1 Samuel 4:1-2

4:1 Samuel revealed the word of the Lord ¹  to all Israel.

The Ark of the Covenant is Lost to the Philistines

Then the Israelites went out to fight the Philistines. ²  They camped at Ebenezer, ³  and the Philistines camped at Aphek. 4:2 The Philistines arranged their forces to fight ⁴  Israel. As the battle spread out, ⁵  Israel was defeated by ⁶  the Philistines, who ⁷  killed about four thousand men in the battle line in the field.

1 Samuel 13:4

13:4 All Israel heard this message, ⁸  “Saul has attacked the Philistine outpost, and now Israel is repulsive ⁹  to the Philistines!” So the people were summoned to join ¹⁰  Saul at Gilgal.

1 Samuel 15:17

15:17 Samuel said, “Is it not true that when you were insignificant in your own eyes, you became head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord chose ¹¹  you as king over Israel.

[4:1]  ¹ tn Heb “and the word of Samuel was.” The present translation understands Samuel to be the speaker of the divine word (“Samuel” is a subjective genitive in this case), although the statement could mean that he was the recipient of the divine word (“Samuel” is an objective genitive in this case) who in turn reported it to Israel.

[4:1]  ² tn Heb “and Israel went out to meet the Philistines for battle.”

[4:1]  ³ tn Heb “the stone, the help.” The second noun is in apposition to the first one and apparently is the name by which the stone was known. Contrast the expression used in 5:1 and 7:12, where the first word lacks the definite article, unlike 4:1.

[4:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “to meet.”

[4:2]  ⁵ tn The MT has וַתִּטֹּשׁ (vattittosh), from the root נטשׁ (ntsh). This verb normally means “to leave,” “to forsake,” or “to permit,” but such an idea does not fit this context very well. Many scholars have suspected that the text originally read either וַתֵּט (vattet, “and it spread out”), from the root נטה (nth), or וַתִּקֶשׁ (vattiqesh, “and it grew fierce”), from the root קשׂה (qsh). The former suggestion is apparently supported by the LXX ἔκλινεν (eklinen, “it inclined”) and is adopted in the translation.

[4:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “before.”

[4:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “the Philistines, and they killed.” The pronoun “they” has been translated as a relative pronoun (“who”) to make it clear to the English reader that the Philistines were the ones who did the killing.

[13:4]  ⁷ tn The words “this message” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[13:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “stinks.” The figurative language indicates that Israel had become repulsive to the Philistines.

[13:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “were summoned after.”

[15:17]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “anointed.”