1 Samuel 1:1

Hannah Gives Birth to Samuel

1:1 There was a man from Ramathaim Zophim, ¹  from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah. He was the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite.

1 Samuel 2:36

2:36 Everyone who remains in your house will come to bow before him for a little money ²  and for a scrap of bread. Each will say, ‘Assign me to a priestly task so I can eat a scrap of bread.’”

1 Samuel 6:4

6:4 They inquired, “What is the guilt offering that we should send to him?”

They replied, “The Philistine leaders number five. So send five gold sores and five gold mice, for it is the same plague that has afflicted both you and your leaders.

1 Samuel 6:7

6:7 So now go and make a new cart. Get two cows that have calves and that have never had a yoke placed on them. Harness the cows to the cart and take their calves from them back to their stalls.

1 Samuel 6:12

6:12 Then the cows went directly on the road to Beth Shemesh. They went along, mooing as they went; they turned neither to the right nor to the left. The leaders of the Philistines were walking along behind them all the way to the border of Beth Shemesh.

1 Samuel 7:12

7:12 Samuel took a stone and placed it between Mizpah and Shen. ³  He named it Ebenezer, ⁴  saying, “Up to here the Lord has helped us.”

1 Samuel 9:3

9:3 The donkeys of Saul’s father Kish wandered off, ⁵  so Kish said to his son Saul, “Take one of the servants with you and go ⁶  look for the donkeys.” ⁷ 

1 Samuel 11:7

11:7 He took a pair ⁸  of oxen and cut them up. Then he sent the pieces throughout the territory of Israel by the hand of messengers, who said, “Whoever does not go out after Saul and after Samuel should expect this to be done to his oxen!” Then the terror of the Lord fell on the people, and they went out as one army. ⁹ 

1 Samuel 16:18

16:18 One of his attendants replied, ¹⁰  “I have seen a son of Jesse in Bethlehem ¹¹  who knows how to play the lyre. He is a brave warrior ¹²  and is articulate ¹³  and handsome, ¹⁴  for the Lord is with him.”

1 Samuel 26:8

26:8 Abishai said to David, “Today God has delivered your enemy into your hands. Now let me drive the spear ¹⁵  right through him into the ground with one swift jab! ¹⁶  A second jab won’t be necessary!”

1 Samuel 26:15

26:15 David said to Abner, “Aren’t you a man? After all, who is like you in Israel? Why then haven’t you protected your lord the king? One of the soldiers came to kill your lord the king.

1 Samuel 26:20

26:20 Now don’t let my blood fall to the ground away from the Lord’s presence, for the king of Israel has gone out to look for a flea the way one looks for a partridge ¹⁷  in the hill country.”

1 Samuel 27:1

David Aligns Himself with the Philistines

27:1 David thought to himself, ¹⁸  “One of these days I’m going to be swept away by the hand of Saul! There is nothing better for me than to escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will despair of searching for me through all the territory of Israel and I will escape from his hand.”

1 Samuel 27:5

27:5 David said to Achish, “If I have found favor with you, let me be given a place in one of the country towns so that I can live there. Why should your servant settle in the royal city with you?”

¹ tc The translation follows the MT. The LXX reads “a man from Ramathaim, a Zuphite”; this is followed by a number of recent English translations. It is possible the MT reading צוֹפִים (tsofim) arose from dittography of the mem (מ) at the beginning of the following word.

² tn Heb “a piece of silver” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

³ tn Cf. NAB, NRSV, NLT “Jeshanah.”

⁴ sn The name Ebenezer (אֶבֶן הָעָזֶר) means “stone of help” in Hebrew (cf. TEV); NLT adds the meaning parenthetically after the name.

⁴ tn Heb “became lost.”

⁵ tn Heb “and arise, go.”

⁶ tc The Syriac Peshitta includes the following words: “So Saul arose and went out. He took with him one of the boys and went out to look for his father’s donkeys.”

⁵ tn Heb “yoke.”

⁶ tn Heb “like one man.”

⁶ tn Heb “answered and said.”

⁷ map For location see Map5-B1; Map7-E2; Map8-E2; Map10-B4.

⁸ tn Heb “mighty man of valor and a man of war.”

⁹ tn Heb “discerning of word.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “a man of form.”

⁷ tn Here “the spear” almost certainly refers to Saul’s own spear, which according to the previous verse was stuck into the ground beside him as he slept. This is reflected in a number of English versions: TEV, CEV “his own spear”; NLT “that spear.” Cf. NIV, NCV “my spear,” in which case Abishai refers to his own spear rather than Saul’s, but this is unlikely since (1) Abishai would probably not have carried a spear along since such a weapon would be unwieldy when sneaking into the enemy camp; and (2) this would not explain the mention of Saul’s own spear stuck in the ground beside him in the previous verse.

⁸ tn Heb “let me strike him with the spear and into the ground one time.”

⁸ tn Heb “the calling [one],” which apparently refers to a partridge.

⁹ tn Heb “said to his heart.”