1 Samuel 4:18

4:18 When he mentioned the ark of God, Eli ¹  fell backward from his chair beside the gate. He broke his neck and died, for he ²  was old and heavy. He had judged Israel for forty years.

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. ³ 

1 Samuel 11:7

11:7 He took a pair ⁴  of oxen and cut them up. Then he sent the pieces throughout the territory of Israel by the hand of messengers, who said, “Whoever does not go out after Saul and after Samuel should expect this to be done to his oxen!” Then the terror of the Lord fell on the people, and they went out as one army. ⁵ 

1 Samuel 17:49

17:49 David reached his hand into the bag and took out a stone. He slung it, striking the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank deeply into his forehead, and he fell down with his face to the ground.

1 Samuel 17:52

17:52 Then the men of Israel and Judah charged forward, shouting a battle cry. ⁶  They chased the Philistines to the valley ⁷  and to the very gates of Ekron. The Philistine corpses lay fallen along the Shaaraim road to Gath and Ekron.

1 Samuel 18:25

18:25 Saul replied, “Here is what you should say to David: ‘There is nothing that the king wants as a price for the bride except a hundred Philistine foreskins, so that he can be avenged of his ⁸  enemies.’” (Now Saul was thinking that he could kill David by the hand of the Philistines.)

1 Samuel 19:24

19:24 He even stripped off his clothes and prophesied before Samuel. He lay there ⁹  naked all that day and night. (For that reason it is asked, “Is Saul also among the prophets?”)

1 Samuel 20:41

20:41 When the servant had left, David got up from beside the mound, ¹⁰  knelt ¹¹  with his face to the ground, and bowed three times. Then they kissed each other and they both wept, especially David.

1 Samuel 26:12

26:12 So David took the spear and the jug of water by Saul’s head, and they got out of there. No one saw them or was aware of their presence or woke up. All of them were asleep, for the Lord had caused a deep sleep to fall on them.

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 ¹²  in the hill country.”

1 Samuel 28:20

28:20 Saul quickly fell full length on the ground and was very afraid because of Samuel’s words. He was completely drained of energy, ¹³  not having eaten anything ¹⁴  all that day and night.

1 Samuel 31:4

31:4 Saul said to his armor bearer, “Draw your sword and stab me with it! Otherwise these uncircumcised people will come, stab me, and torture me.” But his armor bearer refused to do it, because he was very afraid. So Saul took his sword and fell on it.

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

² tn Heb “the man.”

³ 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.”

⁵ tn Heb “yoke.”

⁶ tn Heb “like one man.”

⁷ tn Heb “arose and cried out.”

⁸ tc Most of the LXX ms tradition has here “Gath.”

⁹ tn Heb “the king’s.”

¹¹ tn Heb “and he fell down.”

¹³ tc The translation follows the LXX in reading “the mound,” rather than the MT’s “the south.” It is hard to see what meaning the MT reading “from beside the south” would have as it stands, since such a location lacks specificity. The NIV treats it as an elliptical expression, rendering the phrase as “from the south side of the stone (rock NCV).” This is perhaps possible, but it seems better to follow the LXX rather than the MT here.

¹⁴ tn Heb “fell.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “the calling [one],” which apparently refers to a partridge.

¹⁷ tn Heb “also there was no strength in him.”

¹⁸ tn Heb “food.”