1 Samuel 2:28

2:28 I chose your ancestor ¹  from all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to offer sacrifice on my altar, to burn incense, and to bear the ephod before me. I gave to your ancestor’s house all the fire offerings made by the Israelites.

1 Samuel 3:8

3:8 Then the Lord called Samuel a third time. So he got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me!” Eli then realized that it was the Lord who was calling the boy.

1 Samuel 4:3

4:3 When the army ²  came back to the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why did the Lord let us be defeated today by ³  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 ⁴  from the hand of our enemies.

1 Samuel 6:9

6:9 But keep an eye on it. If it should go up by the way of its own border to Beth Shemesh, then he has brought this great calamity on us. But if that is not the case, then we will know that it was not his hand that struck us; rather, it just happened to us by accident.”

1 Samuel 9:24

9:24 So the cook picked up the leg and brought it and set it in front of Saul. Samuel ⁵  said, “What was kept is now set before you! Eat, for it has been kept for you for this meeting time, from the time I said, ‘I have invited the people.’” So Saul ate with Samuel that day.

1 Samuel 10:5

10:5 Afterward you will go to Gibeah of God, where there are Philistine officials. ⁶  When you enter the town, you will meet a company of prophets coming down from the high place. They will have harps, tambourines, flutes, and lyres, and they will be prophesying.

1 Samuel 10:18

10:18 He said to the Israelites, “This is what the Lord God of Israel says, ‘I brought Israel up from Egypt and I delivered you from the power ⁷  of the Egyptians and from the power of all the kingdoms that oppressed you.

1 Samuel 10:25

10:25 Then Samuel talked to the people about how the kingship would work. ⁸  He wrote it all down on a scroll and set it before the Lord. Then Samuel sent all the people away to their homes.

1 Samuel 15:6

15:6 Saul said to the Kenites, “Go on and leave! Go down from among the Amalekites! Otherwise I will sweep you away ⁹  with them! After all, you were kind to all the Israelites when they came up from Egypt.” So the Kenites withdrew from among the Amalekites.

1 Samuel 18:6

18:6 When the men ¹⁰  arrived after David returned from striking down the Philistine, the women from all the cities of Israel came out singing and dancing to meet King Saul. They were happy as they played their tambourines and three-stringed instruments. ¹¹ 

1 Samuel 20:29

20:29 He said, ‘Permit me to go, ¹²  for we are having a family sacrifice in the city, and my brother urged ¹³  me to be there. So now, if I have found favor with you, let me go ¹⁴  to see my brothers.’ For that reason he has not come to the king’s table.”

1 Samuel 20:41

20:41 When the servant had left, David got up from beside the mound, ¹⁵  knelt ¹⁶  with his face to the ground, and bowed three times. Then they kissed each other and they both wept, especially David.

1 Samuel 21:2

21:2 David replied to Ahimelech the priest, “The king instructed me to do something, but he said to me, ‘Don’t let anyone know the reason I am sending you or the instructions I have given you.’ ¹⁷  I have told my soldiers ¹⁸  to wait at a certain place. ¹⁹ 

1 Samuel 21:11

21:11 The servants of Achish said to him, “Isn’t this David, the king of the land? Isn’t he the one that they sing about when they dance, saying,

‘Saul struck down his thousands,

But David his tens of thousands’?”

1 Samuel 22:13

22:13 Saul said to him, “Why have you conspired against me, you and this son of Jesse? You gave ²⁰  him bread and a sword and inquired of God on his behalf, so that he opposes ²¹  me and waits in ambush, as is the case today!”

1 Samuel 23:26

23:26 Saul went on one side of the mountain, while David and his men went on the other side of the mountain. David was hurrying to get away from Saul, but Saul and his men were surrounding David and his men so they could capture them.

1 Samuel 24:6

24:6 He said to his men, “May the Lord keep me far away from doing such a thing to my lord, who is the Lord’s chosen one, ²²  by extending my hand against him. After all, ²³  he is the Lord’s chosen one.” ²⁴ 

1 Samuel 26:5

26:5 So David set out and went to the place where Saul was camped. David saw the place where Saul and Abner son of Ner, the general in command of his army, were sleeping. Now Saul was lying in the entrenchment, and the army was camped all around him.

1 Samuel 26:16

26:16 This failure on your part isn’t good! ²⁵  As surely as the Lord lives, you people who have not protected your lord, the Lord’s chosen one, are as good as dead! ²⁶  Now look where the king’s spear and the jug of water that was by his head are!”

[2:28]  ¹ tn Heb “him”; the referent (Eli’s ancestor, i.e., Aaron) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[4:3]  ² tn Or “people.”

[4:3]  ³ tn Heb “before.”

[4:3]  ⁴ 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.”

[9:24]  ⁵ tn Heb “he” (also in v. 25); the referent (Samuel) has been specified in both places in the translation for clarity.

[10:5]  ⁶ tn Or “sentries.” Some translate “outpost” (NIV) or “garrison” (NAB, NRSV, NLT) here (see 1 Sam 13:3). The noun is plural in the Hebrew text, but the LXX and other ancient witnesses read a singular noun here.

[10:18]  ⁷ tn Heb “hand” (also later in this verse).

[10:25]  ⁸ tn Heb “the regulation of the kingship.” This probably refers to the regulations pertaining to kingship given to Moses (see Deut 17:14-20).

[15:6]  ⁹ tc The translation follows the Syriac Peshitta and Vulgate which assume a reading אֶסִפְךָ (’esfÿka, “I sweep you away,” from the root ספה [sfh]) rather than the MT אֹסִפְךָ (’osifÿka, “I am gathering you,” from the root אסף[’sf]).

[18:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “them.” The masculine plural pronoun apparently refers to the returning soldiers.

[18:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “with tambourines, with joy, and with three-stringed instruments.”

[20:29]  ¹² tn Heb “send me.”

[20:29]  ¹³ tn Heb “commanded.”

[20:29]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “be released [from duty].”

[20:41]  ¹⁵ tc The translation follows the LXX in reading “the mound,” rather than the MT’s “the south.” It is hard to see what meaning the MT reading “from beside the south” would have as it stands, since such a location lacks specificity. The NIV treats it as an elliptical expression, rendering the phrase as “from the south side of the stone (rock NCV).” This is perhaps possible, but it seems better to follow the LXX rather than the MT here.

[20:41]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “fell.”

[21:2]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “let not a man know anything about the matter [for] which I am sending you and [about] which I commanded you.”

[21:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “servants.”

[21:2]  ¹⁹ tn The Hebrew expression here refers to a particular, but unnamed, place. It occurs in the OT only here, in 2 Kgs 6:8, and in Ruth 4:1, where Boaz uses it to refer to Naomi’s unnamed kinsman-redeemer. A contracted form of the expression appears in Dan 8:13.

[22:13]  ²⁰ tn Heb “by giving.”

[22:13]  ²¹ tn Heb “rises up against.”

[24:6]  ²² tn Heb “anointed.”

[24:6]  ²³ tn Or “for.”

[24:6]  ²⁴ tn Heb “anointed.”

[26:16]  ²⁵ tn Heb “Not good [is] this thing which you have done.”

[26:16]  ²⁶ tn Heb “you are sons of death.”