1 Samuel 2:16

2:16 If the individual said to him, “First let the fat be burned away, and then take for yourself whatever you wish,” he would say, “No! ¹  Hand it over right now! If you don’t, I will take it forcibly!”

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 14:12

14:12 Then the men of the garrison said to Jonathan and his armor bearer, “Come on up to us so we can teach you a thing or two!” ²  Then Jonathan said to his armor bearer, “Come up behind me, for the Lord has given ³  them into the hand of Israel!”

1 Samuel 14:36

14:36 Saul said, “Let’s go down after the Philistines at night; we will rout ⁴  them until the break of day. ⁵  We won’t leave any of them alive!” ⁶  They replied, “Do whatever seems best to you.” ⁷  But the priest said, “Let’s approach God here.”

1 Samuel 14:41

14:41 Then Saul said, “O Lord God of Israel! If this sin has been committed by me or by my son Jonathan, then, O Lord God of Israel, respond with Urim. But if this sin has been committed by your people Israel, respond with Thummim.” ⁸  Then Jonathan and Saul were indicated by lot, while the army was exonerated. ⁹ 

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 ¹⁰  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 17:25-26

17:25 The men of Israel said, “Have you seen this man who is coming up? He does so ¹¹  to defy Israel. But the king will make the man who can strike him down very wealthy! He will give him his daughter in marriage, and he will make his father’s house exempt from tax obligations in Israel.”

17:26 David asked the men who were standing near him, “What will be done for the man who strikes down this Philistine and frees Israel from this humiliation? ¹²  For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he defies the armies of the living God?”

1 Samuel 18:21

18:21 Saul said, “I will give her to him so that she may become a snare to him and the hand of the Philistines may be against him.” So Saul said to David, “Today is the second time for you to become my son-in-law.” ¹³ 

1 Samuel 18:25

18:25 Saul replied, “Here is what you should say to David: ‘There is nothing that the king wants as a price for the bride except a hundred Philistine foreskins, so that he can be avenged of his ¹⁴  enemies.’” (Now Saul was thinking that he could kill David by the hand of the Philistines.)

1 Samuel 19:17

19:17 Saul said to Michal, “Why have you deceived me this way by sending my enemy away? Now he has escaped!” Michal replied to Saul, “He said to me, ‘Help me get away or else I will kill you!’” ¹⁵ 

1 Samuel 20:12

20:12 Jonathan said to David, “The Lord God of Israel is my witness. ¹⁶  I will feel out my father about this time the day after tomorrow. If he is favorably inclined toward David, will I not then send word to you and let you know? ¹⁷ 

1 Samuel 21:9

David Goes to Gath

21:9 The priest replied, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you struck down in the valley of Elah, is wrapped in a garment behind the ephod. If you wish, take it for yourself. Other than that, there’s nothing here.” David said, “There’s nothing like it! Give it to me!”

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 ¹⁸  commanders and officers? ¹⁹ 

1 Samuel 23:7

23:7 When Saul was told that David had come to Keilah, Saul said, “God has delivered ²⁰  him into my hand, for he has boxed himself into a corner by entering a city with two barred gates.” ²¹ 

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.

1 Samuel 26:8

26:8 Abishai said to David, “Today God has delivered your enemy into your hands. Now let me drive the spear ²²  right through him into the ground with one swift jab! ²³  A second jab won’t be necessary!”

1 Samuel 26:15

26:15 David said to Abner, “Aren’t you a man? After all, who is like you in Israel? Why then haven’t you protected your lord the king? One of the soldiers came to kill your lord the king.

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 ²⁴  this day. I have behaved foolishly and have made a very terrible mistake!” ²⁵ 

1 Samuel 27:5

27:5 David said to Achish, “If I have found favor with you, let me be given a place in one of the country towns so that I can live there. Why should your servant settle in the royal city with you?”

1 Samuel 28:1

The Witch of Endor

28:1 In those days the Philistines gathered their troops ²⁶  for war in order to fight Israel. Achish said to David, “You should fully understand that you and your men must go with me into the battle.” ²⁷ 

1 Samuel 28:7-8

28:7 So Saul instructed his servants, “Find me a woman who is a medium, ²⁸  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.” ²⁹ 

1 Samuel 31:4

31:4 Saul said to his armor bearer, “Draw your sword and stab me with it! Otherwise these uncircumcised people will come, stab me, and torture me.” But his armor bearer refused to do it, because he was very afraid. So Saul took his sword and fell on it.

[2:16]  ¹ tc The translation follows the Qere and many medieval Hebrew mss (“no”) rather than the Kethib and MT, which read “to him.”

