1 Samuel 15:23

15:23 For rebellion is like the sin of divination,

and presumption is like the evil of idolatry.

Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,

he has rejected you as ¹  king.”

1 Samuel 15:26

15:26 Samuel said to Saul, “I will not go back with you, for you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel!”

1 Samuel 15:2

15:2 Here is what the Lord of hosts says: ‘I carefully observed how the Amalekites opposed ²  Israel along the way when Israel ³  came up from Egypt.

1 Samuel 11:1

Saul Comes to the Aid of Jabesh

11:1 ⁴ Nahash ⁵  the Ammonite marched ⁶  against Jabesh Gilead. All the men of Jabesh Gilead said to Nahash, “Make a treaty with us and we will serve you.”

[15:23]  ¹ tn Or “from [being].”

[15:2]  ² tn Heb “what Amalek did to Israel, how he placed against him.”

[15:2]  ³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Israel) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[11:1]  ⁴ tc 4QSam^a and Josephus (Ant. 6.68-71) attest to a longer form of text at this point. The addition explains Nahash’s practice of enemy mutilation, and by so doing provides a smoother transition to the following paragraph than is found in the MT. The NRSV adopts this reading, with the following English translation: “Now Nahash, king of the Ammonites, had been grievously oppressing the Gadites and the Reubenites. He would gouge out the right eye of each of them and would not grant Israel a deliverer. No one was left of the Israelites across the Jordan whose right eye Nahash, king of the Ammonites, had not gouged out. But there were seven thousand men who had escaped from the Ammonites and had entered Jabesh-gilead.” This reading should not be lightly dismissed; it may in fact provide a text superior to that of the MT and the ancient versions. But the external evidence for it is so limited as to induce caution; the present translation instead follows the MT. However, for a reasonable case for including this reading in the text see the discussions in P. K. McCarter, I Samuel (AB), 199, and R. W. Klein, 1 Samuel (WBC), 103.

[11:1]  ⁵ sn The name “Nahash” means “serpent” in Hebrew.

[11:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “went up and camped”; NIV, NRSV “went up and besieged.”