1 Samuel 3:17

3:17 Eli ¹  said, “What message did he speak to you? Don’t conceal it from me. God will judge you severely ²  if you conceal from me anything that he said to you!”

1 Samuel 25:22

25:22 God will severely punish David, ³  if I leave alive until morning even one male ⁴  from all those who belong to him!”

1 Samuel 25:2

David Marries Abigail the Widow of Nabal

25:2 There was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel. This man was very wealthy; ⁵  he owned three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. At that time he was shearing his sheep in Carmel.

1 Samuel 3:9

3:9 So Eli said to Samuel, “Go back and lie down. When he calls you, say, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” So Samuel went back and lay down in his place.

1 Samuel 3:1

The Call of Samuel

3:1 Now the boy Samuel continued serving the Lord under Eli’s supervision. ⁶  Word from the Lord was rare in those days; revelatory visions were infrequent.

1 Samuel 19:13

19:13 Then Michal took a household idol ⁷  and put it on the bed. She put a quilt ⁸  made of goat’s hair over its head ⁹  and then covered the idol with a garment.

1 Samuel 19:1

Saul Repeatedly Attempts to Take David’s Life

19:1 Then Saul told his son Jonathan and all his servants to kill David. But Saul’s son Jonathan liked David very much. ¹⁰ 

1 Samuel 2:23

2:23 He said to them, “Why do you behave in this way? For I hear about these evil things from all these ¹¹  people.

1 Samuel 19:2

19:2 So Jonathan told David, “My father Saul is trying ¹²  to kill you. So be careful tomorrow morning. Find ¹³  a hiding place and stay in seclusion. ¹⁴ 

1 Samuel 20:10

20:10 David said to Jonathan, “Who will tell me if your father answers you harshly?”

1 Samuel 20:2

20:2 Jonathan ¹⁵  said to him, “By no means are you going to die! My father does nothing ¹⁶  large or small without making me aware of it. ¹⁷  Why would my father hide this matter from me? It just won’t happen!”

1 Samuel 6:1

The Philistines Return the Ark

6:1 When the ark of the Lord had been in the land ¹⁸  of the Philistines for seven months, ¹⁹ 

¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Eli) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

² tn Heb “So God will do to you and thus he will add.” The verbal forms in this pronouncement are imperfects, not jussives, but the statement has the force of a curse or warning. One could translate, “May God do to you and thus may he add.”

³ 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.

⁴ tn Heb “one who urinates against a wall” (also in v. 34); KJV “any that pisseth against the wall.”

⁵ tn Heb “great.”

⁶ tn Heb “before Eli.”

⁷ tn Heb “teraphim” (also a second time in this verse and once in v. 16). These were statues that represented various deities. According to 2 Kgs 23:24 they were prohibited during the time of Josiah’s reform movement in the seventh century. The idol Michal placed under the covers was of sufficient size to give the mistaken impression that David lay in the bed, thus facilitating his escape.

⁸ tn The exact meaning of the Hebrew word כָּבִיר (kavir) is uncertain; it is found in the Hebrew Bible only here and in v. 16. It probably refers to a quilt made of goat’s hair, perhaps used as a fly net while one slept. See HALOT 458 s.v. *כָּבִיר. Cf. KJV, TEV “pillow”; NLT “cushion”; NAB, NRSV “net.”

⁹ tn Heb “at the place of its head.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “delighted greatly in David.”

¹¹ tc For “these” the LXX has “of the Lord” (κυρίου, kuriou), perhaps through the influence of the final phrase of v. 24 (“the people of the Lord”). Somewhat less likely is the view that the MT reading is due to a distorted dittography of the first word of v. 24. The Vulgate lacks the word.

¹² tn Heb “seeking.”

¹³ tn Heb “stay in.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “and hide yourself.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jonathan) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁶ tc The translation follows the Qere, many medieval Hebrew mss, and the ancient versions in reading “he will not do,” rather than the Kethib of the MT (“do to him”).

¹⁷ tn Heb “without uncovering my ear.”

¹⁸ tn Heb “field.”

¹⁹ tc The LXX adds “and their land swarmed with mice.”