← Back to the 1 Kingdoms (1 Samuel) index

On the Greek text. The Greek follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint (Rahlfs-Hanhart in its main wording, itself an ancient, public-domain text); the distinctively copyrighted critical apparatus is not reproduced. Versification follows the LXX.

The First Book of Kingdoms (1 Samuel) (LXX) — Interlinear: Themes, Outlines & Translation Notes

A consolidated companion to the 1 Kingdoms data set: every chapter of LXX 1 Kingdoms (1–31) rendered as a six-tier Greek reverse-interlinear (Greek · gloss · parsing/case · syntax · semantic force · lexical note), with per-verse discourse analysis and a chapter argument-outline.

This document gathers the theme, the argument outline (the outline movements authored into each data file), and the translation / textual / exegetical notes (the text_note of each file, reproduced verbatim) — followed by a summary of the major translation and interpretive cruxes that were deliberately annotated rather than silently resolved. 1 Kingdoms (ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Α′ — the LXX name for 1 Samuel) carries Israel from the last judge to the first kings: the birth and call of Samuel, the ark narrative, the demand for a king, the anointing, rise, and rejection of Saul, and the long rise of David under Saul's jealous pursuit; its Old Greek is famously shorter than the Hebrew in the David-and-Goliath material (ch. 17–18) and supplies the New Testament with Hannah's song behind the Magnificat (Luke 1:46–55), the David-after-God's-own-heart of Acts 13:22, and the showbread that Jesus cites (Mark 2:25–26). The Greek follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint (Rahlfs–Hanhart in its main wording, itself an ancient public-domain text); the distinctively copyrighted apparatus is not reproduced, and versification follows the LXX.

Scope

Chapter Verses Words annotated Outline movements
1 Kingdoms 1 28 741 4
1 Kingdoms 2 36 856 6
1 Kingdoms 3 21 467 4
1 Kingdoms 4 22 594 5
1 Kingdoms 5 12 396 4
1 Kingdoms 6 21 594 4
1 Kingdoms 7 17 445 7
1 Kingdoms 8 22 450 4
1 Kingdoms 9 27 775 8
1 Kingdoms 10 27 725 6
1 Kingdoms 11 15 396 4
1 Kingdoms 12 25 636 5
1 Kingdoms 13 22 586 6
1 Kingdoms 14 52 1449 7
1 Kingdoms 15 35 823 7
1 Kingdoms 16 23 577 3
1 Kingdoms 17 32 865 5
1 Kingdoms 18 19 350 4
1 Kingdoms 19 24 602 4
1 Kingdoms 20 42 1052 5
1 Kingdoms 21 16 448 4
1 Kingdoms 22 23 659 4
1 Kingdoms 23 27 700 5
1 Kingdoms 24 23 582 5
1 Kingdoms 25 44 1181 10
1 Kingdoms 26 25 709 5
1 Kingdoms 27 12 330 4
1 Kingdoms 28 25 661 4
1 Kingdoms 29 11 361 4
1 Kingdoms 30 31 792 6
1 Kingdoms 31 13 329 4
Total 772 20,131 157

Each annotated word carries Greek, a working gloss, color-coded grammatical case, parsing (Tense·Voice·Mood·Person·Number + lemma), a Wallace-style syntactic-function label, an aspectual semantic-force label (verbal forms), and a condensed lexical note. As translation Greek, the annotation additionally flags Hebraisms and the underlying Hebrew idiom where it illuminates the rendering.

The argument of the book

The macro-structure of the whole book — its major movements — under which the chapter-by-chapter detail below unfolds. 1 Kingdoms (= 1 Samuel) is preserved in a Greek text markedly shorter than the MT in places; the annotation flags the major minuses (the short David & Goliath of ch. 17–18, the missing 13:1 regnal formula, and smaller omissions at 23:12 and elsewhere), the recurring χριστὸς κυρίου anointed-of-the-LORD theology, and the LXX/MT one-verse numbering offsets. (Section divisions are interpretive; the more common analysis is generally followed.)

Chapter-by-chapter

1 Kingdoms 1 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Α′ Α′

Theme. Hannah's barrenness, vow, and answered prayer lead to Samuel's birth and dedication to the Lord.

Outline.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 1 Kingdoms 1 (the LXX title of the book known in the Hebrew canon as 1 Samuel) follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. The chapter opens asyndetically with the saga-formula ἄνθρωπος ἦν ('there was a man', v. 1; cf. Job 1:1), introducing Elkanah of the Ephraimite hill country through a four-generation pedigree. The recurring pilgrimage to worship κυρίῳ θεῷ σαβαωθ ('the LORD God of Hosts', vv. 3, 20) — the first occurrence of this title in the LXX narrative books — frames Hannah's annual ordeal of grief over her barrenness, which the narrator twice attributes directly to the LORD's 'closing' of her womb (ἀπέκλεισεν, v. 5; συνέκλεισεν, v. 6). The LXX carries several notable pluses over the Masoretic Text: at v. 11 the prayer opens with a chain of transliterated divine appellations (Αδωναι κύριε ελωαι σαβαωθ) and the vow includes a full Nazirite stipulation — καὶ οἶνον καὶ μέθυσμα οὐ πίεται καὶ σίδηρος οὐκ ἀναβήσεται ἐπὶ τὴν κεφαλὴν αὐτοῦ ('he shall drink no wine or strong drink, and no iron shall come upon his head') — drawing in the legislation of Num 6 and aligning Samuel with Samson (Judg 13:5). Hannah's emphatic conditional ἐπιβλέπων ἐπιβλέψῃς ἐπὶ τὴν ταπείνωσιν τῆς δούλης σου ('if you will indeed look upon the humiliation of your servant', v. 11) is taken up almost verbatim in the Magnificat (Luke 1:48: ἐπέβλεψεν ἐπὶ τὴν ταπείνωσιν τῆς δούλης αὐτοῦ). Eli's misjudgment is reported with the Hebraism ἐλογίσατο αὐτὴν Ηλι εἰς μεθύουσαν ('Eli reckoned her a drunk woman', v. 13). The naming of Samuel rests on a folk etymology linking the name to the שאל ('ask') root: ὅτι παρὰ κυρίου θεοῦ σαβαωθ ᾐτησάμην αὐτόν (v. 20), a pun that recurs through αἴτημα (vv. 17, 27), ᾐτησάμην (vv. 20, 27), and climactically κιχρῶ … χρῆσιν (v. 28, κίχρημι 'lend', rendering the Hiphil הִשְׁאִיל). From v. 21 the LXX shifts the spelling of Shiloh from Σηλω to the longer Σηλωμ, and at v. 24 it retains the Hebrew measures οιφι (ephah) and νεβελ (skin/jar) as transliterated loanwords, while reading 'a three-year-old bull' (μόσχῳ τριετίζοντι) where the MT has 'three bulls'.

