Discovery Box1 Samuel 13:8-13 
Context13:8 He waited for seven days, the time period indicated by Samuel. 1 But Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the army began to abandon Saul. 2
13:9 So Saul said, “Bring me the burnt offering and the peace offerings.” Then he offered a burnt offering. 13:10 Just when he had finished offering the burnt offering, Samuel appeared on the scene. Saul went out to meet him and to greet him. 3
13:11 But Samuel said, “What have you done?” Saul replied, “When I saw that the army had started to abandon me 4 and that you didn’t come at the appointed time and that the Philistines had assembled at Micmash, 13:12 I thought, 5 ‘Now the Philistines will come down on me at Gilgal and I have not sought the Lord’s favor.’ So I felt obligated 6 to offer the burnt offering.”
13:13 Then Samuel said to Saul, “You have made a foolish choice! You have not obeyed 7 the commandment that the Lord your God gave 8 you. Had you done that, the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever!
1 tn This apparently refers to the instructions given by Samuel in 1 Sam 10:8. If so, several years had passed. On the relationship between chs. 10 and 13, see V. P. Long, The Art of Biblical History (FCI), 201-23.
2 tn Heb “dispersed from upon him”; NAB, NRSV “began to slip away.”
3 tn Heb “to bless him.”
4 tn Heb “dispersed from upon me.”
5 tn Heb “said.”
6 tn Or “I forced myself” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV, CEV); NAB “So in my anxiety I offered”; NIV “I felt compelled.”
7 tn Or “kept.”
8 tn Heb “commanded.”
