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 7:13

7:13 So the Philistines were defeated; they did not invade Israel again. The hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel.

1 Samuel 13:3-4

13:3 Jonathan attacked the Philistine outpost ⁸  that was at Geba and the Philistines heard about it. Then Saul alerted ⁹  all the land saying, “Let the Hebrews pay attention!” 13:4 All Israel heard this message, ¹⁰  “Saul has attacked the Philistine outpost, and now Israel is repulsive ¹¹  to the Philistines!” So the people were summoned to join ¹²  Saul at Gilgal.

1 Samuel 14:11

14:11 When they ¹³  made themselves known to the Philistine garrison, the Philistines said, “Look! The Hebrews are coming out of the holes in which they hid themselves.”

1 Samuel 17:23

17:23 As he was speaking with them, the champion named Goliath, the Philistine from Gath, was coming up from the battle lines of the Philistines. He spoke the way he usually did, ¹⁴  and David heard it.

1 Samuel 17:43

17:43 The Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you are coming after me with sticks?” ¹⁵  Then the Philistine cursed David by his gods.

1 Samuel 17:48

17:48 The Philistine drew steadily closer to David to attack him, while David quickly ran toward the battle line to attack the Philistine. ¹⁶ 

1 Samuel 17:50

17:50 ¹⁷ David prevailed over the Philistine with just the sling and the stone. He struck down the Philistine and killed him. David did not even have a sword in his hand. ¹⁸ 

1 Samuel 17:57

17:57 So when David returned from striking down the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul. He still had the head of the Philistine in his hand.

1 Samuel 23:2

23:2 So David asked the Lord, “Should I go and strike down these Philistines?” The Lord said to David, “Go, strike down the Philistines and deliver Keilah.”

1 Samuel 29:11

29:11 So David and his men got up early in the morning to return ¹⁹  to the land of the Philistines, but the Philistines went up to Jezreel.

1 Samuel 31:2

31:2 The Philistines stayed right on the heels ²⁰  of Saul and his sons. They ²¹  struck down Saul’s sons Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malki-Shua.

[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.

[13:3]  ⁷ tn Or perhaps “struck down the Philistine official.” See the note at 1 Sam 10:5. Cf. TEV “killed the Philistine commander.”

[13:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “blew the ram’s horn in.”

[13:4]  ¹⁰ tn The words “this message” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[13:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “stinks.” The figurative language indicates that Israel had become repulsive to the Philistines.

[13:4]  ¹² tn Heb “were summoned after.”

[14:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “the two of them.”

[17:23]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “according to these words.”

[17:43]  ¹⁹ sn Sticks is a pejorative reference to David’s staff (v. 40); the same Hebrew word (מַקֵּל, maqqel) is used for both.

[17:48]  ²² tc Most LXX mss lack the second half of v. 48.

[17:50]  ²⁵ tc Most LXX mss lack v. 50.

[17:50]  ²⁶ tn Verse 50 is a summary statement; v. 51 gives a more detailed account of how David killed the Philistine.

[29:11]  ²⁸ tc Heb “to go in the morning to return.” With the exception of Origen and the Lucianic recension, the Old Greek tradition lacks the phrase “in the morning.” The Syriac Peshitta also omits it.

[31:2]  ³¹ tn Heb “stuck close after.”

[31:2]  ³² tn Heb “the Philistines.”