1 Kingdoms 2 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Α′ Β′

Theme. Hannah's song of reversal stands over the corruption of Eli's sons and the promise of a faithful priest.

Outline.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 1 Kingdoms 2 (= 1 Samuel 2) follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. The chapter's centerpiece, the Song of Hannah (vv. 1–10), is the chief Septuagintal model for the Magnificat (Luke 1:46–55). The opening ἐστερεώθη ἡ καρδία μου ἐν κυρίῳ ('my heart is made firm in the LORD', v. 1) stands behind μεγαλύνει ἡ ψυχή μου τὸν κύριον (Luke 1:46); εὐφράνθην ἐν σωτηρίᾳ σου (v. 1) behind ἠγαλλίασεν τὸ πνεῦμά μου ἐπὶ τῷ θεῷ τῷ σωτῆρί μου (Luke 1:47); the reversal couplets τόξον δυνατῶν ἠσθένησεν (v. 4), πλήρεις ἄρτων ἠλαττώθησαν … οἱ πεινῶντες παρῆκαν γῆν (v. 5), and ἀνιστᾷ ἀπὸ γῆς πένητα … ἐγείρει πτωχόν (v. 8) behind καθεῖλεν δυνάστας ἀπὸ θρόνων καὶ ὕψωσεν ταπεινούς, πεινῶντας ἐνέπλησεν ἀγαθῶν (Luke 1:52–53); and κύριος θανατοῖ καὶ ζωογονεῖ (v. 6) sounds YHWH's absolute sovereignty over life and death (cf. Deut 32:39). The κέρας ('horn') exalted in v. 1 and the κέρας χριστοῦ αὐτοῦ raised at the canticle's close (v. 10) frame the song with royal-messianic imagery later echoed at Luke 1:69 (ἤγειρεν κέρας σωτηρίας); χριστός in v. 10 is the first 'anointed one' note in 1 Samuel, proleptic of the Davidic king. The LXX expands v. 10 considerably beyond the MT, gathering the whole song into the renunciation of boasting (drawn from the same tradition as Jer 9:23–24, cited by Paul at 1 Cor 1:31) and the cosmic theophany of YHWH judging the ends of the earth. In the narrative, the priestly abuses are detailed in iterative imperfects (vv. 13–16), the sons' sin named ἁμαρτία … μεγάλη σφόδρα (v. 17) because they ἠθέτουν τὴν θυσίαν κυρίου. The Greek of v. 22 reports only that Eli heard what his sons were doing 'to the sons of Israel'; the MT's further charge that they lay with the women serving at the entrance of the tent of meeting is not represented in this edition. The verdict that the sons would not heed Eli 'because the LORD was minded to destroy them' (βουλόμενος ἐβούλετο, v. 25) employs the Hebraizing infinitive-absolute construction and aligns with the hardening theology of Exodus (cf. Exod 11:10; Rom 9:18). The oracle's governing maxim (v. 30) inverts the ἐδόξασας of v. 29, and the closing humiliation of Eli's house begging for an obol of bread (v. 36) brings the canticle's reversal of the full and the hungry (v. 5) full circle.

1 Kingdoms 3 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Α′ Γ′

Theme. The Lord calls Samuel in the night and announces irrevocable judgment on the house of Eli.

Outline.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 1 Kingdoms 3 (= 1 Samuel 3 MT) follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. The chapter opens with a programmatic statement of revelatory drought: ῥῆμα κυρίου ἦν τίμιον ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις ἐκείναις, οὐκ ἦν ὅρασις διαστέλλουσα (v. 1) — 'the word of the LORD was precious/rare in those days, there was no clear vision' — where τίμιον renders Hebrew יָקָר ('rare, prized') and διαστέλλουσα ('making distinct') glosses נִפְרָץ. The threefold nighttime call (vv. 4–9) is twice mistaken for Eli's summons, the narrator explaining at v. 7 that Samuel πρὶν ἢ γνῶναι θεὸν, 'before he knew God,' for the word of the LORD had not yet been revealed (ἀποκαλυφθῆναι) to him. Eli at last discerns (ἐσοφίσατο, v. 8) that the LORD is calling the boy, and instructs him to answer λάλει, κύριε, ὅτι ἀκούει ὁ δοῦλός σου (v. 9; the LXX lacks 'LORD' at v. 10, reading simply λάλει). The LORD's standing presence (ἦλθεν κύριος καὶ κατέστη, v. 10) introduces the dread oracle against the house of Eli (vv. 11–14): a deed that will make παντὸς ἀκούοντος … ἠχήσει ἀμφότερα τὰ ὦτα αὐτοῦ ('both ears of everyone who hears it will tingle'), an everlasting judgement ἐν ἀδικίαις υἱῶν αὐτοῦ that no sacrifice or incense can expiate (εἰ ἐξιλασθήσεται … ἕως αἰῶνος, v. 14, an oath-formula with εἰ for emphatic negation). Samuel fears to report the vision (v. 15) but conceals nothing under Eli's adjuration (vv. 16–18), and Eli submits: κύριος αὐτός· τὸ ἀγαθὸν ἐνώπιον αὐτοῦ ποιήσει. The chapter closes (vv. 19–21) with Samuel's vindication — the LORD let none of his words 'fall to the ground' (οὐκ ἔπεσεν … ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν), and all Israel ἀπὸ Δαν καὶ ἕως Βηρσαβεε knew him πιστὸς … εἰς προφήτην τῷ κυρίῳ; the LXX expands the close with the LORD's continued self-revelation ἐν Σηλωμ and a final notice of Eli's old age and his sons' wicked way.

1 Kingdoms 4 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Α′ Δ′

Theme. Israel's defeat and the ark's capture bring the death of Eli and the departure of glory from Israel.

