1 Samuel 8:15

8:15 He will demand a tenth of your seed and of the produce of your vineyards and give it to his administrators ¹  and his servants.

1 Samuel 8:1

Israel Seeks a King

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

1 Samuel 28:1

The Witch of Endor

28:1 In those days the Philistines gathered their troops ²  for war in order to fight Israel. Achish said to David, “You should fully understand that you and your men must go with me into the battle.” ³ 

Isaiah 39:7

39:7 ‘Some of your very own descendants whom you father ⁴  will be taken away and will be made eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’”

Daniel 1:3

1:3 The king commanded ⁵  Ashpenaz, ⁶  who was in charge of his court officials, ⁷  to choose ⁸  some of the Israelites who were of royal and noble descent ⁹  –

Daniel 1:7-8

1:7 But the overseer of the court officials renamed them. He gave ¹⁰  Daniel the name Belteshazzar, Hananiah he named Shadrach, Mishael he named Meshach, and Azariah he named Abednego. ¹¹ 

1:8 But Daniel made up his mind ¹²  that he would not defile ¹³  himself with the royal delicacies or the royal wine. ¹⁴  He therefore asked the overseer of the court officials for permission not to defile himself.

[8:15]  ¹ tn Or “eunuchs” (so NAB); NIV “officials”; KJV, NASB, NRSV, NLT “officers.”

[28:1]  ² tn Heb “their camps.”

[28:1]  ³ tc The translation follows the LXX (εἰς πόλεμον, eis polemon) and a Qumran ms מלחמה במלחמה ([m]lkhmh) bammilkhamah (“in the battle”) rather than the MT’s בַמַּחֲנֶה (bammakhaneh, “in the camp”; cf. NASB). While the MT reading is not impossible here, and although admittedly it is the harder reading, the variant fits the context better. The MT can be explained as a scribal error caused in part by the earlier occurrence of “camp” in this verse.

[39:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “Some of your sons, who go out from you, whom you father.”

[1:3]  ⁵ tn Or “gave orders to.” Heb “said to.”

[1:3]  ⁶ sn It is possible that the word Ashpenaz is not a proper name at all, but a general term for “innkeeper.” See J. J. Collins, Daniel (Hermeneia), 127, n. 9. However, the ancient versions understand the term to be a name, and the present translation (along with most English versions) understands the word in this way.

[1:3]  ⁷ sn The word court official (Hebrew saris) need not mean “eunuch” in a technical sense (see Gen 37:36, where the term refers to Potiphar, who had a wife), although in the case of the book of Daniel there was in Jewish literature a common tradition to that effect. On the OT usage of this word see HALOT 769-70 s.v. סָרֹיס.

[1:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “bring.”

[1:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “and from the seed of royalty and from the nobles.”

[1:7]  ¹⁰ tc The LXX and Vulgate lack the verb here.

[1:7]  ¹¹ sn The meanings of the Babylonian names are more conjectural than is the case with the Hebrew names. The probable etymologies are as follows: Belteshazzar means “protect his life,” although the MT vocalization may suggest “Belti, protect the king” (cf. Dan 4:8); Shadrach perhaps means “command of Aku”; Meshach is of uncertain meaning; Abednego means “servant of Nego.” Assigning Babylonian names to the Hebrew youths may have been an attempt to erase from their memory their Israelite heritage.

[1:8]  ¹² tn Heb “placed on his heart.”

[1:8]  ¹³ tn Or “would not make himself ceremonially unclean”; TEV “become ritually unclean.”

[1:8]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “with the delicacies of the king and with the wine of his drinking.”