1 Samuel 1:3

1:3 Year after year ¹  this man would go up from his city to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of hosts at Shiloh. It was there that the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phineas, served as the Lord’s priests.

1 Samuel 1:24

1:24 Once she had weaned him, she took him up with her, along with three bulls, an ephah ²  of flour, and a container ³  of wine. She brought him to the Lord’s house at Shiloh, even though he was young. ⁴ 

1 Samuel 4:3-4

4:3 When the army ⁵  came back to the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why did the Lord let us be defeated today by ⁶  the Philistines? Let’s take with us the ark of the covenant of the Lord from Shiloh. When it is with us, it will save us ⁷  from the hand of our enemies.

4:4 So the army ⁸  sent to Shiloh, and they took from there the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts who sits between the cherubim. Now the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phineas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.

[1:3]  ¹ tn Heb “from days to days.”

[1:24]  ² sn The ephah was a standard dry measure in OT times; it was the equivalent of one-tenth of the OT measure known as a homer. The ephah was equal to approximately one-half to two-thirds of a bushel.

[1:24]  ³ tn The Hebrew term translated “container” may denote either a clay storage jar (cf. CEV “a clay jar full of wine”) or a leather container (cf. NAB, NIV, NRSV “a skin of wine”; NCV “a leather bag filled with (full of TEV) wine.”

[1:24]  ⁴ tc Heb “and the boy was a boy.” If the MT is correct the meaning apparently is that the boy was quite young at the time of these events. On the other hand, some scholars have suspected a textual problem, emending the text to read either “and the boy was with them” (so LXX) or “and the boy was with her” (a conjectural emendation). In spite of the difficulty it seems best to stay with the MT here.

[4:3]  ⁵ tn Or “people.”

[4:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “before.”

[4:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “and it will come in our midst and it will save.” After the cohortative (see “let’s take”), the prefixed verbal forms with the prefixed conjunction indicate purpose or result. The translation understands the ark to be the subject of the third masculine singular verbs, although it is possible to understand the Lord as the subject. In the latter case, one should translate, “when he is with us, he will save us.”

[4:4]  ⁸ tn Or “people.”