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.’
1:23 So her husband Elkanah said to her, “Do what you think best. 5 Stay until you have weaned him. May the Lord fulfill his promise.” 6
So the woman stayed and nursed her son until she had weaned him.
2:18 Now Samuel was ministering before the Lord. The boy was dressed in a linen ephod. 2:19 His mother used to make him a small robe and bring it up to him at regular intervals when she would go up with her husband to make the annual sacrifice. 2:20 Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife saying, “May the Lord raise up for you descendants 7 from this woman to replace the one that she 8 dedicated to the Lord.” Then they would go to their 9 home. 2:21 So the Lord graciously attended to Hannah, and she was able to conceive and gave birth to three sons and two daughters. The boy Samuel grew up at the Lord’s sanctuary. 10
2:22 Now Eli was very old when he heard about everything that his sons used to do to all the people of Israel 11 and how they used to have sex with 12 the women who were stationed at the entrance to the tent of meeting. 2:23 He said to them, “Why do you behave in this way? For I hear about these evil things from all these 13 people.
9:11 Again, 14 I observed this on the earth: 15
the race is not always 16 won by the swiftest,
the battle is not always won by the strongest;
prosperity 17 does not always belong to those who are the wisest,
wealth does not always belong to those who are the most discerning,
nor does success 18 always come to those with the most knowledge –
for time and chance may overcome 19 them all.
1 tn Heb “don’t look toward.”
2 tn Heb “for not that which the man sees.” The translation follows the LXX, which reads, “for not as man sees does God see.” The MT has suffered from homoioteleuton or homoioarcton. See P. K. McCarter, I Samuel (AB), 274.
3 tn Heb “to the eyes.”
4 tn Heb “in your hand.”
5 tn Heb “what is good in your eyes.”
6 tn Heb “establish his word.” This apparently refers to the promise inherent in Eli’s priestly blessing (see v. 17).
7 tn Heb “seed.”
8 tn The MT has a masculine verb here, but in light of the context the reference must be to Hannah. It is possible that the text of the MT is incorrect here (cf. the ancient versions), in which case the text should be changed to read either a passive participle or better, the third feminine singular of the verb. If the MT is correct here, perhaps the masculine is to be understood in a nonspecific and impersonal way, allowing for a feminine antecedent. In any case, the syntax of the MT is unusual here.
9 tn Heb “his.”
10 tn Heb “with the
11 tn Heb “to all Israel.”
12 tn Heb “lie with.”
13 tc For “these” the LXX has “of the Lord” (κυρίου, kuriou), perhaps through the influence of the final phrase of v. 24 (“the people of the
14 tn Heb “I returned and.” In the Hebrew idiom, “to return and do” means “to do again.”
15 tn Heb “under the sun.”
16 tn The term “always” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation (five times in this verse) for clarity.
17 tn Heb “bread.”
18 tn Heb “favor.”
19 tn Heb “happen to.”