1 Samuel 3:19

3:19 Samuel continued to grow, and the Lord was with him. None of his prophecies fell to the ground unfulfilled. ¹ 

1 Samuel 9:15

9:15 Now the day before Saul arrived, the Lord had told ²  Samuel:

1 Samuel 15:18

15:18 The Lord sent you on a campaign ³  saying, ‘Go and exterminate those sinful Amalekites! Fight against them until you ⁴  have destroyed them.’

1 Samuel 23:4

23:4 So David asked the Lord once again. But again the Lord replied, “Arise, go down to Keilah, for I will give the Philistines into your hand.”

1 Samuel 3:21

3:21 Then the Lord again appeared in Shiloh, for it was in Shiloh that the Lord had revealed himself to Samuel ⁵  through the word of the Lord. ⁶ 

1 Samuel 1:23

1:23 So her husband Elkanah said to her, “Do what you think best. ⁷  Stay until you have weaned him. May the Lord fulfill his promise.” ⁸ 

So the woman stayed and nursed her son until she had weaned him.

1 Samuel 12:14

12:14 If you fear the Lord, serving him and obeying him ⁹  and not rebelling against what he says, ¹⁰  and if both you and the king who rules over you follow the Lord your God, all will be well. ¹¹ 

1 Samuel 3:1

The Call of Samuel

3:1 Now the boy Samuel continued serving the Lord under Eli’s supervision. ¹²  Word from the Lord was rare in those days; revelatory visions were infrequent.

1 Samuel 3:17

3:17 Eli ¹³  said, “What message did he speak to you? Don’t conceal it from me. God will judge you severely ¹⁴  if you conceal from me anything that he said to you!”

1 Samuel 30:8

30:8 David inquired of the Lord, saying, “Should I pursue this raiding band? Will I overtake them?” He said to him, “Pursue, for you will certainly overtake them and carry out a rescue!”

[3:19]  ¹ tn Heb “and he did not cause to fall from all his words to the ground.”

[9:15]  ² tn Heb “uncovered the ear of.”

[15:18]  ³ tn Heb “journey.”

[15:18]  ⁴ tc The translation follows the LXX, the Syriac Peshitta, and the Targum in reading the second person singular suffix (“you”) rather than the third person plural suffix of the MT (“they”).

[3:21]  ⁵ tc The LXX has a lengthy addition here: “And Samuel was acknowledged to be a prophet of the Lord in all Israel, from one end to the other. Eli was very old and, as for his sons, their way kept getting worse and worse before the Lord.” The Hebraic nature of the Greek syntax used here suggests that the LXX translator was accurately rendering a Hebrew variant and not simply expanding the text on his own initiative.

[3:21]  ⁶ tn The chapter division at this point is inappropriate. 1 Sam 4:1a is best understood as the conclusion to chap. 3 rather than the beginning of chap. 4.

[1:23]  ⁷ tn Heb “what is good in your eyes.”

[1:23]  ⁸ tn Heb “establish his word.” This apparently refers to the promise inherent in Eli’s priestly blessing (see v. 17).

[12:14]  ⁹ tn Heb “and you listen to his voice.”

[12:14]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the mouth of the Lord.” So also in v. 15.

[12:14]  ¹¹ tn The words “all will be well” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[3:1]  ¹² tn Heb “before Eli.”

[3:17]  ¹³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Eli) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:17]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “So God will do to you and thus he will add.” The verbal forms in this pronouncement are imperfects, not jussives, but the statement has the force of a curse or warning. One could translate, “May God do to you and thus may he add.”