1 Samuel 16:14

David Appears before Saul

16:14 Now the Spirit of the Lord had turned away from Saul, and an evil spirit 1  from the Lord tormented him.

1 Samuel 28:15

28:15 Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?” Saul replied, “I am terribly troubled! The Philistines are fighting against me and God has turned away from me. He does not answer me – not by the prophets nor by dreams. So I have called on you to tell me what I should do.”

Psalms 51:11

51:11 Do not reject me! 2 

Do not take your Holy Spirit 3  away from me! 4 

Hosea 9:12

9:12 Even if they raise their children,

I will take away every last one of them. 5 

Woe to them!

For I will turn away from them.

Matthew 25:41

25:41 “Then he will say 6  to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire that has been prepared for the devil and his angels!

1 tn Or “an injurious spirit”; cf. NLT “a tormenting spirit.” The phrase need not refer to an evil, demonic spirit. The Hebrew word translated “evil” may refer to the character of the spirit or to its effect upon Saul. If the latter, another translation option might be “a mischief-making spirit.”

2 tn Heb “do not cast me away from before you.”

3 sn Your Holy Spirit. The personal Spirit of God is mentioned frequently in the OT, but only here and in Isa 63:10-11 is he called “your/his Holy Spirit.”

4 sn Do not take…away. The psalmist expresses his fear that, due to his sin, God will take away the Holy Spirit from him. NT believers enjoy the permanent gift of the Holy Spirit and need not make such a request nor fear such a consequence. However, in the OT God’s Spirit empowered certain individuals for special tasks and only temporarily resided in them. For example, when God rejected Saul as king and chose David to replace him, the divine Spirit left Saul and came upon David (1 Sam 16:13-14).

5 tn Heb “I will bereave them from a man”; NRSV “I will bereave them until no one is left.”

6 tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.