1 Samuel 2:9

2:9 He watches over ¹  his holy ones, ² 

but the wicked are made speechless in the darkness,

for it is not by one’s own strength that one prevails.

1 Samuel 17:12

17:12 ³ Now David was the son of this Ephrathite named Jesse from Bethlehem ⁴  in Judah. He had eight sons, and in Saul’s days he was old and well advanced in years. ⁵ 

¹ tn Heb “guards the feet of.” The expression means that God watches over and protects the godly in all of their activities and movements. The imperfect verbal forms in v. 9 are understood as indicating what is typically true. Another option is to translate them with the future tense. See v. 10b.

² tc The translation follows the Qere and many medieval Hebrew mss in reading the plural (“his holy ones”) rather than the singular (“his holy one”) of the Kethib.

³ tc Some mss of the LXX lack vv. 12-31.

⁴ map For location see Map5 B1; Map7 E2; Map8 E2; Map10 B4.

⁵ tc The translation follows the Lucianic recension of the LXX and the Syriac Peshitta in reading “in years,” rather than MT “among men.”