1 Samuel 14:23

14:23 So the Lord delivered Israel that day, and the battle shifted over to Beth Aven. ¹ 

1 Samuel 17:13

17:13 Jesse’s three oldest sons had followed Saul to war. The names of the ²  three sons who went to war were Eliab, his firstborn, Abinadab, the second oldest, and Shammah, the third oldest.

1 Samuel 4:2

4:2 The Philistines arranged their forces to fight ³  Israel. As the battle spread out, ⁴  Israel was defeated by ⁵  the Philistines, who ⁶  killed about four thousand men in the battle line in the field.

1 Samuel 31:3

31:3 Saul himself was in the thick of the battle; ⁷  the archers ⁸  spotted him and wounded him severely.

1 Samuel 13:22

13:22 So on the day of the battle no sword or spear was to be found in the hand of anyone in the army that was with Saul and Jonathan. No one but Saul and his son Jonathan had them.

1 Samuel 14:20

14:20 Saul and all the army that was with him assembled and marched into battle, where they found ⁹  the Philistines in total panic killing one another with their swords. ¹⁰ 

1 Samuel 17:19

17:19 They are with Saul and the whole Israelite army ¹¹  in the valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines.”

1 Samuel 4:9

4:9 Be strong and act like men, you Philistines, or else you will wind up serving the Hebrews the way they have served you! Act like men and fight!”

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 26:10

26:10 David went on to say, “As the Lord lives, the Lord himself will strike him down. Either his day will come and he will die, or he will go down into battle and be swept away.

1 Samuel 4:10

4:10 So the Philistines fought. Israel was defeated; they all ran home. ¹²  The slaughter was very great; thirty thousand foot soldiers fell in battle.

1 Samuel 29:9

29:9 Achish replied to David, “I am convinced that you are as reliable ¹³  as the angel of God! However, the leaders of the Philistines have said, ‘He must not go up with us in the battle.’

1 Samuel 30:24

30:24 Who will listen to you in this matter? The portion of the one who went down into the battle will be the same as the portion of the one who remained with the equipment! Let their portions be the same!”

1 Samuel 31:1

The Death of Saul

31:1 Now the Philistines were fighting against Israel. The men of Israel fled from the Philistines and many of them fell dead on Mount Gilboa.

1 Samuel 17:47

17:47 and all this assembly will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves! For the battle is the Lord’s, and he will deliver you into our hand.”

1 Samuel 17:28

17:28 When David’s ¹⁴  oldest brother Eliab heard him speaking to the men, he became angry ¹⁵  with David and said, “Why have you come down here? To whom did you entrust those few sheep in the desert? I am familiar with your pride and deceit! ¹⁶  You have come down here to watch the battle!”

1 Samuel 29:4

29:4 But the leaders of the Philistines became angry with him and said ¹⁷  to him, “Send the man back! Let him return to the place that you assigned him! Don’t let him go down with us into the battle, for he might become ¹⁸  our adversary in the battle. What better way to please his lord than with the heads of these men? ¹⁹ 

1 Samuel 28:1

The Witch of Endor

28:1 In those days the Philistines gathered their troops ²⁰  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.” ²¹ 

1 Samuel 18:17

18:17 ²² Then Saul said to David, “Here’s my oldest daughter, Merab. I want to give her to you in marriage. Only be a brave warrior ²³  for me and fight the battles of the Lord.” For Saul thought, “There’s no need for me to raise my hand against him. Let it be the hand of the Philistines!”

1 Samuel 23:8

23:8 So Saul mustered all his army to go down to Keilah and besiege David and his men. ²⁴ 

1 Samuel 19:8

19:8 Now once again there was war. So David went out to fight the Philistines. He defeated them thoroughly ²⁵  and they ran away from him.

1 Samuel 4:1

4:1 Samuel revealed the word of the Lord ²⁶  to all Israel.

The Ark of the Covenant is Lost to the Philistines

Then the Israelites went out to fight the Philistines. ²⁷  They camped at Ebenezer, ²⁸  and the Philistines camped at Aphek.

1 Samuel 17:21

17:21 Israel and the Philistines drew up their battle lines opposite one another.

1 Samuel 7:10

7:10 As Samuel was offering burnt offerings, the Philistines approached to do battle with Israel. ²⁹  But on that day the Lord thundered loudly against the Philistines. He caused them to panic, and they were defeated by ³⁰  Israel.

1 Samuel 13:5

13:5 For the battle with Israel the Philistines had amassed 3,000 ³¹  chariots, 6,000 horsemen, and an army as numerous as the sand on the seashore. They went up and camped at Micmash, east of Beth Aven.

