1 Samuel 10:1-2

Samuel Anoints Saul

10:1 Then Samuel took a small container of olive oil and poured it on Saul’s ¹  head. Samuel ²  kissed him and said, “The Lord has chosen you ³  to lead his people Israel! You will rule over the Lord’s people and you will deliver them from the power of the enemies who surround them. This will be your sign that the Lord has chosen ⁴  you as leader over his inheritance. ⁵  10:2 When you leave me today, you will find two men near Rachel’s tomb at Zelzah on Benjamin’s border. They will say to you, ‘The donkeys you have gone looking for have been found. Your father is no longer concerned about the donkeys but has become anxious about you two! ⁶  He is asking, “What should I do about my son?”’

1 Samuel 5:3

5:3 When the residents of Ashdod got up early the next day, ⁷  Dagon was lying on the ground before the ark of the Lord. So they took Dagon and set him back in his place.

1 Samuel 5:1

The Ark Causes Trouble for the Philistines

5:1 Now the Philistines had captured the ark of God and brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod.

1 Samuel 1:1

Hannah Gives Birth to Samuel

1:1 There was a man from Ramathaim Zophim, ⁸  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.

Psalms 89:20

89:20 I have discovered David, my servant.

With my holy oil I have anointed him as king. ⁹ 

Acts 4:26-27

4:26 The kings of the earth stood together, ¹⁰ 

and the rulers assembled together,

against the Lord and against his ¹¹  Christ.’ ¹² 

4:27 “For indeed both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, assembled together in this city against ¹³  your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, ¹⁴ 

¹ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Saul) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

² tn Heb “he”; the referent (Samuel) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

³ tn Heb “Is it not that the Lord has anointed you?” The question draws attention to the fact and is a rhetorical way of affirming the Lord’s choice of Saul. The translation reflects the rhetorical force of the question.

⁴ tn That is, “anointed.”

⁵ tc The MT reads simply “Is it not that the Lord has anointed you over his inheritance for a leader?” The translation follows the LXX. The MT apparently suffers from parablepsis, whereby a scribe’s eye jumped from the first occurrence of the expression “the Lord has anointed you” to the second occurrence of this expression at the end of v. 1. This mistake caused the accidental omission of the intervening material in the LXX, which appears to preserve the original Hebrew text here.

⁶ sn In the Hebrew text the pronoun you is plural, suggesting that Saul’s father was concerned about his son and the servant who accompanied him.

⁷ tc The LXX adds “they entered the temple of Dagon and saw.”

⁸ 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.

⁹ tn The words “as king” are supplied in the translation for clarification, indicating that a royal anointing is in view.

¹⁰ tn Traditionally, “The kings of the earth took their stand.”

¹¹ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

¹² sn A quotation from Ps 2:1-2.

¹³ sn The application of Ps 2:1-2 is that Jews and Gentiles are opposing Jesus. The surprise of the application is that Jews are now found among the enemies of God’s plan.

¹⁴ sn A wordplay on “Christ,” v. 26, which means “one who has been anointed.”