1 Samuel 2:36

2:36 Everyone who remains in your house will come to bow before him for a little money ¹  and for a scrap of bread. Each will say, ‘Assign me to a priestly task so I can eat a scrap of bread.’”

1 Samuel 6:18

6:18 The gold mice corresponded in number to all the Philistine cities of the five leaders, from the fortified cities to hamlet villages, to greater Abel, ²  where they positioned the ark of the Lord until this very day in the field of Joshua who was from Beth Shemesh.

1 Samuel 9:6

9:6 But the servant said to him, “Look, there is a man of God in this town. He is highly respected. Everything that he says really happens. ³  Now let’s go there. Perhaps he will tell us where we should go from here.” ⁴ 

1 Samuel 12:10

12:10 Then they cried out to the Lord and admitted, ⁵  ‘We have sinned, for we have forsaken the Lord and have served the Baals and the images of Ashtoreth. ⁶  Now deliver us from the hand of our enemies so that we may serve you.’ ⁷ 

1 Samuel 13:11

13:11 But Samuel said, “What have you done?” Saul replied, “When I saw that the army had started to abandon me ⁸  and that you didn’t come at the appointed time and that the Philistines had assembled at Micmash,

1 Samuel 15:22

15:22 Then Samuel said,

“Does the Lord take pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices

as much as he does in obedience? ⁹ 

Certainly, ¹⁰  obedience ¹¹  is better than sacrifice;

paying attention is better than ¹²  the fat of rams.

1 Samuel 20:30

20:30 Saul became angry with Jonathan ¹³  and said to him, “You stupid traitor! ¹⁴  Don’t I realize that to your own disgrace and to the disgrace of your mother’s nakedness you have chosen this son of Jesse?

1 Samuel 23:13

23:13 So David and his men, who numbered about six hundred, set out and left Keilah; they moved around from one place to another. ¹⁵  When told that David had escaped from Keilah, Saul called a halt to his expedition.

1 Samuel 26:11

26:11 But may the Lord prevent me from extending my hand against the Lord’s chosen one! Now take the spear by Saul’s head and the jug of water, and let’s get out of here!”

1 Samuel 26:15

26:15 David said to Abner, “Aren’t you a man? After all, who is like you in Israel? Why then haven’t you protected your lord the king? One of the soldiers came to kill your lord the king.

[2:36]  ¹ tn Heb “a piece of silver” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[6:18]  ² tc A few Hebrew mss and the LXX read “villages; the large rock…[is witness] until this very day.”

[9:6]  ³ tn The infinitive absolute precedes the verb for emphasis.

[9:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “our way on which we have gone.”

[12:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “and said.”

[12:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “the Ashtarot” (plural). The words “images of” are supplied in both vv. 3 and 4 for clarity.

[12:10]  sn The Semitic goddess Astarte was associated with love and war in the ancient Near East. See the note on the same term in 7:3.

[12:10]  ⁷ tn After the imperative, the prefixed verbal form with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose/result.

[13:11]  ⁸ tn Heb “dispersed from upon me.”

[15:22]  ⁹ tn Heb “as [in] listening to the voice of the Lord.”

[15:22]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “look.”

[15:22]  ¹¹ tn Heb “listening.”

[15:22]  ¹² tn The expression “is better” is understood here by ellipsis (see the immediately preceding statement).

[20:30]  ¹³ tc Many medieval Hebrew mss include the words “his son” here.

[20:30]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “son of a perverse woman of rebelliousness.” But such an overly literal and domesticated translation of the Hebrew expression fails to capture the force of Saul’s unrestrained reaction. Saul, now incensed and enraged over Jonathan’s liaison with David, is actually hurling very coarse and emotionally charged words at his son. The translation of this phrase suggested by Koehler and Baumgartner is “bastard of a wayward woman” (HALOT 796 s.v. עוה), but this is not an expression commonly used in English. A better English approximation of the sentiments expressed here by the Hebrew phrase would be “You stupid son of a bitch!” However, sensitivity to the various public formats in which the Bible is read aloud has led to a less startling English rendering which focuses on the semantic value of Saul’s utterance (i.e., the behavior of his own son Jonathan, which he viewed as both a personal and a political betrayal [= “traitor”]). But this concession should not obscure the fact that Saul is full of bitterness and frustration. That he would address his son Jonathan with such language, not to mention his apparent readiness even to kill his own son over this friendship with David (v. 33), indicates something of the extreme depth of Saul’s jealousy and hatred of David.

[23:13]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “they went where they went.”