1 Samuel 4:10

4:10 So the Philistines fought. Israel was defeated; they all ran home. ¹  The slaughter was very great; thirty thousand foot soldiers fell in battle.

1 Samuel 4:2

4:2 The Philistines arranged their forces to fight ²  Israel. As the battle spread out, ³  Israel was defeated by ⁴  the Philistines, who ⁵  killed about four thousand men in the battle line in the field.

1 Samuel 18:17

18:17 ⁶ Then Saul said to David, “Here’s my oldest daughter, Merab. I want to give her to you in marriage. Only be a brave warrior ⁷  for me and fight the battles of the Lord.” For Saul thought, “There’s no need for me to raise my hand against him. Let it be the hand of the Philistines!”

1 Samuel 18:1

Saul Comes to Fear David

18:1 When David ⁸  had finished talking with Saul, Jonathan and David became bound together in close friendship. ⁹  Jonathan loved David as much as he did his own life. ¹⁰ 

1 Samuel 22:1

David Goes to Adullam and Mizpah

22:1 So David left there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and the rest of his father’s family ¹¹  learned about it, they went down there to him.

[4:10]  ¹ tn Heb “and they fled, each to his tents.”

[4:2]  ² tn Heb “to meet.”

[4:2]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn Heb “before.”

[4:2]  ⁵ 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.

[18:17]  ⁶ tc Much of the ms evidence for the LXX lacks vv. 17-19.

[18:17]  ⁷ tn Heb “son of valor.”

[18:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “he”; the referent (David) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “the soul of Jonathan was bound with the soul of David.”

[18:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “like his [own] soul.”

[22:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “house.”