1 Samuel 2:36

2:36 Everyone who remains in your house will come to bow before him for a little money ¹  and for a scrap of bread. Each will say, ‘Assign me to a priestly task so I can eat a scrap of bread.’”

1 Samuel 4:3

4:3 When the army ²  came back to the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why did the Lord let us be defeated today by ³  the Philistines? Let’s take with us the ark of the covenant of the Lord from Shiloh. When it is with us, it will save us ⁴  from the hand of our enemies.

1 Samuel 9:24

9:24 So the cook picked up the leg and brought it and set it in front of Saul. Samuel ⁵  said, “What was kept is now set before you! Eat, for it has been kept for you for this meeting time, from the time I said, ‘I have invited the people.’” So Saul ate with Samuel that day.

1 Samuel 12:17

12:17 Is this not the time of the wheat harvest? I will call on the Lord so that he makes it thunder and rain. Realize and see what a great sin you have committed before the Lord by asking for a king for yourselves.”

1 Samuel 16:16

16:16 Let our lord instruct his servants who are here before you to look for a man who knows how to play the lyre. Then whenever the evil spirit from God comes upon you, he can play the lyre ⁶  and you will feel better.” ⁷ 

1 Samuel 21:2

21:2 David replied to Ahimelech the priest, “The king instructed me to do something, but he said to me, ‘Don’t let anyone know the reason I am sending you or the instructions I have given you.’ ⁸  I have told my soldiers ⁹  to wait at a certain place. ¹⁰ 

[2:36]  ¹ tn Heb “a piece of silver” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[4:3]  ² tn Or “people.”

[4:3]  ³ tn Heb “before.”

[4:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “and it will come in our midst and it will save.” After the cohortative (see “let’s take”), the prefixed verbal forms with the prefixed conjunction indicate purpose or result. The translation understands the ark to be the subject of the third masculine singular verbs, although it is possible to understand the Lord as the subject. In the latter case, one should translate, “when he is with us, he will save us.”

[9:24]  ³ tn Heb “he” (also in v. 25); the referent (Samuel) has been specified in both places in the translation for clarity.

[16:16]  ⁴ tn Heb “and he will play with his hand.”

[16:16]  ⁵ tn Heb “and it will be better for you.”

[21:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “let not a man know anything about the matter [for] which I am sending you and [about] which I commanded you.”

[21:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “servants.”

[21:2]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew expression here refers to a particular, but unnamed, place. It occurs in the OT only here, in 2 Kgs 6:8, and in Ruth 4:1, where Boaz uses it to refer to Naomi’s unnamed kinsman-redeemer. A contracted form of the expression appears in Dan 8:13.