1 Samuel 1:14

1:14 So he ¹  said to her, “How often do you intend to get drunk? Put away your wine!”

1 Samuel 2:5

2:5 Those who are well-fed hire themselves out to earn food,

but the hungry no longer lack.

Even ²  the barren woman gives birth to seven, ³ 

but the one with many children withers away. ⁴ 

1 Samuel 20:23

20:23 With regard to the matter that you and I discussed, the Lord is the witness between us forever!” ⁵ 

1 Samuel 20:28

20:28 Jonathan replied to Saul, “David urgently requested that he be allowed to go to Bethlehem.

1 Samuel 30:25

30:25 From that time onward it was a binding ordinance ⁶  for Israel, right up to the present time.

[1:14]  ¹ tn Heb “Eli.” The pronoun (“he”) has been used in the translation in keeping with contemporary English style.

[2:5]  ² tc Against BHS but with the MT, the preposition (עַד, ’ad) should be taken with what follows rather than with what precedes. For this sense of the preposition see Job 25:5.

[2:5]  ³ sn The number seven is used here in an ideal sense. Elsewhere in the OT having seven children is evidence of fertility as a result of God’s blessing on the family. See, for example, Jer 15:9, Ruth 4:15.

[2:5]  ⁴ tn Or “languishes.”

[20:23]  ⁵ tc Heb “the Lord [is] between me and between you forever.” The translation assumes that the original text read עֵד עַד־עוֹלָם (’ed ’ad-’olam), “a witness forever,” with the noun “a witness” accidentally falling out of the text by haplography. See P. K. McCarter, I Samuel (AB), 338.

[30:25]  ⁶ tn Heb “a statute and a judgment.” The expression is a hendiadys.