1 Samuel 2:9

2:9 He watches over ¹  his holy ones, ² 

but the wicked are made speechless in the darkness,

for it is not by one’s own strength that one prevails.

1 Samuel 12:4

12:4 They replied, “You have not wronged us or oppressed us. You have not taken anything from the hand of anyone.”

1 Samuel 16:17

16:17 So Saul said to his servants, “Find ³  me a man who plays well and bring him to me.”

1 Samuel 17:4

17:4 Then a champion ⁴  came out from the camp of the Philistines. His name was Goliath; he was from Gath. He was close to seven feet tall. ⁵ 

1 Samuel 17:19

17:19 They are with Saul and the whole Israelite army ⁶  in the valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines.”

1 Samuel 17:24

17:24 When all the men of Israel saw this man, they retreated ⁷  from his presence and were very afraid.

[2:9]  ¹ tn Heb “guards the feet of.” The expression means that God watches over and protects the godly in all of their activities and movements. The imperfect verbal forms in v. 9 are understood as indicating what is typically true. Another option is to translate them with the future tense. See v. 10b.

[2:9]  ² tc The translation follows the Qere and many medieval Hebrew mss in reading the plural (“his holy ones”) rather than the singular (“his holy one”) of the Kethib.

[16:17]  ³ tn Heb “see.”

[17:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “the man of the space between the two [armies].” See v. 23.

[17:4]  ⁵ tc Heb “his height was six cubits and a span” (cf. KJV, NASB, NRSV). A cubit was approximately eighteen inches, a span nine inches. So, according to the Hebrew tradition, Goliath was about nine feet, nine inches tall (cf. NIV, CEV, NLT “over nine feet”; NCV “nine feet, four inches”; TEV “nearly 3 metres”). However, some Greek witnesses, Josephus, and a manuscript of 1 Samuel from Qumran read “four cubits and a span” here, that is, about six feet, nine inches (cf. NAB “six and a half feet”). This seems more reasonable; it is likely that Goliath’s height was exaggerated as the story was retold. See P. K. McCarter, I Samuel (AB), 286, 291.

[17:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “all the men of Israel.”

[17:24]  ⁷ tn Or “fled.”