1 Samuel 7:2

Context

Further Conflict with the Philistines

7:2 It was quite a long time – some twenty years in all – that the ark stayed at Kiriath Jearim. All the people¹ of Israel longed for² the Lord.

1 Samuel 13:8

Context
13:8 He waited for seven days, the time period indicated by Samuel.³ But Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the army began to abandon Saul.⁴

[7:2] ¹tn Heb “house” (also in the following verse).

[7:2] ²tn Heb “mourned after”; NIV “mourned and sought after”; KJV, NRSV “lamented after”; NAB “turned to”; NCV “began to follow…again.”

[13:8] ³tn This apparently refers to the instructions given by Samuel in 1 Sam 10:8. If so, several years had passed. On the relationship between chs. 10 and 13, see V. P. Long, The Art of Biblical History (FCI), 201-23.

[13:8] ⁴tn Heb “dispersed from upon him”; NAB, NRSV “began to slip away.”