Discovery Box1 Samuel 2:30
Context2:30 Therefore the Lord, the God of Israel, says, ‘I really did say 1 that your house and your ancestor’s house would serve 2 me forever.’ But now the Lord says, ‘May it never be! 3 For I will honor those who honor me, but those who despise me will be cursed!
1 Samuel 13:14
Context13:14 But now your kingdom will not continue! The Lord has sought out 4 for himself a man who is loyal to him 5 and the Lord has appointed 6 him to be leader over his people, for you have not obeyed what the Lord commanded you.”
1 Samuel 16:1-2
Context16:1 The Lord said to Samuel, “How long do you intend to mourn for Saul? I have rejected him as king over Israel. 7 Fill your horn with olive oil and go! I am sending you to Jesse in Bethlehem, 8 for I have selected a king for myself from among his sons.” 9
16:2 Samuel replied, “How can I go? Saul will hear about it and kill me!” But the Lord said, “Take a heifer with you 10 and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’
1 Samuel 17:15-20
Context17:15 David was going back and forth 11 from Saul in order to care for his father’s sheep in Bethlehem.
17:16 Meanwhile for forty days the Philistine approached every morning and evening and took his position. 17:17 Jesse said to his son David, “Take your brothers this ephah of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread; go quickly 12 to the camp to your brothers. 17:18 Also take these ten portions of cheese to their commanding officer. 13 Find out how your brothers are doing 14 and bring back their pledge that they received the goods. 15 17:19 They are with Saul and the whole Israelite army 16 in the valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines.”
17:20 So David got up early in the morning and entrusted the flock to someone else who would watch over it. 17 After loading up, he went just as Jesse had instructed him. He arrived at the camp 18 as the army was going out to the battle lines shouting its battle cry.
1 Samuel 17:1
Context17:1 19 The Philistines gathered their troops 20 for battle. They assembled at Socoh in Judah. They camped in Ephes Dammim, between Socoh and Azekah.
1 Samuel 28:9
Context28:9 But the woman said to him, “Look, you are aware of what Saul has done; he has removed 21 the mediums and magicians 22 from the land! Why are you trapping me 23 so you can put me to death?”
[2:30] 1 tn The infinitive absolute appears before the finite verb for emphasis.
[2:30] 2 tn Heb “walk about before.”
[2:30] 3 tn Heb “may it be far removed from me.”
[13:14] 4 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] 5 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.
[16:1] 7 tc The Lucianic recension of the Old Greek translation includes the following words: “And the Lord said to Samuel.”
[16:1] 8 map For location see Map5 B1; Map7 E2; Map8 E2; Map10 B4.
[16:1] 9 tn Heb “for I have seen among his sons for me a king.”
[16:2] 10 tn Heb “in your hand.”
[17:15] 11 tn Heb “was going and returning.”
[17:18] 13 tn Heb “officer of the thousand.”
[17:18] 14 tn Heb “and your brothers, observe with respect to welfare.”
[17:18] 15 tn Heb “and their pledge take.” This probably refers to some type of confirmation that the goods arrived safely. See R. W. Klein, 1 Samuel (WBC), 177. Cf. NIV “bring back some assurance”; NCV “some proof to show me they are all right”; NLT “bring me back a letter from them.”
[17:19] 16 tn Heb “all the men of Israel.”
[17:20] 17 tn Heb “to a guard”; KJV, NASB, NRSV “with a keeper”; NIV “with a shepherd.” Since in contemporary English “guard” sounds like someone at a military installation or a prison, the present translation uses “to someone else who would watch over it.”
[17:20] 18 tn Or “entrenchment.”
[17:1] 19 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.
[28:9] 21 tn Heb “how he has cut off.”