1 Samuel 23:5

23:5 So David and his men went to Keilah and fought the Philistines. He took away their cattle and thoroughly defeated them. ³²  David delivered the inhabitants of Keilah.

1 Samuel 25:28

25:28 Please forgive the sin of your servant, for the Lord will certainly establish the house of my lord, because my lord fights the battles of the Lord. May no evil be found in you all your days!

1 Samuel 29:8

29:8 But David said to Achish, “What have I done? What have you found in your servant from the day that I first came into your presence until the present time, that I shouldn’t go and fight the enemies of my lord the king?”

1 Samuel 4:16

4:16 The man said to Eli, “I am the one who came from the battle lines! Just today I fled from the battle lines!” Eli ³³  asked, “How did things go, my son?”

1 Samuel 4:12

Eli Dies

4:12 On that day ³⁴  a Benjaminite ran from the battle lines and came to Shiloh. His clothes were torn and dirt was on his head.

1 Samuel 28:15

28:15 Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?” Saul replied, “I am terribly troubled! The Philistines are fighting against me and God has turned away from me. He does not answer me – not by the prophets nor by dreams. So I have called on you to tell me what I should do.”

1 Samuel 5:1

The Ark Causes Trouble for the Philistines

5:1 Now the Philistines had captured the ark of God and brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod.

1 Samuel 14:31

14:31 On that day the army struck down the Philistines from Micmash to Aijalon, and they became very tired.

1 Samuel 14:48

14:48 He fought bravely, striking down the Amalekites and delivering Israel from the hand of its enemies. ³⁵ 

1 Samuel 15:7

15:7 Then Saul struck down the Amalekites all the way from Havilah to ³⁶  Shur, which is next to Egypt.

1 Samuel 4:3

4:3 When the army ³⁷  came back to the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why did the Lord let us be defeated today by ³⁸  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 ³⁹  from the hand of our enemies.

1 Samuel 17:20

17:20 So David got up early in the morning and entrusted the flock to someone else who would watch over it. ⁴⁰  After loading up, he went just as Jesse had instructed him. He arrived at the camp ⁴¹  as the army was going out to the battle lines shouting its battle cry.

1 Samuel 4:4

4:4 So the army ⁴²  sent to Shiloh, and they took from there the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts who sits between the cherubim. Now the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phineas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.

1 Samuel 4:13

4:13 When he arrived in Shiloh, Eli was sitting in his chair watching by the side of ⁴³  the road, for he was very worried ⁴⁴  about the ark of God. As the man entered the city to give his report, ⁴⁵  the whole city cried out.

1 Samuel 4:17

4:17 The messenger replied, “Israel has fled from ⁴⁶  the Philistines! The army has suffered a great defeat! Your two sons, Hophni and Phineas, are dead! The ark of God has been captured!”

1 Samuel 13:11

13:11 But Samuel said, “What have you done?” Saul replied, “When I saw that the army had started to abandon me ⁴⁷  and that you didn’t come at the appointed time and that the Philistines had assembled at Micmash,

1 Samuel 17:8

17:8 Goliath ⁴⁸  stood and called to Israel’s troops, ⁴⁹  “Why do you come out to prepare for battle? Am I not the Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose ⁵⁰  for yourselves a man so he may come down ⁵¹  to me!

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 ⁵²  enemies.’” (Now Saul was thinking that he could kill David by the hand of the Philistines.)

1 Samuel 29:6

29:6 So Achish summoned David and said to him, “As surely as the Lord lives, you are an honest man, and I am glad to have you ⁵³  serving ⁵⁴  with me in the army. ⁵⁵  I have found no fault with you from the day that you first came to me until the present time. But in the opinion ⁵⁶  of the leaders, you are not reliable. ⁵⁷ 

1 Samuel 30:17

30:17 But David struck them down from twilight until the following evening. None of them escaped, with the exception of four hundred young men who got away on camels. ⁵⁸ 

[14:23]  ¹ tc The LXX includes the following words: “And all the people were with Saul, about ten thousand men. And the battle extended to the entire city on mount Ephraim.”

[17:13]  ² tn Heb “his.”

[4:2]  ³ tn Heb “to meet.”

[4:2]  ⁴ tn The MT has וַתִּטֹּשׁ (vattittosh), from the root נטשׁ (ntsh). This verb normally means “to leave,” “to forsake,” or “to permit,” but such an idea does not fit this context very well. Many scholars have suspected that the text originally read either וַתֵּט (vattet, “and it spread out”), from the root נטה (nth), or וַתִּקֶשׁ (vattiqesh, “and it grew fierce”), from the root קשׂה (qsh). The former suggestion is apparently supported by the LXX ἔκλινεν (eklinen, “it inclined”) and is adopted in the translation.

