1 Samuel 4:2

4:2 The Philistines arranged their forces to fight ¹  Israel. As the battle spread out, ²  Israel was defeated by ³  the Philistines, who ⁴  killed about four thousand men in the battle line in the field.

1 Samuel 4:10

4:10 So the Philistines fought. Israel was defeated; they all ran home. ⁵  The slaughter was very great; thirty thousand foot soldiers fell in battle.

1 Samuel 14:52

14:52 There was fierce war with the Philistines all the days of Saul. So whenever Saul saw anyone who was a warrior or a brave individual, he would conscript him.

1 Samuel 31:3

31:3 Saul himself was in the thick of the battle; ⁶  the archers ⁷  spotted him and wounded him severely.

[4:2]  ¹ tn Heb “to meet.”

[4:2]  ² 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]  ³ tn Heb “before.”

[4:2]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn Heb “and they fled, each to his tents.”

[31:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “and the battle was heavy against Saul.”

[31:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “the shooters, men with the bow.”