1 Samuel 2:5

2:5 Those who are well-fed hire themselves out to earn food,

but the hungry no longer lack.

Even ¹  the barren woman gives birth to seven, ² 

but the one with many children withers away. ³ 

1 Samuel 4:1

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

The Ark of the Covenant is Lost to the Philistines

Then the Israelites went out to fight the Philistines. ⁵  They camped at Ebenezer, ⁶  and the Philistines camped at Aphek.

1 Samuel 4:12

Eli Dies

4:12 On that day ⁷  a Benjaminite ran from the battle lines and came to Shiloh. His clothes were torn and dirt was on his head.

1 Samuel 8:12

8:12 He will appoint for himself leaders of thousands and leaders of fifties, ⁸  as well as those who plow his ground, reap his harvest, and make his weapons of war and his chariot equipment.

1 Samuel 9:27

9:27 While they were going down to the edge of town, Samuel said to Saul, “Tell the servant to go on ahead of us.” So he did. ⁹  Samuel then said, ¹⁰  “You remain here awhile, so I can inform you of God’s message.”

1 Samuel 10:27

10:27 But some wicked men ¹¹  said, “How can this man save us?” They despised him and did not even bring him a gift. But Saul said nothing about it. ¹² 

1 Samuel 12:22

12:22 The Lord will not abandon his people because he wants to uphold his great reputation. ¹³  The Lord was pleased to make you his own people.

1 Samuel 13:16

13:16 Saul, his son Jonathan, and the army that remained with them stayed in Gibeah in the territory of Benjamin, while the Philistines camped in Micmash. ¹⁴ 

1 Samuel 13:19

13:19 A blacksmith could not be found in all the land of Israel, for the Philistines had said, “This will prevent the Hebrews from making swords and spears.”

1 Samuel 17:34-35

17:34 David replied to Saul, “Your servant has been a shepherd for his father’s flock. Whenever a lion or bear would come and carry off a sheep from the flock, 17:35 I would go out after it, strike it down, and rescue the sheep from its mouth. If it rose up against me, I would grab it by its jaw, strike it, and kill it.

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 18:30

18:30 ¹⁵  Then the leaders of the Philistines would march out, and as often as they did so, David achieved more success than all of Saul’s servants. His name was held in high esteem.

1 Samuel 19:8-9

19:8 Now once again there was war. So David went out to fight the Philistines. He defeated them thoroughly ¹⁶  and they ran away from him. 19:9 Then an evil spirit from the Lord came upon ¹⁷  Saul. He was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand, while David was playing the lyre. ¹⁸ 

1 Samuel 21:13

21:13 He altered his behavior in their presence. ¹⁹  Since he was in their power, ²⁰  he pretended to be insane, making marks on the doors of the gate and letting his saliva run down his beard.

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 28:17

28:17 The Lord has done exactly as I prophesied! ²¹  The Lord has torn the kingdom from your hand and has given it to your neighbor David!

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, ²²  David and his men were passing in review in the rear with Achish.

1 Samuel 30:9

30:9 So David went, accompanied by his six hundred men. When he came to the Wadi Besor, those who were in the rear stayed there. ²³ 

1 Samuel 31:3

31:3 Saul himself was in the thick of the battle; ²⁴  the archers ²⁵  spotted him and wounded him severely.

[2:5]  ¹ tc Against BHS but with the MT, the preposition (עַד, ’ad) should be taken with what follows rather than with what precedes. For this sense of the preposition see Job 25:5.

[2:5]  ² sn The number seven is used here in an ideal sense. Elsewhere in the OT having seven children is evidence of fertility as a result of God’s blessing on the family. See, for example, Jer 15:9, Ruth 4:15.

[2:5]  ³ tn Or “languishes.”

[4:1]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn Heb “and Israel went out to meet the Philistines for battle.”

[4:1]  ⁶ 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.

[4:12]  ⁷ tn Or perhaps, “the same day.” On this use of the demonstrative pronoun see Joüon 2:532 §143.f.

[8:12]  ⁸ tc The numbers of v. 12 are confused in the Greek and Syriac versions. For “fifties” the LXX has “hundreds.” The Syriac Peshitta has “heads of thousands and heads of hundreds and heads of fifties and heads of tens,” perhaps reflecting influence from Deut 1:15.

[9:27]  ⁹ tc This statement is absent in the LXX (with the exception of Origen), an Old Latin ms, and the Syriac Peshitta.

[9:27]  ¹⁰ tn The words “Samuel then said” are supplied in the translation for clarification and for stylistic reasons.

[10:27]  ¹¹ tn Heb “sons of worthlessness” (see 2:12).

[10:27]  ¹² tc In place of the MT (“and it was like one being silent”) the LXX has “after about a month,” taking the expression with the first part of the following chapter rather than with 10:27. Some Hebrew support for this reading appears in the corrected hand of a Qumran ms of Samuel, which has here “about a month.” However, it seems best to stay with the MT here even though it is difficult.

[12:22]  ¹³ tn Heb “on account of his great name.”

[13:16]  ¹⁴ tn The juxtaposition of disjunctive clauses in v.16 indicates synchronic action.

[18:30]  ¹⁵ tc Verse 30 is absent in most LXX mss.

[19:8]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and he struck them down with a great blow.”

[19:9]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “[was] to.”

[19:9]  ¹⁸ tn The Hebrew text adds here “with his hand.”

[21:13]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “in their eyes.”

[21:13]  ²⁰ tn Heb “in their hand.”

[28:17]  ²¹ tn Heb “just as he said by my hand.”

[29:2]  ²² tn Heb “passing by with respect to hundreds and thousands.” This apparently describes a mustering of troops for the purpose of inspection and readiness.

[30:9]  ²³ tn Heb “stood.” So also in v. 10.

[31:3]  ²⁴ tn Heb “and the battle was heavy against Saul.”

[31:3]  ²⁵ tn Heb “the shooters, men with the bow.”