Outline.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 1 Kingdoms 4 (= 1 Samuel 4) follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. The chapter narrates the double catastrophe of Israel's defeat by the Philistines: a first rout at Aphek/Ebenezer (vv. 1–2), the disastrous decision of the elders to carry the ark of the covenant from Shiloh into the camp as a war-talisman (vv. 3–4), the great shout that terrifies the Philistines into the cry οὗτοι οἱ θεοὶ ἥκασιν ('these gods have come', v. 7) and rouses them to fight as men (vv. 5–9), the second and greater rout in which the ark is captured (ἐλήμφθη) and Eli's sons die (vv. 10–11), the running of the Benjamite messenger to Shiloh and the death of the aged Eli, who falls backward from his seat at the gate and breaks his neck (vv. 12–18), and finally the death in childbirth of Phinehas' wife, who names her son Οὐαὶ βαρχαβωθ ('Ichabod') and pronounces the chapter's theological epitaph, ἀπῴκισται δόξα Ισραηλ (vv. 19–22). The Septuagint of 1–4 Kingdoms reflects the kaige recension in part and frequently renders the Hebrew with vivid historic presents (συναθροίζονται, παρεμβάλλουσιν, αἴρουσιν, πταίει). The chapter's dominant theological term is δόξα ('glory', v. 22), the LXX rendering of כָּבוֹד, which here denotes the localized presence of YHWH at the ark; the capture of the ark is therefore the departure of the glory. The repeated verb λαμβάνω in the passive (ἐλήμφθη, vv. 11, 17, 19; λημφθῆναι, v. 22) and the noun κιβωτός ('ark', a Leitwort) bind the narrative into a single meditation on the loss of the divine presence, framed by the elders' λάβωμεν τὴν κιβωτόν (v. 3). The Philistine cry οὐαὶ ἡμῖν (vv. 7, 8) and their fearful memory of the plagues on Egypt (v. 8) ironically place orthodox Israelite theology on pagan lips. Note that the LXX here gives Eli's age as ninety (v. 15) and his judgeship as twenty years (v. 18), where the MT reads ninety-eight and forty.

1 Kingdoms 5 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Α′ Ε′

Theme. The captured ark humiliates Dagon and strikes the Philistines, vindicating the Lord among the nations.

Outline.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 1 Kingdoms (= 1 Samuel) 5 follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. The chapter narrates the fortunes of the captured ark in Philistine territory: at Ashdod (Ἄζωτος) it is placed beside the idol Dagon (Δαγων), whose image twice falls prostrate (πεπτωκὼς ἐπὶ πρόσωπον αὐτοῦ) before it — the second time decapitated, with both palms (τὰ ἴχνη χειρῶν) severed on the threshold (the rare Hebrew loanword αμαφεθ transliterating מִפְתָּן, 'threshold'), so that only the ῥάχις ('trunk / spine') remains, the etiology of the threshold-leaping custom (v. 5). The hand of the LORD (χεὶρ κυρίου, rendering יַד־יְהוָה) lies heavy on the cities and strikes them εἰς τὰς ἕδρας ('in the seats' = tumors / hemorrhoids, LXX ἕδρα for Hebrew עֳפָלִים / טְחֹרִים). The LXX preserves a distinctive textual plus at v. 6, naming the mice (μύες) that overran the land — a detail elsewhere reserved for the golden images of chapter 6 — and presents the panic as σύγχυσις θανάτου ('a deathly confusion'). A further notable text-critical feature of this Greek tradition (Codex Vaticanus) is that at vv. 10–12 the ark is sent not to Ekron (so MT) but εἰς Ἀσκαλῶνα ('to Ascalon'), and the inhabitants are οἱ Ἀσκαλωνῖται. The polemic against Dagon is sharply drawn: the dead idol cannot keep its own posture before YHWH's throne-chest, while the living God's hand brings plague, panic, and finally a cry that 'went up to heaven' (ἀνέβη ἡ κραυγὴ τῆς πόλεως εἰς τὸν οὐρανόν, v. 12), the inverse of Israel's own cry of distress.

1 Kingdoms 6 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Α′ Ϛ′

Theme. The ark returns from Philistia, bringing joy, sacrifice, and a renewed fear of the Lord's holy presence.

Outline.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 1 Kingdoms 6 (= 1 Samuel 6) follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. The chapter narrates the return of the captured ark after seven months in Philistine territory. The Philistine priests, diviners, and enchanters (ἱερεῖς, μάντεις, ἐπαοιδούς, v. 2 — the last term shared with the Egyptian magicians of Exod 7–8) counsel that the ark must not be sent back empty (κενήν) but with a reparation 'for the torment' (τῆς βασάνου): five golden tumors (ἕδρας χρυσᾶς) and golden mice (μῦς χρυσοῦς) modelled (ὁμοίωμα) on the plagues (vv. 3–5). The cognate construction ἀποδιδόντες ἀπόδοτε (v. 3) renders the Hebrew emphatic infinitive absolute. They warn against hardening their hearts (βαρύνετε τὰς καρδίας) as Egypt and Pharaoh did (v. 6), an explicit Exodus allusion reinforced by ἐνέπαιξεν ('made sport of', cf. Exod 10:2). The ark is placed on a new cart (ἅμαξαν καινήν) drawn by two milk-cows still nursing (πρωτοτοκούσας) whose calves are penned at home, as a test (vv. 7–9): if the cows go straight up to Beth-shemesh, the LORD has done this great evil; if not, it was chance (σύμπτωμα, rendering מִקְרֶה). The cows κατεύθυναν ('went straight') and οὐ μεθίσταντο δεξιὰ οὐδὲ ἀριστερά, lowing (ἐκοπίων) as they go (vv. 10–12). The Beth-shemeshites, reaping the wheat-harvest, ηὐφράνθησαν ('rejoiced'); the cart halts by a great stone in the field of Hosea (Ωσηε), the cows are offered εἰς ὁλοκαύτωσιν, and the Levites set down the ark (vv. 13–15). An inventory of the five tumors by city and the golden mice follows (vv. 17–18). Then the LORD ἐπάταξεν the men of Beth-shemesh because they looked on the ark (the same verb used of the smiting of the Philistines, 5:6), and the people mourn (v. 19). They ask, τίς δυνήσεται διελθεῖν ἐνώπιον κυρίου τοῦ ἁγίου τούτου (v. 20), and send messengers to Kiriath-jearim (Καριαθιαριμ) to take the ark up to themselves (v. 21). The LXX text differs notably from the MT: the transliterations βερσεχθαν (v. 8) and εργαβ (vv. 11, 15) for the casket containing the golden objects are left unrendered, a hallmark of the Kingdoms translator's handling of difficult realia; the field-owner is Ωσηε (MT 'Joshua'); and the casualty figure at v. 19 ('seventy men and fifty thousand men') is a long-recognized textual crux preserved in both traditions.

