Yosua 13:2

13:2 This is the land that remains: all the territory of the Philistines and all the Geshurites,

Yosua 13:13

13:13 But the Israelites did not conquer ¹  the Geshurites and Maacathites; Geshur and Maacah live among Israel to this very day.

Yosua 13:2

13:2 This is the land that remains: all the territory of the Philistines and all the Geshurites,

1 Samuel 13:1

Saul Fails the Lord

13:1 Saul was [thirty] ²  years old when he began to reign; he ruled over Israel for [forty] ³  years.

1 Samuel 13:1

Saul Fails the Lord

13:1 Saul was [thirty] ⁴  years old when he began to reign; he ruled over Israel for [forty] ⁵  years.

1 Samuel 14:23

14:23 So the Lord delivered Israel that day, and the battle shifted over to Beth Aven. ⁶ 

1 Samuel 14:32

14:32 So the army rushed greedily on ⁷  the ⁸  plunder, confiscating sheep, cattle, and calves. They slaughtered them right on the ground, and the army ate them blood and all.

1 Samuel 15:8

15:8 He captured King Agag of the Amalekites alive, but he executed all Agag’s people ⁹  with the sword.

1 Samuel 15:1

Saul Is Rejected as King

15:1 Then Samuel said to Saul, “I was the one the Lord sent to anoint you as king over his people Israel. Now listen to what the Lord says. ¹⁰ 

1 Samuel 2:23

2:23 He said to them, “Why do you behave in this way? For I hear about these evil things from all these ¹¹  people.

[13:13]  ¹ tn Or “dispossess.”

[13:1]  ² tc The MT does not have “thirty.” A number appears to have dropped out of the Hebrew text here, since as it stands the MT (literally, “a son of a year”) must mean that Saul was only one year old when he began to reign! The KJV, attempting to resolve this, reads “Saul reigned one year,” but that is not the normal meaning of the Hebrew text represented by the MT. Although most LXX mss lack the entire verse, some Greek mss have “thirty years” here (while others have “one year” like the MT). The Syriac Peshitta has Saul’s age as twenty-one. But this seems impossible to harmonize with the implied age of Saul’s son Jonathan in the following verse. Taking into account the fact that in v. 2 Jonathan was old enough to be a military leader, some scholars prefer to supply in v. 1 the number forty (cf. ASV, NASB). The present translation (“thirty”) is a possible but admittedly uncertain proposal based on a few Greek mss and followed by a number of English versions (e.g., NIV, NCV, NLT). Other English versions simply supply ellipsis marks for the missing number (e.g., NAB, NRSV).

[13:1]  ³ tc The MT has “two years” here. If this number is to be accepted as correct, the meaning apparently would be that after a lapse of two years at the beginning of Saul’s reign, he then went about the task of consolidating an army as described in what follows (cf. KJV, ASV, CEV). But if the statement in v. 1 is intended to be a comprehensive report on the length of Saul’s reign, the number is too small. According to Acts 13:21 Saul reigned for forty years. Some English versions (e.g., NIV, NCV, NLT), taking this forty to be a round number, add it to the “two years” of the MT and translate the number in 2 Sam 13:1 as “forty-two years.” While this is an acceptable option, the present translation instead replaces the MT’s “two” with the figure “forty.” Admittedly the textual evidence for this decision is weak, but the same can be said of any attempt to restore sense to this difficult text (note the ellipsis marks at this point in NAB, NRSV). The Syriac Peshitta lacks this part of v. 1.

[13:1]  ⁴ tc The MT does not have “thirty.” A number appears to have dropped out of the Hebrew text here, since as it stands the MT (literally, “a son of a year”) must mean that Saul was only one year old when he began to reign! The KJV, attempting to resolve this, reads “Saul reigned one year,” but that is not the normal meaning of the Hebrew text represented by the MT. Although most LXX mss lack the entire verse, some Greek mss have “thirty years” here (while others have “one year” like the MT). The Syriac Peshitta has Saul’s age as twenty-one. But this seems impossible to harmonize with the implied age of Saul’s son Jonathan in the following verse. Taking into account the fact that in v. 2 Jonathan was old enough to be a military leader, some scholars prefer to supply in v. 1 the number forty (cf. ASV, NASB). The present translation (“thirty”) is a possible but admittedly uncertain proposal based on a few Greek mss and followed by a number of English versions (e.g., NIV, NCV, NLT). Other English versions simply supply ellipsis marks for the missing number (e.g., NAB, NRSV).

[13:1]  ⁵ tc The MT has “two years” here. If this number is to be accepted as correct, the meaning apparently would be that after a lapse of two years at the beginning of Saul’s reign, he then went about the task of consolidating an army as described in what follows (cf. KJV, ASV, CEV). But if the statement in v. 1 is intended to be a comprehensive report on the length of Saul’s reign, the number is too small. According to Acts 13:21 Saul reigned for forty years. Some English versions (e.g., NIV, NCV, NLT), taking this forty to be a round number, add it to the “two years” of the MT and translate the number in 2 Sam 13:1 as “forty-two years.” While this is an acceptable option, the present translation instead replaces the MT’s “two” with the figure “forty.” Admittedly the textual evidence for this decision is weak, but the same can be said of any attempt to restore sense to this difficult text (note the ellipsis marks at this point in NAB, NRSV). The Syriac Peshitta lacks this part of v. 1.

[14:23]  ⁶ tc The LXX includes the following words: “And all the people were with Saul, about ten thousand men. And the battle extended to the entire city on mount Ephraim.”

[14:32]  ⁷ tc The translation follows the Qere and many medieval Hebrew mss in reading “and they rushed greedily upon,” rather than the Kethib, “and they did.”

[14:32]  ⁸ tc The translation reads with the Qere and many medieval Hebrew mss הַשָּׁלָל (hashalal, “the spoil”) rather than following the Kethib reading, שָׁלָל (shalal, “spoil”).

[15:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “all the people.” For clarity “Agag’s” has been supplied in the translation.

[15:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “to the voice of the words of the Lord” (so KJV).

[2:23]  ¹¹ tc For “these” the LXX has “of the Lord” (κυρίου, kuriou), perhaps through the influence of the final phrase of v. 24 (“the people of the Lord”). Somewhat less likely is the view that the MT reading is due to a distorted dittography of the first word of v. 24. The Vulgate lacks the word.