1 Samuel 7:3

7:3 Samuel said to all the people of Israel, “If you are really turning to the Lord with all your hearts, remove from among you the foreign gods and the images of Ashtoreth. ¹  Give your hearts to the Lord and serve only him. Then he will deliver you ²  from the hand of the Philistines.”

1 Samuel 10:1

Samuel Anoints Saul

10:1 Then Samuel took a small container of olive oil and poured it on Saul’s ³  head. Samuel ⁴  kissed him and said, “The Lord has chosen you ⁵  to lead his people Israel! You will rule over the Lord’s people and you will deliver them from the power of the enemies who surround them. This will be your sign that the Lord has chosen ⁶  you as leader over his inheritance. ⁷ 

1 Samuel 10:8

10:8 You will go down to Gilgal before me. I am going to join you there to offer burnt offerings and to make peace offerings. You should wait for seven days, until I arrive and tell you what to do.”

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 ⁸  of the Egyptians and from the power of all the kingdoms that oppressed you.

1 Samuel 14:6

14:6 Jonathan said to his armor bearer, “Come on, let’s go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised men. Perhaps the Lord will intervene ⁹  for us. Nothing can prevent the Lord from delivering, whether by many or by a few.”

1 Samuel 15:9

15:9 However, Saul and the army spared Agag, along with the best of the flock, the cattle, the fatlings, ¹⁰  and the lambs, as well as everything else that was of value. ¹¹  They were not willing to slaughter them. But they did slaughter everything that was despised ¹²  and worthless.

1 Samuel 15:15

15:15 Saul said, “They were brought ¹³  from the Amalekites; the army spared the best of the flocks and cattle to sacrifice to the Lord our God. But everything else we slaughtered.”

1 Samuel 16:5

16:5 He replied, “Yes, in peace. I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice.” So he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.

1 Samuel 19:5

19:5 He risked his life ¹⁴  when he struck down the Philistine and the Lord gave all Israel a great victory. When you saw it, you were happy. So why would you sin against innocent blood by putting David to death for no reason?”

1 Samuel 25:14

25:14 But one of the servants told Nabal’s wife Abigail, “David sent messengers from the desert to greet ¹⁵  our lord, but he screamed at them.

1 Samuel 25:29

25:29 When someone sets out to chase you and to take your life, the life of my lord will be wrapped securely in the bag ¹⁶  of the living by the Lord your God. But he will sling away the lives of your enemies from the sling’s pocket!

1 Samuel 26:21

26:21 Saul replied, “I have sinned. Come back, my son David. I won’t harm you, for you treated my life with value ¹⁷  this day. I have behaved foolishly and have made a very terrible mistake!” ¹⁸ 

1 Samuel 30:21-22

30:21 Then David approached the two hundred men who had been too exhausted to go with him, ¹⁹  those whom they had left at the Wadi Besor. They went out to meet David and the people who were with him. When David approached the people, he asked how they were doing. 30:22 But all the evil and worthless men among those who had gone with David said, “Since they didn’t go with us, ²⁰  we won’t give them any of the loot we retrieved! They may take only their wives and children. Let them lead them away and be gone!”

[7:3]  ¹ tn Heb “the Ashtarot” (plural; also in the following verse). The words “images of” are supplied for clarity.

[7:3]  sn The Semitic goddess Astarte was associated with love and war in the ancient Near East. The presence of Ashtarot in Israel is a sign of pervasive pagan and idolatrous influences; hence Samuel calls for their removal. See 1 Sam 31:10, where the Philistines deposit the armor of the deceased Saul in the temple of the Ashtarot, and 1 Kgs 11:5, 33; 2 Kgs 23:13, where Solomon is faulted for worshiping the Ashtarot.

[7:3]  ² tn Following imperatives, the jussive verbal form with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose/result.

[10:1]  ³ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Saul) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[10:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Samuel) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[10:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “Is it not that the Lord has anointed you?” The question draws attention to the fact and is a rhetorical way of affirming the Lord’s choice of Saul. The translation reflects the rhetorical force of the question.

[10:1]  ⁶ tn That is, “anointed.”

[10:1]  ⁷ tc The MT reads simply “Is it not that the Lord has anointed you over his inheritance for a leader?” The translation follows the LXX. The MT apparently suffers from parablepsis, whereby a scribe’s eye jumped from the first occurrence of the expression “the Lord has anointed you” to the second occurrence of this expression at the end of v. 1. This mistake caused the accidental omission of the intervening material in the LXX, which appears to preserve the original Hebrew text here.

[10:18]  ⁸ tn Heb “hand” (also later in this verse).

[14:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “act.”

[15:9]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew text is difficult here. We should probably read וְהַמַּשְׂמַנִּים (vÿhammasmannim, “the fat ones”) rather than the MT וְהַמִּשְׂנִים (vÿhammisnim, “the second ones”). However, if the MT is retained, the sense may be as the Jewish commentator Kimchi supposed: the second-born young, thought to be better than the firstlings. (For discussion see S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, 123-24.)

[15:9]  ¹¹ tn Heb “good.”

[15:9]  ¹² tc The MT has here the very odd form נְמִבְזָה (nÿmivzah), but this is apparently due to a scribal error. The translation follows instead the Niphal participle נִבְזָה (nivzah).

[15:15]  ¹³ tn Heb “they brought them.”

[19:5]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and he put his life into his hand.”

[25:14]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “bless.”

[25:29]  ¹⁶ tn Cf. KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV “bundle”; NLT “treasure pouch.”

[26:21]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “my life was valuable in your eyes.”

[26:21]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and I have erred very greatly.”

[30:21]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “David.” The pronoun (“him”) has been substituted for the proper name in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[30:22]  ²⁰ tc Heb “with me.” The singular is used rather than the plural because the group is being treated as a singular entity, in keeping with Hebrew idiom. It is not necessary to read “with us,” rather than the MT “with me,” although the plural can be found here in a few medieval Hebrew mss. See also the LXX, Syriac Peshitta, and Vulgate, although these versions may simply reflect an understanding of the idiom as found in the MT rather than a different textual reading.