1 Samuel 3:13

3:13 You ¹  should tell him that I am about to judge his house forever because of ²  the sin that he knew about. For his sons were cursing God, ³  and he did not rebuke them.

1 Samuel 6:5-6

6:5 You should make images of the sores and images of the mice ⁴  that are destroying the land. You should honor the God of Israel. Perhaps he will release his grip on you, your gods, and your land. ⁵  6:6 Why harden your hearts like the Egyptians and Pharaoh did? ⁶  When God ⁷  treated them harshly, didn’t the Egyptians send the Israelites on their way? ⁸ 

1 Samuel 6:19

6:19 But the Lord ⁹  struck down some of the people of Beth Shemesh because they had looked into the ark of the Lord; he struck down 50,070 ¹⁰  of the men. The people grieved because the Lord had struck the people with a hard blow.

1 Samuel 7:9

7:9 So Samuel took a nursing lamb ¹¹  and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the Lord. Samuel cried out to the Lord on Israel’s behalf, and the Lord answered him.

1 Samuel 13:15

13:15 Then Samuel set out and went up from Gilgal ¹²  to Gibeah in the territory of Benjamin. ¹³  Saul mustered the army that remained with him; there were about six hundred men.

1 Samuel 14:43

14:43 So Saul said to Jonathan, “Tell me what you have done.” Jonathan told him, “I used the end of the staff that was in my hand to taste a little honey. I must die!” ¹⁴ 

1 Samuel 17:52

17:52 Then the men of Israel and Judah charged forward, shouting a battle cry. ¹⁵  They chased the Philistines to the valley ¹⁶  and to the very gates of Ekron. The Philistine corpses lay fallen along the Shaaraim road to Gath and Ekron.

1 Samuel 18:5

18:5 On every mission on which Saul sent him, David achieved success. So Saul appointed him over the men of war. This pleased not only all the army, but also Saul’s servants. ¹⁷ 

1 Samuel 19:4

19:4 So Jonathan spoke on David’s behalf ¹⁸  to his father Saul. He said to him, “The king should not sin against his servant David, for he has not sinned against you. On the contrary, his actions have been very beneficial ¹⁹  for you.

1 Samuel 21:8

21:8 David said to Ahimelech, “Is there no sword or spear here at your disposal? I don’t have my own sword or equipment in hand due to the urgency of the king’s instructions.”

[3:13]  ¹ tc The MT has וְהִגַּדְתִּי לוֹ (vÿhiggadti lo). The verb is Hiphil perfect 1st person common singular, and apparently the conjunction should be understood as vav consecutive (“I will say to him”). But the future reference makes more sense if Samuel is the subject. This would require dropping the final י (yod) and reading the 2nd person masculine singular וְהִגַּדְתָּ (vÿhiggadta). Although there is no external evidence to support it, this reading has been adopted in the present translation. The alternative is to understand the MT to mean “I said to him,” but for this we would expect the preterite with vav consecutive.

[3:13]  ² tn The translation understands the preposition to have a causal sense. However, the preposition could also be understood as the beth pretii, indicating in a broad sense the price attached to this action. So GKC 380 §119.p.

[3:13]  ³ tc The translation follows the LXX θεόν (qeon, “God”) rather than the MT לָהֶם (lahem, “to them”). The MT seems to mean “they were bringing a curse on themselves” (cf. ASV, NASB). But this meaning is problematic in part because the verb qll means “to curse,” not “to bring a curse on,” and in part because it takes an accusative object rather than the equivalent of a dative. This is one of the so-called tiqqune sopherim, or “emendations of the scribes.” Why would the ancient copyists alter the original statement about Eli’s sons cursing God to the less objectionable statement that they brought a curse on themselves? Some argue that the scribes were concerned that such a direct and blasphemous affront against God could occur without an immediate response of judgment from God. Therefore they changed the text by deleting two letters א and י (alef and yod) from the word for “God,” with the result that the text then read “to them.” If this ancient scribal claim is accepted as accurate, it implies that the MT here is secondary. The present translation follows the LXX (κακολογοῦντες θεόν, kakologounte" qeon) and a few mss of the Old Latin in reading “God” rather than the MT “to them.” Cf. also NAB, NRSV, NLT.

[6:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “your mice.” A Qumran ms has simply “the mice.”

[6:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “Perhaps he will lighten his hand from upon you and from upon your gods and from upon your land.”

[6:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “like Egypt and Pharaoh hardened their heart.”

[6:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[6:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “and they sent them away and they went.”

[6:19]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[6:19]  ¹¹ tc The number 50,070 is surprisingly large, although it finds almost unanimous textual support in the MT and in the ancient versions. Only a few medieval Hebrew mss lack “50,000,” reading simply “70” instead. However, there does not seem to be sufficient external evidence to warrant reading 70 rather than 50,070, although that is done by a number of recent translations (e.g., NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT). The present translation (reluctantly) follows the MT and the ancient versions here.

[7:9]  ¹³ tn Heb “a lamb of milk”; NAB “an unweaned lamb”; NIV “a suckling lamb”; NCV “a baby lamb.”

[13:15]  ¹⁶ tc The LXX and two Old Latin mss include the following words here: “on his way. And the rest of the people went up after Saul to meet the warring army. When they arrived from Gilgal….”

[13:15]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “at Gibeah of Benjamin.” The words “in the territory” are supplied in the translation for clarity (likewise in the following verse).

[14:43]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “Look, I, I will die.” Apparently Jonathan is acquiescing to his anticipated fate of death. However, the words may be taken as sarcastic (“Here I am about to die!”) or as a question, “Must I now die?” (cf. NAB, NIV, NCV, NLT).

[17:52]  ²² tn Heb “arose and cried out.”

[17:52]  ²³ tc Most of the LXX ms tradition has here “Gath.”

[18:5]  ²⁵ tn Heb “it was good in the eyes of all the people and also in the eyes of the servants of Saul.”

[19:4]  ²⁸ tn Heb “spoke good with respect to David.”

[19:4]  ²⁹ tn Heb “good.”