1 Samuel 1:9

1:9 On one occasion in Shiloh, after they had finished eating and drinking, Hannah got up. ¹  (Now at the time Eli the priest was sitting in his chair ²  by the doorpost of the Lord’s temple.)

1 Samuel 7:2

Further Conflict with the Philistines

7:2 It was quite a long time – some twenty years in all – that the ark stayed at Kiriath Jearim. All the people ³  of Israel longed for ⁴  the Lord.

1 Samuel 8:5

8:5 They said to him, “Look, you are old, and your sons don’t follow your ways. So now appoint over us a king to lead ⁵  us, just like all the other nations have.”

1 Samuel 14:13

14:13 Jonathan crawled up on his hands and feet, with his armor bearer following behind him. Jonathan struck down the Philistines, ⁶  while his armor bearer came along behind him and killed them. ⁷ 

1 Samuel 14:22

14:22 When all the Israelites who had hidden themselves in the hill country of Ephraim heard that the Philistines had fled, they too pursued them in battle.

1 Samuel 15:32

Samuel Puts Agag to Death

15:32 Then Samuel said, “Bring me King Agag of the Amalekites.” So Agag came to him trembling, ⁸  thinking to himself, ⁹  “Surely death is bitter!” ¹⁰ 

1 Samuel 16:4

16:4 Samuel did what the Lord told him. ¹¹  When he arrived in Bethlehem, ¹²  the elders of the city were afraid to meet him. They ¹³  said, “Do you come in peace?”

1 Samuel 18:11

18:11 and Saul threw the spear, thinking, “I’ll nail David to the wall!” But David escaped from him on two different occasions.

1 Samuel 19:24

19:24 He even stripped off his clothes and prophesied before Samuel. He lay there ¹⁴  naked all that day and night. (For that reason it is asked, “Is Saul also among the prophets?”)

1 Samuel 21:1

21:1 (21:2) David went to Ahimelech the priest in Nob. Ahimelech was shaking with fear when he met ¹⁵  David, and said to him, “Why are you by yourself with no one accompanying you?”

1 Samuel 24:8

24:8 Afterward David got up and went out of the cave. He called out after Saul, “My lord, O king!” When Saul looked behind him, David kneeled down and bowed with his face to the ground.

1 Samuel 25:24

25:24 Falling at his feet, she said, “My lord, I accept all the guilt! But please let your female servant speak with my lord! Please listen to the words of your servant!

1 Samuel 30:20

30:20 David took all the flocks and herds and drove them in front of the rest of the animals. People were saying, “This is David’s plunder!”

[1:9]  ¹ tc The LXX adds “and stood before the Lord,” but this is probably a textual expansion due to the terseness of the statement in the Hebrew text.

[1:9]  ² tn Or perhaps, “on his throne.” See Joüon 2:506-7 §137.f.

[7:2]  ³ tn Heb “house” (also in the following verse).

[7:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “mourned after”; NIV “mourned and sought after”; KJV, NRSV “lamented after”; NAB “turned to”; NCV “began to follow…again.”

[8:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “judge” (also in v. 6).

[14:13]  ⁶ tn Heb “and they fell before Jonathan.”

[14:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “and the one carrying his equipment was killing after him.”

[15:32]  ⁸ tn The MT reading מַעֲדַנֹּת (ma’adannot, literally, “bonds,” used here adverbially, “in bonds”) is difficult. The word is found only here and in Job 38:31. Part of the problem lies in determining the root of the word. Some scholars have taken it to be from the root ענד (’nd, “to bind around”), but this assumes a metathesis of two of the letters of the root. Others take it from the root עדן (’dn) with the meaning “voluptuously,” but this does not seem to fit the context. It seems better to understand the word to be from the root מעד (m’d, “to totter” or “shake”). In that case it describes the fear that Agag experienced in realizing the mortal danger that he faced as he approached Samuel. This is the way that the LXX translators understood the word, rendering it by the Greek participle τρέμον (tremon, “trembling”).

[15:32]  ⁹ tn Heb “and Agag said.”

[15:32]  ¹⁰ tc The text is difficult here. With the LXX, two Old Latin mss, and the Syriac Peshitta it is probably preferable to delete סָר (sar, “is past”) of the MT; it looks suspiciously like a dittograph of the following word מַר (mar, “bitter”). This further affects the interpretation of Agag’s comment. In the MT he comes to Samuel confidently assured that the danger is over (cf. KJV, NASB, NIV “Surely the bitterness of death is past,” along with NLT, CEV). However, it seems more likely that Agag realized that his fortunes had suddenly taken a turn for the worse and that the clemency he had enjoyed from Saul would not be his lot from Samuel. The present translation thus understands Agag to approach not confidently but in the stark realization that his death is imminent (“Surely death is bitter!”). Cf. NAB “So it is bitter death!”; NRSV “Surely this is the bitterness of death”; TEV “What a bitter thing it is to die!”

[16:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “said.”

[16:4]  ¹² map For location see Map5 B1; Map7 E2; Map8 E2; Map10 B4.

[16:4]  ¹³ tc In the MT the verb is singular (“he said”), but the translation follows many medieval Hebrew mss and ancient versions in reading the plural (“they said”).

[19:24]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and he fell down.”

[21:1]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “trembled to meet.”