1 Samuel 7:1

7:1 Then the people ¹  of Kiriath Jearim came and took the ark of the Lord; they brought it to the house of Abinadab located on the hill. They consecrated Eleazar his son to guard the ark of the Lord.

1 Samuel 9:24

9:24 So the cook picked up the leg and brought it and set it in front of Saul. Samuel ²  said, “What was kept is now set before you! Eat, for it has been kept for you for this meeting time, from the time I said, ‘I have invited the people.’” So Saul ate with Samuel that day.

1 Samuel 13:13-14

13:13 Then Samuel said to Saul, “You have made a foolish choice! You have not obeyed ³  the commandment that the Lord your God gave ⁴  you. Had you done that, the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever! 13:14 But now your kingdom will not continue! The Lord has sought out ⁵  for himself a man who is loyal to him ⁶  and the Lord has appointed ⁷  him to be leader over his people, for you have not obeyed what the Lord commanded you.”

1 Samuel 17:20

17:20 So David got up early in the morning and entrusted the flock to someone else who would watch over it. ⁸  After loading up, he went just as Jesse had instructed him. He arrived at the camp ⁹  as the army was going out to the battle lines shouting its battle cry.

1 Samuel 19:11

19:11 Saul sent messengers to David’s house to guard it and to kill him in the morning. Then David’s wife Michal told him, “If you do not save yourself ¹⁰  tonight, tomorrow you will be dead!”

1 Samuel 21:4

21:4 The priest replied to David, “I don’t have any ordinary bread at my disposal. Only holy bread is available, and then only if your soldiers ¹¹  have abstained from sexual relations with women.” ¹² 

1 Samuel 25:21

25:21 Now David had been thinking, ¹³  “In vain I guarded everything that belonged to this man in the desert. I didn’t take anything from him. But he has repaid my good with evil.

1 Samuel 26:15-16

26:15 David said to Abner, “Aren’t you a man? After all, who is like you in Israel? Why then haven’t you protected your lord the king? One of the soldiers came to kill your lord the king. 26:16 This failure on your part isn’t good! ¹⁴  As surely as the Lord lives, you people who have not protected your lord, the Lord’s chosen one, are as good as dead! ¹⁵  Now look where the king’s spear and the jug of water that was by his head are!”

1 Samuel 28:2

28:2 David replied to Achish, “That being the case, you will come to know what your servant can do!” Achish said to David, “Then I will make you my bodyguard ¹⁶  from now on.” ¹⁷ 

1 Samuel 30:23

30:23 But David said, “No! You shouldn’t do this, my brothers. Look at what the Lord has given us! ¹⁸  He has protected us and has delivered into our hands the raiding party that came against us.

[7:1]  ¹ tn Heb “men.”

[9:24]  ² tn Heb “he” (also in v. 25); the referent (Samuel) has been specified in both places in the translation for clarity.

[13:13]  ³ tn Or “kept.”

[13:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “commanded.”

[13:14]  ⁴ tn This verb form, as well as the one that follows (“appointed”), indicates completed action from the standpoint of the speaker. This does not necessarily mean that the Lord had already conducted his search and made his choice, however. The forms may be used for rhetorical effect to emphasize the certainty of the action. The divine search for a new king is as good as done, emphasizing that the days of Saul’s dynasty are numbered.

[13:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “according to his heart.” The idiomatic expression means to be like-minded with another, as its use in 1 Sam 14:7 indicates.

[13:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “commanded.”

[17:20]  ⁵ tn Heb “to a guard”; KJV, NASB, NRSV “with a keeper”; NIV “with a shepherd.” Since in contemporary English “guard” sounds like someone at a military installation or a prison, the present translation uses “to someone else who would watch over it.”

[17:20]  ⁶ tn Or “entrenchment.”

[19:11]  ⁶ tn Heb “your life.”

[21:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “servants.”

[21:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “have kept themselves from women” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV); TEV “haven’t had sexual relations recently”; NLT “have not slept with any women recently.”

[25:21]  ⁸ tn Heb “said.”

[26:16]  ⁹ tn Heb “Not good [is] this thing which you have done.”

[26:16]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “you are sons of death.”

[28:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the guardian for my head.”

[28:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “all the days.”

[30:23]  ¹¹ tc This clause is difficult in the MT. The present translation accepts the text as found in the MT and understands this clause to be elliptical, with an understood verb such as “look” or “consider.” On the other hand, the LXX seems to reflect a slightly different Hebrew text, reading “after” where the MT has “my brothers.” The Greek translation yields the following translation: “You should not do this after the Lord has delivered us.” Although the Greek reading should be taken seriously, it seems better to follow the MT here.