[14:12]  ² tn Heb “a thing.”

[14:12]  ³ tn The perfect verbal form is used rhetorically here to express Jonathan’s certitude. As far as he is concerned, the victory is as good as won and can be described as such.

[14:36]  ⁴ tn Heb “plunder.”

[14:36]  ⁵ tn Heb “until the light of the morning.”

[14:36]  ⁶ tn Heb “and there will not be left among them a man.”

[14:36]  ⁷ tn Heb “all that is good in your eyes.” So also in v. 40.

[14:41]  ⁸ tc Heb “to the Lord God of Israel: ‘Give what is perfect.’” The Hebrew textual tradition has accidentally omitted several words here. The present translation follows the LXX (as do several English versions, cf. NAB, NRSV, TEV). See P. K. McCarter, I Samuel (AB), 247-48, and R. W. Klein, 1 Samuel (WBC), 132.

[14:41]  sn The Urim and Thummim were used for lot casting in ancient Israel. Their exact identity is uncertain; they may have been specially marked stones drawn from a bag. See Exod 28:30; Lev 8:8, and Deut 33:8, as well as the discussion in R. W. Klein, 1 Samuel (WBC), 140.

[14:41]  ⁹ tn Heb “went out.”

[15:6]  ¹⁰ 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]).

[17:25]  ¹¹ tn Heb “he is coming up.”

[17:26]  ¹² tn Heb “and turns aside humiliation from upon Israel.”

[18:21]  ¹³ tc The final sentence of v. 21 is absent in most LXX mss.

[18:25]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the king’s.”

[19:17]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Send me away! Why should I kill you?” The question has the force of a threat in this context. See P. K. McCarter, I Samuel (AB), 325, 26.

[20:12]  ¹⁶ tc The Hebrew text has simply “the Lord God of Israel.” On the basis of the Syriac version, many reconstruct the text to read “[is] my witness,” which may have fallen out of the text by homoioarcton (an error which is entirely possible if עֵד, ’ed, “witness,” immediately followed ַָדוִד, “David,” in the original text).

[20:12]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and uncover your ear.”

[22:7]  ¹⁸ 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]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “officers of a thousand and officers of a hundred.”

[23:7]  ²⁰ tn The MT reading (“God has alienated him into my hand”) in v. 7 is a difficult and uncommon idiom. The use of this verb in Jer 19:4 is somewhat parallel, but not entirely so. Many scholars have therefore suspected a textual problem here, emending the word נִכַּר (nikkar, “alienated”) to סִכַּר (sikkar, “he has shut up [i.e., delivered]”). This is the idea reflected in the translations of the Syriac Peshitta and Vulgate, although it is not entirely clear whether they are reading something different from the MT or are simply paraphrasing what for them too may have been a difficult text. The LXX has “God has sold him into my hands,” apparently reading מַכַר (makar, “sold”) for MT’s נִכַּר. The present translation is a rather free interpretation.

[23:7]  ²¹ tn Heb “with two gates and a bar.” Since in English “bar” could be understood as a saloon, it has been translated as an attributive: “two barred gates.”

[26:8]  ²² tn Here “the spear” almost certainly refers to Saul’s own spear, which according to the previous verse was stuck into the ground beside him as he slept. This is reflected in a number of English versions: TEV, CEV “his own spear”; NLT “that spear.” Cf. NIV, NCV “my spear,” in which case Abishai refers to his own spear rather than Saul’s, but this is unlikely since (1) Abishai would probably not have carried a spear along since such a weapon would be unwieldy when sneaking into the enemy camp; and (2) this would not explain the mention of Saul’s own spear stuck in the ground beside him in the previous verse.

[26:8]  ²³ tn Heb “let me strike him with the spear and into the ground one time.”

[26:21]  ²⁴ tn Heb “my life was valuable in your eyes.”

[26:21]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and I have erred very greatly.”

[28:1]  ²⁶ tn Heb “their camps.”

[28:1]  ²⁷ tc The translation follows the LXX (εἰς πόλεμον, eis polemon) and a Qumran ms מלחמה במלחמה ([m]lkhmh) bammilkhamah (“in the battle”) rather than the MT’s בַמַּחֲנֶה (bammakhaneh, “in the camp”; cf. NASB). While the MT reading is not impossible here, and although admittedly it is the harder reading, the variant fits the context better. The MT can be explained as a scribal error caused in part by the earlier occurrence of “camp” in this verse.

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

[28:8]  ²⁹ tn Heb “Use divination for me with the ritual pit and bring up for me the one whom I say to you.”