1 Samuel 11:8

11:8 When Saul counted them at Bezek, the Israelites were 300,000 ¹  strong and the men of Judah numbered 30,000. ² 

1 Samuel 18:16

18:16 But all Israel and Judah loved David, for he was the one leading them out to battle and back.

1 Samuel 15:4

15:4 So Saul assembled ³  the army ⁴  and mustered them at Telaim. There were 200,000 foot soldiers and 10,000 men of Judah.

1 Samuel 17:1

David Kills Goliath

17:1 ⁵ The Philistines gathered their troops ⁶  for battle. They assembled at Socoh in Judah. They camped in Ephes Dammim, between Socoh and Azekah.

1 Samuel 22:5

22:5 Then Gad the prophet said to David, “Don’t stay in the stronghold. Go to the land of Judah.” So David left and went to the forest of Hereth.

1 Samuel 23:3

23:3 But David’s men said to him, “We are afraid while we are still here in Judah! What will it be like if we go to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?”

1 Samuel 27:6

27:6 So Achish gave him Ziklag on that day. (For that reason Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah until this very day.)

1 Samuel 27:10

27:10 When Achish would ask, “Where ⁷  did you raid today?” David would say, “The Negev of Judah” or “The Negev of Jeharmeel” or “The Negev of the Kenites.”

1 Samuel 30:14

30:14 We conducted a raid on the Negev of the Kerethites, on the area of Judah, and on the Negev of Caleb. We burned Ziklag.” ⁸ 

1 Samuel 30:26

30:26 When David came to Ziklag, he sent some of the plunder to the elders of Judah who were his friends, saying, “Here’s a gift ⁹  for you from the looting of the Lord’s enemies!”

1 Samuel 17:12

17:12 ¹⁰ Now David was the son of this Ephrathite named Jesse from Bethlehem ¹¹  in Judah. He had eight sons, and in Saul’s days he was old and well advanced in years. ¹² 

1 Samuel 17:52

17:52 Then the men of Israel and Judah charged forward, shouting a battle cry. ¹³  They chased the Philistines to the valley ¹⁴  and to the very gates of Ekron. The Philistine corpses lay fallen along the Shaaraim road to Gath and Ekron.

1 Samuel 23:23

23:23 Locate precisely all the places where he hides and return to me with dependable information. ¹⁵  Then I will go with you. If he is in the land, I will find him ¹⁶  among all the thousands of Judah.”

1 Samuel 30:16

30:16 So he took David ¹⁷  down, and they found them spread out over the land. They were eating and drinking and enjoying themselves because of all the loot ¹⁸  they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah.

[11:8]  ¹ tc The LXX and two Old Latin mss read 600,000 here, rather than the MT’s 300,000.

[11:8]  ² tc The LXX, two Old Latin mss, and a Qumran ms read 70,000 here, rather than the MT’s 30,000.

[15:4]  ³ tn Heb “caused the people to hear.”

[15:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “people.”

[17:1]  ⁵ tc The content of 1 Sam 17–18, which includes the David and Goliath story, differs considerably in the LXX as compared to the MT, suggesting that this story circulated in ancient times in more than one form. The LXX for chs. 17–18 is much shorter than the MT, lacking almost half of the material (39 of a total of 88 verses). Many scholars (e.g., McCarter, Klein) think that the shorter text of the LXX is preferable to the MT, which in their view has been expanded by incorporation of later material. Other scholars (e.g., Wellhausen, Driver) conclude that the shorter Greek text (or the Hebrew text that underlies it) reflects an attempt to harmonize certain alleged inconsistencies that appear in the longer version of the story. Given the translation characteristics of the LXX elsewhere in this section, it does not seem likely that these differences are due to deliberate omission of these verses on the part of the translator. It seems more likely that the Greek translator has faithfully rendered here a Hebrew text that itself was much shorter than the MT in these chapters. Whether or not the shorter text represented by the LXX is to be preferred over the MT in 1 Sam 17–18 is a matter over which textual scholars are divided. For a helpful discussion of the major textual issues in this unit see D. Barthélemy, D. W. Gooding, J. Lust, and E. Tov, The Story of David and Goliath (OBO). Overall it seems preferable to stay with the MT, at least for the most part. However, the major textual differences between the LXX and the MT will be mentioned in the notes that accompany the translation so that the reader may be alert to the major problem passages.

[17:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “camps.”

[27:10]  ⁷ tc The translation follows the LXX (ἐπι τίνα, epi tina) and Vulgate (in quem) which assume אֶל מִי (’el mi, “to whom”) rather than the MT אַל (’al, “not”). The MT makes no sense here. Another possibility is that the text originally had אַן (’an, “where”), which has been distorted in the MT to אַל. Cf. the Syriac Peshitta and the Targum, which have “where.”

[30:14]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew text adds “with fire.”

[30:26]  ¹¹ tn Heb “blessing.”

[17:12]  ¹³ tc Some mss of the LXX lack vv. 12-31.

[17:12]  ¹⁴ map For location see Map5 B1; Map7 E2; Map8 E2; Map10 B4.

[17:12]  ¹⁵ tc The translation follows the Lucianic recension of the LXX and the Syriac Peshitta in reading “in years,” rather than MT “among men.”

[17:52]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “arose and cried out.”

[17:52]  ¹⁶ tc Most of the LXX ms tradition has here “Gath.”

[23:23]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “established.”

[23:23]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “I will search him out.”

[30:16]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “him”; the referent (David) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[30:16]  ²⁰ tn Heb “because of all the large plunder.”