1 Samuel 20:41

20:41 When the servant had left, David got up from beside the mound, ¹  knelt ²  with his face to the ground, and bowed three times. Then they kissed each other and they both wept, especially David.

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.’ ³  I have told my soldiers ⁴  to wait at a certain place. ⁵ 

1 Samuel 25:39

25:39 When David heard that Nabal had died, he said, “Praised be the Lord who has vindicated me and avenged the insult that I suffered from Nabal! ⁶  The Lord has kept his servant from doing evil, and he has repaid Nabal for his evil deeds.” ⁷  Then David sent word to Abigail and asked her to become his wife.

1 Samuel 31:4

31:4 Saul said to his armor bearer, “Draw your sword and stab me with it! Otherwise these uncircumcised people will come, stab me, and torture me.” But his armor bearer refused to do it, because he was very afraid. So Saul took his sword and fell on it.

[20:41]  ¹ tc The translation follows the LXX in reading “the mound,” rather than the MT’s “the south.” It is hard to see what meaning the MT reading “from beside the south” would have as it stands, since such a location lacks specificity. The NIV treats it as an elliptical expression, rendering the phrase as “from the south side of the stone (rock NCV).” This is perhaps possible, but it seems better to follow the LXX rather than the MT here.

[20:41]  ² tn Heb “fell.”

[21:2]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn Heb “servants.”

[21:2]  ⁵ 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.

[25:39]  ⁵ tn Heb “who has argued the case of my insult from the hand of Nabal.”

[25:39]  ⁶ tn Heb “his servant he has held back from evil, and the evil of Nabal the Lord has turned back on his head.”