Mazmur 59:11

59:11 Do not strike them dead suddenly,

because then my people might forget the lesson. ¹ 

Use your power to make them homeless vagabonds and then bring them down,

O Lord who shields us! ² 

Mazmur 59:1

Psalm 59 ³ 

For the music director; according to the al-tashcheth style; ⁴  a prayer ⁵  of David, written when Saul sent men to surround his house and murder him. ⁶ 

59:1 Deliver me from my enemies, my God!

Protect me ⁷  from those who attack me! ⁸ 

1 Samuel 4:10-11

4:10 So the Philistines fought. Israel was defeated; they all ran home. ⁹  The slaughter was very great; thirty thousand foot soldiers fell in battle. 4:11 The ark of God was taken, and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phineas, were killed.

1 Samuel 4:17

4:17 The messenger replied, “Israel has fled from ¹⁰  the Philistines! The army has suffered a great defeat! Your two sons, Hophni and Phineas, are dead! The ark of God has been captured!”

1 Samuel 13:6-7

13:6 The men of Israel realized they had a problem because their army was hard pressed. So the army hid in caves, thickets, cliffs, strongholds, ¹¹  and cisterns. 13:7 Some of the Hebrews crossed over the Jordan River ¹²  to the land of Gad and Gilead. But Saul stayed at Gilgal; the entire army that was with him was terrified.

1 Samuel 13:11

13:11 But Samuel said, “What have you done?” Saul replied, “When I saw that the army had started to abandon me ¹³  and that you didn’t come at the appointed time and that the Philistines had assembled at Micmash,

1 Samuel 13:19-22

13:19 A blacksmith could not be found in all the land of Israel, for the Philistines had said, “This will prevent the Hebrews from making swords and spears.” 13:20 So all Israel had to go down to the Philistines in order to get their plowshares, cutting instruments, axes, and sickles ¹⁴  sharpened. 13:21 They charged ¹⁵  two-thirds of a shekel ¹⁶  to sharpen plowshares and cutting instruments, and a third of a shekel ¹⁷  to sharpen picks and axes, and to set ox goads. 13:22 So on the day of the battle no sword or spear was to be found in the hand of anyone in the army that was with Saul and Jonathan. No one but Saul and his son Jonathan had them.

1 Samuel 31:1-7

The Death of Saul

31:1 Now the Philistines were fighting against Israel. The men of Israel fled from the Philistines and many of them fell dead on Mount Gilboa. 31:2 The Philistines stayed right on the heels ¹⁸  of Saul and his sons. They ¹⁹  struck down Saul’s sons Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malki-Shua. 31:3 Saul himself was in the thick of the battle; ²⁰  the archers ²¹  spotted him and wounded him severely.

31:4 Saul said to his armor bearer, “Draw your sword and stab me with it! Otherwise these uncircumcised people will come, stab me, and torture me.” But his armor bearer refused to do it, because he was very afraid. So Saul took his sword and fell on it. 31:5 When his armor bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell on his own sword and died with him. 31:6 So Saul, his three sons, his armor bearer, and all his men died together that day.

31:7 When the men of Israel who were in the valley and across the Jordan saw that the men of Israel had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned the cities and fled. The Philistines came and occupied them.

[59:11]  ¹ tn Heb “do not kill them, lest my people forget.”

[59:11]  sn My people might forget the lesson. Swift, sudden destruction might be quickly forgotten. The psalmist wants God’s judgment to be prolonged so that it might be a continual reminder of divine justice.

[59:11]  ² tn Heb “make them roam around by your strength and bring them down, O our shield, the Lord.”

[59:1]  ³ sn Psalm 59. The psalmist calls down judgment on his foreign enemies, whom he compares to ravenous wild dogs.

[59:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “do not destroy.” Perhaps this refers to a particular style of music, a tune title, or a musical instrument. These words also appear in the superscription to Pss 57-58, 75.

[59:1]  ⁵ tn The precise meaning of the Hebrew word מִכְתָּם (miktam), which also appears in the heading to Pss 16, 56-58, 60 is uncertain. HALOT 582-83 s.v. defines it as “inscription.”

[59:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “when Saul sent and they watched his house in order to kill him.”

[59:1]  sn According to the superscription, David wrote this psalm on the occasion when Saul sent assassins to surround David’s house and kill him in the morning (see 1 Sam 19:11). However, the psalm itself mentions foreign enemies (vv. 5, 8). Perhaps these references reflect a later adaptation of an original Davidic psalm.

[59:1]  ⁷ tn Or “make me secure”; Heb “set me on high.”

[59:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “from those who raise themselves up [against] me.”

[4:10]  ⁹ tn Heb “and they fled, each to his tents.”

[4:17]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “before.”

[13:6]  ¹¹ tn Or perhaps “vaults.” This rare term also occurs in Judg 9:46, 49. Cf. KJV “high places”; ASV “coverts”; NAB “caverns”; NASB “cellars”; NIV, NCV, TEV “pits”; NRSV, NLT “tombs.”

[13:7]  ¹² tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[13:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “dispersed from upon me.”

[13:20]  ¹⁴ tc The translation follows the LXX (“their sickle”) here, rather than the MT “plowshares,” which is due to dittography from the word earlier in the verse.

[13:21]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the price was.” The meaning of the Hebrew word פְּצִירָה (pÿtsirah) is uncertain. This is the only place it occurs in the OT. Some propose the meaning “sharpening,” but “price” is a more likely meaning if the following term refers to a weight (see the following note on the word “shekel”). See P. K. McCarter, I Samuel (AB), 238.

[13:21]  ¹⁶ tn This word, which appears only here in the OT, probably refers to a stone weight. Stones marked פִּים (pim) have been found in excavations of Palestinian sites. The average weight of such stones is 0.268 ounces, which is equivalent to about two-thirds of a shekel. This probably refers to the price charged by the Philistines for the services listed. See P. K. McCarter, I Samuel (AB), 238; DNWSI 2:910; and G. I. Davies, Ancient Hebrew Inscriptions, 259.

[13:21]  ¹⁷ tc Heb “and for a third, a pick.” The Hebrew text suffers from haplography at this point. The translation follows the textual reconstruction offered by P. K. McCarter, I Samuel (AB), 235.

[31:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “stuck close after.”

[31:2]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the Philistines.”

[31:3]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and the battle was heavy against Saul.”

[31:3]  ²¹ tn Heb “the shooters, men with the bow.”