Discovery Box1 Samuel 2:31-33 
Context2:31 In fact, days are coming when I will remove your strength 1 and the strength 2 of your father’s house. There will not be an old man in your house! 2:32 You will see trouble in my dwelling place! 3 Israel will experience blessings, 4 but there will not be an old man in your 5 house for all time. 6 2:33 Any one of you that I do not cut off from my altar, I will cause your 7 eyes to fail 8 and will cause you grief. 9 All of those born to your family 10 will die in the prime of life. 11
1 tn Heb “chop off your arm.” The arm here symbolizes strength and activity.
2 tn Heb “arm.”
3 tn Heb “you will see [the] trouble of [the] dwelling place.” Since God’s dwelling place/sanctuary is in view, the pronoun is supplied in the translation (see v. 29).
4 tn Heb “in all which he does good with Israel.”
5 tc The LXX and a Qumran manuscript have the first person pronoun “my” here.
6 tn Heb “all the days.”
7 tc The LXX, a Qumran
8 tn Heb “to cause your eyes to fail.” Elsewhere this verb, when used of eyes, refers to bloodshot eyes resulting from weeping, prolonged staring, or illness (see Lev 26:16; Pss 69:3; 119:82; Lam 2:11; 4:17).
9 tn Heb “and to cause your soul grief.”
10 tn Heb “and all the increase of your house.”
11 tc The text is difficult. The MT literally says “they will die [as] men.” Apparently the meaning is that they will be cut off in the prime of their life without reaching old age. The LXX and a Qumran
