1 Samuel 6:19

6:19 But the Lord ¹  struck down some of the people of Beth Shemesh because they had looked into the ark of the Lord; he struck down 50,070 ²  of the men. The people grieved because the Lord had struck the people with a hard blow.

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 15:22

15:22 Then Samuel said,

“Does the Lord take pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices

as much as he does in obedience? ⁵ 

Certainly, ⁶  obedience ⁷  is better than sacrifice;

paying attention is better than ⁸  the fat of rams.

[6:19]  ¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[6:19]  ² tc The number 50,070 is surprisingly large, although it finds almost unanimous textual support in the MT and in the ancient versions. Only a few medieval Hebrew mss lack “50,000,” reading simply “70” instead. However, there does not seem to be sufficient external evidence to warrant reading 70 rather than 50,070, although that is done by a number of recent translations (e.g., NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT). The present translation (reluctantly) follows the MT and the ancient versions here.

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

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

[15:22]  ⁵ tn Heb “as [in] listening to the voice of the Lord.”

[15:22]  ⁶ tn Heb “look.”

[15:22]  ⁷ tn Heb “listening.”

[15:22]  ⁸ tn The expression “is better” is understood here by ellipsis (see the immediately preceding statement).