1 Samuel 9:7-8

9:7 So Saul said to his servant, “All right, ¹  we can go. But what can we bring the man, since the food in our bags is used up? We have no gift to take to the man of God. What do we have?” 9:8 The servant went on to answer Saul, “Look, I happen to have in my hand a quarter shekel ²  of silver. I will give it to the man of God and he will tell us where we should go.” ³ 

1 Samuel 9:19

9:19 Samuel replied to Saul, “I am the seer! Go up in front of me to the high place! Today you will eat with me and in the morning I will send you away. I will tell you everything that you are thinking. ⁴ 

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 9:27

9:27 While they were going down to the edge of town, Samuel said to Saul, “Tell the servant to go on ahead of us.” So he did. ⁵  Samuel then said, ⁶  “You remain here awhile, so I can inform you of God’s message.”

1 Samuel 10:11

10:11 When everyone who had known him previously saw him prophesying with the prophets, the people all asked one another, “What on earth has happened to the son of Kish? Does even Saul belong with the prophets?”

1 Samuel 10:16

10:16 Saul said to his uncle, “He assured us that the donkeys had been found.” But Saul ⁷  did not tell him what Samuel had said about the matter of kingship.

1 Samuel 11:7

11:7 He took a pair ⁸  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. ⁹ 

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 ¹⁰  down until the hottest part of the day. The survivors scattered; no two of them remained together.

1 Samuel 13:11

13:11 But Samuel said, “What have you done?” Saul replied, “When I saw that the army had started to abandon me ¹¹  and that you didn’t come at the appointed time and that the Philistines had assembled at Micmash,

1 Samuel 13:13

13:13 Then Samuel said to Saul, “You have made a foolish choice! You have not obeyed ¹²  the commandment that the Lord your God gave ¹³  you. Had you done that, the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever!

1 Samuel 14:1

14:1 Then one day Jonathan son of Saul said to his armor bearer, ¹⁴  “Come on, let’s go over to the Philistine garrison that is opposite us.” But he did not let his father know.

1 Samuel 14:21

14:21 The Hebrews who had earlier gone over to the Philistine side ¹⁵  joined the Israelites who were with Saul and Jonathan.

1 Samuel 14:24

Jonathan Violates Saul’s Oath

14:24 Now the men of Israel were hard pressed that day, for Saul had made the army agree to this oath: “Cursed be the man who eats food before evening! I will get my vengeance on my enemies!” So no one in the army ate anything.

1 Samuel 14:34

14:34 Then Saul said, “Scatter out among the army and say to them, ‘Each of you bring to me your ox and sheep and slaughter them in this spot and eat. But don’t sin against the Lord by eating the blood.” So that night each one brought his ox and slaughtered it there. ¹⁶ 

1 Samuel 14:36

14:36 Saul said, “Let’s go down after the Philistines at night; we will rout ¹⁷  them until the break of day. ¹⁸  We won’t leave any of them alive!” ¹⁹  They replied, “Do whatever seems best to you.” ²⁰  But the priest said, “Let’s approach God here.”

1 Samuel 14:40

14:40 Then he said to all Israel, “You will be on one side, and I and my son Jonathan will be on the other side.” The army replied to Saul, “Do whatever you think is best.”

1 Samuel 14:43

14:43 So Saul said to Jonathan, “Tell me what you have done.” Jonathan told him, “I used the end of the staff that was in my hand to taste a little honey. I must die!” ²¹ 

1 Samuel 14:47

14:47 After Saul had secured his royal position over Israel, he fought against all their ²²  enemies on all sides – the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, the kings of Zobah, and the Philistines. In every direction that he turned he was victorious. ²³ 

1 Samuel 15:6

15:6 Saul said to the Kenites, “Go on and leave! Go down from among the Amalekites! Otherwise I will sweep you away ²⁴  with them! After all, you were kind to all the Israelites when they came up from Egypt.” So the Kenites withdrew from among the Amalekites.

