1 Samuel 6:1

The Philistines Return the Ark

6:1 When the ark of the Lord had been in the land ¹  of the Philistines for seven months, ² 

1 Samuel 16:10

16:10 Jesse presented seven of his sons to Samuel. ³  But Samuel said to Jesse, “The Lord has not chosen any of these.”

1 Samuel 31:13

31:13 They took the bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree at Jabesh; then they fasted for seven days.

1 Samuel 13:8

13:8 He waited for seven days, the time period indicated by Samuel. ⁴  But Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the army began to abandon Saul. ⁵ 

1 Samuel 2:5

2:5 Those who are well-fed hire themselves out to earn food,

but the hungry no longer lack.

Even ⁶  the barren woman gives birth to seven, ⁷ 

but the one with many children withers away. ⁸ 

1 Samuel 10:8

10:8 You will go down to Gilgal before me. I am going to join you there to offer burnt offerings and to make peace offerings. You should wait for seven days, until I arrive and tell you what to do.”

1 Samuel 11:3

11:3 The elders of Jabesh said to him, “Leave us alone for seven days so that we can send messengers throughout the territory of Israel. If there is no one who can deliver us, we will come out voluntarily to you.”

1 Samuel 17:4

17:4 Then a champion ⁹  came out from the camp of the Philistines. His name was Goliath; he was from Gath. He was close to seven feet tall. ¹⁰ 

1 Samuel 10:27

10:27 But some wicked men ¹¹  said, “How can this man save us?” They despised him and did not even bring him a gift. But Saul said nothing about it. ¹² 

¹ tn Heb “field.”

² tc The LXX adds “and their land swarmed with mice.”

³ tn Heb “caused seven of his sons to pass before Samuel.” This could be taken as referring to seven sons in addition to the three mentioned before this, but 1 Sam 17:12 says Jesse had eight sons, not eleven. 1 Chr 2:13-15 lists only seven sons, including David. However, 1 Chr 27:18 mentions an additional son, named Elihu.

⁵ tn This apparently refers to the instructions given by Samuel in 1 Sam 10:8. If so, several years had passed. On the relationship between chs. 10 and 13, see V. P. Long, The Art of Biblical History (FCI), 201-23.

⁶ tn Heb “dispersed from upon him”; NAB, NRSV “began to slip away.”

⁷ tc Against BHS but with the MT, the preposition (עַד, ’ad) should be taken with what follows rather than with what precedes. For this sense of the preposition see Job 25:5.

⁸ sn The number seven is used here in an ideal sense. Elsewhere in the OT having seven children is evidence of fertility as a result of God’s blessing on the family. See, for example, Jer 15:9, Ruth 4:15.

⁹ tn Or “languishes.”

⁹ tn Heb “the man of the space between the two [armies].” See v. 23.

¹⁰ tc Heb “his height was six cubits and a span” (cf. KJV, NASB, NRSV). A cubit was approximately eighteen inches, a span nine inches. So, according to the Hebrew tradition, Goliath was about nine feet, nine inches tall (cf. NIV, CEV, NLT “over nine feet”; NCV “nine feet, four inches”; TEV “nearly 3 metres”). However, some Greek witnesses, Josephus, and a manuscript of 1 Samuel from Qumran read “four cubits and a span” here, that is, about six feet, nine inches (cf. NAB “six and a half feet”). This seems more reasonable; it is likely that Goliath’s height was exaggerated as the story was retold. See P. K. McCarter, I Samuel (AB), 286, 291.

¹¹ tn Heb “sons of worthlessness” (see 2:12).

¹² tc In place of the MT (“and it was like one being silent”) the LXX has “after about a month,” taking the expression with the first part of the following chapter rather than with 10:27. Some Hebrew support for this reading appears in the corrected hand of a Qumran ms of Samuel, which has here “about a month.” However, it seems best to stay with the MT here even though it is difficult.