1 Samuel 1:24

1:24 Once she had weaned him, she took him up with her, along with three bulls, an ephah ¹  of flour, and a container ²  of wine. She brought him to the Lord’s house at Shiloh, even though he was young. ³ 

1 Samuel 10:3

10:3 “As you continue on from there, you will come to the tall tree of Tabor. At that point three men who are going up to God at Bethel ⁴  will meet you. One of them will be carrying three young goats, one of them will be carrying three round loaves of bread, and one of them will be carrying a container of wine.

1 Samuel 10:5

10:5 Afterward you will go to Gibeah of God, where there are Philistine officials. ⁵  When you enter the town, you will meet a company of prophets coming down from the high place. They will have harps, tambourines, flutes, and lyres, and they will be prophesying.

1 Samuel 25:18

25:18 So Abigail quickly took two hundred loaves of bread, two containers ⁶  of wine, five prepared sheep, five seahs ⁷  of roasted grain, a hundred bunches of raisins, and two hundred lumps of pressed figs. She loaded them on donkeys

[1:24]  ¹ sn The ephah was a standard dry measure in OT times; it was the equivalent of one-tenth of the OT measure known as a homer. The ephah was equal to approximately one-half to two-thirds of a bushel.

[1:24]  ² tn The Hebrew term translated “container” may denote either a clay storage jar (cf. CEV “a clay jar full of wine”) or a leather container (cf. NAB, NIV, NRSV “a skin of wine”; NCV “a leather bag filled with (full of TEV) wine.”

[1:24]  ³ tc Heb “and the boy was a boy.” If the MT is correct the meaning apparently is that the boy was quite young at the time of these events. On the other hand, some scholars have suspected a textual problem, emending the text to read either “and the boy was with them” (so LXX) or “and the boy was with her” (a conjectural emendation). In spite of the difficulty it seems best to stay with the MT here.

[10:3]  ⁴ map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

[10:5]  ⁷ tn Or “sentries.” Some translate “outpost” (NIV) or “garrison” (NAB, NRSV, NLT) here (see 1 Sam 13:3). The noun is plural in the Hebrew text, but the LXX and other ancient witnesses read a singular noun here.

[25:18]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “skins.”

[25:18]  ¹¹ sn The seah was a dry measure equal to one-third of an ephah, or not quite eleven quarts.