1 Samuel 15:9

15:9 However, Saul and the army spared Agag, along with the best of the flock, the cattle, the fatlings, ²⁵  and the lambs, as well as everything else that was of value. ²⁶  They were not willing to slaughter them. But they did slaughter everything that was despised ²⁷  and worthless.

1 Samuel 15:11

15:11 “I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned away from me and has not done what I told him to do.” Samuel became angry and he cried out to the Lord all that night.

1 Samuel 15:20

15:20 Then Saul said to Samuel, “But I have obeyed ²⁸  the Lord! I went on the campaign ²⁹  the Lord sent me on. I brought back King Agag of the Amalekites after exterminating the Amalekites.

1 Samuel 16:1

Samuel Anoints David as King

16:1 The Lord said to Samuel, “How long do you intend to mourn for Saul? I have rejected him as king over Israel. ³⁰  Fill your horn with olive oil and go! I am sending you to Jesse in Bethlehem, ³¹  for I have selected a king for myself from among his sons.” ³² 

1 Samuel 17:8

17:8 Goliath ³³  stood and called to Israel’s troops, ³⁴  “Why do you come out to prepare for battle? Am I not the Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose ³⁵  for yourselves a man so he may come down ³⁶  to me!

1 Samuel 17:12-13

17:12 ³⁷ Now David was the son of this Ephrathite named Jesse from Bethlehem ³⁸  in Judah. He had eight sons, and in Saul’s days he was old and well advanced in years. ³⁹  17:13 Jesse’s three oldest sons had followed Saul to war. The names of the ⁴⁰  three sons who went to war were Eliab, his firstborn, Abinadab, the second oldest, and Shammah, the third oldest.

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 17:37

17:37 David went on to say, “The Lord who delivered me from the lion and the bear will also deliver me from the hand of this Philistine!” Then Saul said to David, “Go! The Lord will be with you.” ⁴¹ 

1 Samuel 17:39

17:39 David strapped on his sword over his fighting attire and tried to walk around, but he was not used to them. ⁴²  David said to Saul, “I can’t walk in these things, for I’m not used to them.” So David removed them.

1 Samuel 17:55

17:55 ⁴³ 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 18:6

18:6 When the men ⁴⁴  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. ⁴⁵ 

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 18:27

18:27 when David, along with his men, went out ⁴⁶  and struck down two hundred Philistine men. David brought their foreskins and presented all of them to the king so he could become the king’s son-in-law. Saul then gave him his daughter Michal in marriage.

1 Samuel 19:4

19:4 So Jonathan spoke on David’s behalf ⁴⁷  to his father Saul. He said to him, “The king should not sin against his servant David, for he has not sinned against you. On the contrary, his actions have been very beneficial ⁴⁸  for you.

1 Samuel 19:7

19:7 Then Jonathan called David and told him all these things. Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he served him as he had done formerly. ⁴⁹ 

1 Samuel 19:11

19:11 Saul sent messengers to David’s house to guard it and to kill him in the morning. Then David’s wife Michal told him, “If you do not save yourself ⁵⁰  tonight, tomorrow you will be dead!”

1 Samuel 19:18

19:18 Now David had run away and escaped. He went to Samuel in Ramah and told him everything that Saul had done to him. Then he and Samuel went and stayed at Naioth.

1 Samuel 19:24

19:24 He even stripped off his clothes and prophesied before Samuel. He lay there ⁵¹  naked all that day and night. (For that reason it is asked, “Is Saul also among the prophets?”)

1 Samuel 20:27

20:27 But the next morning, the second day of the new moon, David’s place was still vacant. So Saul said to his son Jonathan, “Why has Jesse’s son not come to the meal yesterday or today?”

1 Samuel 20:30

20:30 Saul became angry with Jonathan ⁵²  and said to him, “You stupid traitor! ⁵³  Don’t I realize that to your own disgrace and to the disgrace of your mother’s nakedness you have chosen this son of Jesse?

