Discovery Box1 Samuel 1:24 
Context1:24 Once she had weaned him, she took him up with her, along with three bulls, an ephah 1 of flour, and a container 2 of wine. She brought him to the Lord’s house at Shiloh, even though he was young. 3
1 Samuel 2:13
Context2:13 Now the priests would always treat the people in the following way: 4 Whenever anyone was making a sacrifice, while the meat was boiling, the priest’s attendant would come with a three-pronged fork 5 in his hand.
1 Samuel 2:21
Context2:21 So the Lord graciously attended to Hannah, and she was able to conceive and gave birth to three sons and two daughters. The boy Samuel grew up at the Lord’s sanctuary. 6
1 Samuel 9:20
Context9:20 Don’t be concerned 7 about the donkeys that you lost three days ago, for they have been found. Whom does all Israel desire? Is it not you, and all your father’s family?” 8
1 Samuel 11:11
Context11:11 The next day Saul placed the people in three groups. They went to the Ammonite camp during the morning watch and struck them 9 down until the hottest part of the day. The survivors scattered; no two of them remained together.
1 Samuel 20:41
Context20:41 When the servant had left, David got up from beside the mound, 10 knelt 11 with his face to the ground, and bowed three times. Then they kissed each other and they both wept, especially David.
1 Samuel 25:2
Context25:2 There was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel. This man was very wealthy; 12 he owned three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. At that time he was shearing his sheep in Carmel.
1 Samuel 30:13
Context30:13 David said to him, “To whom do you belong, and where are you from?” The young man said, “I am an Egyptian, the servant of an Amalekite man. My master abandoned me when I was ill for three days.
1 sn The ephah was a standard dry measure in OT times; it was the equivalent of one-tenth of the OT measure known as a homer. The ephah was equal to approximately one-half to two-thirds of a bushel.
2 tn The Hebrew term translated “container” may denote either a clay storage jar (cf. CEV “a clay jar full of wine”) or a leather container (cf. NAB, NIV, NRSV “a skin of wine”; NCV “a leather bag filled with (full of TEV) wine.”
3 tc Heb “and the boy was a boy.” If the MT is correct the meaning apparently is that the boy was quite young at the time of these events. On the other hand, some scholars have suspected a textual problem, emending the text to read either “and the boy was with them” (so LXX) or “and the boy was with her” (a conjectural emendation). In spite of the difficulty it seems best to stay with the MT here.
4 tn Heb “the habit of the priests with the people [was this].”
5 sn The Hebrew word occurs only twice in the OT, here and again in v. 14. Its exact meaning is not entirely clear, although from the context it appears to be a sacrificial tool used for retrieving things from boiling water.
6 tn Heb “with the
7 tn Heb “do not fix your heart.”
8 tn Heb “and all the house of your father.”
9 tn Heb “Ammon.” By metonymy the name “Ammon” is used collectively for the soldiers in the Ammonite army.
10 tc The translation follows the LXX in reading “the mound,” rather than the MT’s “the south.” It is hard to see what meaning the MT reading “from beside the south” would have as it stands, since such a location lacks specificity. The NIV treats it as an elliptical expression, rendering the phrase as “from the south side of the stone (rock NCV).” This is perhaps possible, but it seems better to follow the LXX rather than the MT here.
11 tn Heb “fell.”
12 tn Heb “great.”
