1 Samuel 1:11

1:11 She made a vow saying, “O Lord of hosts, if you will look with compassion ¹  on the suffering of your female servant, ²  remembering me and not forgetting your servant, and give a male child ³  to your servant, then I will dedicate him to the Lord all the days of his life. His hair will never be cut.” ⁴ 

1 Samuel 14:45

14:45 But the army said to Saul, “Should Jonathan, who won this great victory in Israel, die? May it never be! As surely as the Lord lives, not a single hair of his head will fall to the ground! For it is with the help of God that he has acted today.” So the army rescued Jonathan from death. ⁵ 

1 Samuel 15:9

15:9 However, Saul and the army spared Agag, along with the best of the flock, the cattle, the fatlings, ⁶  and the lambs, as well as everything else that was of value. ⁷  They were not willing to slaughter them. But they did slaughter everything that was despised ⁸  and worthless.

1 Samuel 20:13

20:13 But if my father intends to do you harm, may the Lord do all this and more to Jonathan, if I don’t let you know ⁹  and send word to you so you can go safely on your way. ¹⁰  May the Lord be with you, as he was with my father.

1 Samuel 21:5

21:5 David said to the priest, “Certainly women have been kept away from us, just as on previous occasions when I have set out. The soldiers’ ¹¹  equipment is holy, even on an ordinary journey. How much more so will they be holy today, along with their equipment!”

1 Samuel 23:23

23:23 Locate precisely all the places where he hides and return to me with dependable information. ¹²  Then I will go with you. If he is in the land, I will find him ¹³  among all the thousands of Judah.”

1 Samuel 28:8

28:8 So Saul disguised himself and put on other clothing and left, accompanied by two of his men. They came to the woman at night and said, “Use your ritual pit to conjure up for me the one I tell you.” ¹⁴ 

¹ tn Heb “if looking you look.” The expression can refer, as here, to looking favorably upon another, in this case with compassion.

² tn Heb “handmaid.” The use of this term (translated two more times in this verse and once each in vv. 16, 17 simply as “servant” for stylistic reasons) is an expression of humility.

³ tn Heb “seed of men.”

⁴ tn Heb “a razor will not go up upon his head.”

⁵ tn Heb “and he did not die.”

⁹ tn The Hebrew text is difficult here. We should probably read וְהַמַּשְׂמַנִּים (vÿhammasmannim, “the fat ones”) rather than the MT וְהַמִּשְׂנִים (vÿhammisnim, “the second ones”). However, if the MT is retained, the sense may be as the Jewish commentator Kimchi supposed: the second-born young, thought to be better than the firstlings. (For discussion see S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, 123-24.)

¹⁰ tn Heb “good.”

¹¹ tc The MT has here the very odd form נְמִבְזָה (nÿmivzah), but this is apparently due to a scribal error. The translation follows instead the Niphal participle נִבְזָה (nivzah).

¹³ tn Heb “uncover your ear.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “in peace.”

¹⁷ tn Heb “servants’.”

²¹ tn Heb “established.”

²² tn Heb “I will search him out.”

²⁵ tn Heb “Use divination for me with the ritual pit and bring up for me the one whom I say to you.”