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 6:3

6:3 They replied, “If you are going to send the ark of ³  the God of Israel back, don’t send it away empty. Be sure to return it with a guilt offering. Then you will be healed, and you will understand why his hand is not removed from you.”

1 Samuel 9:20

9:20 Don’t be concerned ⁴  about the donkeys that you lost three days ago, for they have been found. Whom does all Israel desire? Is it not you, and all your father’s family?” ⁵ 

1 Samuel 12:19

12:19 All the people said to Samuel, “Pray to the Lord your God on behalf of us – your servants – so we won’t die, for we have added to all our sins by asking for a king.” ⁶ 

1 Samuel 16:7

16:7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Don’t be impressed by ⁷  his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. God does not view things the way men do. ⁸  People look on the outward appearance, ⁹  but the Lord looks at the heart.”

1 Samuel 18:17

18:17 ¹⁰ Then Saul said to David, “Here’s my oldest daughter, Merab. I want to give her to you in marriage. Only be a brave warrior ¹¹  for me and fight the battles of the Lord.” For Saul thought, “There’s no need for me to raise my hand against him. Let it be the hand of the Philistines!”

1 Samuel 19:4

19:4 So Jonathan spoke on David’s behalf ¹²  to his father Saul. He said to him, “The king should not sin against his servant David, for he has not sinned against you. On the contrary, his actions have been very beneficial ¹³  for you.

1 Samuel 20:3

20:3 Taking an oath, David again ¹⁴  said, “Your father is very much aware of the fact ¹⁵  that I have found favor with you, and he has thought, ¹⁶  ‘Don’t let Jonathan know about this, or he will be upset.’ But as surely as the Lord lives and you live, there is about one step between me and death!”

1 Samuel 21:2

21:2 David replied to Ahimelech the priest, “The king instructed me to do something, but he said to me, ‘Don’t let anyone know the reason I am sending you or the instructions I have given you.’ ¹⁷  I have told my soldiers ¹⁸  to wait at a certain place. ¹⁹ 

1 Samuel 22:15

22:15 Was it just today that I began to inquire of God on his behalf? Far be it from me! The king should not accuse ²⁰  his servant or any of my father’s house. For your servant is not aware of all this – not in whole or in part!” ²¹ 

1 Samuel 23:17

23:17 He said to him, “Don’t be afraid! For the hand of my father Saul cannot find you. You will rule over Israel, and I will be your second in command. Even my father Saul realizes this.”

1 Samuel 25:25

25:25 My lord should not pay attention to this wicked man Nabal. He simply lives up to his name! His name means ‘fool,’ and he is indeed foolish! ²²  But I, your servant, did not see the servants my lord sent. ²³ 

1 Samuel 26:20

26:20 Now don’t let my blood fall to the ground away from the Lord’s presence, for the king of Israel has gone out to look for a flea the way one looks for a partridge ²⁴  in the hill country.”

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 The LXX and a Qumran ms add “the covenant of the Lord.”

⁵ tn Heb “do not fix your heart.”

⁶ tn Heb “and all the house of your father.”

⁷ tn Heb “for we have added to all our sins an evil [thing] by asking for ourselves a king.”

⁹ tn Heb “don’t look toward.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “for not that which the man sees.” The translation follows the LXX, which reads, “for not as man sees does God see.” The MT has suffered from homoioteleuton or homoioarcton. See P. K. McCarter, I Samuel (AB), 274.

¹¹ tn Heb “to the eyes.”

¹¹ tc Much of the ms evidence for the LXX lacks vv. 17-19.

¹² tn Heb “son of valor.”

¹³ tn Heb “spoke good with respect to David.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “good.”

¹⁵ tc The LXX and the Syriac Peshitta lack the word “again.”

¹⁶ tn The infinitive absolute appears before the finite verb for emphasis.

¹⁷ tn Heb “said,” that is, to himself. So also in v. 25.

¹⁷ tn Heb “let not a man know anything about the matter [for] which I am sending you and [about] which I commanded you.”

¹⁸ tn Heb “servants.”

¹⁹ tn The Hebrew expression here refers to a particular, but unnamed, place. It occurs in the OT only here, in 2 Kgs 6:8, and in Ruth 4:1, where Boaz uses it to refer to Naomi’s unnamed kinsman-redeemer. A contracted form of the expression appears in Dan 8:13.

¹⁹ tn Heb “set a matter against.”

²⁰ tn Heb “small or great.”

²¹ tn Heb “and foolishness is with him.”

²² tn Heb “my lord’s servants, whom you sent.”

²³ tn Heb “the calling [one],” which apparently refers to a partridge.