1 Kingdoms 7 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Α′ Ζ′

Theme. Israel repents at Mizpah, the Lord thunders against the Philistines, and Samuel judges in peace.

Outline.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 1 Kingdoms 7 (= 1 Samuel 7) follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. The chapter forms the climax of the 'ark narrative' and the high-water mark of Samuel's career as judge. After the ark is brought up to Kiriath-jearim and Eleazar consecrated to guard it (v. 1), the whole house of Israel turns ὀπίσω κυρίου ('after the LORD', v. 2). Samuel issues a programmatic call to covenant repentance (vv. 3–4) cast in Deuteronomic terms — return ἐν ὅλῃ καρδίᾳ ('with the whole heart'), remove the foreign gods (τοὺς θεοὺς τοὺς ἀλλοτρίους), the Baals (τὰς Βααλιμ) and the Asheroth/Astartes (τὰ ἄλση Ασταρωθ), and serve the LORD only (κυρίῳ μόνῳ). At the assembly at Mizpah (Μασσηφαθ, vv. 5–6) the people perform a unique water-pouring rite of contrition, fast, and confess ἡμαρτήκαμεν ('we have sinned'). When the Philistine satraps (σατράπαι ἀλλοφύλων — the LXX using a Persian-derived term for the Philistine סְרָנִים) march up, Israel begs Samuel μὴ παρασιωπήσῃς ('do not be silent'); Samuel offers a suckling lamb as a whole burnt-offering (ὁλοκαύτωσιν) and the LORD ἐπήκουσεν ('heard/answered', v. 9). As Samuel offers, the LORD ἐβρόντησεν ἐν φωνῇ μεγάλῃ ('thundered with a great voice'), a storm-theophany throwing the enemy into confusion (συνεχύθησαν) and routing them (vv. 10–11). The memorial stone Αβενεζερ is glossed in Greek as λίθος τοῦ βοηθοῦ ('stone of the helper') with the cognate etiology ἐβοήθησεν ('he has helped', v. 12). Note the LXX's reading of the Hebrew place-name at v. 12 as the common adjective ἡ παλαιά ('the old (place)'), and its rendering at v. 14 of the geographic extent ἀπὸ Ἀσκαλῶνος ἕως Αζοβ. The verb δικάζω ('act as judge / give judgment') is the chapter's leitmotif (vv. 6, 15, 16, 17), framing Samuel's office. The closing summary (vv. 15–17) describes his annual judging circuit (κατ᾿ ἐνιαυτὸν ἐνιαυτόν, a Hebraizing distributive) of the consecrated sites (τὰ ἡγιασμένα) and his home and altar at Ramah (Αρμαθαιμ).

1 Kingdoms 8 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Α′ Η′

Theme. Israel demands a king like the nations, rejecting the Lord's direct reign despite Samuel's warning.

Outline.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 1 Kingdoms 8 (= 1 Samuel 8 MT) follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. The chapter narrates the crisis that ends the period of the judges and inaugurates the monarchy: Samuel appoints his sons as δικασταί ('judges', v. 1), but they pervert justice for δῶρα ('bribes', v. 3); the elders respond by demanding κατάστησον ἐφ᾿ ἡμᾶς βασιλέα ('set a king over us', v. 5) καθὰ καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ ἔθνη ('just as also the rest of the nations'). The theological centre is v. 7: οὐ σὲ ἐξουθενήκασιν ἀλλ᾿ ἢ ἐμὲ ἐξουδενώκασιν τοῦ μὴ βασιλεύειν ἐπ᾿ αὐτῶν ('it is not you they have rejected, but me they have rejected from reigning over them'); the LXX renders the single Hebrew root מָאַס with two near-synonymous compounds (ἐξουθενέω / ἐξουδενόω, 'set at naught / reduce to nothing') in deliberate parallel — one for Samuel, one for God. Samuel then sets out τὸ δικαίωμα τοῦ βασιλέως ('the manner of the king', vv. 9–18), the Greek rendering of the Hebrew מִשְׁפַּט הַמֶּלֶךְ: the leitmotif verb λήμψεται ('he will take', vv. 11, 13, 14, 16), reinforced by ἀποδεκατώσει ('he will tithe', vv. 15, 16, 17), characterizes monarchy above all as appropriation — of sons, daughters, lands, produce, livestock, and finally the people themselves (ὑμεῖς ἔσεσθε αὐτῷ δοῦλοι, v. 17). The chapter's threefold ἄκουε τῆς φωνῆς ('hearken to the voice', vv. 7, 9, 22) ironically frames divine concession to a people who themselves οὐκ ἠβούλετο ἀκοῦσαι ('would not listen', v. 19). The cry βοήσεσθε of v. 18 deliberately inverts the Exodus pattern: the same outcry that once moved YHWH to deliver (Exod 2:23; 3:7) will go unanswered, because the king is the people's own self-chosen burden (ἐξελέξασθε ἑαυτοῖς).

1 Kingdoms 9 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Α′ Θ′

Theme. Saul's search for lost asses becomes the providential path to his calling as Israel's first king.

