1 Samuel 20:32

20:32 Jonathan responded to his father Saul, “Why should he be put to death? What has he done?”

1 Samuel 19:17

19:17 Saul said to Michal, “Why have you deceived me this way by sending my enemy away? Now he has escaped!” Michal replied to Saul, “He said to me, ‘Help me get away or else I will kill you!’” ¹ 

1 Samuel 2:23

2:23 He said to them, “Why do you behave in this way? For I hear about these evil things from all these ²  people.

1 Samuel 2:29

2:29 Why are you ³  scorning my sacrifice and my offering that I commanded for my dwelling place? ⁴  You have honored your sons more than you have me by having made yourselves fat from the best parts of all the offerings of my people Israel.’

1 Samuel 21:14

21:14 Achish said to his servants, “Look at this madman! Why did you bring him to me?

1 Samuel 24:9

24:9 David said to Saul, “Why do you pay attention when men say, ‘David is seeking to do you harm’?

1 Samuel 26:18

26:18 He went on to say, “Why is my lord chasing his servant? What have I done? What wrong have I done? ⁵ 

1 Samuel 28:12

28:12 When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out loudly. ⁶  The woman said to Saul, “Why have you deceived me? You are Saul!”

1 Samuel 1:8

1:8 Finally her husband Elkanah said to her, “Hannah, why do you weep and not eat? Why are you so sad? ⁷  Am I not better to you than ten ⁸  sons?”

1 Samuel 4:3

4:3 When the army ⁹  came back to the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why did the Lord let us be defeated today by ¹⁰  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 ¹¹  from the hand of our enemies.

1 Samuel 6:3

6:3 They replied, “If you are going to send the ark of ¹²  the God of Israel back, don’t send it away empty. Be sure to return it with a guilt offering. Then you will be healed, and you will understand why his hand is not removed from you.”

1 Samuel 17:8

17:8 Goliath ¹³  stood and called to Israel’s troops, ¹⁴  “Why do you come out to prepare for battle? Am I not the Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose ¹⁵  for yourselves a man so he may come down ¹⁶  to me!

1 Samuel 20:8

20:8 You must be loyal ¹⁷  to your servant, for you have made a covenant with your servant in the Lord’s name. ¹⁸  If I am guilty, ¹⁹  you yourself kill me! Why bother taking me to your father?”

1 Samuel 22:13

22:13 Saul said to him, “Why have you conspired against me, you and this son of Jesse? You gave ²⁰  him bread and a sword and inquired of God on his behalf, so that he opposes ²¹  me and waits in ambush, as is the case today!”

1 Samuel 17:28

17:28 When David’s ²²  oldest brother Eliab heard him speaking to the men, he became angry ²³  with David and said, “Why have you come down here? To whom did you entrust those few sheep in the desert? I am familiar with your pride and deceit! ²⁴  You have come down here to watch the battle!”

1 Samuel 28:15

28:15 Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?” Saul replied, “I am terribly troubled! The Philistines are fighting against me and God has turned away from me. He does not answer me – not by the prophets nor by dreams. So I have called on you to tell me what I should do.”

[19:17]  ¹ tn Heb “Send me away! Why should I kill you?” The question has the force of a threat in this context. See P. K. McCarter, I Samuel (AB), 325, 26.

[2:23]  ¹ tc For “these” the LXX has “of the Lord” (κυρίου, kuriou), perhaps through the influence of the final phrase of v. 24 (“the people of the Lord”). Somewhat less likely is the view that the MT reading is due to a distorted dittography of the first word of v. 24. The Vulgate lacks the word.

[2:29]  ¹ tc The MT has a plural “you” here, but the LXX and a Qumran ms have the singular. The singular may be the correct reading; the verb “you have honored” later in the verse is singular even in the MT. However, it is more probable that the Lord here refers to Eli and his sons. Note the plural in the second half of the verse (“you have made yourselves fat”).

[2:29]  ² tn Heb “which I commanded, dwelling place.” The noun is functioning as an adverbial accusative in relation to the verb. Since God’s dwelling place/sanctuary is in view, the pronoun “my” is supplied in the translation.

[26:18]  ¹ tn Heb “What in my hand [is] evil?”

[28:12]  ¹ tn Heb “in a great voice.”

[1:8]  ¹ tn Heb “why is your heart displeased?”

[1:8]  ² sn Like the number seven, the number ten is sometimes used in the OT as an ideal number (see, for example, Dan 1:20, Zech 8:23).

[4:3]  ¹ tn Or “people.”

[4:3]  ² tn Heb “before.”

[4:3]  ³ 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.”

[6:3]  ¹ tc The LXX and a Qumran ms add “the covenant of the Lord.”

[17:8]  ¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Goliath) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[17:8]  ² tn The Hebrew text adds “and said to them.”

[17:8]  ³ tc The translation follows the ancient versions in reading “choose,” (from the root בחר, bkhr), rather than the MT. The verb in MT (ברה, brh) elsewhere means “to eat food”; the sense of “to choose,” required here by the context, is not attested for this root. The MT apparently reflects an early scribal error.

[17:8]  ⁴ tn Following the imperative, the prefixed verbal form (either an imperfect or jussive) with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose/result here.

[20:8]  ¹ tn Heb “and you must do loyalty.”

[20:8]  ² tn Heb “for into a covenant of the Lord you have brought your servant with you.”

[20:8]  ³ tn Heb “and if there is in me guilt.”

[22:13]  ¹ tn Heb “by giving.”

[22:13]  ² tn Heb “rises up against.”

[17:28]  ¹ tn Heb “his”; the referent (David) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[17:28]  ² tn Heb “the anger of Eliab became hot.”

[17:28]  ³ tn Heb “the wickedness of your heart.”