1 Samuel 2:9

2:9 He watches over ¹  his holy ones, ² 

but the wicked are made speechless in the darkness,

for it is not by one’s own strength that one prevails.

1 Samuel 28:22

28:22 Now it’s your turn to listen to your servant! Let me set before you a bit of bread so that you can eat. When you regain your strength, you can go on your way.”

1 Samuel 30:4

30:4 Then David and the men ³  who were with him wept loudly ⁴  until they could weep no more. ⁵ 

1 Samuel 28:20

28:20 Saul quickly fell full length on the ground and was very afraid because of Samuel’s words. He was completely drained of energy, ⁶  not having eaten anything ⁷  all that day and night.

¹ tn Heb “guards the feet of.” The expression means that God watches over and protects the godly in all of their activities and movements. The imperfect verbal forms in v. 9 are understood as indicating what is typically true. Another option is to translate them with the future tense. See v. 10b.

² tc The translation follows the Qere and many medieval Hebrew mss in reading the plural (“his holy ones”) rather than the singular (“his holy one”) of the Kethib.

³ tn Heb “people.”

⁴ tn Heb “lifted up their voice and wept.”

⁵ tn Heb “until there was no longer in them strength to weep.”

⁵ tn Heb “also there was no strength in him.”

⁶ tn Heb “food.”