1 Samuel 28:18-25

28:18 Since you did not obey the Lord ¹  and did not carry out his fierce anger against the Amalekites, the Lord has done this thing to you today. 28:19 The Lord will hand you and Israel over to the Philistines! ²  Tomorrow both you and your sons will be with me. ³  The Lord will also hand the army ⁴  of Israel over to the Philistines!”

28:20 Saul quickly fell full length on the ground and was very afraid because of Samuel’s words. He was completely drained of energy, ⁵  not having eaten anything ⁶  all that day and night. 28:21 When the woman came to Saul and saw how terrified he was, she said to him, “Your servant has done what you asked. ⁷  I took my life into my own hands and did what you told me. ⁸  28:22 Now it’s your turn to listen to your servant! Let me set before you a bit of bread so that you can eat. When you regain your strength, you can go on your way.”

28:23 But he refused, saying, “I won’t eat!” Both his servants and the woman urged ⁹  him to eat, so he gave in. ¹⁰  He got up from the ground and sat down on the bed. 28:24 Now the woman ¹¹  had a well-fed calf ¹²  at her home that she quickly slaughtered. Taking some flour, she kneaded bread and baked it without leaven. 28:25 She brought it to Saul and his servants, and they ate. Then they arose and left that same night.

[28:18]  ¹ tn Heb “listen to the voice of the Lord.”

[28:19]  ² tn Heb “And the Lord will give also Israel along with you into the hand of the Philistines.”

[28:19]  ³ tc With the exception of the Lucianic recension, the LXX has here “and tomorrow you and your sons with you will fall.”

[28:19]  ⁴ tn Heb “camp.”

[28:20]  ⁵ tn Heb “also there was no strength in him.”

[28:20]  ⁶ tn Heb “food.”

[28:21]  ⁷ tn Heb “listened to your voice.”

[28:21]  ⁸ tn Heb “listened to your words that you spoke to me.”

[28:23]  ⁹ tc The translation follows many medieval Hebrew mss in reading וַיִּפְצְרוּ (vayyiftseru, “and they pressed”; from the root פצר, psr) rather than the MT’s וַיִּפְרְצוּ (vayyifretsu, “and they broke forth”; from the root פרצ, prs).

[28:23]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “he listened to their voice.”

[28:24]  ¹¹ sn Masoretic mss of the Hebrew Bible mark this word as the half-way point in the book of Samuel, treating 1 and 2 Samuel as a single book. Similar notations are found at the midway point for all of the books of the Hebrew Bible.

[28:24]  ¹² tn Heb “a calf of the stall.”