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 22:7

22:7 Saul said to his servants who were stationed around him, “Listen up, you Benjaminites! Is Jesse’s son giving fields and vineyards to all of you? Or is he making all of you ⁵⁴  commanders and officers? ⁵⁵ 

1 Samuel 22:9

22:9 But Doeg the Edomite, who had stationed himself with the servants of Saul, replied, “I saw this son of Jesse come to Ahimelech son of Ahitub at Nob.

1 Samuel 22:13

22:13 Saul said to him, “Why have you conspired against me, you and this son of Jesse? You gave ⁵⁶  him bread and a sword and inquired of God on his behalf, so that he opposes ⁵⁷  me and waits in ambush, as is the case today!”

1 Samuel 22:22

22:22 Then David said to Abiathar, “I knew that day when Doeg the Edomite was there that he would certainly tell Saul! I am guilty ⁵⁸  of all the deaths in your father’s house!

1 Samuel 23:13

23:13 So David and his men, who numbered about six hundred, set out and left Keilah; they moved around from one place to another. ⁵⁹  When told that David had escaped from Keilah, Saul called a halt to his expedition.

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. ⁶⁰ 

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

1 Samuel 26:6-7

26:6 David said to Ahimelech the Hittite and Abishai son of Zeruiah, Joab’s brother, “Who will go down with me to Saul in the camp?” Abishai replied, “I will go down with you.”

26:7 So David and Abishai approached the army at night and found Saul lying asleep in the entrenchment with his spear stuck in the ground by his head. Abner and the army were lying all around him.

1 Samuel 26:12

26:12 So David took the spear and the jug of water by Saul’s head, and they got out of there. No one saw them or was aware of their presence or woke up. All of them were asleep, for the Lord had caused a deep sleep to fall on them.

1 Samuel 26:21

26:21 Saul replied, “I have sinned. Come back, my son David. I won’t harm you, for you treated my life with value ⁶¹  this day. I have behaved foolishly and have made a very terrible mistake!” ⁶² 

1 Samuel 28:7-9

28:7 So Saul instructed his servants, “Find me a woman who is a medium, ⁶³  so that I may go to her and inquire of her.” His servants replied to him, “There is a woman who is a medium in Endor.”

28:8 So Saul disguised himself and put on other clothing and left, accompanied by two of his men. They came to the woman at night and said, “Use your ritual pit to conjure up for me the one I tell you.” ⁶⁴ 

28:9 But the woman said to him, “Look, you are aware of what Saul has done; he has removed ⁶⁵  the mediums and magicians ⁶⁶  from the land! Why are you trapping me ⁶⁷  so you can put me to death?”

1 Samuel 28:14

28:14 He said to her, “What about his appearance?” She said, “An old man is coming up! He is wrapped in a robe!”

Then Saul realized it was Samuel, and he bowed his face toward the ground and kneeled down.

1 Samuel 28:20-21

28:20 Saul quickly fell full length on the ground and was very afraid because of Samuel’s words. He was completely drained of energy, ⁶⁸  not having eaten anything ⁶⁹  all that day and night. 28:21 When the woman came to Saul and saw how terrified he was, she said to him, “Your servant has done what you asked. ⁷⁰  I took my life into my own hands and did what you told me. ⁷¹ 

1 Samuel 31:7

31:7 When the men of Israel who were in the valley and across the Jordan saw that the men of Israel had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned the cities and fled. The Philistines came and occupied them.

1 Samuel 31:12

31:12 all their warriors set out and traveled throughout the night. They took Saul’s corpse and the corpses of his sons from the city wall of Beth Shan and went ⁷²  to Jabesh, where they burned them.

[9:7]  ¹ tn Heb “look.”

[9:8]  ² sn A quarter shekel of silver would weigh about a tenth of an ounce (about 3 grams).

