1 Samuel 8:20

8:20 We will be like all the other nations. Our king will judge us and lead us ¹  and fight our battles.”

1 Samuel 13:10

13:10 Just when he had finished offering the burnt offering, Samuel appeared on the scene. Saul went out to meet him and to greet him. ² 

1 Samuel 17:4

17:4 Then a champion ³  came out from the camp of the Philistines. His name was Goliath; he was from Gath. He was close to seven feet tall. ⁴ 

1 Samuel 18:13

18:13 Saul removed David ⁵  from his presence and made him a commanding officer. ⁶  David led the army out to battle and back. ⁷ 

1 Samuel 20:35

20:35 The next morning Jonathan, along with a young servant, went out to the field to meet David.

¹ tn Heb “and go out before us.”

² tn Heb “to bless him.”

³ tn Heb “the man of the space between the two [armies].” See v. 23.

⁴ 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.

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

⁵ tn Heb “an officer of a thousand.”

⁶ tn Heb “and he went out and came in before the people.” See v. 16.