1 Samuel 2:9

2:9 He watches over ¹  his holy ones, ² 

but the wicked are made speechless in the darkness,

for it is not by one’s own strength that one prevails.

1 Samuel 9:1

Samuel Meets with Saul

9:1 There was a Benjaminite man named Kish son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Becorath, the son of Aphiah of Benjamin. He was a prominent person.

1 Samuel 11:12

Saul Is Established as King

11:12 Then the people said to Samuel, “Who were the ones asking, ‘Will Saul reign over us?’ Hand over those men so we may execute them!”

1 Samuel 14:3

14:3 Now Ahijah was carrying ³  an ephod. He was the son of Ahitub, who was the brother of Ichabod and a son of Phineas, son of Eli, the priest of the Lord in Shiloh. The army was unaware that Jonathan had left.

1 Samuel 15:2

15:2 Here is what the Lord of hosts says: ‘I carefully observed how the Amalekites opposed ⁴  Israel along the way when Israel ⁵  came up from Egypt.

1 Samuel 15:23

15:23 For rebellion is like the sin of divination,

and presumption is like the evil of idolatry.

Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,

he has rejected you as ⁶  king.”

1 Samuel 17:4

17:4 Then a champion ⁷  came out from the camp of the Philistines. His name was Goliath; he was from Gath. He was close to seven feet tall. ⁸ 

1 Samuel 17:33

17:33 But Saul replied to David, “You aren’t able to go against this Philistine and fight him! You’re just a boy! He has been a warrior from his youth!”

1 Samuel 17:55

17:55 ⁹ Now as Saul watched David going out to fight the Philistine, he asked Abner, the general in command of the army, “Whose son is this young man, Abner?” Abner replied, “As surely as you live, O king, I don’t know.”

1 Samuel 18:8

18:8 This made Saul very angry. The statement displeased him and he thought, ¹⁰  “They have attributed to David tens of thousands, but to me they have attributed only thousands. What does he lack, except the kingdom?”

1 Samuel 18:11

18:11 and Saul threw the spear, thinking, “I’ll nail David to the wall!” But David escaped from him on two different occasions.

1 Samuel 18:22

18:22 Then Saul instructed his servants, “Tell David secretly, ‘The king is pleased with you, and all his servants like you. So now become the king’s son-in-law.”

1 Samuel 19:10

19:10 Saul tried to nail David to the wall with the spear, but he escaped from Saul’s presence and the spear drove into the wall. ¹¹  David escaped quickly ¹²  that night.

1 Samuel 22:1

David Goes to Adullam and Mizpah

22:1 So David left there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and the rest of his father’s family ¹³  learned about it, they went down there to him.

1 Samuel 24:1-2

David Spares Saul’s Life

24:1 (24:2) When Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, they told him, “Look, David is in the desert of En Gedi.” 24:2 So Saul took three thousand select men from all Israel and went to find ¹⁴  David and his men in the region of ¹⁵  the rocks of the mountain goats. ¹⁶ 

1 Samuel 24:15

24:15 May the Lord be our judge and arbiter. May he see and arbitrate my case and deliver me from your hands!”

1 Samuel 25:1

The Death of Samuel

25:1 Samuel died, and all Israel assembled and mourned him. They buried him at his home in Ramah. Then David left and went down to the desert of Paran. ¹⁷ 

1 Samuel 26:9

26:9 But David said to Abishai, “Don’t kill him! Who can extend his hand against the Lord’s chosen one ¹⁸  and remain guiltless?”

[2:9]  ¹ tn Heb “guards the feet of.” The expression means that God watches over and protects the godly in all of their activities and movements. The imperfect verbal forms in v. 9 are understood as indicating what is typically true. Another option is to translate them with the future tense. See v. 10b.

[2:9]  ² tc The translation follows the Qere and many medieval Hebrew mss in reading the plural (“his holy ones”) rather than the singular (“his holy one”) of the Kethib.

[14:3]  ³ tn Heb “bearing.” Many English versions understand this verb to mean “wearing” (cf. KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NLT).

[15:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “what Amalek did to Israel, how he placed against him.”

[15:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Israel) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[15:23]  ⁶ tn Or “from [being].”

[17:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “the man of the space between the two [armies].” See v. 23.

[17:4]  ⁸ tc Heb “his height was six cubits and a span” (cf. KJV, NASB, NRSV). A cubit was approximately eighteen inches, a span nine inches. So, according to the Hebrew tradition, Goliath was about nine feet, nine inches tall (cf. NIV, CEV, NLT “over nine feet”; NCV “nine feet, four inches”; TEV “nearly 3 metres”). However, some Greek witnesses, Josephus, and a manuscript of 1 Samuel from Qumran read “four cubits and a span” here, that is, about six feet, nine inches (cf. NAB “six and a half feet”). This seems more reasonable; it is likely that Goliath’s height was exaggerated as the story was retold. See P. K. McCarter, I Samuel (AB), 286, 291.

[17:55]  ⁹ tc Most LXX mss lack 17:55–18:5.

[18:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “said.” So also in vv. 11, 17.

[19:10]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and he drove the spear into the wall.”

[19:10]  ¹² tn Heb “fled and escaped.”

[22:1]  ¹³ tn Heb “house.”

[24:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “to search [for].”

[24:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “upon the face of.”

[24:2]  ¹⁶ tn Or “the region of the Rocks of the Mountain Goats,” if this expression is understood as a place name (cf. NASB, NIV, NRSV, TEV, CEV).

[25:1]  ¹⁷ tc The LXX reads “Maon” here instead of “Paran,” perhaps because the following account of Nabal is said to be in Maon (v. 2). This reading is followed by a number of English versions (e.g., NAB, NIV, NCV, NLT). The MT, however, reads “Paran,” a location which would parallel this portion of David’s life with that of the nation Israel which also spent time in Paran (Num 10:12). Also, the desert of Paran was on the southern border of Judah’s territory and would be the most isolated location for hiding from Saul.

[26:9]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “anointed” (also in vv. 11, 16, 23).