Mazmur 144:7-8
Konteks144:7 Reach down 1 from above!
Grab me and rescue me from the surging water, 2
from the power of foreigners, 3
144:8 who speak lies,
and make false promises. 4
Mazmur 144:2
Konteks144:2 who loves me 5 and is my stronghold,
my refuge 6 and my deliverer,
my shield and the one in whom I take shelter,
who makes nations submit to me. 7
1 Samuel 10:6-19
Konteks10:6 Then the spirit of the Lord will rush upon you and you will prophesy with them. You will be changed into a different person.
10:7 “When these signs have taken place, do whatever your hand finds to do, for God will be with you. 8 10:8 You will go down to Gilgal before me. I am going to join you there to offer burnt offerings and to make peace offerings. You should wait for seven days, until I arrive and tell you what to do.”
10:9 As Saul 9 turned 10 to leave Samuel, God changed his inmost person. 11 All these signs happened on that very day. 10:10 When Saul and his servant 12 arrived at Gibeah, a company of prophets was coming out to meet him. Then the spirit of God rushed upon Saul 13 and he prophesied among them. 10:11 When everyone who had known him previously saw him prophesying with the prophets, the people all asked one another, “What on earth has happened to the son of Kish? Does even Saul belong with the prophets?”
10:12 A man who was from there replied, “And who is their father?” Therefore this became a proverb: “Is even Saul among the prophets?” 10:13 When Saul 14 had finished prophesying, he went to the high place.
10:14 Saul’s uncle asked him and his servant, “Where did you go?” Saul 15 replied, “To look for the donkeys. But when we realized they were lost, 16 we went to Samuel.” 10:15 Saul’s uncle said, “Tell me what Samuel said to you.” 17 10:16 Saul said to his uncle, “He assured us that the donkeys had been found.” But Saul 18 did not tell him what Samuel had said about the matter of kingship.
10:17 Then Samuel called the people together before the Lord at Mizpah. 10:18 He said to the Israelites, “This is what the Lord God of Israel says, ‘I brought Israel up from Egypt and I delivered you from the power 19 of the Egyptians and from the power of all the kingdoms that oppressed you. 10:19 But today you have rejected your God who saves you from all your trouble and distress. You have said, “No! 20 Appoint a king over us.” Now take your positions before the Lord by your tribes and by your clans.’”
1 Samuel 16:5-14
Konteks16:5 He replied, “Yes, in peace. I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice.” So he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.
16:6 When they arrived, Samuel 21 noticed 22 Eliab and said to himself, 23 “Surely, here before the Lord stands his chosen king!” 24 16:7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Don’t be impressed by 25 his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. God does not view things the way men do. 26 People look on the outward appearance, 27 but the Lord looks at the heart.”
16:8 Then Jesse called Abinadab and presented him to Samuel. 28 But Samuel 29 said, “The Lord has not chosen this one, either.” 16:9 Then Jesse presented 30 Shammah. But Samuel said, “The Lord has not chosen this one either.” 16:10 Jesse presented seven of his sons to Samuel. 31 But Samuel said to Jesse, “The Lord has not chosen any of these.” 16:11 Then Samuel said to Jesse, “Is that all of the young men?” Jesse 32 replied, “There is still the youngest one, but he’s taking care of the flock.” Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and get him, for we cannot turn our attention to other things until he comes here.”
16:12 So Jesse had him brought in. 33 Now he was ruddy, with attractive eyes and a handsome appearance. The Lord said, “Go and anoint him. This is the one!” 16:13 So Samuel took the horn full of olive oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers. The Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day onward. Then Samuel got up and went to Ramah.
16:14 Now the Spirit of the Lord had turned away from Saul, and an evil spirit 34 from the Lord tormented him.
1 Samuel 17:1-14
Konteks17:1 35 The Philistines gathered their troops 36 for battle. They assembled at Socoh in Judah. They camped in Ephes Dammim, between Socoh and Azekah. 17:2 Saul and the Israelite army 37 assembled and camped in the valley of Elah, where they arranged their battle lines to fight against 38 the Philistines. 17:3 The Philistines were standing on one hill, and the Israelites 39 on another hill, with the valley between them.
17:4 Then a champion 40 came out from the camp of the Philistines. His name was Goliath; he was from Gath. He was close to seven feet tall. 41 17:5 He had a bronze helmet on his head and was wearing scale body armor. The weight of his bronze body armor was five thousand shekels. 42 17:6 He had bronze shin guards 43 on his legs, and a bronze javelin was slung over his shoulders. 17:7 The shaft 44 of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and the iron point of his spear weighed six hundred shekels. 45 His shield bearer was walking before him.
17:8 Goliath 46 stood and called to Israel’s troops, 47 “Why do you come out to prepare for battle? Am I not the Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose 48 for yourselves a man so he may come down 49 to me! 17:9 If he is able to fight with me and strike me down, we will become your servants. But if I prevail against him and strike him down, you will become our servants and will serve us.” 17:10 Then the Philistine said, “I defy Israel’s troops this day! Give me a man so we can fight 50 each other!” 17:11 When Saul and all the Israelites 51 heard these words of the Philistine, they were upset and very afraid.
17:12 52 Now David was the son of this Ephrathite named Jesse from Bethlehem 53 in Judah. He had eight sons, and in Saul’s days he was old and well advanced in years. 54 17:13 Jesse’s three oldest sons had followed Saul to war. The names of the 55 three sons who went to war were Eliab, his firstborn, Abinadab, the second oldest, and Shammah, the third oldest. 17:14 Now David was the youngest. While the three oldest sons followed Saul,
[144:7] 1 tn Heb “stretch out your hands.”
