1 Samuel 2:31

2:31 In fact, days are coming when I will remove your strength ¹  and the strength ²  of your father’s house. There will not be an old man in your house!

1 Samuel 13:8

13:8 He waited for seven days, the time period indicated by Samuel. ³  But Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the army began to abandon Saul. ⁴ 

¹ tn Heb “chop off your arm.” The arm here symbolizes strength and activity.

² tn Heb “arm.”

³ tn This apparently refers to the instructions given by Samuel in 1 Sam 10:8. If so, several years had passed. On the relationship between chs. 10 and 13, see V. P. Long, The Art of Biblical History (FCI), 201-23.

⁴ tn Heb “dispersed from upon him”; NAB, NRSV “began to slip away.”