1 Samuel 4:13-14

4:13 When he arrived in Shiloh, Eli was sitting in his chair watching by the side of ¹  the road, for he was very worried ²  about the ark of God. As the man entered the city to give his report, ³  the whole city cried out.

4:14 When Eli heard the outcry, ⁴  he said, “What is this commotion?” ⁵  The man quickly came and told Eli.

1 Samuel 4:16

4:16 The man said to Eli, “I am the one who came from the battle lines! Just today I fled from the battle lines!” Eli ⁶  asked, “How did things go, my son?”

1 Samuel 4:2

4:2 The Philistines arranged their forces to fight ⁷  Israel. As the battle spread out, ⁸  Israel was defeated by ⁹  the Philistines, who ¹⁰  killed about four thousand men in the battle line in the field.

1 Samuel 1:3-4

1:3 Year after year ¹¹  this man would go up from his city to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of hosts at Shiloh. It was there that the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phineas, served as the Lord’s priests. 1:4 Whenever the day came for Elkanah to sacrifice, he used to give meat portions to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters.

1 Samuel 18:24

18:24 When Saul’s servants reported what David had said,

[4:13]  ¹ tc Read with many medieval Hebrew mss, the Qere, and much versional evidence יַד (yad, “hand”) rather than MT יַךְ (yakh).

[4:13]  ² tn Heb “his heart was trembling.”

[4:13]  ³ tn Heb “and the man came to report in the city.”

[4:14]  ⁴ tn Heb “the sound of the cry.”

[4:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “the sound of this commotion.”

[4:16]  ⁶ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Eli) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[4:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “to meet.”

[4:2]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ tn Heb “before.”

[4:2]  ¹⁰ 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.

[1:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “from days to days.”