[4:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “before.”

[4:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “the Philistines, and they killed.” The pronoun “they” has been translated as a relative pronoun (“who”) to make it clear to the English reader that the Philistines were the ones who did the killing.

[31:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “and the battle was heavy against Saul.”

[31:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “the shooters, men with the bow.”

[14:20]  ⁹ tn Heb “and look, there was”

[14:20]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the sword of a man against his companion, a very great panic.”

[17:19]  ¹¹ tn Heb “all the men of Israel.”

[4:10]  ¹² tn Heb “and they fled, each to his tents.”

[29:9]  ¹³ tn Heb “I know that you are good in my eyes.”

[17:28]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “his”; the referent (David) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[17:28]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the anger of Eliab became hot.”

[17:28]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the wickedness of your heart.”

[29:4]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and the leaders of the Philistines said.”

[29:4]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “so that he might not become.”

[29:4]  ¹⁹ tn Or perhaps, “our men.” On this use of the demonstrative pronoun see Joüon 2:532 §143.e.

[28:1]  ²⁰ tn Heb “their camps.”

[28:1]  ²¹ 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.

[18:17]  ²² tc Much of the ms evidence for the LXX lacks vv. 17-19.

[18:17]  ²³ tn Heb “son of valor.”

[23:8]  ²⁴ tn Heb “So Saul mustered all his army for battle to go down to Keilah to besiege against David and his men.”

[19:8]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and he struck them down with a great blow.”

[4:1]  ²⁶ tn Heb “and the word of Samuel was.” The present translation understands Samuel to be the speaker of the divine word (“Samuel” is a subjective genitive in this case), although the statement could mean that he was the recipient of the divine word (“Samuel” is an objective genitive in this case) who in turn reported it to Israel.

[4:1]  ²⁷ tn Heb “and Israel went out to meet the Philistines for battle.”

[4:1]  ²⁸ tn Heb “the stone, the help.” The second noun is in apposition to the first one and apparently is the name by which the stone was known. Contrast the expression used in 5:1 and 7:12, where the first word lacks the definite article, unlike 4:1.

[7:10]  ²⁹ tn Heb “approached for battle against Israel.”

[7:10]  ³⁰ tn Heb “before.”

[13:5]  ³¹ tn Many English versions (e.g., KJV, NASB, NRSV, TEV) read “30,000” here.

[23:5]  ³² tn Heb “and struck them down with a great blow.”

[4:16]  ³³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Eli) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[4:12]  ³⁴ tn Or perhaps, “the same day.” On this use of the demonstrative pronoun see Joüon 2:532 §143.f.

[14:48]  ³⁵ tn Heb “plunderers.”

[15:7]  ³⁶ tn Heb “[as] you enter.”

[4:3]  ³⁷ tn Or “people.”

[4:3]  ³⁸ tn Heb “before.”

[4:3]  ³⁹ 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.”

[17:20]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “to a guard”; KJV, NASB, NRSV “with a keeper”; NIV “with a shepherd.” Since in contemporary English “guard” sounds like someone at a military installation or a prison, the present translation uses “to someone else who would watch over it.”

[17:20]  ⁴¹ tn Or “entrenchment.”

[4:4]  ⁴² tn Or “people.”

[4:13]  ⁴³ tc Read with many medieval Hebrew mss, the Qere, and much versional evidence יַד (yad, “hand”) rather than MT יַךְ (yakh).

[4:13]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “his heart was trembling.”

[4:13]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “and the man came to report in the city.”

[4:17]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “before.”

[13:11]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “dispersed from upon me.”

[17:8]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Goliath) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[17:8]  ⁴⁹ tn The Hebrew text adds “and said to them.”

[17:8]  ⁵⁰ tc The translation follows the ancient versions in reading “choose,” (from the root בחר, bkhr), rather than the MT. The verb in MT (ברה, brh) elsewhere means “to eat food”; the sense of “to choose,” required here by the context, is not attested for this root. The MT apparently reflects an early scribal error.

[17:8]  ⁵¹ tn Following the imperative, the prefixed verbal form (either an imperfect or jussive) with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose/result here.

[18:25]  ⁵² tn Heb “the king’s.”

[29:6]  ⁵³ tn Heb “it is good in my eyes.” Cf. v. 7.

[29:6]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “your going forth and your coming in.” The expression is a merism.

[29:6]  ⁵⁵ tn Heb “camp.”

[29:6]  ⁵⁶ tn Heb “eyes.”

[29:6]  ⁵⁷ tn Heb “good.”

[30:17]  ⁵⁸ tn Heb “who rode on camels and fled.”