1 Samuel 3:5

3:5 Then he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But Eli ¹  said, “I didn’t call you. Go back and lie down.” So he went back and lay down.

1 Samuel 4:16

4:16 The man said to Eli, “I am the one who came from the battle lines! Just today I fled from the battle lines!” Eli ²  asked, “How did things go, my son?”

1 Samuel 8:22

8:22 The Lord said to Samuel, “Do as they say ³  and install a king over them.” Then Samuel said to the men of Israel, “Each of you go back to his own city.”

1 Samuel 10:14

10:14 Saul’s uncle asked him and his servant, “Where did you go?” Saul ⁴  replied, “To look for the donkeys. But when we realized they were lost, ⁵  we went to Samuel.”

1 Samuel 12:5

12:5 He said to them, “The Lord is witness against you, and his chosen king ⁶  is witness this day, that you have not found any reason to accuse me.” ⁷  They said, “He is witness!”

1 Samuel 15:16

15:16 Then Samuel said to Saul, “Wait a minute! ⁸  Let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night.” Saul ⁹  said to him, “Tell me.”

1 Samuel 15:32

Samuel Puts Agag to Death

15:32 Then Samuel said, “Bring me King Agag of the Amalekites.” So Agag came to him trembling, ¹⁰  thinking to himself, ¹¹  “Surely death is bitter!” ¹² 

1 Samuel 16:2

16:2 Samuel replied, “How can I go? Saul will hear about it and kill me!” But the Lord said, “Take a heifer with you ¹³  and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’

1 Samuel 17:58

17:58 Saul said to him, “Whose son are you, young man?” David replied, “I am the son of your servant Jesse in Bethlehem.” ¹⁴ 

1 Samuel 23:12

23:12 David asked, “Will the leaders of Keilah deliver me and my men into Saul’s hand?” The Lord said, “They will deliver you over.”

1 Samuel 26:17

26:17 When Saul recognized David’s voice, he said, “Is that your voice, my son David?” David replied, “Yes, it’s my voice, my lord the king.”

1 Samuel 27:10

27:10 When Achish would ask, “Where ¹⁵  did you raid today?” David would say, “The Negev of Judah” or “The Negev of Jeharmeel” or “The Negev of the Kenites.”

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

² tn Heb “he”; the referent (Eli) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

³ tn Heb “listen to their voice.”

⁴ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Saul) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁵ tn Heb “And we saw that they were not.”

⁵ tn Heb “anointed [one].”

⁶ tn Heb “that you have not found anything in my hand.”

⁶ tn Or perhaps “be quiet.”

⁷ tc The translation follows the Qere and many medieval Hebrew mss in reading the singular (“he said”) rather than the plural (“they said”) of the Kethib.

⁷ tn The MT reading מַעֲדַנֹּת (ma’adannot, literally, “bonds,” used here adverbially, “in bonds”) is difficult. The word is found only here and in Job 38:31. Part of the problem lies in determining the root of the word. Some scholars have taken it to be from the root ענד (’nd, “to bind around”), but this assumes a metathesis of two of the letters of the root. Others take it from the root עדן (’dn) with the meaning “voluptuously,” but this does not seem to fit the context. It seems better to understand the word to be from the root מעד (m’d, “to totter” or “shake”). In that case it describes the fear that Agag experienced in realizing the mortal danger that he faced as he approached Samuel. This is the way that the LXX translators understood the word, rendering it by the Greek participle τρέμον (tremon, “trembling”).

⁸ tn Heb “and Agag said.”

⁹ tc The text is difficult here. With the LXX, two Old Latin mss, and the Syriac Peshitta it is probably preferable to delete סָר (sar, “is past”) of the MT; it looks suspiciously like a dittograph of the following word מַר (mar, “bitter”). This further affects the interpretation of Agag’s comment. In the MT he comes to Samuel confidently assured that the danger is over (cf. KJV, NASB, NIV “Surely the bitterness of death is past,” along with NLT, CEV). However, it seems more likely that Agag realized that his fortunes had suddenly taken a turn for the worse and that the clemency he had enjoyed from Saul would not be his lot from Samuel. The present translation thus understands Agag to approach not confidently but in the stark realization that his death is imminent (“Surely death is bitter!”). Cf. NAB “So it is bitter death!”; NRSV “Surely this is the bitterness of death”; TEV “What a bitter thing it is to die!”

⁸ tn Heb “in your hand.”

⁹ map For location see Map5-B1; Map7-E2; Map8-E2; Map10-B4.

¹⁰ tc The translation follows the LXX (ἐπι τίνα, epi tina) and Vulgate (in quem) which assume אֶל מִי (’el mi, “to whom”) rather than the MT אַל (’al, “not”). The MT makes no sense here. Another possibility is that the text originally had אַן (’an, “where”), which has been distorted in the MT to אַל. Cf. the Syriac Peshitta and the Targum, which have “where.”