1 Samuel 29:10

29:10 So get up early in the morning along with the servants of your lord who have come with you. ¹  When you get up early in the morning, as soon as it is light enough to see, leave.” ² 

1 Samuel 20:35

20:35 The next morning Jonathan, along with a young servant, went out to the field to meet David.

1 Samuel 1:19

1:19 They got up early the next morning and after worshiping the Lord, they returned to their home at Ramah. Elkanah had marital relations with ³  his wife Hannah, and the Lord remembered ⁴  her.

1 Samuel 3:15

3:15 So Samuel lay down until morning. Then he opened the doors of the Lord’s house. But Samuel was afraid to tell Eli about the vision.

1 Samuel 19:2

19:2 So Jonathan told David, “My father Saul is trying ⁵  to kill you. So be careful tomorrow morning. Find ⁶  a hiding place and stay in seclusion. ⁷ 

1 Samuel 25:22

25:22 God will severely punish David, ⁸  if I leave alive until morning even one male ⁹  from all those who belong to him!”

1 Samuel 25:37

25:37 In the morning, when Nabal was sober, ¹⁰  his wife told him about these matters. He had a stroke and was paralyzed. ¹¹ 

1 Samuel 29:11

29:11 So David and his men got up early in the morning to return ¹²  to the land of the Philistines, but the Philistines went up to Jezreel.

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 9:19

9:19 Samuel replied to Saul, “I am the seer! Go up in front of me to the high place! Today you will eat with me and in the morning I will send you away. I will tell you everything that you are thinking. ¹⁴ 

1 Samuel 11:11

11:11 The next day Saul placed the people in three groups. They went to the Ammonite camp during the morning watch and struck them ¹⁵  down until the hottest part of the day. The survivors scattered; no two of them remained together.

1 Samuel 14:36

14:36 Saul said, “Let’s go down after the Philistines at night; we will rout ¹⁶  them until the break of day. ¹⁷  We won’t leave any of them alive!” ¹⁸  They replied, “Do whatever seems best to you.” ¹⁹  But the priest said, “Let’s approach God here.”

1 Samuel 15:12

15:12 Then Samuel got up early to meet Saul the next morning. But Samuel was informed, “Saul has gone to Carmel where ²⁰  he is setting up a monument for himself. Then Samuel left ²¹  and went down to Gilgal.” ²² 

1 Samuel 17:20

17:20 So David got up early in the morning and entrusted the flock to someone else who would watch over it. ²³  After loading up, he went just as Jesse had instructed him. He arrived at the camp ²⁴  as the army was going out to the battle lines shouting its battle cry.

1 Samuel 19:11

19:11 Saul sent messengers to David’s house to guard it and to kill him in the morning. Then David’s wife Michal told him, “If you do not save yourself ²⁵  tonight, tomorrow you will be dead!”

1 Samuel 25:34

25:34 Otherwise, as surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives – he who has prevented me from harming you – if you had not come so quickly to meet me, by morning’s light not even one male belonging to Nabal would have remained alive!”

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 time ²⁶  and was very intoxicated. She told him absolutely nothing ²⁷  until morning’s light.

¹ tc The LXX and a couple of Old Latin mss include here the following words: “and you shall go to the place that I have appointed you. Don’t place an evil thing in your heart, for you are good before me.”

² tn Heb “when you get up early in the morning and you have light, go.”

³ tn Heb “Elkanah knew his wife.” The Hebrew expression is a euphemism for sexual relations.

⁴ sn The Lord “remembered” her in the sense of granting her earlier request for a child. The Hebrew verb is often used in the OT for considering the needs or desires of people with favor and kindness.

⁵ tn Heb “seeking.”

⁶ tn Heb “stay in.”

⁷ tn Heb “and hide yourself.”

⁷ tc Heb “Thus God will do to the enemies of David and thus he will add.” Most of the Old Greek ms tradition has simply “David,” with no reference to his enemies. In OT imprecations such as the one found in v. 22 it is common for the speaker to direct malediction toward himself as an indication of the seriousness with which he regards the matter at hand. In other words, the speaker invites on himself dire consequences if he fails to fulfill the matter expressed in the oath. However, in the situation alluded to in v. 22 the threat actually does not come to fruition due to the effectiveness of Abigail’s appeal to David in behalf of her husband Nabal. Instead, David is placated through Abigail’s intervention. It therefore seems likely that the reference to “the enemies of David” in the MT of v. 22 is the result of a scribal attempt to deliver David from the implied consequences of this oath. The present translation follows the LXX rather than the MT here.

⁸ tn Heb “one who urinates against a wall” (also in v. 34); KJV “any that pisseth against the wall.”

⁹ tn Heb “when the wine had gone out from Nabal.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “and his heart died within him and he became a stone.” Cf. TEV, NLT “stroke”; CEV “heart attack.” For an alternative interpretation than that presented above, see Marjorie O’Rourke Boyle, “The Law of the Heart: The Death of a Fool (1 Samuel 25),” JBL 120 (2001): 401-27, who argues that a medical diagnosis is not necessary here. Instead, the passage makes a connection between the heart and the law; Nabal dies for his lawlessness.

¹¹ tc Heb “to go in the morning to return.” With the exception of Origen and the Lucianic recension, the Old Greek tradition lacks the phrase “in the morning.” The Syriac Peshitta also omits it.

¹³ tc 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.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “all that is in your heart.”

¹⁷ tn Heb “Ammon.” By metonymy the name “Ammon” is used collectively for the soldiers in the Ammonite army.

¹⁹ tn Heb “plunder.”

²⁰ tn Heb “until the light of the morning.”

²¹ tn Heb “and there will not be left among them a man.”

²² tn Heb “all that is good in your eyes.” So also in v. 40.

²¹ tn Heb “and look.”

²² tn Heb “and he turned and crossed over.”

²³ tc At the end of v. 12 the LXX and one Old Latin ms include the following words not found in the MT: “to Saul. And behold, he was offering as a burnt offering to the Lord the best of the spoils that he had brought from the Amalekites.”

²³ tn Heb “to a guard”; KJV, NASB, NRSV “with a keeper”; NIV “with a shepherd.” Since in contemporary English “guard” sounds like someone at a military installation or a prison, the present translation uses “to someone else who would watch over it.”

²⁴ tn Or “entrenchment.”

²⁵ tn Heb “your life.”

²⁷ tn 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.”

²⁸ tn Heb “and she did not tell him a thing, small or large.”