1 Samuel 4:5

4:5 When the ark of the covenant of the Lord arrived at the camp, all Israel shouted so loudly ¹  that the ground shook.

1 Samuel 4:7

4:7 The Philistines were scared because they thought that gods had come to the camp. ²  They said, “Too bad for ³  us! We’ve never seen anything like this!

1 Samuel 13:17

13:17 Raiding bands went out from the camp of the Philistines in three groups. One band turned toward the road leading to Ophrah by the land of Shual;

1 Samuel 14:19

14:19 While ⁴  Saul spoke to the priest, the panic in the Philistines’ camp was becoming greater and greater. So Saul said to the priest, “Withdraw your hand!”

1 Samuel 17:4

17:4 Then a champion ⁵  came out from the camp of the Philistines. His name was Goliath; he was from Gath. He was close to seven feet tall. ⁶ 

1 Samuel 17:17

17:17 Jesse said to his son David, “Take your brothers this ephah of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread; go quickly ⁷  to the camp to your brothers.

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¹ tn Heb “shouted [with] a great shout.”

² tn The Hebrew text has a direct quote, “because they said, ‘Gods have come to the camp.’” Even though the verb translated “have come” is singular, the following subject should be taken as plural (“gods”), as v. 8 indicates. Some emend the verb to a plural form.

³ tn Traditionally “woe to.” They thought disaster was imminent.

⁴ tn Or perhaps “until.”

⁵ tn Heb “the man of the space between the two [armies].” See v. 23.

⁶ tc Heb “his height was six cubits and a span” (cf. KJV, NASB, NRSV). A cubit was approximately eighteen inches, a span nine inches. So, according to the Hebrew tradition, Goliath was about nine feet, nine inches tall (cf. NIV, CEV, NLT “over nine feet”; NCV “nine feet, four inches”; TEV “nearly 3 metres”). However, some Greek witnesses, Josephus, and a manuscript of 1 Samuel from Qumran read “four cubits and a span” here, that is, about six feet, nine inches (cf. NAB “six and a half feet”). This seems more reasonable; it is likely that Goliath’s height was exaggerated as the story was retold. See P. K. McCarter, I Samuel (AB), 286, 291.

⁷ tn Heb “run.”