1 Samuel 18:7-21

18:7 The women who were playing the music sang,

“Saul has struck down his thousands,

but David his tens of thousands!”

18:8 This made Saul very angry. The statement displeased him and he thought, ¹  “They have attributed to David tens of thousands, but to me they have attributed only thousands. What does he lack, except the kingdom?” 18:9 So Saul was keeping an eye on David from that day onward.

18:10 The next day an evil spirit from God rushed upon Saul and he prophesied within his house. Now David was playing the lyre ²  that day. There was a spear in Saul’s hand, 18:11 and Saul threw the spear, thinking, “I’ll nail David to the wall!” But David escaped from him on two different occasions.

18:12 So Saul feared David, because the Lord was with him but had departed from Saul. 18:13 Saul removed David ³  from his presence and made him a commanding officer. ⁴  David led the army out to battle and back. ⁵  18:14 Now David achieved success in all he did, ⁶  for the Lord was with him. 18:15 When Saul saw how very successful he was, he was afraid of him. 18:16 But all Israel and Judah loved David, for he was the one leading them out to battle and back.

18:17 ⁷ Then Saul said to David, “Here’s my oldest daughter, Merab. I want to give her to you in marriage. Only be a brave warrior ⁸  for me and fight the battles of the Lord.” For Saul thought, “There’s no need for me to raise my hand against him. Let it be the hand of the Philistines!”

18:18 David said to Saul, “Who am I? Who are my relatives or the clan of my father ⁹  in Israel that I should become the king’s son-in-law?” 18:19 When the time came for Merab, Saul’s daughter, to be given to David, she instead was given in marriage to Adriel, who was from Meholah.

18:20 Now Michal, Saul’s daughter, loved David. When they told Saul about this, it ¹⁰  pleased him. 18:21 Saul said, “I will give her to him so that she may become a snare to him and the hand of the Philistines may be against him.” So Saul said to David, “Today is the second time for you to become my son-in-law.” ¹¹ 

1 Samuel 25:44

25:44 (Now Saul had given his daughter Michal, David’s wife, to Paltiel son of Laish, who was from Gallim.)

1 Samuel 25:2

David Marries Abigail the Widow of Nabal

25:2 There was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel. This man was very wealthy; ¹²  he owned three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. At that time he was shearing his sheep in Carmel.

1 Samuel 3:13-16

3:13 You ¹³  should tell him that I am about to judge his house forever because of ¹⁴  the sin that he knew about. For his sons were cursing God, ¹⁵  and he did not rebuke them. 3:14 Therefore I swore an oath to the house of Eli, ‘The sin of the house of Eli can never be forgiven by sacrifice or by grain offering.’”

3:15 So Samuel lay down until morning. Then he opened the doors of the Lord’s house. But Samuel was afraid to tell Eli about the vision. 3:16 However, Eli called Samuel and said, “Samuel, my son!” He replied, “Here I am.”

1 Samuel 6:20

6:20 The residents of Beth Shemesh asked, “Who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God? To whom will the ark ¹⁶  go up from here?”

[18:8]  ¹ tn Heb “said.” So also in vv. 11, 17.

[18:10]  ² tn The Hebrew text adds here “with his hand.”

[18:13]  ³ tn Heb “him”; the referent (David) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “an officer of a thousand.”

[18:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “and he went out and came in before the people.” See v. 16.

[18:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “in all his ways.”

[18:17]  ⁷ tc Much of the ms evidence for the LXX lacks vv. 17-19.

[18:17]  ⁸ tn Heb “son of valor.”

[18:18]  ⁹ tn Heb “Who are my relatives, the clan of my father?” The term חַי (khay), traditionally understood as “my life,” is here a rare word meaning “family, kinfolk” (see HALOT 309 s.v. III חַי). The phrase “clan of my father” may be a scribal gloss explaining the referent of this rare word.

[18:20]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the matter.”

[18:21]  ¹¹ tc The final sentence of v. 21 is absent in most LXX mss.

[25:2]  ¹² tn Heb “great.”

[3:13]  ¹³ tc The MT has וְהִגַּדְתִּי לוֹ (vÿhiggadti lo). The verb is Hiphil perfect 1st person common singular, and apparently the conjunction should be understood as vav consecutive (“I will say to him”). But the future reference makes more sense if Samuel is the subject. This would require dropping the final י (yod) and reading the 2nd person masculine singular וְהִגַּדְתָּ (vÿhiggadta). Although there is no external evidence to support it, this reading has been adopted in the present translation. The alternative is to understand the MT to mean “I said to him,” but for this we would expect the preterite with vav consecutive.

[3:13]  ¹⁴ tn The translation understands the preposition to have a causal sense. However, the preposition could also be understood as the beth pretii, indicating in a broad sense the price attached to this action. So GKC 380 §119.p.

[3:13]  ¹⁵ tc The translation follows the LXX θεόν (qeon, “God”) rather than the MT לָהֶם (lahem, “to them”). The MT seems to mean “they were bringing a curse on themselves” (cf. ASV, NASB). But this meaning is problematic in part because the verb qll means “to curse,” not “to bring a curse on,” and in part because it takes an accusative object rather than the equivalent of a dative. This is one of the so-called tiqqune sopherim, or “emendations of the scribes.” Why would the ancient copyists alter the original statement about Eli’s sons cursing God to the less objectionable statement that they brought a curse on themselves? Some argue that the scribes were concerned that such a direct and blasphemous affront against God could occur without an immediate response of judgment from God. Therefore they changed the text by deleting two letters א and י (alef and yod) from the word for “God,” with the result that the text then read “to them.” If this ancient scribal claim is accepted as accurate, it implies that the MT here is secondary. The present translation follows the LXX (κακολογοῦντες θεόν, kakologounte" qeon) and a few mss of the Old Latin in reading “God” rather than the MT “to them.” Cf. also NAB, NRSV, NLT.

[6:20]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “he” or “it”; the referent here (the ark) has been specified in the translation for clarity (cf. also NIV, CEV, NLT). Others, however, take the referent to be the Lord himself.