1 Samuel 1:24

1:24 Once she had weaned him, she took him up with her, along with three bulls, an ephah ¹  of flour, and a container ²  of wine. She brought him to the Lord’s house at Shiloh, even though he was young. ³ 

1 Samuel 20:36-38

20:36 He said to his servant, “Run, find the arrows that I am about to shoot.” As the servant ran, Jonathan ⁴  shot the arrow beyond him. 20:37 When the servant came to the place where Jonathan had shot the arrow, Jonathan called out to ⁵  the servant, “Isn’t the arrow further beyond you?” 20:38 Jonathan called out to the servant, “Hurry! Go faster! Don’t delay!” Jonathan’s servant retrieved the arrow and came back to his master.

1 Samuel 25:5

25:5 he ⁶  sent ten servants, ⁷  saying to them, ⁸  “Go up to Carmel to see Nabal and give him greetings in my name. ⁹ 

1 Samuel 25:14

25:14 But one of the servants told Nabal’s wife Abigail, “David sent messengers from the desert to greet ¹⁰  our lord, but he screamed at them.

1 Samuel 1:25

1:25 Once the bull had been slaughtered, they brought the boy to Eli.

¹ sn The ephah was a standard dry measure in OT times; it was the equivalent of one-tenth of the OT measure known as a homer. The ephah was equal to approximately one-half to two-thirds of a bushel.

² tn The Hebrew term translated “container” may denote either a clay storage jar (cf. CEV “a clay jar full of wine”) or a leather container (cf. NAB, NIV, NRSV “a skin of wine”; NCV “a leather bag filled with (full of TEV) wine.”

³ tc Heb “and the boy was a boy.” If the MT is correct the meaning apparently is that the boy was quite young at the time of these events. On the other hand, some scholars have suspected a textual problem, emending the text to read either “and the boy was with them” (so LXX) or “and the boy was with her” (a conjectural emendation). In spite of the difficulty it seems best to stay with the MT here.

⁴ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jonathan) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁷ tn Heb “called after” (also in v. 38).

¹⁰ tn Heb “David”; for stylistic reasons the pronoun has been used in the translation.

¹¹ tn Or “young men.”

¹² tn Heb “and David said to the young men.”

¹³ tn Heb “and inquire concerning him in my name in regard to peace.”

¹³ tn Heb “bless.”