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.”¹² Then Jonathan and Saul were indicated by lot, while the army was exonerated.¹³

1 Samuel 15:9

15:9 However, Saul and the army spared Agag, along with the best of the flock, the cattle, the fatlings,¹⁴ and the lambs, as well as everything else that was of value.¹⁵ They were not willing to slaughter them. But they did slaughter everything that was despised¹⁶ and worthless.

1 Samuel 17:20

17:20 So David got up early in the morning and entrusted the flock to someone else who would watch over it.¹⁷ After loading up, he went just as Jesse had instructed him. He arrived at the camp¹⁸ as the army was going out to the battle lines shouting its battle cry.

1 Samuel 17:46

17:46 This very day the Lord will deliver you into my hand! I will strike you down and cut off your head. This day I will give the corpses of the Philistine army to the birds of the sky and the wild animals of the land. Then all the land will realize that Israel has a God

1 Samuel 17:55

17:55 ¹⁹Now as Saul watched David going out to fight the Philistine, he asked Abner, the general in command of the army, “Whose son is this young man, Abner?” Abner replied, “As surely as you live, O king, I don’t know.”

1 Samuel 29:6

29:6 So Achish summoned David and said to him, “As surely as the Lord lives, you are an honest man, and I am glad to have you²⁰ serving²¹ with me in the army.²² I have found no fault with you from the day that you first came to me until the present time. But in the opinion²³ of the leaders, you are not reliable.²⁴

¹tn Or “people.”

²tn Heb “before.”

³tn 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.”

⁴tn Or “people.”

⁵tn Heb “yoke.”

⁶tn Heb “like one man.”

⁷tn Heb “sold” (so KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NAB “he allowed them to fall into the clutches of Sisera”; NLT “he let them be conquered by Sisera.”

⁸map For location see Map1-D2; Map2-D3; Map3-A2; Map4-C1.

⁹tn Heb “captain of the host of Hazor.”

¹⁰tn Heb “bearing.” Many English versions understand this verb to mean “wearing” (cf. KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NLT).

¹¹tn Heb “and all the army brought near, each his ox by his hand, and they slaughtered there.”

¹²tc 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.

¹³tn Heb “went out.”

¹⁴tn The Hebrew text is difficult here. We should probably read וְהַמַּשְׂמַנִּים (vÿhammasmannim, “the fat ones”) rather than the MT וְהַמִּשְׂנִים (vÿhammisnim, “the second ones”). However, if the MT is retained, the sense may be as the Jewish commentator Kimchi supposed: the second-born young, thought to be better than the firstlings. (For discussion see S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, 123-24.)

¹⁵tn Heb “good.”

¹⁶tc The MT has here the very odd form נְמִבְזָה (nÿmivzah), but this is apparently due to a scribal error. The translation follows instead the Niphal participle נִבְזָה (nivzah).

¹⁷tn Heb “to a guard”; KJV, NASB, NRSV “with a keeper”; NIV “with a shepherd.” Since in contemporary English “guard” sounds like someone at a military installation or a prison, the present translation uses “to someone else who would watch over it.”

¹⁸tn Or “entrenchment.”

¹⁹tc Most LXX mss lack 17:55–18:5.

²⁰tn Heb “it is good in my eyes.” Cf. v. 7.

²¹tn Heb “your going forth and your coming in.” The expression is a merism.

²²tn Heb “camp.”

²³tn Heb “eyes.”

²⁴tn Heb “good.”