1 Samuel 28:17-18

28:17 The Lord has done exactly as I prophesied! ¹  The Lord has torn the kingdom from your hand and has given it to your neighbor David! 28:18 Since you did not obey the Lord ²  and did not carry out his fierce anger against the Amalekites, the Lord has done this thing to you today.

1 Samuel 28:1

The Witch of Endor

28:1 In those days the Philistines gathered their troops ³  for war in order to fight Israel. Achish said to David, “You should fully understand that you and your men must go with me into the battle.” ⁴ 

1 Samuel 11:1

Saul Comes to the Aid of Jabesh

11:1 ⁵ Nahash ⁶  the Ammonite marched ⁷  against Jabesh Gilead. All the men of Jabesh Gilead said to Nahash, “Make a treaty with us and we will serve you.”

1 Samuel 11:1

Saul Comes to the Aid of Jabesh

11:1 ⁸ Nahash ⁹  the Ammonite marched ¹⁰  against Jabesh Gilead. All the men of Jabesh Gilead said to Nahash, “Make a treaty with us and we will serve you.”

[28:17]  ¹ tn Heb “just as he said by my hand.”

[28:18]  ² tn Heb “listen to the voice of the Lord.”

[28:1]  ³ tn Heb “their camps.”

[28:1]  ⁴ tc The translation follows the LXX (εἰς πόλεμον, eis polemon) and a Qumran ms מלחמה במלחמה ([m]lkhmh) bammilkhamah (“in the battle”) rather than the MT’s בַמַּחֲנֶה (bammakhaneh, “in the camp”; cf. NASB). While the MT reading is not impossible here, and although admittedly it is the harder reading, the variant fits the context better. The MT can be explained as a scribal error caused in part by the earlier occurrence of “camp” in this verse.

[11:1]  ⁵ tc 4QSam^a and Josephus (Ant. 6.68-71) attest to a longer form of text at this point. The addition explains Nahash’s practice of enemy mutilation, and by so doing provides a smoother transition to the following paragraph than is found in the MT. The NRSV adopts this reading, with the following English translation: “Now Nahash, king of the Ammonites, had been grievously oppressing the Gadites and the Reubenites. He would gouge out the right eye of each of them and would not grant Israel a deliverer. No one was left of the Israelites across the Jordan whose right eye Nahash, king of the Ammonites, had not gouged out. But there were seven thousand men who had escaped from the Ammonites and had entered Jabesh-gilead.” This reading should not be lightly dismissed; it may in fact provide a text superior to that of the MT and the ancient versions. But the external evidence for it is so limited as to induce caution; the present translation instead follows the MT. However, for a reasonable case for including this reading in the text see the discussions in P. K. McCarter, I Samuel (AB), 199, and R. W. Klein, 1 Samuel (WBC), 103.

[11:1]  ⁶ sn The name “Nahash” means “serpent” in Hebrew.

[11:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “went up and camped”; NIV, NRSV “went up and besieged.”

[11:1]  ⁸ tc 4QSam^a and Josephus (Ant. 6.68-71) attest to a longer form of text at this point. The addition explains Nahash’s practice of enemy mutilation, and by so doing provides a smoother transition to the following paragraph than is found in the MT. The NRSV adopts this reading, with the following English translation: “Now Nahash, king of the Ammonites, had been grievously oppressing the Gadites and the Reubenites. He would gouge out the right eye of each of them and would not grant Israel a deliverer. No one was left of the Israelites across the Jordan whose right eye Nahash, king of the Ammonites, had not gouged out. But there were seven thousand men who had escaped from the Ammonites and had entered Jabesh-gilead.” This reading should not be lightly dismissed; it may in fact provide a text superior to that of the MT and the ancient versions. But the external evidence for it is so limited as to induce caution; the present translation instead follows the MT. However, for a reasonable case for including this reading in the text see the discussions in P. K. McCarter, I Samuel (AB), 199, and R. W. Klein, 1 Samuel (WBC), 103.

[11:1]  ⁹ sn The name “Nahash” means “serpent” in Hebrew.

[11:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “went up and camped”; NIV, NRSV “went up and besieged.”