1 Samuel 11:1-3

Saul Comes to the Aid of Jabesh

11:1 ¹ Nahash ²  the Ammonite marched ³  against Jabesh Gilead. All the men of Jabesh Gilead said to Nahash, “Make a treaty with us and we will serve you.”

11:2 But Nahash the Ammonite said to them, “The only way I will make a treaty with you is if you let me gouge out the right eye of every one of you and in so doing humiliate all Israel!”

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 31:11-13

31:11 When the residents of Jabesh Gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, 31:12 all their warriors set out and traveled throughout the night. They took Saul’s corpse and the corpses of his sons from the city wall of Beth Shan and went ⁴  to Jabesh, where they burned them. 31:13 They took the bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree at Jabesh; then they fasted for seven days.

1 Samuel 31:2

31:2 The Philistines stayed right on the heels ⁵  of Saul and his sons. They ⁶  struck down Saul’s sons Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malki-Shua.

1 Samuel 2:5-6

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

but the hungry no longer lack.

Even ⁷  the barren woman gives birth to seven, ⁸ 

but the one with many children withers away. ⁹ 

2:6 The Lord both kills and gives life;

he brings down to the grave ¹⁰  and raises up.

[11:1]  ¹ tc 4QSam^a and Josephus (Ant. 6.68-71) attest to a longer form of text at this point. The addition explains Nahash’s practice of enemy mutilation, and by so doing provides a smoother transition to the following paragraph than is found in the MT. The NRSV adopts this reading, with the following English translation: “Now Nahash, king of the Ammonites, had been grievously oppressing the Gadites and the Reubenites. He would gouge out the right eye of each of them and would not grant Israel a deliverer. No one was left of the Israelites across the Jordan whose right eye Nahash, king of the Ammonites, had not gouged out. But there were seven thousand men who had escaped from the Ammonites and had entered Jabesh-gilead.” This reading should not be lightly dismissed; it may in fact provide a text superior to that of the MT and the ancient versions. But the external evidence for it is so limited as to induce caution; the present translation instead follows the MT. However, for a reasonable case for including this reading in the text see the discussions in P. K. McCarter, I Samuel (AB), 199, and R. W. Klein, 1 Samuel (WBC), 103.

[11:1]  ² sn The name “Nahash” means “serpent” in Hebrew.

[11:1]  ³ tn Heb “went up and camped”; NIV, NRSV “went up and besieged.”

[31:12]  ⁴ tc The translation follows the MT, which vocalizes the verb as a Qal. The LXX, however, treats the verb as a Hiphil, “they brought.”

[31:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “stuck close after.”

[31:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “the Philistines.”

[2:5]  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.

[2:5]  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.

[2:5]  ⁹ tn Or “languishes.”

[2:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Sheol”; NAB “the nether world”; CEV “the world of the dead.”