1 Samuel 2:23

2:23 He said to them, “Why do you behave in this way? For I hear about these evil things from all these ¹  people.

1 Samuel 3:13

3:13 You ²  should tell him that I am about to judge his house forever because of ³  the sin that he knew about. For his sons were cursing God, ⁴  and he did not rebuke them.

1 Samuel 5:3

5:3 When the residents of Ashdod got up early the next day, ⁵  Dagon was lying on the ground before the ark of the Lord. So they took Dagon and set him back in his place.

1 Samuel 9:22

9:22 Then Samuel brought ⁶  Saul and his servant into the room and gave them a place at the head of those who had been invited. There were about thirty people present.

1 Samuel 14:13

14:13 Jonathan crawled up on his hands and feet, with his armor bearer following behind him. Jonathan struck down the Philistines, ⁷  while his armor bearer came along behind him and killed them. ⁸ 

1 Samuel 15:2

15:2 Here is what the Lord of hosts says: ‘I carefully observed how the Amalekites opposed ⁹  Israel along the way when Israel ¹⁰  came up from Egypt.

1 Samuel 15:24

15:24 Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned, for I have disobeyed what the Lord commanded ¹¹  and what you said as well. ¹²  For I was afraid of the army, and I followed their wishes. ¹³ 

1 Samuel 17:1

David Kills Goliath

17:1 ¹⁴ The Philistines gathered their troops ¹⁵  for battle. They assembled at Socoh in Judah. They camped in Ephes Dammim, between Socoh and Azekah.

1 Samuel 17:18

17:18 Also take these ten portions of cheese to their commanding officer. ¹⁶  Find out how your brothers are doing ¹⁷  and bring back their pledge that they received the goods. ¹⁸ 

1 Samuel 17:23

17:23 As he was speaking with them, the champion named Goliath, the Philistine from Gath, was coming up from the battle lines of the Philistines. He spoke the way he usually did, ¹⁹  and David heard it.

1 Samuel 18:30

18:30 ²⁰  Then the leaders of the Philistines would march out, and as often as they did so, David achieved more success than all of Saul’s servants. His name was held in high esteem.

1 Samuel 24:7

24:7 David restrained his men with these words and did not allow them to rise up against Saul. Then Saul left the cave and started down ²¹  the road.

[2:23]  ¹ tc For “these” the LXX has “of the Lord” (κυρίου, kuriou), perhaps through the influence of the final phrase of v. 24 (“the people of the Lord”). Somewhat less likely is the view that the MT reading is due to a distorted dittography of the first word of v. 24. The Vulgate lacks the word.

[3:13]  ² tc The MT has וְהִגַּדְתִּי לוֹ (vÿhiggadti lo). The verb is Hiphil perfect 1st person common singular, and apparently the conjunction should be understood as vav consecutive (“I will say to him”). But the future reference makes more sense if Samuel is the subject. This would require dropping the final י (yod) and reading the 2nd person masculine singular וְהִגַּדְתָּ (vÿhiggadta). Although there is no external evidence to support it, this reading has been adopted in the present translation. The alternative is to understand the MT to mean “I said to him,” but for this we would expect the preterite with vav consecutive.

[3:13]  ³ tn The translation understands the preposition to have a causal sense. However, the preposition could also be understood as the beth pretii, indicating in a broad sense the price attached to this action. So GKC 380 §119.p.

[3:13]  ⁴ tc The translation follows the LXX θεόν (qeon, “God”) rather than the MT לָהֶם (lahem, “to them”). The MT seems to mean “they were bringing a curse on themselves” (cf. ASV, NASB). But this meaning is problematic in part because the verb qll means “to curse,” not “to bring a curse on,” and in part because it takes an accusative object rather than the equivalent of a dative. This is one of the so-called tiqqune sopherim, or “emendations of the scribes.” Why would the ancient copyists alter the original statement about Eli’s sons cursing God to the less objectionable statement that they brought a curse on themselves? Some argue that the scribes were concerned that such a direct and blasphemous affront against God could occur without an immediate response of judgment from God. Therefore they changed the text by deleting two letters א and י (alef and yod) from the word for “God,” with the result that the text then read “to them.” If this ancient scribal claim is accepted as accurate, it implies that the MT here is secondary. The present translation follows the LXX (κακολογοῦντες θεόν, kakologounte" qeon) and a few mss of the Old Latin in reading “God” rather than the MT “to them.” Cf. also NAB, NRSV, NLT.

[5:3]  ⁵ tc The LXX adds “they entered the temple of Dagon and saw.”

[9:22]  ⁶ tn Heb “took and brought.”

[14:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “and they fell before Jonathan.”

[14:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “and the one carrying his equipment was killing after him.”

[15:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “what Amalek did to Israel, how he placed against him.”

[15:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Israel) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[15:24]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the mouth of the Lord.”

[15:24]  ¹² tn Heb “and your words.”

[15:24]  ¹³ tn Heb “and I listened to their voice.”

[17:1]  ¹⁴ tc The content of 1 Sam 17–18, which includes the David and Goliath story, differs considerably in the LXX as compared to the MT, suggesting that this story circulated in ancient times in more than one form. The LXX for chs. 17–18 is much shorter than the MT, lacking almost half of the material (39 of a total of 88 verses). Many scholars (e.g., McCarter, Klein) think that the shorter text of the LXX is preferable to the MT, which in their view has been expanded by incorporation of later material. Other scholars (e.g., Wellhausen, Driver) conclude that the shorter Greek text (or the Hebrew text that underlies it) reflects an attempt to harmonize certain alleged inconsistencies that appear in the longer version of the story. Given the translation characteristics of the LXX elsewhere in this section, it does not seem likely that these differences are due to deliberate omission of these verses on the part of the translator. It seems more likely that the Greek translator has faithfully rendered here a Hebrew text that itself was much shorter than the MT in these chapters. Whether or not the shorter text represented by the LXX is to be preferred over the MT in 1 Sam 17–18 is a matter over which textual scholars are divided. For a helpful discussion of the major textual issues in this unit see D. Barthélemy, D. W. Gooding, J. Lust, and E. Tov, The Story of David and Goliath (OBO). Overall it seems preferable to stay with the MT, at least for the most part. However, the major textual differences between the LXX and the MT will be mentioned in the notes that accompany the translation so that the reader may be alert to the major problem passages.

[17:1]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “camps.”

[17:18]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “officer of the thousand.”

[17:18]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and your brothers, observe with respect to welfare.”

[17:18]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and their pledge take.” This probably refers to some type of confirmation that the goods arrived safely. See R. W. Klein, 1 Samuel (WBC), 177. Cf. NIV “bring back some assurance”; NCV “some proof to show me they are all right”; NLT “bring me back a letter from them.”

[17:23]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “according to these words.”

[18:30]  ²⁰ tc Verse 30 is absent in most LXX mss.

[24:7]  ²¹ tn Heb “went on.”