1 Samuel 3:6

3:6 The Lord again called, “Samuel!” So Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But Eli ¹  said, “I didn’t call you, my son. Go back and lie down.”

1 Samuel 5:4

5:4 But when they got up early the following day, Dagon was again lying on the ground before the ark of the Lord. The head of Dagon and his two hands were sheared off and were lying at the threshold. Only Dagon’s body was left intact. ² 

1 Samuel 10:5

10:5 Afterward you will go to Gibeah of God, where there are Philistine officials. ³  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 11:7

11:7 He took a pair ⁴  of oxen and cut them up. Then he sent the pieces throughout the territory of Israel by the hand of messengers, who said, “Whoever does not go out after Saul and after Samuel should expect this to be done to his oxen!” Then the terror of the Lord fell on the people, and they went out as one army. ⁵ 

1 Samuel 11:11

11:11 The next day Saul placed the people in three groups. They went to the Ammonite camp during the morning watch and struck them ⁶  down until the hottest part of the day. The survivors scattered; no two of them remained together.

1 Samuel 15:15

15:15 Saul said, “They were brought ⁷  from the Amalekites; the army spared the best of the flocks and cattle to sacrifice to the Lord our God. But everything else we slaughtered.”

1 Samuel 17:8

17:8 Goliath ⁸  stood and called to Israel’s troops, ⁹  “Why do you come out to prepare for battle? Am I not the Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose ¹⁰  for yourselves a man so he may come down ¹¹  to me!

1 Samuel 18:6

18:6 When the men ¹²  arrived after David returned from striking down the Philistine, the women from all the cities of Israel came out singing and dancing to meet King Saul. They were happy as they played their tambourines and three-stringed instruments. ¹³ 

1 Samuel 23:23

23:23 Locate precisely all the places where he hides and return to me with dependable information. ¹⁴  Then I will go with you. If he is in the land, I will find him ¹⁵  among all the thousands of Judah.”

1 Samuel 25:13

25:13 Then David instructed his men, “Each of you strap on your sword!” So each one strapped on his sword, and David also strapped on his sword. About four hundred men followed David up, while two hundred stayed behind with the equipment.

[3:6]  ¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Eli) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[5:4]  ² tc Heb “only Dagon was left.” We should probably read the word גֵּו (gev, “back”) before Dagon, understanding it to have the sense of the similar word גְּוִיָּה (gÿviyyah, “body”). This variant is supported by the following evidence: The LXX has ἡ ῥάχις (Jh rJacis, “the back” or “trunk”); the Syriac Peshitta has wegusmeh (“and the body of”); the Targum has gupyeh (“the body of”); the Vulgate has truncus (“the trunk of,” cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV, NLT). On the strength of this evidence the present translation employs the phrase “Dagon’s body.”

[10:5]  ³ 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.

[11:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “yoke.”

[11:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “like one man.”

[11:11]  ⁶ tn Heb “Ammon.” By metonymy the name “Ammon” is used collectively for the soldiers in the Ammonite army.

[15:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “they brought them.”

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

[17:8]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew text adds “and said to them.”

[17:8]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ tn Following the imperative, the prefixed verbal form (either an imperfect or jussive) with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose/result here.

[18:6]  ¹² tn Heb “them.” The masculine plural pronoun apparently refers to the returning soldiers.

[18:6]  ¹³ tn Heb “with tambourines, with joy, and with three-stringed instruments.”

[23:23]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “established.”

[23:23]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “I will search him out.”