1 Samuel 26:19

26:19 So let my lord the king now listen to the words of his servant. If the Lord has incited you against me, may he take delight in ¹  an offering. But if men have instigated this, ²  may they be cursed before the Lord! For they have driven me away this day from being united with the Lord’s inheritance, saying, ‘Go on, serve other gods!’

1 Samuel 29:4

29:4 But the leaders of the Philistines became angry with him and said ³  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 become ⁴  our adversary in the battle. What better way to please his lord than with the heads of these men? ⁵ 

¹ tn Heb “may he smell.” The implication is that Saul should seek to appease God, for such divine instigation to evil would a sign of God’s disfavor. For a fuller discussion of this passage see R. B. Chisholm, Jr., “Does God Deceive?” BSac 155 (1998): 19-21.

² tn Heb “but if the sons of men.”

³ tn Heb “and the leaders of the Philistines said.”

⁴ tn Heb “so that he might not become.”

⁵ tn Or perhaps, “our men.” On this use of the demonstrative pronoun see Joüon 2:532 §143.e.