Outline.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 1 Kingdoms 9 (= 1 Samuel 9) follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. The chapter is the longest sustained 'introduction of a hero' in the Books of Kingdoms. Its style is markedly Hebraizing: heavy καί-parataxis, three genitive-absolute openings (αὐτῶν ἐλθόντων, v. 5; αὐτῶν ἀναβαινόντων, v. 11; αὐτῶν καταβαινόντων, v. 27), the καὶ ἐγένετο … καί frame (v. 26, rendering וַיְהִי), and resumptive pronouns (ἐφ᾿ ἣν … ἐπ᾿ αὐτήν, v. 6; οὗ … ἐκεῖ, v. 10). The naming-formula ὄνομα αὐτῷ + name (vv. 1–2) and the honorific ἀνὴρ δυνατός frame Kish's standing; Saul's stature is doubled (εὐμεγέθης, v. 2; ὑψηλὸς ὑπὲρ πᾶσαν τὴν γῆν, v. 2). At v. 9 the narrator's philological gloss — τὸν προφήτην ἐκάλει ὁ λαὸς ἔμπροσθεν ὁ βλέπων — explains the obsolete title ὁ βλέπων (Hebrew הָרֹאֶה) for the prophet. At v. 15 the idiom κύριος ἀπεκάλυψεν τὸ ὠτίον Σαμουηλ ('uncovered Samuel's ear') renders the Hebraism גָּלָה אֶת אֹזֶן for private revelation. The oracle of v. 16 uses ἄρχων / χρίσεις εἰς ἄρχοντα (Hebrew נָגִיד, 'ruler / prince', not yet βασιλεύς) and echoes the Exodus deliverance-language (ἐπέβλεψα ἐπὶ τὴν ταπείνωσιν … ἦλθεν βοὴ αὐτῶν πρός με, cf. Exod 3:7–9). κύριος occurs twice (vv. 15, 17), both rendering the Tetragrammaton — there is no human-master use in the chapter. At v. 20 σκῆπτρον is used by metonymy for 'tribe' (Hebrew שֵׁבֶט), pointedly so given its royal-scepter overtones, and the cryptic τὰ ὡραῖα τοῦ Ισραηλ ('the desire of Israel', Hebrew חֶמְדַּת יִשְׂרָאֵל) gestures toward the kingship. The feast-vocabulary is precise: κατάλυμα ('hall', v. 22), οἱ κεκλημένοι ('the invited', v. 22), μερίς and the priestly κωλέα ('thigh', the שׁוֹק of Lev 7:32–33, vv. 23–24), and the homely ἀπόκνιζε ('break off a morsel!', v. 24). Place-names are transliterated and treated as indeclinable (Βαμα for בָּמָה, the 'high place'; Σιφ, Σελχα, Εασακεμ, Ιακιμ), while the gentilic Ιεμιναῖος ('Benjaminite') is declined.

1 Kingdoms 10 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Α′ Ι′

Theme. Saul is secretly anointed, confirmed by signs, and publicly chosen as king before Israel.

Outline.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 1 Kingdoms 10 (= 1 Samuel 10) follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. The chapter is a hinge in the Saul narrative, moving from private designation to public installation. It opens with Samuel's anointing of Saul with the φακὸς τοῦ ἐλαίου ('flask of oil', v. 1) and the rhetorical question οὐχὶ κέχρικέν σε κύριος εἰς ἄρχοντα ('has not the LORD anointed you ruler?') — the LXX's ἄρχων ('ruler / commander') renders Hebrew נָגִיד, a designation deliberately distinct from βασιλεύς ('king'). Three confirming signs are then foretold (vv. 2–6): two men at Rachel's tomb in the territory of Benjamin announcing the recovery of the lost donkeys (v. 2); three men going up to God at Bethel by the oak of Tabor, bearing kids, loaves, and a skin of wine (vv. 3–4); and, at the hill of God (ὁ βουνὸς τοῦ θεοῦ) where the Philistine garrison stands, a band of prophets (χορὸς προφητῶν) descending with harp, drum, pipe, and lyre, upon whose meeting the πνεῦμα κυρίου ('Spirit of the LORD') will rush on Saul, turning him εἰς ἄνδρα ἄλλον ('into another man', vv. 5–6). The signs are fulfilled (vv. 9–13): God gives Saul καρδίαν ἄλλην ('another heart'), the Spirit leaps upon him, and he prophesies, prompting the proverbial cry ἦ καὶ Σαουλ ἐν προφήταις; ('Is Saul also among the prophets?'). Saul keeps silence about the kingship before his uncle (vv. 14–16). Samuel then summons all Israel to the LORD at Mizpah (Μασσηφα, v. 17), rehearses the exodus and rebukes the people's rejection of God in demanding a king (vv. 18–19), and conducts the casting of lots by tribe (σκῆπτρον, lit. 'staff / sceptre' = tribe), clan (Ματταρι), and man, until Saul son of Kish is taken — hidden among the baggage (ἐν τοῖς σκεύεσιν, vv. 20–22). Brought out, he stands head and shoulders above the people (vv. 23–24), and the crowd shouts ζήτω ὁ βασιλεύς ('Long live the king!'). Samuel records the δικαίωμα τοῦ βασιλέως ('ordinance of the kingship') in a book (v. 25); Saul returns to Gibeah accompanied by men of valour whose hearts God had touched (v. 26), while worthless men (υἱοὶ λοιμοί, lit. 'sons of pestilence') despise him and bring no gift (v. 27).

1 Kingdoms 11 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Α′ ΙΑ′

Theme. Saul delivers Jabesh-gilead from Nahash and has the kingdom publicly renewed at Gilgal.

Outline.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 1 Kingdoms 11 (= 1 Samuel 11) follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. The chapter is built on a chain of καί-paratactic clauses punctuated by historic presents (παρεμβάλλει, λέγουσιν, ἔρχονται, λαλοῦσιν, εἰσπορεύονται, ἀπαγγέλλουσιν, ἐπισκέπτεται) that quicken the pace of action. The brutal terms of Nahash are rendered with an articular infinitive of condition, ἐν τῷ ἐξορύξαι ὑμῶν πάντα ὀφθαλμὸν δεξιόν ('by the gouging out of every right eye of yours', v. 2), and his avowed aim, καὶ θήσομαι ὄνειδος ἐπὶ Ισραηλ, exposes the maiming as national humiliation. The chapter's pivot is the charismatic empowerment of Saul: καὶ ἐφήλατο πνεῦμα κυρίου ἐπὶ Σαουλ (v. 6), with the vivid ἐφάλλομαι ('leap upon') rendering צָלַח and aligning Saul with the Spirit-seized judges. The summons-rite — Saul dismembers (ἐμέλισεν) the oxen and threatens κατὰ τάδε ποιήσουσιν τοῖς βουσὶν αὐτοῦ (v. 7) — parallels the grim rite of Judges 19:29, and the unanimous response ὡς ἀνὴρ εἷς ('as one man') is credited to the ἔκστασις κυρίου, a God-sent dread. The timing of the deliverance is fixed by the genitive absolute διαθερμάναντος τοῦ ἡλίου (v. 9) and fulfilled exactly when ἕως διεθερμάνθη ἡ ἡμέρα (v. 11), the same root binding promise to fulfillment. The muster numbers Israel and Judah separately (v. 8), a Kingdoms touch anticipating the later division. Saul's theological clemency, ὅτι σήμερον κύριος ἐποίησεν σωτηρίαν ἐν Ισραηλ (v. 13), credits the victory to YHWH and disarms the people's vengeance; the keyword σωτηρία binds v. 9, v. 13. The renewal at Gilgal is framed liturgically by a double ἐνώπιον κυρίου (v. 15) around both the anointing (ἔχρισεν … εἰς βασιλέα) and the peace offerings (εἰρηνικάς), and the closing ὥστε λίαν intensifies the national joy. The LXX renders the Tetragrammaton with κύριος throughout (vv. 6, 7, 13, 15); it transliterates as indeclinables the names Ναας, Ιαβις, Γαλααδ, Σαουλ, Σαμουηλ, Αμμων, Γαβαα, Βαμα, Αβιεζεκ, Ιουδα, and Γαλγαλα, while declining the gentilic Αμμανίτης (acc. Αμμανίτην) and the Hellenized dative place-form Γαλγαλοις ('in Gilgal', v. 15).

