1 Samuel 2:10

2:10 The Lord shatters¹ his adversaries;²

he thunders against them from³ the heavens.

The Lord executes judgment to the ends of the earth.

He will strengthen⁴ his king

and exalt the power⁵ of his anointed one.”⁶

1 Samuel 10:10

10:10 When Saul and his servant⁷ arrived at Gibeah, a company of prophets was coming out to meet him. Then the spirit of God rushed upon Saul⁸ and he prophesied among them.

1 Samuel 17:32

17:32 David said to Saul, “Don’t let anyone be discouraged.⁹ Your servant will go and fight this Philistine!”

1 Samuel 18:4

18:4 Jonathan took off the robe he was wearing and gave it to David, along with the rest of his gear, including his sword, his bow, and even his belt.

1 Samuel 20:33

20:33 Then Saul threw his spear at Jonathan¹⁰ in order to strike him down. So Jonathan was convinced¹¹ that his father had decided to kill David.

1 Samuel 23:9

23:9 When David realized that Saul was planning to harm him,¹² he told Abiathar the priest, “Bring the ephod!”

1 Samuel 5:4

5:4 But when they got up early the following day, Dagon was again lying on the ground before the ark of the Lord. The head of Dagon and his two hands were sheared off and were lying at the threshold. Only Dagon’s body was left intact.¹³

1 Samuel 15:3

15:3 So go now and strike down the Amalekites. Destroy everything that they have. Don’t spare¹⁴ them. Put them to death – man, woman, child, infant, ox, sheep, camel, and donkey alike.’”

1 Samuel 19:23

19:23 So Saul went to Naioth in Ramah. The Spirit of God came upon him as well, and he walked along prophesying until he came to Naioth in Ramah.

1 Samuel 22:6-7

Saul Executes the Priests

22:6 But Saul found out the whereabouts of David and the men who were with him.¹⁵ Now Saul was sitting at Gibeah under the tamarisk tree at an elevated location with his spear in hand and all his servants stationed around him. 22:7 Saul said to his servants who were stationed around him, “Listen up, you Benjaminites! Is Jesse’s son giving fields and vineyards to all of you? Or is he making all of you¹⁶ commanders and officers?¹⁷

1 Samuel 25:36

25:36 When Abigail went back to Nabal, he was holding a banquet in his house like that of the king. Nabal was having a good time¹⁸ and was very intoxicated. She told him absolutely nothing¹⁹ until morning’s light.

1 Samuel 22:17

22:17 Then the king said to the messengers²⁰ who were stationed beside him, “Turn and kill the priests of the Lord, for they too have sided²¹ with David! They knew he was fleeing, but they did not inform me.” But the king’s servants refused to harm²² the priests of the Lord.

1 Samuel 29:4

29:4 But the leaders of the Philistines became angry with him and said²³ to him, “Send the man back! Let him return to the place that you assigned him! Don’t let him go down with us into the battle, for he might become²⁴ our adversary in the battle. What better way to please his lord than with the heads of these men?²⁵

¹tn The imperfect verbal forms in this line and in the next two lines are understood as indicating what is typically true. Another option is to translate them with the future tense. See v. 10b.

²tc The present translation follows the Qere, many medieval Hebrew manuscripts, the Syriac Peshitta, and the Vulgate in reading the plural (“his adversaries,” similarly many other English versions) rather than the singular (“his adversary”) of the Kethib.

³tn The Hebrew preposition here has the sense of “from within.”

⁴tn The imperfect verbal forms in this and the next line are understood as indicating what is anticipated and translated with the future tense, because at the time of Hannah’s prayer Israel did not yet have a king.

⁵tn Heb “the horn,” here a metaphor for power or strength. Cf. NCV “make his appointed king strong”; NLT “increases the might of his anointed one.”

⁶tc The LXX greatly expands v. 10 with an addition that seems to be taken from Jer 9:23-24.

⁷tc Two medieval Hebrew mss, the LXX, and the Syriac Peshitta have the singular “he” (in which case the referent would be Saul alone).

⁸tn Heb “him”; the referent (Saul) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹³tn Heb “Let not the heart of a man fall upon him.” The LXX reads “my lord,” instead of “a man.”

¹⁹tn Heb “him”; the referent (Jonathan) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

²⁰tn Heb “knew.”

²⁵tn Heb “Saul was planning the evil against him.”

³¹tc Heb “only Dagon was left.” We should probably read the word גֵּו (gev, “back”) before Dagon, understanding it to have the sense of the similar word גְּוִיָּה (gÿviyyah, “body”). This variant is supported by the following evidence: The LXX has ἡ ῥάχις (Jh rJacis, “the back” or “trunk”); the Syriac Peshitta has wegusmeh (“and the body of”); the Targum has gupyeh (“the body of”); the Vulgate has truncus (“the trunk of,” cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV, NLT). On the strength of this evidence the present translation employs the phrase “Dagon’s body.”

³⁷tn Or perhaps “don’t take pity on” (cf. CEV).

⁴³tn Heb “and Saul heard that David and the men who were with him were known.”

⁴⁹tc The MT has “to all of you.” If this reading is correct, we have here an example of a prepositional phrase functioning as the equivalent of a dative of advantage, which is not impossible from a grammatical point of view. However, the LXX, the Syriac Peshitta, and Vulgate all have “and.” A conjunction rather than a preposition should probably be read on the front of this phrase.

⁵⁰tn Heb “officers of a thousand and officers of a hundred.”

⁵⁵tn Heb “and the heart of Nabal was good upon him”; NASB, NRSV “Nabal’s heart was merry within him”; NIV “he was in high spirits”; NCV, TEV “was in a good mood”; CEV “was very drunk and feeling good.”

⁵⁶tn Heb “and she did not tell him a thing, small or large.”

⁶¹tn Heb “runners.”

⁶²tn Heb “their hand is.”

⁶³tn Heb “to extend their hand to harm.”

⁶⁷tn Heb “and the leaders of the Philistines said.”

⁶⁸tn Heb “so that he might not become.”

⁶⁹tn Or perhaps, “our men.” On this use of the demonstrative pronoun see Joüon 2:532 §143.e.