1 Samuel 1:23-24

1:23 So her husband Elkanah said to her, “Do what you think best. ¹  Stay until you have weaned him. May the Lord fulfill his promise.” ² 

So the woman stayed and nursed her son until she had weaned him. 1:24 Once she had weaned him, she took him up with her, along with three bulls, an ephah ³  of flour, and a container ⁴  of wine. She brought him to the Lord’s house at Shiloh, even though he was young. ⁵ 

1 Samuel 4:3

4:3 When the army ⁶  came back to the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why did the Lord let us be defeated today by ⁷  the Philistines? Let’s take with us the ark of the covenant of the Lord from Shiloh. When it is with us, it will save us ⁸  from the hand of our enemies.

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. ⁹ 

1 Samuel 10:25

10:25 Then Samuel talked to the people about how the kingship would work. ¹⁰  He wrote it all down on a scroll and set it before the Lord. Then Samuel sent all the people away to their homes.

1 Samuel 20:13

20:13 But if my father intends to do you harm, may the Lord do all this and more to Jonathan, if I don’t let you know ¹¹  and send word to you so you can go safely on your way. ¹²  May the Lord be with you, as he was with my father.

[1:23]  ¹ tn Heb “what is good in your eyes.”

[1:23]  ² tn Heb “establish his word.” This apparently refers to the promise inherent in Eli’s priestly blessing (see v. 17).

[1:24]  ³ sn The ephah was a standard dry measure in OT times; it was the equivalent of one-tenth of the OT measure known as a homer. The ephah was equal to approximately one-half to two-thirds of a bushel.

[1:24]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew term translated “container” may denote either a clay storage jar (cf. CEV “a clay jar full of wine”) or a leather container (cf. NAB, NIV, NRSV “a skin of wine”; NCV “a leather bag filled with (full of TEV) wine.”

[1:24]  ⁵ tc Heb “and the boy was a boy.” If the MT is correct the meaning apparently is that the boy was quite young at the time of these events. On the other hand, some scholars have suspected a textual problem, emending the text to read either “and the boy was with them” (so LXX) or “and the boy was with her” (a conjectural emendation). In spite of the difficulty it seems best to stay with the MT here.

[4:3]  ⁶ tn Or “people.”

[4:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “before.”

[4:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “and it will come in our midst and it will save.” After the cohortative (see “let’s take”), the prefixed verbal forms with the prefixed conjunction indicate purpose or result. The translation understands the ark to be the subject of the third masculine singular verbs, although it is possible to understand the Lord as the subject. In the latter case, one should translate, “when he is with us, he will save us.”

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

[10:25]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the regulation of the kingship.” This probably refers to the regulations pertaining to kingship given to Moses (see Deut 17:14-20).

[20:13]  ¹¹ tn Heb “uncover your ear.”

[20:13]  ¹² tn Heb “in peace.”