1 Samuel 3:17

3:17 Eli ¹  said, “What message did he speak to you? Don’t conceal it from me. God will judge you severely ²  if you conceal from me anything that he said to you!”

1 Samuel 4:10

4:10 So the Philistines fought. Israel was defeated; they all ran home. ³  The slaughter was very great; thirty thousand foot soldiers fell in battle.

1 Samuel 8:7

8:7 The Lord said to Samuel, “Do everything the people request of you. ⁴  For it is not you that they have rejected, but it is me that they have rejected as their king.

1 Samuel 15:20

15:20 Then Saul said to Samuel, “But I have obeyed ⁵  the Lord! I went on the campaign ⁶  the Lord sent me on. I brought back King Agag of the Amalekites after exterminating the Amalekites.

1 Samuel 17:4

17:4 Then a champion ⁷  came out from the camp of the Philistines. His name was Goliath; he was from Gath. He was close to seven feet tall. ⁸ 

1 Samuel 22:23

22:23 Stay with me. Don’t be afraid! Whoever ⁹  seeks my life is seeking your life as well. You are secure with me.”

[3:17]  ¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Eli) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:17]  ² tn Heb “So God will do to you and thus he will add.” The verbal forms in this pronouncement are imperfects, not jussives, but the statement has the force of a curse or warning. One could translate, “May God do to you and thus may he add.”

[4:10]  ³ tn Heb “and they fled, each to his tents.”

[8:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “Listen to the voice of the people, to all which they say to you.”

[15:20]  ⁵ tn Heb “listened to the voice of the Lord.”

[15:20]  ⁶ tn Heb “journey.”

[17:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “the man of the space between the two [armies].” See v. 23.

[17:4]  ⁸ 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.

[22:23]  ⁹ tn Or “the one who.” This may refer specifically to Saul, in which case David acknowledges that Abiathar’s life is endangered because of his allegiance to David. The translation assumes that the statement is more generalized, meaning that any enemy of Abiathar is an enemy of David. In other words, David promises that he will protect Abiathar with his very own life.