1 Samuel 10:19

10:19 But today you have rejected your God who saves you from all your trouble and distress. You have said, “No! ¹  Appoint a king over us.” Now take your positions before the Lord by your tribes and by your clans.’”

1 Samuel 17:8

17:8 Goliath ²  stood and called to Israel’s troops, ³  “Why do you come out to prepare for battle? Am I not the Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose ⁴  for yourselves a man so he may come down ⁵  to me!

¹ tc The translation follows many medieval Hebrew mss, the LXX, the Syriac Peshitta, and Vulgate in reading לֹא (lo’, “not”) rather than the MT לוֹ (lo; “to him”). Some witnesses combine the variants, resulting in a conflated text. For example, a few medieval Hebrew mss have לֹא לוֹ (lo lo’; “to him, ‘No.’”). A few others have לֹא לִי (li lo’; “to me, ‘No.’”).

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

³ tn The Hebrew text adds “and said to them.”

⁴ tc The translation follows the ancient versions in reading “choose,” (from the root בחר, bkhr), rather than the MT. The verb in MT (ברה, brh) elsewhere means “to eat food”; the sense of “to choose,” required here by the context, is not attested for this root. The MT apparently reflects an early scribal error.

⁵ tn Following the imperative, the prefixed verbal form (either an imperfect or jussive) with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose/result here.