1 Kingdoms 12 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Α′ ΙΒ′

Theme. Samuel's farewell lawsuit rehearses the Lord's faithfulness and warns king and people to fear him.

Outline.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 1 Kingdoms 12 (= 1 Samuel 12 MT) follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. The chapter is structured as a covenant-lawsuit (rîb), and its vocabulary is forensic throughout: ἀποκρίθητε κατ᾿ ἐμοῦ ('testify against me', v. 3), the threefold μάρτυς ('witness', v. 5), and δικάσω ὑμᾶς ('I will plead with / arraign you', v. 7) cast Samuel, the people, the LORD and his χριστός as parties to a legal proceeding. Samuel's catalogue of denied offenses in v. 3 (μόσχον … ὄνον … ἐξίλασμα καὶ ὑπόδημα, 'an ox … a donkey … a bribe, even a sandal') uses the sandal as a proverbial token of negligible value, recalling Amos 2:6; 8:6. The recital of vv. 6–11 names the LORD by two articular participles, ὁ ποιήσας ('who made/appointed') Moses and Aaron and ὁ ἀναγαγών ('who brought up') the fathers, framing redemptive history under the LORD's sole agency; the judges' cycle employs the standard formulae ἐπελάθοντο ('forgot') and ἀπέδοτο … εἰς χεῖρας ('sold them into the hands of', v. 9, rendering מָכַר as at Judg 2:14). The LXX list of deliverers in v. 11 reads Ιεροβααλ (Gideon), Βαρακ, Ιεφθαε and Σαμουηλ — agreeing with the MT in naming Samuel himself (where some witnesses read Σαμψων, 'Samson'), and reading Βαρακ where the MT has the obscure 'Bedan.' The thunder-sign of vv. 16–18 turns on δώσει/ἔδωκεν φωνάς ('he will give/gave voices/thunder'), the Hebraism קֹלוֹת ('thunders' = 'voices'), made a prodigy by its timing in the rainless θερισμὸς πυρῶν ('wheat harvest', v. 17). The pastoral climax employs deliberate verbal reversals: the verb φοβέομαι is prohibited as terror in v. 20 (μὴ φοβεῖσθε) and then commanded as reverence in v. 24 (φοβεῖσθε τὸν κύριον); δουλεύω, perverted into serving the Baalim in v. 10, becomes the repeated covenant imperative of vv. 14, 20, 24; and the people's confession προστεθείκαμεν … κακίαν ('we have added evil', v. 19) is grimly answered by the closing προστεθήσεσθε ('you will be swept away/added [to destruction]', v. 25), which renders Hebrew סָפָה. The great assurance of v. 22 — οὐκ ἀπώσεται κύριος τὸν λαὸν αὐτοῦ διὰ τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ τὸ μέγα — grounds Israel's security in the LORD's name and gracious election (ἐπιεικέως … προσελάβετο ὑμᾶς αὑτῷ εἰς λαόν), and is cited by Paul at Rom 11:1–2 (with Ps 94[93]:14) for the irrevocability of that election.

1 Kingdoms 13 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Α′ ΙΓ′

Theme. Saul's unlawful sacrifice exposes the disobedience that will cost him an enduring kingdom.

Outline.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 1 Kingdoms (Βασιλειῶν Αʹ = 1 Samuel) chapter 13 follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. A textual feature must be noted at the outset: the LXX lacks the regnal-formula verse preserved at MT 1 Samuel 13:1 ("Saul was … years old when he began to reign, and he reigned … years over Israel"), a verse whose Hebrew numerals are themselves famously defective. Accordingly the Greek chapter has NO verse 1; its versification begins at verse 2 and runs through verse 23 (22 verses present). The chapter narrates Saul's selection of a standing army of three thousand (v. 2), Jonathan's strike against the Philistine garrison (τὸν Νασιβ) at Geba (v. 3), the resulting Philistine muster at Michmash "like the sand by the sea in multitude" (ὡς ἡ ἄμμος ἡ παρὰ τὴν θάλασσαν τῷ πλήθει, v. 5), and Israel's terrified flight into caves, thickets, rocks, pits and cisterns (vv. 6–7). The theological pivot comes at vv. 8–14: when Samuel delays beyond the appointed seven days, Saul himself offers the burnt offering (ἀνήνεγκεν τὴν ὁλοκαύτωσιν, v. 9), and Samuel pronounces the dynastic verdict — μεματαίωταί σοι ("you have acted foolishly", v. 13) and ἡ βασιλεία σου οὐ στήσεται ("your kingdom shall not stand", v. 14) — declaring that the LORD has sought ἄνθρωπον κατὰ τὴν καρδίαν αὐτοῦ ("a man after his own heart"), an oracle that points forward to David (cf. Acts 13:22). The Greek κύριος throughout vv. 12–14 renders the Tetragrammaton יהוה. The chapter closes (vv. 19–23) with the celebrated note on the Philistine iron monopoly: there was no smith (τέκτων σιδήρου) in all the land of Israel, lest the Hebrews (οἱ Εβραῖοι) make sword or spear, so that Israel had to go down to Philistia even to sharpen their farm tools, and on the day of battle no sword or spear was found in the hand of the people except with Saul and Jonathan.

1 Kingdoms 14 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Α′ ΙΔ′

Theme. Jonathan's faith wins victory while Saul's rash oath and failing leadership deepen Israel's crisis.

