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 4:2

4:2 The Philistines arranged their forces to fight ⁴  Israel. As the battle spread out, ⁵  Israel was defeated by ⁶  the Philistines, who ⁷  killed about four thousand men in the battle line in the field.

1 Samuel 4:9-10

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!”

4:10 So the Philistines fought. Israel was defeated; they all ran home. ⁸  The slaughter was very great; thirty thousand foot soldiers fell in battle.

1 Samuel 4:20

4:20 As she was dying, the women who were there with her said, “Don’t be afraid! You have given birth to a son!” But she did not reply or pay any attention. ⁹ 

1 Samuel 8:22

8:22 The Lord said to Samuel, “Do as they say ¹⁰  and install a king over them.” Then Samuel said to the men of Israel, “Each of you go back to his own city.”

1 Samuel 15:21

15:21 But the army took from the plunder some of the sheep and cattle – the best of what was to be slaughtered – to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.”

1 Samuel 24:2

24:2 So Saul took three thousand select men from all Israel and went to find ¹¹  David and his men in the region of ¹²  the rocks of the mountain goats. ¹³ 

1 Samuel 25:37

25:37 In the morning, when Nabal was sober, ¹⁴  his wife told him about these matters. He had a stroke and was paralyzed. ¹⁵ 

1 Samuel 27:2

27:2 So David left and crossed over to King Achish son of Maoch of Gath accompanied by his six hundred men.

1 Samuel 28:18

28:18 Since you did not obey the Lord ¹⁶  and did not carry out his fierce anger against the Amalekites, the Lord has done this thing to you today.

[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.”

[4:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “to meet.”

[4:2]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn Heb “before.”

[4:2]  ⁷ 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.

[4:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “and they fled, each to his tents.”

[4:20]  ⁹ tn Heb “and she did not set her heart.”

[8:22]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “listen to their voice.”

[24:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “to search [for].”

[24:2]  ¹² tn Heb “upon the face of.”

[24:2]  ¹³ tn Or “the region of the Rocks of the Mountain Goats,” if this expression is understood as a place name (cf. NASB, NIV, NRSV, TEV, CEV).

[25:37]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “when the wine had gone out from Nabal.”

[25:37]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and his heart died within him and he became a stone.” Cf. TEV, NLT “stroke”; CEV “heart attack.” For an alternative interpretation than that presented above, see Marjorie O’Rourke Boyle, “The Law of the Heart: The Death of a Fool (1 Samuel 25),” JBL 120 (2001): 401-27, who argues that a medical diagnosis is not necessary here. Instead, the passage makes a connection between the heart and the law; Nabal dies for his lawlessness.

[28:18]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “listen to the voice of the Lord.”