16:4 Samuel did what the Lord told him. 1 When he arrived in Bethlehem, 2 the elders of the city were afraid to meet him. They 3 said, “Do you come in peace?” 16:5 He replied, “Yes, in peace. I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice.” So he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.
16:2 Samuel replied, “How can I go? Saul will hear about it and kill me!” But the Lord said, “Take a heifer with you 4 and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’
9:19 Samuel replied to Saul, “I am the seer! Go up in front of me to the high place! Today you will eat with me and in the morning I will send you away. I will tell you everything that you are thinking. 5 9:20 Don’t be concerned 6 about the donkeys that you lost three days ago, for they have been found. Whom does all Israel desire? Is it not you, and all your father’s family?” 7
9:21 Saul replied, “Am I not a Benjaminite, from the smallest of Israel’s tribes, and is not my family clan the smallest of all the tribes of Benjamin? Why do you speak to me in this way?”
9:22 Then Samuel brought 8 Saul and his servant into the room and gave them a place at the head of those who had been invited. There were about thirty people present.
9:1 There was a Benjaminite man named Kish son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Becorath, the son of Aphiah of Benjamin. He was a prominent person.
12:18 So Samuel called to the Lord, and the Lord made it thunder and rain that day. All the people were very afraid of both the Lord and Samuel.
1 tn Heb “said.”
2 map For location see Map5-B1; Map7-E2; Map8-E2; Map10-B4.
3 tc In the MT the verb is singular (“he said”), but the translation follows many medieval Hebrew
4 tn Heb “in your hand.”
5 tn Heb “all that is in your heart.”
6 tn Heb “do not fix your heart.”
7 tn Heb “and all the house of your father.”
8 tn Heb “took and brought.”
9 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
10 tn Grk “Into whatever house you enter.” This acts as a distributive, meaning every house they enter; this is expressed more naturally in English as “whenever you enter a house.”
11 sn The statement ‘May peace be on this house!’ is really a benediction, asking for God’s blessing. The requested shalom (peace) is understood as coming from God.
12 tn Grk “a son of peace,” a Hebrew idiom for a person of a certain class or kind, as specified by the following genitive construction (in this case, “of peace”). Such constructions are discussed further in L&N 9.4. Here the expression refers to someone who responds positively to the disciples’ message, like “wisdom’s child” in Luke 7:30.
13 sn The response to these messengers determines how God’s blessing is bestowed – if they are not welcomed with peace, their blessing will return to them. Jesus shows just how important their mission is by this remark.