[144:7] 2 tn Heb “mighty waters.” The waters of the sea symbolize the psalmist’s powerful foreign enemies, as well as the realm of death they represent (see the next line and Ps 18:16-17).
[144:7] 3 tn Heb “from the hand of the sons of foreignness.”
[144:8] 4 tn Heb “who [with] their mouth speak falsehood, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood.” The reference to the “right hand” is probably a metonymy for an oath. When making an oath, one would raise the hand as a solemn gesture. See Exod 6:8; Num 14:30; Deut 32:40. The figure thus represents the making of false oaths (false promises).
[144:2] 5 tn Heb “my loyal love,” which is probably an abbreviated form of “the God of my loyal love” (see Ps 59:10, 17).
[144:2] 6 tn Or “my elevated place.”
[144:2] 7 tn Heb “the one who subdues nations beneath me.”
[10:7] 8 sn In light of Saul’s commission to be Israel’s deliverer (see v. 1), it is likely that some type of military action against the Philistines (see v.5) is implied.
[10:9] 9 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Saul) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[10:9] 10 tn Heb “turned his shoulder.”
[10:9] 11 tn Heb “God turned for him another heart”; NAB, NRSV “gave him another heart”; NIV, NCV “changed Saul’s heart”; TEV “gave Saul a new nature”; CEV “made Saul feel like a different person.”
[10:10] 12 tc Two medieval Hebrew
[10:10] tn Heb “they”; the referents (Saul and his servant) have been specified in the translation for clarity.
[10:10] 13 tn Heb “him”; the referent (Saul) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[10:13] 14 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Saul) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[10:14] 15 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Saul) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[10:14] 16 tn Heb “And we saw that they were not.”
[10:15] 17 tc In the LXX and Vulgate the pronoun “you” is singular, referring specifically to Saul. In the MT it is plural, including Saul’s servant as well.
[10:16] 18 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Saul) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[10:18] 19 tn Heb “hand” (also later in this verse).
[10:19] 20 tc The translation follows many medieval Hebrew
[16:6] 21 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Samuel) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[16:6] 23 tn Heb “said”; the words “to himself” are implied, given the secrecy surrounding Samuel’s mission to Bethlehem (v. 2).
[16:6] 24 tn Heb “his anointed one.”
[16:7] 25 tn Heb “don’t look toward.”
[16:7] 26 tn Heb “for not that which the man sees.” The translation follows the LXX, which reads, “for not as man sees does God see.” The MT has suffered from homoioteleuton or homoioarcton. See P. K. McCarter, I Samuel (AB), 274.
[16:7] 27 tn Heb “to the eyes.”
[16:8] 28 tn Heb “and caused him to pass before.”
[16:8] 29 tn Heb “he” (also in v. 9); the referent (Samuel) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[16:9] 30 tn Heb “caused to pass by.”
[16:10] 31 tn Heb “caused seven of his sons to pass before Samuel.” This could be taken as referring to seven sons in addition to the three mentioned before this, but 1 Sam 17:12 says Jesse had eight sons, not eleven. 1 Chr 2:13-15 lists only seven sons, including David. However, 1 Chr 27:18 mentions an additional son, named Elihu.
[16:11] 32 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jesse) has been specified in the translation both here and in v. 12 for clarity.
[16:12] 33 tn Heb “and he sent and brought him.”
[16:14] 34 tn Or “an injurious spirit”; cf. NLT “a tormenting spirit.” The phrase need not refer to an evil, demonic spirit. The Hebrew word translated “evil” may refer to the character of the spirit or to its effect upon Saul. If the latter, another translation option might be “a mischief-making spirit.”
[17:1] 35 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.
[17:2] 37 tn Heb “the men of Israel” (so KJV, NASB); NAB, NIV, NRSV “the Israelites.”
[17:4] 40 tn Heb “the man of the space between the two [armies].” See v. 23.
[17:4] 41 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.
[17:5] 42 sn Although the exact weight of Goliath’s defensive body armor is difficult to estimate in terms of modern equivalency, it was obviously quite heavy. Driver, following Kennedy, suggests a modern equivalent of about 220 pounds (100 kg); see S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, 139. Klein, taking the shekel to be equal to .403 ounces, arrives at a somewhat smaller weight of about 126 pounds (57 kg); see R. W. Klein, 1 Samuel (WBC), 175. But by any estimate it is clear that Goliath presented himself as a formidable foe indeed.
[17:6] 43 sn Or “greaves.” These were coverings (probably lined for comfort) that extended from about the knee to the ankle, affording protection for the shins of a warrior.
[17:7] 44 tn The translation follows the Qere and many medieval Hebrew
[17:7] 45 sn That is, about fifteen or sixteen pounds.
[17:8] 46 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Goliath) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[17:8] 47 tn The Hebrew text adds “and said to them.”
[17:8] 48 tc The translation follows the ancient versions in reading “choose,” (from the root בחר, bkhr), rather than the MT. The verb in MT (ברה, brh) elsewhere means “to eat food”; the sense of “to choose,” required here by the context, is not attested for this root. The MT apparently reflects an early scribal error.
[17:8] 49 tn Following the imperative, the prefixed verbal form (either an imperfect or jussive) with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose/result here.
[17:10] 50 tn Following the imperative, the cohortative verbal form indicates purpose/result here.
[17:11] 51 tn Heb “all Israel.”
[17:12] 52 tc Some
[17:12] 53 map For location see Map5 B1; Map7 E2; Map8 E2; Map10 B4.
[17:12] 54 tc The translation follows the Lucianic recension of the LXX and the Syriac Peshitta in reading “in years,” rather than MT “among men.”
