1 Samuel 3:1

The Call of Samuel

3:1 Now the boy Samuel continued serving the Lord under Eli’s supervision. ¹  Word from the Lord was rare in those days; revelatory visions were infrequent.

1 Samuel 13:8

13:8 He waited for seven days, the time period indicated by Samuel. ²  But Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the army began to abandon Saul. ³ 

[3:1]  ¹ tn Heb “before Eli.”

[13:8]  ² tn This apparently refers to the instructions given by Samuel in 1 Sam 10:8. If so, several years had passed. On the relationship between chs. 10 and 13, see V. P. Long, The Art of Biblical History (FCI), 201-23.

[13:8]  ³ tn Heb “dispersed from upon him”; NAB, NRSV “began to slip away.”