1 Samuel 10:1

Samuel Anoints Saul

10:1 Then Samuel took a small container of olive oil and poured it on Saul’s ¹  head. Samuel ²  kissed him and said, “The Lord has chosen you ³  to lead his people Israel! You will rule over the Lord’s people and you will deliver them from the power of the enemies who surround them. This will be your sign that the Lord has chosen ⁴  you as leader over his inheritance. ⁵ 

1 Samuel 26:11-12

26:11 But may the Lord prevent me from extending my hand against the Lord’s chosen one! Now take the spear by Saul’s head and the jug of water, and let’s get out of here!” 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 26:16

26:16 This failure on your part isn’t good! ⁶  As surely as the Lord lives, you people who have not protected your lord, the Lord’s chosen one, are as good as dead! ⁷  Now look where the king’s spear and the jug of water that was by his head are!”

[10:1]  ¹ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Saul) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[10:1]  ² tn Heb “he”; the referent (Samuel) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[10:1]  ³ tn Heb “Is it not that the Lord has anointed you?” The question draws attention to the fact and is a rhetorical way of affirming the Lord’s choice of Saul. The translation reflects the rhetorical force of the question.

[10:1]  ⁴ tn That is, “anointed.”

[10:1]  ⁵ tc The MT reads simply “Is it not that the Lord has anointed you over his inheritance for a leader?” The translation follows the LXX. The MT apparently suffers from parablepsis, whereby a scribe’s eye jumped from the first occurrence of the expression “the Lord has anointed you” to the second occurrence of this expression at the end of v. 1. This mistake caused the accidental omission of the intervening material in the LXX, which appears to preserve the original Hebrew text here.

[26:16]  ⁶ tn Heb “Not good [is] this thing which you have done.”

[26:16]  ⁷ tn Heb “you are sons of death.”