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 28:1

The Witch of Endor

28:1 In those days the Philistines gathered their troops ²  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.” ³ 

[3:1]  ¹ tn Heb “before Eli.”

[28:1]  ² tn Heb “their camps.”

[28:1]  ³ 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.