1 Samuel 8:12

8:12 He will appoint for himself leaders of thousands and leaders of fifties, 1  as well as those who plow his ground, reap his harvest, and make his weapons of war and his chariot equipment.

1 Samuel 14:52

14:52 There was fierce war with the Philistines all the days of Saul. So whenever Saul saw anyone who was a warrior or a brave individual, he would conscript him.

1 Samuel 18:5

18:5 On every mission on which Saul sent him, David achieved success. So Saul appointed him over the men of war. This pleased not only all the army, but also Saul’s servants. 2 

1 Samuel 28:1

The Witch of Endor

28:1 In those days the Philistines gathered their troops 3  for war in order to fight Israel. Achish said to David, “You should fully understand that you and your men must go with me into the battle.” 4 

1 tc The numbers of v. 12 are confused in the Greek and Syriac versions. For “fifties” the LXX has “hundreds.” The Syriac Peshitta has “heads of thousands and heads of hundreds and heads of fifties and heads of tens,” perhaps reflecting influence from Deut 1:15.

2 tn Heb “it was good in the eyes of all the people and also in the eyes of the servants of Saul.”

3 tn Heb “their camps.”

4 tc The translation follows the LXX (εἰς πόλεμον, eis polemon) and a Qumran ms מלחמה במלחמה ([m]lkhmh) bammilkhamah (“in the battle”) rather than the MT’s בַמַּחֲנֶה (bammakhaneh, “in the camp”; cf. NASB). While the MT reading is not impossible here, and although admittedly it is the harder reading, the variant fits the context better. The MT can be explained as a scribal error caused in part by the earlier occurrence of “camp” in this verse.