[9:8]  ³ tn Heb “our way.”

[9:19]  ⁴ tn Heb “all that is in your heart.”

[9:27]  ⁵ tc This statement is absent in the LXX (with the exception of Origen), an Old Latin ms, and the Syriac Peshitta.

[9:27]  ⁶ tn The words “Samuel then said” are supplied in the translation for clarification and for stylistic reasons.

[10:16]  ⁷ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Saul) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[11:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “yoke.”

[11:7]  ⁹ tn Heb “like one man.”

[11:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Ammon.” By metonymy the name “Ammon” is used collectively for the soldiers in the Ammonite army.

[13:11]  ¹¹ tn Heb “dispersed from upon me.”

[13:13]  ¹² tn Or “kept.”

[13:13]  ¹³ tn Heb “commanded.”

[14:1]  ¹⁴ tn Or “the servant who was carrying his military equipment” (likewise in vv. 6, 7, 12, 13, 14).

[14:21]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and the Hebrews were to the Philistines formerly, who went up with them in the camp all around.”

[14:34]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and all the army brought near, each his ox by his hand, and they slaughtered there.”

[14:36]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “plunder.”

[14:36]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “until the light of the morning.”

[14:36]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and there will not be left among them a man.”

[14:36]  ²⁰ tn Heb “all that is good in your eyes.” So also in v. 40.

[14:43]  ²¹ tn Heb “Look, I, I will die.” Apparently Jonathan is acquiescing to his anticipated fate of death. However, the words may be taken as sarcastic (“Here I am about to die!”) or as a question, “Must I now die?” (cf. NAB, NIV, NCV, NLT).

[14:47]  ²² tn Heb “his,” which could refer to Israel or to Saul.

[14:47]  ²³ tc The translation follows the LXX (“he was delivered”), rather than the MT, which reads, “he acted wickedly.”

[15:6]  ²⁴ tc The translation follows the Syriac Peshitta and Vulgate which assume a reading אֶסִפְךָ (’esfÿka, “I sweep you away,” from the root ספה [sfh]) rather than the MT אֹסִפְךָ (’osifÿka, “I am gathering you,” from the root אסף[’sf]).

[15:9]  ²⁵ tn The Hebrew text is difficult here. We should probably read וְהַמַּשְׂמַנִּים (vÿhammasmannim, “the fat ones”) rather than the MT וְהַמִּשְׂנִים (vÿhammisnim, “the second ones”). However, if the MT is retained, the sense may be as the Jewish commentator Kimchi supposed: the second-born young, thought to be better than the firstlings. (For discussion see S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, 123-24.)

[15:9]  ²⁶ tn Heb “good.”

[15:9]  ²⁷ tc The MT has here the very odd form נְמִבְזָה (nÿmivzah), but this is apparently due to a scribal error. The translation follows instead the Niphal participle נִבְזָה (nivzah).

[15:20]  ²⁸ tn Heb “listened to the voice of the Lord.”

[15:20]  ²⁹ tn Heb “journey.”

[16:1]  ³⁰ tc The Lucianic recension of the Old Greek translation includes the following words: “And the Lord said to Samuel.”

[16:1]  ³¹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map7 E2; Map8 E2; Map10 B4.

[16:1]  ³² tn Heb “for I have seen among his sons for me a king.”

[17:8]  ³³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Goliath) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[17:8]  ³⁴ tn The Hebrew text adds “and said to them.”

[17:8]  ³⁵ 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]  ³⁶ tn Following the imperative, the prefixed verbal form (either an imperfect or jussive) with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose/result here.

[17:12]  ³⁷ tc Some mss of the LXX lack vv. 12-31.

[17:12]  ³⁸ map For location see Map5 B1; Map7 E2; Map8 E2; Map10 B4.

[17:12]  ³⁹ tc The translation follows the Lucianic recension of the LXX and the Syriac Peshitta in reading “in years,” rather than MT “among men.”

