1 Samuel 20:23

20:23 With regard to the matter that you and I discussed, the Lord is the witness between us forever!” ¹ 

1 Samuel 27:12

27:12 So Achish trusted David, thinking to himself, ²  “He is really hated ³  among his own people in ⁴  Israel! From now on ⁵  he will be my servant.”

¹ tc Heb “the Lord [is] between me and between you forever.” The translation assumes that the original text read עֵד עַד־עוֹלָם (’ed ’ad-’olam), “a witness forever,” with the noun “a witness” accidentally falling out of the text by haplography. See P. K. McCarter, I Samuel (AB), 338.

² tn Heb “saying.”

³ tn Heb “he really stinks.” The expression is used figuratively here to describe the rejection and ostracism that David had experienced as a result of Saul’s hatred of him.

⁴ tc Many medieval Hebrew mss lack the preposition “in.”

⁵ tn Heb “permanently.”