1 Samuel 6:1

The Philistines Return the Ark

6:1 When the ark of the Lord had been in the land ¹  of the Philistines for seven months, ² 

1 Samuel 2:5

2:5 Those who are well-fed hire themselves out to earn food,

but the hungry no longer lack.

Even ³  the barren woman gives birth to seven, ⁴ 

but the one with many children withers away. ⁵ 

[6:1]  ¹ tn Heb “field.”

[6:1]  ² tc The LXX adds “and their land swarmed with mice.”

[2:5]  ³ tc Against BHS but with the MT, the preposition (עַד, ’ad) should be taken with what follows rather than with what precedes. For this sense of the preposition see Job 25:5.

[2:5]  ⁴ sn The number seven is used here in an ideal sense. Elsewhere in the OT having seven children is evidence of fertility as a result of God’s blessing on the family. See, for example, Jer 15:9, Ruth 4:15.

[2:5]  ⁵ tn Or “languishes.”