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 2:16

2:16 If the individual said to him, “First let the fat be burned away, and then take for yourself whatever you wish,” he would say, “No! ⁵  Hand it over right now! If you don’t, I will take it forcibly!”

1 Samuel 4:3

4:3 When the army ⁶  came back to the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why did the Lord let us be defeated today by ⁷  the Philistines? Let’s take with us the ark of the covenant of the Lord from Shiloh. When it is with us, it will save us ⁸  from the hand of our enemies.

1 Samuel 5:4

5:4 But when they got up early the following day, Dagon was again lying on the ground before the ark of the Lord. The head of Dagon and his two hands were sheared off and were lying at the threshold. Only Dagon’s body was left intact. ⁹ 

1 Samuel 9:13

9:13 When you enter the town, you can find him before he goes up to the high place to eat. The people won’t eat until he arrives, for he must bless the sacrifice. Once that happens, those who have been invited will eat. Now go on up, for ¹⁰  this is the time when you can find him!”

1 Samuel 9:27

9:27 While they were going down to the edge of town, Samuel said to Saul, “Tell the servant to go on ahead of us.” So he did. ¹¹  Samuel then said, ¹²  “You remain here awhile, so I can inform you of God’s message.”

1 Samuel 12:17

12:17 Is this not the time of the wheat harvest? I will call on the Lord so that he makes it thunder and rain. Realize and see what a great sin you have committed before the Lord by asking for a king for yourselves.”

1 Samuel 14:36

14:36 Saul said, “Let’s go down after the Philistines at night; we will rout ¹³  them until the break of day. ¹⁴  We won’t leave any of them alive!” ¹⁵  They replied, “Do whatever seems best to you.” ¹⁶  But the priest said, “Let’s approach God here.”

1 Samuel 17:25

17:25 The men of Israel said, “Have you seen this man who is coming up? He does so ¹⁷  to defy Israel. But the king will make the man who can strike him down very wealthy! He will give him his daughter in marriage, and he will make his father’s house exempt from tax obligations in Israel.”

1 Samuel 18:17

18:17 ¹⁸ Then Saul said to David, “Here’s my oldest daughter, Merab. I want to give her to you in marriage. Only be a brave warrior ¹⁹  for me and fight the battles of the Lord.” For Saul thought, “There’s no need for me to raise my hand against him. Let it be the hand of the Philistines!”

1 Samuel 18:21

18:21 Saul said, “I will give her to him so that she may become a snare to him and the hand of the Philistines may be against him.” So Saul said to David, “Today is the second time for you to become my son-in-law.” ²⁰ 

1 Samuel 22:15

22:15 Was it just today that I began to inquire of God on his behalf? Far be it from me! The king should not accuse ²¹  his servant or any of my father’s house. For your servant is not aware of all this – not in whole or in part!” ²² 

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 tc The translation follows the Qere and many medieval Hebrew mss (“no”) rather than the Kethib and MT, which read “to him.”

⁹ tn Or “people.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “before.”

¹¹ tn Heb “and it will come in our midst and it will save.” After the cohortative (see “let’s take”), the prefixed verbal forms with the prefixed conjunction indicate purpose or result. The translation understands the ark to be the subject of the third masculine singular verbs, although it is possible to understand the Lord as the subject. In the latter case, one should translate, “when he is with us, he will save us.”

¹³ tc Heb “only Dagon was left.” We should probably read the word גֵּו (gev, “back”) before Dagon, understanding it to have the sense of the similar word גְּוִיָּה (gÿviyyah, “body”). This variant is supported by the following evidence: The LXX has ἡ ῥάχις (Jh rJacis, “the back” or “trunk”); the Syriac Peshitta has wegusmeh (“and the body of”); the Targum has gupyeh (“the body of”); the Vulgate has truncus (“the trunk of,” cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV, NLT). On the strength of this evidence the present translation employs the phrase “Dagon’s body.”

¹⁷ tc The MT has “him” (אֹתוֹ, ’oto) here, in addition to the “him” at the end of the verse. The ancient versions attest to only one occurrence of the pronoun, although it is possible that this is due to translation technique rather than to their having a Hebrew text with the pronoun used only once. The present translation assumes textual duplication in the MT and does not attempt to represent the pronoun twice. However, for a defense of the MT here, with the suggested translation “for him just now – you will find him,” see S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, 72-73.

²¹ tc This statement is absent in the LXX (with the exception of Origen), an Old Latin ms, and the Syriac Peshitta.

²² tn The words “Samuel then said” are supplied in the translation for clarification and for stylistic reasons.

²⁵ tn Heb “plunder.”

²⁶ tn Heb “until the light of the morning.”

²⁷ tn Heb “and there will not be left among them a man.”

²⁸ tn Heb “all that is good in your eyes.” So also in v. 40.

²⁹ tn Heb “he is coming up.”

³³ tc Much of the ms evidence for the LXX lacks vv. 17-19.

³⁴ tn Heb “son of valor.”

³⁷ tc The final sentence of v. 21 is absent in most LXX mss.

⁴¹ tn Heb “set a matter against.”

⁴² tn Heb “small or great.”