1 Samuel 4:3

4:3 When the army ¹  came back to the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why did the Lord let us be defeated today by ²  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 ³  from the hand of our enemies.

1 Samuel 4:10

4:10 So the Philistines fought. Israel was defeated; they all ran home. ⁴  The slaughter was very great; thirty thousand foot soldiers fell in battle.

1 Samuel 29:1

David Is Rejected by the Philistine Leaders

29:1 The Philistines assembled all their troops ⁵  at Aphek, while Israel camped at the spring that is in Jezreel.

[4:3]  ¹ tn Or “people.”

[4:3]  ² tn Heb “before.”

[4:3]  ³ 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.”

[4:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “and they fled, each to his tents.”

[29:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “camps.”