[17:13]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “his.”

[17:37]  ⁴¹ tn Or “Go, and may the Lord be with you” (so NASB, NCV, NRSV).

[17:39]  ⁴² tn Heb “he had not tested.”

[17:55]  ⁴³ tc Most LXX mss lack 17:55–18:5.

[18:6]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “them.” The masculine plural pronoun apparently refers to the returning soldiers.

[18:6]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “with tambourines, with joy, and with three-stringed instruments.”

[18:27]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “arose and went.”

[19:4]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “spoke good with respect to David.”

[19:4]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “good.”

[19:7]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “and he was before him as before.”

[19:11]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “your life.”

[19:24]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “and he fell down.”

[20:30]  ⁵² tc Many medieval Hebrew mss include the words “his son” here.

[20:30]  ⁵³ tn Heb “son of a perverse woman of rebelliousness.” But such an overly literal and domesticated translation of the Hebrew expression fails to capture the force of Saul’s unrestrained reaction. Saul, now incensed and enraged over Jonathan’s liaison with David, is actually hurling very coarse and emotionally charged words at his son. The translation of this phrase suggested by Koehler and Baumgartner is “bastard of a wayward woman” (HALOT 796 s.v. עוה), but this is not an expression commonly used in English. A better English approximation of the sentiments expressed here by the Hebrew phrase would be “You stupid son of a bitch!” However, sensitivity to the various public formats in which the Bible is read aloud has led to a less startling English rendering which focuses on the semantic value of Saul’s utterance (i.e., the behavior of his own son Jonathan, which he viewed as both a personal and a political betrayal [= “traitor”]). But this concession should not obscure the fact that Saul is full of bitterness and frustration. That he would address his son Jonathan with such language, not to mention his apparent readiness even to kill his own son over this friendship with David (v. 33), indicates something of the extreme depth of Saul’s jealousy and hatred of David.

[22:7]  ⁵⁴ tc The MT has “to all of you.” If this reading is correct, we have here an example of a prepositional phrase functioning as the equivalent of a dative of advantage, which is not impossible from a grammatical point of view. However, the LXX, the Syriac Peshitta, and Vulgate all have “and.” A conjunction rather than a preposition should probably be read on the front of this phrase.

[22:7]  ⁵⁵ tn Heb “officers of a thousand and officers of a hundred.”

[22:13]  ⁵⁶ tn Heb “by giving.”

[22:13]  ⁵⁷ tn Heb “rises up against.”

[22:22]  ⁵⁸ tc The translation follows the LXX, which reads “I am guilty,” rather than the MT, which has “I have turned.”

[23:13]  ⁵⁹ tn Heb “they went where they went.”

[24:3]  ⁶⁰ tn Heb “to cover his feet,” an idiom (euphemism) for relieving oneself (cf. NAB “to ease nature”).

[26:21]  ⁶¹ tn Heb “my life was valuable in your eyes.”

[26:21]  ⁶² tn Heb “and I have erred very greatly.”

[28:7]  ⁶³ tn Heb “an owner of a ritual pit.” See the note at v. 3.

[28:8]  ⁶⁴ tn Heb “Use divination for me with the ritual pit and bring up for me the one whom I say to you.”

[28:9]  ⁶⁵ tn Heb “how he has cut off.”

[28:9]  ⁶⁶ tn See the note at v. 3.

[28:9]  ⁶⁷ tn Heb “my life.”

[28:20]  ⁶⁸ tn Heb “also there was no strength in him.”

[28:20]  ⁶⁹ tn Heb “food.”

[28:21]  ⁷⁰ tn Heb “listened to your voice.”

[28:21]  ⁷¹ tn Heb “listened to your words that you spoke to me.”

[31:12]  ⁷² tc The translation follows the MT, which vocalizes the verb as a Qal. The LXX, however, treats the verb as a Hiphil, “they brought.”