1 Samuel 2:16

2:16 If the individual said to him, “First let the fat be burned away, and then take for yourself whatever you wish,” he would say, “No! ¹  Hand it over right now! If you don’t, I will take it forcibly!”

1 Samuel 6:12

6:12 Then the cows went directly on the road to Beth Shemesh. They went along, mooing as they went; they turned neither to the right nor to the left. The leaders of the Philistines were walking along behind them all the way to the border of Beth Shemesh.

1 Samuel 9:9

9:9 (Now it used to be in Israel that whenever someone went to inquire of God he would say, “Come on, let’s go to the seer.” For today’s prophet used to be called a seer.)

1 Samuel 9:21

9:21 Saul replied, “Am I not a Benjaminite, from the smallest of Israel’s tribes, and is not my family clan the smallest of all the tribes of Benjamin? Why do you speak to me in this way?”

1 Samuel 10:5

10:5 Afterward you will go to Gibeah of God, where there are Philistine officials. ²  When you enter the town, you will meet a company of prophets coming down from the high place. They will have harps, tambourines, flutes, and lyres, and they will be prophesying.

1 Samuel 17:8

17:8 Goliath ³  stood and called to Israel’s troops, ⁴  “Why do you come out to prepare for battle? Am I not the Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose ⁵  for yourselves a man so he may come down ⁶  to me!

1 Samuel 17:20

17:20 So David got up early in the morning and entrusted the flock to someone else who would watch over it. ⁷  After loading up, he went just as Jesse had instructed him. He arrived at the camp ⁸  as the army was going out to the battle lines shouting its battle cry.

1 Samuel 17:40

17:40 He took his staff in his hand, picked out five smooth stones from the stream, placed them in the pouch ⁹  of his shepherd’s bag, took his sling in hand, and approached the Philistine.

1 Samuel 20:29

20:29 He said, ‘Permit me to go, ¹⁰  for we are having a family sacrifice in the city, and my brother urged ¹¹  me to be there. So now, if I have found favor with you, let me go ¹²  to see my brothers.’ For that reason he has not come to the king’s table.”

1 Samuel 21:11

21:11 The servants of Achish said to him, “Isn’t this David, the king of the land? Isn’t he the one that they sing about when they dance, saying,

‘Saul struck down his thousands,

But David his tens of thousands’?”

1 Samuel 22:8

22:8 For all of you have conspired against me! No one informs me ¹³  when my own son makes an agreement with this son of Jesse! Not one of you feels sorry for me or informs me that my own son has commissioned my own servant to hide in ambush against me, as is the case today!”

1 Samuel 22:13

22:13 Saul said to him, “Why have you conspired against me, you and this son of Jesse? You gave ¹⁴  him bread and a sword and inquired of God on his behalf, so that he opposes ¹⁵  me and waits in ambush, as is the case today!”

1 Samuel 23:14

23:14 David stayed in the strongholds that were in the desert and in the hill country of the desert of Ziph. Saul looked for him all the time, ¹⁶  but God did not deliver David ¹⁷  into his hand.

1 Samuel 24:3

24:3 He came to the sheepfolds by the road, where there was a cave. Saul went into it to relieve himself. ¹⁸ 

Now David and his men were sitting in the recesses of the cave.

1 Samuel 24:6

24:6 He said to his men, “May the Lord keep me far away from doing such a thing to my lord, who is the Lord’s chosen one, ¹⁹  by extending my hand against him. After all, ²⁰  he is the Lord’s chosen one.” ²¹ 

1 Samuel 25:17

25:17 Now be aware of this, and see what you can do. For disaster has been planned for our lord and his entire household. ²²  He is such a wicked person ²³  that no one tells him anything!”

1 Samuel 25:21

25:21 Now David had been thinking, ²⁴  “In vain I guarded everything that belonged to this man in the desert. I didn’t take anything from him. But he has repaid my good with evil.

