8:1 Later David defeated the Philistines and subdued them. David took Metheg Ammah 3 from the Philistines. 4
1:20 Don’t report it in Gath,
don’t spread the news in the streets of Ashkelon, 8
or the daughters of the Philistines will rejoice,
the daughters of the uncircumcised will celebrate!
1:26 I grieve over you, my brother Jonathan!
You were very dear to me.
Your love was more special to me than the love of women.
1:1 After the death of Saul, 9 when David had returned from defeating the Amalekites, 10 he stayed at Ziklag 11 for two days.
23:17 At the end of seventy years 17 the Lord will revive 18 Tyre. She will start making money again by selling her services to all the earth’s kingdoms. 19 23:18 Her profits and earnings will be set apart for the Lord. They will not be stored up or accumulated, for her profits will be given to those who live in the Lord’s presence and will be used to purchase large quantities of food and beautiful clothes. 20
4:13 “Get up and thresh, Daughter Zion!
For I will give you iron horns; 21
I will give you bronze hooves,
and you will crush many nations.” 22
You will devote to the Lord the spoils you take from them,
and dedicate their wealth to the sovereign Ruler 23 of the whole earth. 24
1 tn Heb “also them King David made holy to the
2 tn Heb “with the silver and the gold that he had dedicated from.”
3 tn Heb “the bridle of one cubit.” Many English versions treat this as a place name because the parallel text in 1 Chr 18:1 reads “Gath” (which is used by NLT here). It is possible that “the bridle of one cubit” is to be understood as “the token of surrender,” referring to the Philistine’s defeat rather than a specific place (cf. TEV, CEV).
4 tn Heb “from the hand [i.e., control] of the Philistines.”
5 tn Heb “Why did you not strike him down there to the ground.”
6 tn Heb “ten [shekels] of silver.” This would have been about 4 ounces (114 grams) of silver by weight.
7 tn Heb “and a girdle” (so KJV); NIV “a warrior’s belt”; CEV “a special belt”; NLT “a hero’s belt.”
8 sn The cities of Gath and Ashkelon are mentioned here by synecdoche of part for the whole. As major Philistine cities they in fact represent all of Philistia. The point is that when the sad news of fallen Israelite leadership reaches the Philistines, it will be for these enemies of Israel the occasion of great joy rather than grief.
9 sn This chapter is closely linked to 1 Sam 31. It should be kept in mind that 1 and 2 Samuel were originally a single book, not separate volumes. Whereas in English Bible tradition the books of Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, and Ezra-Nehemiah are each regarded as two separate books, this was not the practice in ancient Hebrew tradition. Early canonical records, for example, counted them as single books respectively. The division into two books goes back to the Greek translation of the OT and was probably initiated because of the cumbersome length of copies due to the Greek practice (unlike that of Hebrew) of writing vowels. The present division into two books can be a little misleading in terms of perceiving the progression of the argument of the book; in some ways it is preferable to treat the books of 1-2 Samuel in a unified fashion.
10 sn The Amalekites were a nomadic people who inhabited Judah and the Transjordan. They are mentioned in Gen 36:15-16 as descendants of Amalek who in turn descended from Esau. In Exod 17:8-16 they are described as having acted in a hostile fashion toward Israel as the Israelites traveled to Canaan from Egypt. In David’s time the Amalekites were viewed as dangerous enemies who raided, looted, and burned Israelite cities (see 1 Sam 30).
11 sn Ziklag was a city in the Negev which had been given to David by Achish king of Gath. For more than a year David used it as a base from which he conducted military expeditions (see 1 Sam 27:5-12). According to 1 Sam 30:1-19, Ziklag was destroyed by the Amalekites while Saul fought the Philistines.
12 sn Tearing one’s clothing and throwing dirt on one’s head were outward expressions of grief in the ancient Near East, where such demonstrable reactions were a common response to tragic news.
13 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the man mentioned at the beginning of v. 2) has been specified in the translation to avoid confusion as to who fell to the ground.
14 tn Heb “he fell to the ground and did obeisance.”
15 tn Heb “crossing over near his hand.”
16 tn Heb “crossing over near the face of.”
17 tn The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.
18 tn Heb “visit [with favor]” (cf. KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV); NIV “will deal with.”
19 tn Heb “and she will return to her [prostitute’s] wages and engage in prostitution with all the kingdoms of the earth on the face of the earth.”
20 tn Heb “for eating to fullness and for beautiful covering[s].”
21 tn Heb “I will make your horn iron.”
22 sn Jerusalem (Daughter Zion at the beginning of the verse; cf. 4:8) is here compared to a powerful ox which crushes the grain on the threshing floor with its hooves.
23 tn Or “the Lord” (so many English versions); Heb “the master.”
24 tn Heb “and their wealth to the master of all the earth.” The verb “devote” does double duty in the parallelism and is supplied in the second line for clarification.