1 Samuel 1:8

1:8 Finally her husband Elkanah said to her, “Hannah, why do you weep and not eat? Why are you so sad? ¹  Am I not better to you than ten ²  sons?”

1 Samuel 9:20-21

9:20 Don’t be concerned ³  about the donkeys that you lost three days ago, for they have been found. Whom does all Israel desire? Is it not you, and all your father’s family?” ⁴ 

9:21 Saul replied, “Am I not a Benjaminite, from the smallest of Israel’s tribes, and is not my family clan the smallest of all the tribes of Benjamin? Why do you speak to me in this way?”

1 Samuel 12:17

12:17 Is this not the time of the wheat harvest? I will call on the Lord so that he makes it thunder and rain. Realize and see what a great sin you have committed before the Lord by asking for a king for yourselves.”

1 Samuel 17:8

17:8 Goliath ⁵  stood and called to Israel’s troops, ⁶  “Why do you come out to prepare for battle? Am I not the Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose ⁷  for yourselves a man so he may come down ⁸  to me!

1 Samuel 20:30

20:30 Saul became angry with Jonathan ⁹  and said to him, “You stupid traitor! ¹⁰  Don’t I realize that to your own disgrace and to the disgrace of your mother’s nakedness you have chosen this son of Jesse?

1 Samuel 26:14-15

26:14 David called to the army and to Abner son of Ner, “Won’t you answer, Abner?” Abner replied, “Who are you, that you have called to the king?” 26:15 David said to Abner, “Aren’t you a man? After all, who is like you in Israel? Why then haven’t you protected your lord the king? One of the soldiers came to kill your lord the king.

[1:8]  ¹ tn Heb “why is your heart displeased?”

[1:8]  ² sn Like the number seven, the number ten is sometimes used in the OT as an ideal number (see, for example, Dan 1:20, Zech 8:23).

[9:20]  ³ tn Heb “do not fix your heart.”

[9:20]  ⁴ tn Heb “and all the house of your father.”

[17:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Goliath) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[17:8]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew text adds “and said to them.”

[17:8]  ⁷ tc The translation follows the ancient versions in reading “choose,” (from the root בחר, bkhr), rather than the MT. The verb in MT (ברה, brh) elsewhere means “to eat food”; the sense of “to choose,” required here by the context, is not attested for this root. The MT apparently reflects an early scribal error.

[17:8]  ⁸ tn Following the imperative, the prefixed verbal form (either an imperfect or jussive) with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose/result here.

[20:30]  ⁷ tc Many medieval Hebrew mss include the words “his son” here.

[20:30]  ⁸ tn Heb “son of a perverse woman of rebelliousness.” But such an overly literal and domesticated translation of the Hebrew expression fails to capture the force of Saul’s unrestrained reaction. Saul, now incensed and enraged over Jonathan’s liaison with David, is actually hurling very coarse and emotionally charged words at his son. The translation of this phrase suggested by Koehler and Baumgartner is “bastard of a wayward woman” (HALOT 796 s.v. עוה), but this is not an expression commonly used in English. A better English approximation of the sentiments expressed here by the Hebrew phrase would be “You stupid son of a bitch!” However, sensitivity to the various public formats in which the Bible is read aloud has led to a less startling English rendering which focuses on the semantic value of Saul’s utterance (i.e., the behavior of his own son Jonathan, which he viewed as both a personal and a political betrayal [= “traitor”]). But this concession should not obscure the fact that Saul is full of bitterness and frustration. That he would address his son Jonathan with such language, not to mention his apparent readiness even to kill his own son over this friendship with David (v. 33), indicates something of the extreme depth of Saul’s jealousy and hatred of David.