1 Samuel 8:1

Israel Seeks a King

8:1 In his old age Samuel appointed his sons as judges over Israel.

1 Samuel 8:3

8:3 But his sons did not follow ¹  his ways. Instead, they made money dishonestly, accepted bribes, and perverted justice. ² 

1 Samuel 31:6

31:6 So Saul, his three sons, his armor bearer, and all his men died together that day.

1 Samuel 16:5

16:5 He replied, “Yes, in peace. I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice.” So he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.

1 Samuel 16:10

16:10 Jesse presented seven of his sons to Samuel. ³  But Samuel said to Jesse, “The Lord has not chosen any of these.”

1 Samuel 31:2

31:2 The Philistines stayed right on the heels ⁴  of Saul and his sons. They ⁵  struck down Saul’s sons Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malki-Shua.

1 Samuel 31:8

31:8 The next day, when the Philistines came to strip loot from the corpses, they discovered Saul and his three sons lying dead ⁶  on Mount Gilboa.

1 Samuel 2:22

2:22 Now Eli was very old when he heard about everything that his sons used to do to all the people of Israel ⁷  and how they used to have sex with ⁸  the women who were stationed at the entrance to the tent of meeting.

1 Samuel 3:13

3:13 You ⁹  should tell him that I am about to judge his house forever because of ¹⁰  the sin that he knew about. For his sons were cursing God, ¹¹  and he did not rebuke them.

1 Samuel 17:13

17:13 Jesse’s three oldest sons had followed Saul to war. The names of the ¹²  three sons who went to war were Eliab, his firstborn, Abinadab, the second oldest, and Shammah, the third oldest.

1 Samuel 30:6

30:6 David was very upset, for the men ¹³  were thinking of stoning him; ¹⁴  each man grieved bitterly ¹⁵  over his sons and daughters. But David drew strength from the Lord his God.

1 Samuel 31:12

31:12 all their warriors set out and traveled throughout the night. They took Saul’s corpse and the corpses of his sons from the city wall of Beth Shan and went ¹⁶  to Jabesh, where they burned them.

1 Samuel 30:22

30:22 But all the evil and worthless men among those who had gone with David said, “Since they didn’t go with us, ¹⁷  we won’t give them any of the loot we retrieved! They may take only their wives and children. Let them lead them away and be gone!”

[8:3]  ¹ tn Heb “walk in” (also in v. 5).

[8:3]  ² tn Heb “and they turned aside after unjust gain and took bribes and perverted justice.”

[16:10]  ¹ tn Heb “caused seven of his sons to pass before Samuel.” This could be taken as referring to seven sons in addition to the three mentioned before this, but 1 Sam 17:12 says Jesse had eight sons, not eleven. 1 Chr 2:13-15 lists only seven sons, including David. However, 1 Chr 27:18 mentions an additional son, named Elihu.

[31:2]  ¹ tn Heb “stuck close after.”

[31:2]  ² tn Heb “the Philistines.”

[31:8]  ¹ tn Heb “fallen.”

[2:22]  ¹ tn Heb “to all Israel.”

[2:22]  ² tn Heb “lie with.”

[3:13]  ¹ tc The MT has וְהִגַּדְתִּי לוֹ (vÿhiggadti lo). The verb is Hiphil perfect 1st person common singular, and apparently the conjunction should be understood as vav consecutive (“I will say to him”). But the future reference makes more sense if Samuel is the subject. This would require dropping the final י (yod) and reading the 2nd person masculine singular וְהִגַּדְתָּ (vÿhiggadta). Although there is no external evidence to support it, this reading has been adopted in the present translation. The alternative is to understand the MT to mean “I said to him,” but for this we would expect the preterite with vav consecutive.

[3:13]  ² tn The translation understands the preposition to have a causal sense. However, the preposition could also be understood as the beth pretii, indicating in a broad sense the price attached to this action. So GKC 380 §119.p.

[3:13]  ³ tc The translation follows the LXX θεόν (qeon, “God”) rather than the MT לָהֶם (lahem, “to them”). The MT seems to mean “they were bringing a curse on themselves” (cf. ASV, NASB). But this meaning is problematic in part because the verb qll means “to curse,” not “to bring a curse on,” and in part because it takes an accusative object rather than the equivalent of a dative. This is one of the so-called tiqqune sopherim, or “emendations of the scribes.” Why would the ancient copyists alter the original statement about Eli’s sons cursing God to the less objectionable statement that they brought a curse on themselves? Some argue that the scribes were concerned that such a direct and blasphemous affront against God could occur without an immediate response of judgment from God. Therefore they changed the text by deleting two letters א and י (alef and yod) from the word for “God,” with the result that the text then read “to them.” If this ancient scribal claim is accepted as accurate, it implies that the MT here is secondary. The present translation follows the LXX (κακολογοῦντες θεόν, kakologounte" qeon) and a few mss of the Old Latin in reading “God” rather than the MT “to them.” Cf. also NAB, NRSV, NLT.

[17:13]  ¹ tn Heb “his.”

[30:6]  ¹ tn Heb “people.”

[30:6]  ² tn Heb “said to stone him.”

[30:6]  ³ tn Heb “for bitter was the soul of all the people, each one.”

[31:12]  ¹ tc The translation follows the MT, which vocalizes the verb as a Qal. The LXX, however, treats the verb as a Hiphil, “they brought.”

[30:22]  ¹ tc Heb “with me.” The singular is used rather than the plural because the group is being treated as a singular entity, in keeping with Hebrew idiom. It is not necessary to read “with us,” rather than the MT “with me,” although the plural can be found here in a few medieval Hebrew mss. See also the LXX, Syriac Peshitta, and Vulgate, although these versions may simply reflect an understanding of the idiom as found in the MT rather than a different textual reading.