1 Samuel 4:2

4:2 The Philistines arranged their forces to fight ¹  Israel. As the battle spread out, ²  Israel was defeated by ³  the Philistines, who ⁴  killed about four thousand men in the battle line in the field.

1 Samuel 14:14-15

14:14 In this initial skirmish Jonathan and his armor bearer struck down about twenty men in an area that measured half an acre.

14:15 Then fear overwhelmed ⁵  those who were in the camp, those who were in the field, all the army in the garrison, and the raiding bands. They trembled and the ground shook. This fear was caused by God. ⁶ 

1 Samuel 17:44

17:44 The Philistine said to David, “Come here to me, so I can give your flesh to the birds of the sky and the wild animals of the field!” ⁷ 

1 Samuel 19:3

19:3 I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are. I will speak about you to my father. When I find out what the problem is, ⁸  I will let you know.”

1 Samuel 25:15

25:15 These men were very good to us. They did not insult us, nor did we sustain any loss during the entire time we were together ⁹  in the field.

1 Samuel 30:11

30:11 Then they found an Egyptian in the field and brought him to David. They gave him bread to eat and water to drink.

¹ tn Heb “to meet.”

² 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.

³ tn Heb “before.”

⁴ 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 “fell upon.”

⁶ tn Heb “and it was by the fear of God.” The translation understands this to mean that God was the source or cause of the fear experienced by the Philistines. This seems to be the most straightforward reading of the sentence. It is possible, however, that the word “God” functions here simply to intensify the accompanying word “fear,” in which one might translate “a very great fear” (cf. NAB, NRSV). It is clear that on some occasions that the divine name carries such a superlative nuance. For examples see Joüon 2:525 §141.n.

⁹ tc Many medieval Hebrew mss have “the earth” here, instead of the MT’s “the field.”

¹³ tn Heb “when I see.”

¹⁷ tn Heb “all the days we walked about with them when we were.”