1 Samuel 31:3

31:3 Saul himself was in the thick of the battle; ¹  the archers ²  spotted him and wounded him severely.

1 Samuel 4:2

4:2 The Philistines arranged their forces to fight ³  Israel. As the battle spread out, ⁴  Israel was defeated by ⁵  the Philistines, who ⁶  killed about four thousand men in the battle line in the field.

1 Samuel 14:20

14:20 Saul and all the army that was with him assembled and marched into battle, where they found ⁷  the Philistines in total panic killing one another with their swords. ⁸ 

1 Samuel 14:52

14:52 There was fierce war with the Philistines all the days of Saul. So whenever Saul saw anyone who was a warrior or a brave individual, he would conscript him.

1 Samuel 17:47

17:47 and all this assembly will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves! For the battle is the Lord’s, and he will deliver you into our hand.”

1 Samuel 19:8

19:8 Now once again there was war. So David went out to fight the Philistines. He defeated them thoroughly ⁹  and they ran away from him.

1 Samuel 18:5

18:5 On every mission on which Saul sent him, David achieved success. So Saul appointed him over the men of war. This pleased not only all the army, but also Saul’s servants. ¹⁰ 

1 Samuel 17:28

17:28 When David’s ¹¹  oldest brother Eliab heard him speaking to the men, he became angry ¹²  with David and said, “Why have you come down here? To whom did you entrust those few sheep in the desert? I am familiar with your pride and deceit! ¹³  You have come down here to watch the battle!”

¹ tn Heb “and the battle was heavy against Saul.”

² tn Heb “the shooters, men with the bow.”

³ tn Heb “to meet.”

⁴ tn The MT has וַתִּטֹּשׁ (vattittosh), from the root נטשׁ (ntsh). This verb normally means “to leave,” “to forsake,” or “to permit,” but such an idea does not fit this context very well. Many scholars have suspected that the text originally read either וַתֵּט (vattet, “and it spread out”), from the root נטה (nth), or וַתִּקֶשׁ (vattiqesh, “and it grew fierce”), from the root קשׂה (qsh). The former suggestion is apparently supported by the LXX ἔκλινεν (eklinen, “it inclined”) and is adopted in the translation.

⁵ tn Heb “before.”

⁶ tn Heb “the Philistines, and they killed.” The pronoun “they” has been translated as a relative pronoun (“who”) to make it clear to the English reader that the Philistines were the ones who did the killing.

⁵ tn Heb “and look, there was”

⁶ tn Heb “the sword of a man against his companion, a very great panic.”

⁷ tn Heb “and he struck them down with a great blow.”

⁹ tn Heb “it was good in the eyes of all the people and also in the eyes of the servants of Saul.”

¹¹ tn Heb “his”; the referent (David) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹² tn Heb “the anger of Eliab became hot.”

¹³ tn Heb “the wickedness of your heart.”