1 Samuel 5:4

5:4 But when they got up early the following day, Dagon was again lying on the ground before the ark of the Lord. The head of Dagon and his two hands were sheared off and were lying at the threshold. Only Dagon’s body was left intact. ¹ 

1 Samuel 6:18

6:18 The gold mice corresponded in number to all the Philistine cities of the five leaders, from the fortified cities to hamlet villages, to greater Abel, ²  where they positioned the ark of the Lord until this very day in the field of Joshua who was from Beth Shemesh.

1 Samuel 9:24

9:24 So the cook picked up the leg and brought it and set it in front of Saul. Samuel ³  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 14:24

Jonathan Violates Saul’s Oath

14:24 Now the men of Israel were hard pressed that day, for Saul had made the army agree to this oath: “Cursed be the man who eats food before evening! I will get my vengeance on my enemies!” So no one in the army ate anything.

1 Samuel 14:36

14:36 Saul said, “Let’s go down after the Philistines at night; we will rout ⁴  them until the break of day. ⁵  We won’t leave any of them alive!” ⁶  They replied, “Do whatever seems best to you.” ⁷  But the priest said, “Let’s approach God here.”

1 Samuel 20:12

20:12 Jonathan said to David, “The Lord God of Israel is my witness. ⁸  I will feel out my father about this time the day after tomorrow. If he is favorably inclined toward David, will I not then send word to you and let you know? ⁹ 

1 Samuel 21:6

21:6 So the priest gave him holy bread, for there was no bread there other than the bread of the Presence. It had been removed from before the Lord in order to replace it with hot bread on the day it had been taken away.

1 Samuel 24:4

24:4 David’s men said to him, “This is the day about which the Lord said to you, ‘I will give your enemy into your hand, and you can do to him whatever seems appropriate to you.’” ¹⁰  So David got up and quietly cut off an edge of Saul’s robe.

1 Samuel 24:10

24:10 Today your own eyes see how the Lord delivered you – this very day – into my hands in the cave. Some told me to kill you, but I had pity ¹¹  on you and said, ‘I will not extend my hand against my lord, for he is the Lord’s chosen one.’ ¹² 

1 Samuel 29:3

29:3 The leaders of the Philistines asked, “What about these Hebrews?” Achish said to the leaders of the Philistines, “Isn’t this David, the servant of King Saul of Israel, who has been with me for quite some time? ¹³  I have found no fault with him from the day of his defection until the present time!” ¹⁴ 

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 you ¹⁵  serving ¹⁶  with me in the army. ¹⁷  I have found no fault with you from the day that you first came to me until the present time. But in the opinion ¹⁸  of the leaders, you are not reliable. ¹⁹ 

1 Samuel 29:8

29:8 But David said to Achish, “What have I done? What have you found in your servant from the day that I first came into your presence until the present time, that I shouldn’t go and fight the enemies of my lord the king?”

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¹ tc Heb “only Dagon was left.” We should probably read the word גֵּו (gev, “back”) before Dagon, understanding it to have the sense of the similar word גְּוִיָּה (gÿviyyah, “body”). This variant is supported by the following evidence: The LXX has ἡ ῥάχις (Jh rJacis, “the back” or “trunk”); the Syriac Peshitta has wegusmeh (“and the body of”); the Targum has gupyeh (“the body of”); the Vulgate has truncus (“the trunk of,” cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV, NLT). On the strength of this evidence the present translation employs the phrase “Dagon’s body.”

² tc A few Hebrew mss and the LXX read “villages; the large rock…[is witness] until this very day.”

³ tn Heb “he” (also in v. 25); the referent (Samuel) has been specified in both places in the translation for clarity.

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 tc The Hebrew text has simply “the Lord God of Israel.” On the basis of the Syriac version, many reconstruct the text to read “[is] my witness,” which may have fallen out of the text by homoioarcton (an error which is entirely possible if עֵד, ’ed, “witness,” immediately followed ַָדוִד, “David,” in the original text).

⁹ tn Heb “and uncover your ear.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “is good in your eyes.”

¹¹ tn Heb “it had pity,” apparently with the understood subject being “my eye,” in accordance with a common expression.

¹² tn Heb “anointed.”

¹³ tn Heb “these days or these years.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “from the day of his falling [away] until this day.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “it is good in my eyes.” Cf. v. 7.

¹⁶ tn Heb “your going forth and your coming in.” The expression is a merism.

¹⁷ tn Heb “camp.”

¹⁸ tn Heb “eyes.”

¹⁹ tn Heb “good.”