Outline.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 1 Kingdoms (1 Samuel) 14 follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. The chapter is a long, dramatically integrated narrative of Jonathan's faith-exploit and Saul's faltering leadership. It opens with Jonathan's secret resolve to cross to the Philistine garrison (μεσσαβ, a transliteration of Hebrew מַצָּב 'outpost/garrison', vv. 1–5), against the topography of the two crags Bozez (Βαζες) and Senna (Σεννα). The theological centre is Jonathan's confession at v. 6 — οὐκ ἔστιν τῷ κυρίῳ συνεχόμενον σῴζειν ἐν πολλοῖς ἢ ἐν ὀλίγοις ('nothing hinders the LORD from saving by many or by few'). The agreed sign (vv. 8–10), the climb 'on hands and feet' (v. 13), the first slaughter of about twenty men, and the resulting ἔκστασις ('panic/trembling') sent παρὰ κυρίου with the quaking of the earth (v. 15) drive a divine rout. Saul consults the ephod (vv. 16–19; the LXX reads ephod where MT has the ark), and the LORD saves Israel that day (v. 23). The narrative pivots on Saul's rash curse-oath (vv. 24–30): the cognate-accusative Hebraism Σαουλ ἠγνόησεν ἄγνοιαν μεγάλην ('Saul committed a great folly', v. 24) frames it as sin. Jonathan, who had not heard the oath, dips his staff in the honeycomb and his eyes brighten (ἀνέβλεψαν οἱ ὀφθαλμοὶ αὐτοῦ, v. 27). The famished people eat 'with the blood' (σὺν τῷ αἵματι, vv. 31–34), provoking Saul's first altar (v. 35). When God gives no answer (v. 37), the LXX preserves a fuller text of the lot-prayer than MT, making the Urim and Thummim explicit as δῆλοι and ὁσιότης (v. 41); the lot falls on Jonathan (vv. 42), who is ransomed by the people (vv. 43–45). The closing summary (vv. 47–52) uses several difficult transliterations (Βαιθεωρ, Σουβα) and renders the seizing of kingship as κατακληροῦται ἔργον (v. 47). Throughout, κύριος renders the Tetragrammaton יהוה, and the σῴζω/σωτηρία word-group (vv. 6, 23, 39, 45, 47) binds the chapter's theology of divine deliverance.

1 Kingdoms 15 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Α′ ΙΕ′

Theme. Saul's partial obedience in the Amalek war brings Samuel's judgment and the Lord's rejection of his kingship.

Outline.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 1 Kingdoms 15 (= 1 Samuel 15) follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. The chapter is one of the great theological turning-points of the Former Prophets. The ḥērem-vocabulary is dense: ἀναθεματιεῖς (v. 3, the technical verb for the ban, rendering חָרַם), ἐξολεθρεύω (vv. 3, 9, 15, 18, 20) and its noun ἐξολέθρευμα (v. 21, 'the devoted/banned thing'), and the double prohibition οὐ περιποιήσῃ … οὐ φείσῃ (v. 3), violated by Saul's περιεποιήσατο (v. 9). The fourfold ἀπό…ἕως merism of v. 3 (man–woman, infant–nursling, calf–sheep, camel–donkey) marks the absolute scope of the command. The divine-regret theme is carried by three distinct verbs: παρακέκλημαι (v. 11, παρακαλέω in the rare LXX sense of relenting, rendering נִחַם), the denial μετανοήσει / μετανοῆσαι (v. 29, μετανοέω), and the closing μετεμελήθη (v. 35, μεταμέλομαι) — the LXX deploys all three nuances of נִחַם in a single chapter. The proper-name forms vary: Gilgal appears as the inflected dative plural Γαλγαλοις (vv. 4, 21) but as indeclinable Γαλγαλα (v. 12) and Γαλγαλ (v. 33); transliterated names σαβαωθ (v. 2) and θεραφιν (v. 23) are left untranslated, as is the puzzling Ιεριμ (vv. 3, 8), a designation of the Amalekite host. The oracle of vv. 22–23 builds on the ἀκού-/ἀκοή root that threads the whole chapter (ἄκουε, v. 1; οὐκ ἤκουσας, v. 19; ἤκουσα, v. 24; τὸ ἀκοῦσαι … ἀκοή … ἐπακρόασις, v. 22), setting obedient hearing of 'the voice of the LORD' against the 'voice of the people' Saul actually heeded. The torn διπλοΐς (v. 27) and the verb διέρρηξεν (vv. 27–28) make the rent robe the figure of the rent βασιλεία; the LXX's distinctive διαιρεθήσεται Ισραηλ εἰς δύο (v. 29, 'Israel will be divided in two') foreshadows the later schism. Saul's execution of Agag is rendered with the cultic-slaughter verb ἔσφαξεν (v. 33), framing the completed ban as a sacral act 'before the LORD'.

1 Kingdoms 16 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Α′ ΙϚ′

Theme. David is anointed at Bethlehem, and the Spirit's movement from Saul to David begins the succession story.

Outline.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 1 Kingdoms 16 (= 1 Samuel 16) follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. 1 Kingdoms 16 is the great hinge of the Saul–David narrative: it opens with YHWH rebuking Samuel's prolonged mourning over the rejected Saul (ἕως πότε σὺ πενθεῖς ἐπὶ Σαουλ) and dispatching him with a horn of oil to Bethlehem, to anoint a son of Jesse whom YHWH has "seen" for kingship (ἑόρακα ἐν τοῖς υἱοῖς αὐτοῦ ἐμοὶ βασιλεύειν, v. 1). The covering pretext of a sacrifice (δάμαλιν βοῶν, v. 2) guards Samuel against Saul's reprisal. At the heart of the chapter stands the theological maxim of v. 7 — οὐχ ὡς ἐμβλέψεται ἄνθρωπος ὄψεται ὁ θεός … ἄνθρωπος ὄψεται εἰς πρόσωπον ὁ δὲ θεὸς ὄψεται εἰς καρδίαν ("man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart") — which governs the passing of the seven elder sons (Eliab, Aminadab, Sama, and four more), none of whom YHWH has chosen (οὐκ ἐξελέξατο κύριος). The youngest, David — πυρράκης μετὰ κάλλους ὀφθαλμῶν καὶ ἀγαθὸς ὁράσει ("ruddy, with beautiful eyes and good of appearance", v. 12) — is summoned from the flock and anointed in the midst of his brothers, whereupon the Spirit of the LORD rushes upon him (ἐφήλατο πνεῦμα κυρίου ἐπὶ Δαυιδ) from that day onward (v. 13). The chapter's second half mirrors the first by inversion: the Spirit of the LORD departs from Saul and an evil spirit from the LORD chokes him (vv. 14–15); his servants prescribe a skilled lyre-player, and David — already commended as εἰδότα ψαλμόν, συνετός, πολεμιστής, σοφὸς λόγῳ, ἀγαθὸς τῷ εἴδει, with κύριος μετ᾿ αὐτοῦ (v. 18) — is brought to court, where his playing brings Saul relief (ἀνέψυχεν Σαουλ … καὶ ἀφίστατο ἀπ᾿ αὐτοῦ τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ πονηρόν, v. 23). The address of Saul's courtiers, τῷ κυρίῳ ἡμῶν (v. 16), is a human honorific ("our lord/master"), to be distinguished from κύριος as the rendering of the Tetragrammaton elsewhere in the chapter.

