1 Samuel 4:7

4:7 The Philistines were scared because they thought that gods had come to the camp. ¹  They said, “Too bad for ²  us! We’ve never seen anything like this!

1 Samuel 7:8

7:8 The Israelites said to Samuel, “Keep ³  crying out to the Lord our ⁴  God so that he may save us ⁵  from the hand of the Philistines!”

1 Samuel 7:12

7:12 Samuel took a stone and placed it between Mizpah and Shen. ⁶  He named it Ebenezer, ⁷  saying, “Up to here the Lord has helped us.”

1 Samuel 8:19

8:19 But the people refused to heed Samuel’s warning. ⁸  Instead they said, “No! There will be a king over us!

1 Samuel 10:27--11:1

10:27 But some wicked men ⁹  said, “How can this man save us?” They despised him and did not even bring him a gift. But Saul said nothing about it. ¹⁰ 

Saul Comes to the Aid of Jabesh

11:1 ¹¹ Nahash ¹²  the Ammonite marched ¹³  against Jabesh Gilead. All the men of Jabesh Gilead said to Nahash, “Make a treaty with us and we will serve you.”

1 Samuel 11:10

11:10 The men of Jabesh said, “Tomorrow we will come out to you ¹⁴  and you can do with us whatever you wish.” ¹⁵ 

1 Samuel 11:12

Saul Is Established as King

11:12 Then the people said to Samuel, “Who were the ones asking, ‘Will Saul reign over us?’ Hand over those men so we may execute them!”

1 Samuel 14:9

14:9 If they say to us, ‘Stay put until we approach you,’ we will stay ¹⁶  right there and not go up to them.

1 Samuel 24:12

24:12 May the Lord judge between the two of us, and may the Lord vindicate me over you, but my hand will not be against you.

1 Samuel 25:16

25:16 Both night and day they were a protective wall for us the entire time we were with them, while we were tending our flocks.

1 Samuel 25:40

25:40 So the servants of David went to Abigail at Carmel and said to her, “David has sent us to you to bring you back to be his wife.”

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¹ 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.

² tn Traditionally “woe to.” They thought disaster was imminent.

³ tn Heb “don’t stop.”

⁴ tc The LXX reads “your God” rather than the MT’s “our God.”

⁵ tn After the negated jussive, the prefixed verbal form with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose/result.

⁶ tn Cf. NAB, NRSV, NLT “Jeshanah.”

⁷ sn The name Ebenezer (אֶבֶן הָעָזֶר) means “stone of help” in Hebrew (cf. TEV); NLT adds the meaning parenthetically after the name.

⁸ tn Heb “and the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel.”

⁹ tn Heb “sons of worthlessness” (see 2:12).

¹⁰ tc In place of the MT (“and it was like one being silent”) the LXX has “after about a month,” taking the expression with the first part of the following chapter rather than with 10:27. Some Hebrew support for this reading appears in the corrected hand of a Qumran ms of Samuel, which has here “about a month.” However, it seems best to stay with the MT here even though it is difficult.

¹¹ tc 4QSam^a and Josephus (Ant. 6.68-71) attest to a longer form of text at this point. The addition explains Nahash’s practice of enemy mutilation, and by so doing provides a smoother transition to the following paragraph than is found in the MT. The NRSV adopts this reading, with the following English translation: “Now Nahash, king of the Ammonites, had been grievously oppressing the Gadites and the Reubenites. He would gouge out the right eye of each of them and would not grant Israel a deliverer. No one was left of the Israelites across the Jordan whose right eye Nahash, king of the Ammonites, had not gouged out. But there were seven thousand men who had escaped from the Ammonites and had entered Jabesh-gilead.” This reading should not be lightly dismissed; it may in fact provide a text superior to that of the MT and the ancient versions. But the external evidence for it is so limited as to induce caution; the present translation instead follows the MT. However, for a reasonable case for including this reading in the text see the discussions in P. K. McCarter, I Samuel (AB), 199, and R. W. Klein, 1 Samuel (WBC), 103.

¹² sn The name “Nahash” means “serpent” in Hebrew.

¹³ tn Heb “went up and camped”; NIV, NRSV “went up and besieged.”

¹⁴ tn The second masculine plural forms in this quotation indicate that Nahash and his army are addressed.

¹⁵ tn Heb “according to all that is good in your eyes.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “stand.”