1 Samuel 25:26

25:26 “Now, my lord, as surely as the Lord lives and as surely as you live, it is the Lord who has kept you from shedding blood and taking matters into your own hands. Now may your enemies and those who seek to harm my lord be like Nabal.

1 Samuel 28:1

The Witch of Endor

28:1 In those days the Philistines gathered their troops ²⁵  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.” ²⁶ 

1 Samuel 28:3

28:3 Now Samuel had died, and all Israel had lamented over him and had buried him in Ramah, his hometown. ²⁷  In the meantime Saul had removed the mediums ²⁸  and magicians ²⁹  from the land.

1 Samuel 30:16

30:16 So he took David ³⁰  down, and they found them spread out over the land. They were eating and drinking and enjoying themselves because of all the loot ³¹  they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah.

[2:16]  ¹ tc The translation follows the Qere and many medieval Hebrew mss (“no”) rather than the Kethib and MT, which read “to him.”

[10:5]  ² tn Or “sentries.” Some translate “outpost” (NIV) or “garrison” (NAB, NRSV, NLT) here (see 1 Sam 13:3). The noun is plural in the Hebrew text, but the LXX and other ancient witnesses read a singular noun here.

[17:8]  ³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Goliath) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[17:8]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew text adds “and said to them.”

[17:8]  ⁵ tc The translation follows the ancient versions in reading “choose,” (from the root בחר, bkhr), rather than the MT. The verb in MT (ברה, brh) elsewhere means “to eat food”; the sense of “to choose,” required here by the context, is not attested for this root. The MT apparently reflects an early scribal error.

[17:8]  ⁶ tn Following the imperative, the prefixed verbal form (either an imperfect or jussive) with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose/result here.

[17:20]  ⁷ tn Heb “to a guard”; KJV, NASB, NRSV “with a keeper”; NIV “with a shepherd.” Since in contemporary English “guard” sounds like someone at a military installation or a prison, the present translation uses “to someone else who would watch over it.”

[17:20]  ⁸ tn Or “entrenchment.”

[17:40]  ⁹ tn This Hebrew word occurs only here and its exact meaning is not entirely clear. It refers to a receptacle of some sort and apparently was a common part of a shepherd’s equipment. Here it serves as a depository for the stones that David will use in his sling.

[20:29]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “send me.”

[20:29]  ¹¹ tn Heb “commanded.”

[20:29]  ¹² tn Heb “be released [from duty].”

[22:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “uncovers my ear.”

[22:13]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “by giving.”

[22:13]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “rises up against.”

[23:14]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “all the days.”

[23:14]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “him”; the referent (David) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[24:3]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “to cover his feet,” an idiom (euphemism) for relieving oneself (cf. NAB “to ease nature”).

[24:6]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “anointed.”

[24:6]  ²⁰ tn Or “for.”

[24:6]  ²¹ tn Heb “anointed.”

[25:17]  ²² tn Heb “all his house” (so ASV, NRSV); NAB, NLT “his whole family.”

[25:17]  ²³ tn Heb “he is a son of worthlessness.”

[25:21]  ²⁴ tn Heb “said.”

[28:1]  ²⁵ tn Heb “their camps.”

[28:1]  ²⁶ 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.

[28:3]  ²⁷ tn Heb “in Ramah, even in his city.”

[28:3]  ²⁸ tn The Hebrew term translated “mediums” actually refers to a pit used by a magician to conjure up underworld spirits (see 2 Kgs 21:6). In v. 7 the witch of Endor is called the owner of a ritual pit. See H. Hoffner, “Second Millennium Antecedents to the Hebrew ’OñBù,” JBL 86 (1967): 385-401. Here the term refers by metonymy to the owner of such a pit (see H. A. Hoffner, TDOT 1:133).

[28:3]  ²⁹ sn See Isa 8:19 for another reference to magicians who attempted to conjure up underworld spirits.

[30:16]  ³⁰ tn Heb “him”; the referent (David) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[30:16]  ³¹ tn Heb “because of all the large plunder.”