1 Samuel 13:13-14

13:13 Then Samuel said to Saul, “You have made a foolish choice! You have not obeyed ¹  the commandment that the Lord your God gave ²  you. Had you done that, the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever! 13:14 But now your kingdom will not continue! The Lord has sought out ³  for himself a man who is loyal to him ⁴  and the Lord has appointed ⁵  him to be leader over his people, for you have not obeyed what the Lord commanded you.”

1 Samuel 15:16

15:16 Then Samuel said to Saul, “Wait a minute! ⁶  Let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night.” Saul ⁷  said to him, “Tell me.”

[13:13]  ¹ tn Or “kept.”

[13:13]  ² tn Heb “commanded.”

[13:14]  ³ tn This verb form, as well as the one that follows (“appointed”), indicates completed action from the standpoint of the speaker. This does not necessarily mean that the Lord had already conducted his search and made his choice, however. The forms may be used for rhetorical effect to emphasize the certainty of the action. The divine search for a new king is as good as done, emphasizing that the days of Saul’s dynasty are numbered.

[13:14]  ⁴ tn Heb “according to his heart.” The idiomatic expression means to be like-minded with another, as its use in 1 Sam 14:7 indicates.

[13:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “commanded.”

[15:16]  ⁶ tn Or perhaps “be quiet.”

[15:16]  ⁷ tc The translation follows the Qere and many medieval Hebrew mss in reading the singular (“he said”) rather than the plural (“they said”) of the Kethib.