1 Samuel 3:9

3:9 So Eli said to Samuel, “Go back and lie down. When he calls you, say, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” So Samuel went back and lay down in his place.

1 Samuel 12:19

12:19 All the people said to Samuel, “Pray to the Lord your God on behalf of us – your servants – so we won’t die, for we have added to all our sins by asking for a king.” ¹ 

1 Samuel 16:16

16:16 Let our lord instruct his servants who are here before you to look for a man who knows how to play the lyre. Then whenever the evil spirit from God comes upon you, he can play the lyre ²  and you will feel better.” ³ 

1 Samuel 17:8

17:8 Goliath ⁴  stood and called to Israel’s troops, ⁵  “Why do you come out to prepare for battle? Am I not the Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose ⁶  for yourselves a man so he may come down ⁷  to me!

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. ⁸ 

1 Samuel 19:4

19:4 So Jonathan spoke on David’s behalf ⁹  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 ¹⁰  for you.

1 Samuel 21:11

21:11 The servants of Achish said to him, “Isn’t this David, the king of the land? Isn’t he the one that they sing about when they dance, saying,

‘Saul struck down his thousands,

But David his tens of thousands’?”

1 Samuel 22:6-9

Saul Executes the Priests

22:6 But Saul found out the whereabouts of David and the men who were with him. ¹¹  Now Saul was sitting at Gibeah under the tamarisk tree at an elevated location with his spear in hand and all his servants stationed around him. 22:7 Saul said to his servants who were stationed around him, “Listen up, you Benjaminites! Is Jesse’s son giving fields and vineyards to all of you? Or is he making all of you ¹²  commanders and officers? ¹³  22:8 For all of you have conspired against me! No one informs me ¹⁴  when my own son makes an agreement with this son of Jesse! Not one of you feels sorry for me or informs me that my own son has commissioned my own servant to hide in ambush against me, as is the case today!”

22:9 But Doeg the Edomite, who had stationed himself with the servants of Saul, replied, “I saw this son of Jesse come to Ahimelech son of Ahitub at Nob.

1 Samuel 25:8

25:8 Ask your own servants; they can tell you! May my servants find favor in your sight, for we have come ¹⁵  at the time of a holiday. Please provide us – your servants ¹⁶  and your son David – with whatever you can spare.” ¹⁷ 

1 Samuel 27:5

27:5 David said to Achish, “If I have found favor with you, let me be given a place in one of the country towns so that I can live there. Why should your servant settle in the royal city with you?”

1 Samuel 28:2

28:2 David replied to Achish, “That being the case, you will come to know what your servant can do!” Achish said to David, “Then I will make you my bodyguard ¹⁸  from now on.” ¹⁹ 

1 Samuel 29:8

29:8 But David said to Achish, “What have I done? What have you found in your servant from the day that I first came into your presence until the present time, that I shouldn’t go and fight the enemies of my lord the king?”

1 Samuel 30:13

30:13 David said to him, “To whom do you belong, and where are you from?” The young man said, “I am an Egyptian, the servant of an Amalekite man. My master abandoned me when I was ill for three days.

[12:19]  ¹ tn Heb “for we have added to all our sins an evil [thing] by asking for ourselves a king.”

[16:16]  ¹ tn Heb “and he will play with his hand.”

[16:16]  ² tn Heb “and it will be better for you.”

[17:8]  ¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Goliath) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[17:8]  ² tn The Hebrew text adds “and said to them.”

[17:8]  ³ tc The translation follows the ancient versions in reading “choose,” (from the root בחר, bkhr), rather than the MT. The verb in MT (ברה, brh) elsewhere means “to eat food”; the sense of “to choose,” required here by the context, is not attested for this root. The MT apparently reflects an early scribal error.

[17:8]  ⁴ tn Following the imperative, the prefixed verbal form (either an imperfect or jussive) with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose/result here.

[18:5]  ¹ tn Heb “it was good in the eyes of all the people and also in the eyes of the servants of Saul.”

[19:4]  ¹ tn Heb “spoke good with respect to David.”

[19:4]  ² tn Heb “good.”

[22:6]  ¹ tn Heb “and Saul heard that David and the men who were with him were known.”

[22:7]  ¹ tc The MT has “to all of you.” If this reading is correct, we have here an example of a prepositional phrase functioning as the equivalent of a dative of advantage, which is not impossible from a grammatical point of view. However, the LXX, the Syriac Peshitta, and Vulgate all have “and.” A conjunction rather than a preposition should probably be read on the front of this phrase.

[22:7]  ² tn Heb “officers of a thousand and officers of a hundred.”

[22:8]  ¹ tn Heb “uncovers my ear.”

[25:8]  ¹ tc The translation follows many medieval Hebrew mss in reading בָּאנוּ (ba’nu, “we have come”) rather than the MT’s בָּנוּ (banu, “we have built”).

[25:8]  ² tn This refers to the ten servants sent by David.

[25:8]  ³ tn Heb “whatever your hand will find.”

[28:2]  ¹ tn Heb “the guardian for my head.”

[28:2]  ² tn Heb “all the days.”