1 Samuel 2:6-9

2:6 The Lord both kills and gives life;

he brings down to the grave ¹  and raises up.

2:7 The Lord impoverishes and makes wealthy;

he humbles and he exalts.

2:8 He lifts the weak ²  from the dust;

he raises ³  the poor from the ash heap

to seat them with princes

and to bestow on them an honored position. ⁴ 

The foundations of the earth belong to the Lord,

and he has placed the world on them.

2:9 He watches over ⁵  his holy ones, ⁶ 

but the wicked are made speechless in the darkness,

for it is not by one’s own strength that one prevails.

[2:6]  ¹ tn Heb “Sheol”; NAB “the nether world”; CEV “the world of the dead.”

[2:8]  ² tn Or “lowly”; Heb “insignificant.”

[2:8]  ³ tn The imperfect verbal form, which is parallel to the participle in the preceding line, is best understood here as indicating what typically happens.

[2:8]  ⁴ tn Heb “a seat of honor.”

[2:9]  ³ tn Heb “guards the feet of.” The expression means that God watches over and protects the godly in all of their activities and movements. The imperfect verbal forms in v. 9 are understood as indicating what is typically true. Another option is to translate them with the future tense. See v. 10b.

[2:9]  ⁴ tc The translation follows the Qere and many medieval Hebrew mss in reading the plural (“his holy ones”) rather than the singular (“his holy one”) of the Kethib.