1 Samuel 2:9

2:9 He watches over ¹  his holy ones, ² 

but the wicked are made speechless in the darkness,

for it is not by one’s own strength that one prevails.

1 Samuel 11:2

11:2 But Nahash the Ammonite said to them, “The only way I will make a treaty with you is if you let me gouge out the right eye of every one of you and in so doing humiliate all Israel!”

1 Samuel 16:20

16:20 So Jesse took a donkey loaded with bread, a container of wine, and a young goat ³  and sent them to Saul with ⁴  his son David.

1 Samuel 17:17

17:17 Jesse said to his son David, “Take your brothers this ephah of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread; go quickly ⁵  to the camp to your brothers.

1 Samuel 18:26

18:26 So his servants told David these things and David agreed ⁶  to become the king’s son-in-law. Now the specified time had not yet expired ⁷ 

1 Samuel 19:13

19:13 Then Michal took a household idol ⁸  and put it on the bed. She put a quilt ⁹  made of goat’s hair over its head ¹⁰  and then covered the idol with a garment.

1 Samuel 28:20

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, ¹¹  not having eaten anything ¹²  all that day and night.

1 Samuel 29:2

29:2 When the leaders of the Philistines were passing in review at the head of their units of hundreds and thousands, ¹³  David and his men were passing in review in the rear with Achish.

[2:9]  ¹ tn Heb “guards the feet of.” The expression means that God watches over and protects the godly in all of their activities and movements. The imperfect verbal forms in v. 9 are understood as indicating what is typically true. Another option is to translate them with the future tense. See v. 10b.

[2:9]  ² tc The translation follows the Qere and many medieval Hebrew mss in reading the plural (“his holy ones”) rather than the singular (“his holy one”) of the Kethib.

[16:20]  ³ tn Heb “a kid of the goats.”

[16:20]  ⁴ tn Heb “by the hand of.”

[17:17]  ⁵ tn Heb “run.”

[18:26]  ⁶ tn Heb “and it was acceptable in the eyes of David.”

[18:26]  ⁷ tn Heb “the days were not fulfilled.”

[19:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “teraphim” (also a second time in this verse and once in v. 16). These were statues that represented various deities. According to 2 Kgs 23:24 they were prohibited during the time of Josiah’s reform movement in the seventh century. The idol Michal placed under the covers was of sufficient size to give the mistaken impression that David lay in the bed, thus facilitating his escape.

[19:13]  ⁹ tn The exact meaning of the Hebrew word כָּבִיר (kavir) is uncertain; it is found in the Hebrew Bible only here and in v. 16. It probably refers to a quilt made of goat’s hair, perhaps used as a fly net while one slept. See HALOT 458 s.v. *כָּבִיר. Cf. KJV, TEV “pillow”; NLT “cushion”; NAB, NRSV “net.”

[19:13]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “at the place of its head.”

[28:20]  ¹¹ tn Heb “also there was no strength in him.”

[28:20]  ¹² tn Heb “food.”

[29:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “passing by with respect to hundreds and thousands.” This apparently describes a mustering of troops for the purpose of inspection and readiness.