1 Kingdoms 17 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Α′ ΙΖ′

Theme. David's victory over Goliath reveals the Lord's saving power and brings the shepherd into Israel's center.

Outline.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 1 Kingdoms (1 Samuel) 17 follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. This chapter is one of the most celebrated and text-critically significant passages in all of Samuel-Kingdoms, because the Old Greek (preserved especially in Codex Vaticanus, B) is dramatically SHORTER than the Masoretic Text (MT). The present (short, Old-Greek) form contains thirty-two verses, numbered 1–11, 32–40, 42–49, 51–54 to align with the MT versification — that is, it LACKS vv. 12–31, v. 41, and v. 50 entirely. The great 'minus' of vv. 12–31 omits the second introduction of David (David as son of Jesse the Ephrathite, his being sent with provisions to his brothers, his dialogue about Goliath's reward and Saul's daughter, Eliab's rebuke, and David's being brought before Saul); in the short form David simply speaks to Saul at v. 32 as though already present (cf. 16:14–23, where he is Saul's armor-bearer and lyre-player). The minus at v. 41 omits the Philistine's slow advance behind his shield-bearer, and the famous minus at v. 50 omits the summarizing notice 'So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone, and struck the Philistine and killed him, and there was no sword in David's hand' — in the short Greek the stone strikes Goliath (v. 49) and then David runs and dispatches him with Goliath's own sword (v. 51), with no intervening v. 50 summary. The longer MT-aligned material is supplied in some Greek witnesses (e.g., the Lucianic/Antiochene text and the Hexaplaric tradition, marked with asterisks), but B and the Old Latin attest the short form. Scholars are divided: many (following Wellhausen, and more recently the editors associated with the 'two literary editions' hypothesis — Lust, Tov, McCarter in part) hold that the short Greek reflects an earlier, shorter Hebrew Vorlage and that the MT pluses are a secondary literary expansion conflating a second David-Goliath tradition; others (e.g., Barthélemy in part, and defenders of MT priority) argue the Greek translator or his Vorlage abbreviated by haplography or deliberate harmonization. The phenomenon is the textbook case for the thesis that the books of Samuel circulated in more than one literary edition, and it bears directly on how the canonical David tradition was formed. Within the narrative the Greek preserves the core duel: the armies in the Valley of Elah (vv. 1–3); Goliath of Gath, his height of 'four cubits and a span' (B's figure, against MT's 'six cubits'), his bronze armor and weaver's-beam spear, and his forty-day taunt (vv. 4–11); David's offer to Saul, his testimony of delivering the flock from lion and bear, and his refusal of Saul's armor for five smooth stones and a sling (vv. 32–40); the exchange of insults and David's confession that he comes ἐν ὀνόματι κυρίου σαβαωθ (vv. 42–47); and the slung stone, the beheading with the giant's own sword, and the rout (vv. 48–54). The recurring designation of Goliath simply as ὁ ἀλλόφυλος ('the foreigner / Philistine') renders Hebrew הַפְּלִשְׁתִּי; σαβαωθ transliterates צְבָאוֹת ('hosts'); and the names Σαουλ, Δαυιδ, Γολιαθ are left indeclinable transliterations throughout.

1 Kingdoms 18 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Α′ ΙΗ′

Theme. David's success wins public favor but awakens Saul's jealous hostility and murderous fear.

Outline.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 1 Kingdoms 18 (= 1 Samuel 18) follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. This is one of the most striking 'gap chapters' of the Old Greek: the LXX of 1 Samuel 18 is dramatically shorter than the Masoretic Text, attesting an earlier, leaner Hebrew Vorlage. The Codex Vaticanus (B) text printed by Rahlfs lacks an entire series of verses present in the MT — vv. 1–5 are absent (the covenant of Jonathan and David, David's universal success, his promotion over the army), vv. 10–11 are absent (the first spear-throwing, where the evil spirit comes on Saul and he hurls his spear at David), and vv. 17–19 are absent (Saul's offer of his elder daughter Merab and her marriage to Adriel). The surviving verses therefore carry the exact, non-continuous numbers 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29 — nineteen verses in all — and the numbering is preserved (not renumbered) as in the reference edition. Lexically the chapter is marked by the leitmotif verbs συνίημι ('understand / act prudently / prosper', vv. 14, 15, rendering הִשְׂכִּיל) and εὐλαβέομαι ('be wary / stand in dread', vv. 15, 29), and by the recurring εὐθύνω ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖς idiom 'it was straight/pleasing in his eyes' (vv. 20, 26, rendering יָשַׁר בְּעֵינֵי). The Philistines are uniformly ἀλλόφυλοι ('foreigners', the LXX's standard rendering of פְּלִשְׁתִּים in Samuel–Kings), and the bride-price of a hundred ἀκροβυστίαι ('foreskins', עָרְלוֹת) is the chapter's grim hinge: Saul means it as a death-warrant (he ἐλογίσατο, 'reckoned', to cast David εἰς χεῖρας τῶν ἀλλοφύλων, v. 25), but David fulfils it and the snare recoils. Transliterated indeclinable names — Δαυιδ, Σαουλ, Μελχολ (Michal), Ισραηλ — remain uninflected throughout, while Ιουδας (v. 16) is inflected as a first-declension noun. The marriage subplot's key verb is ἐπιγαμβρεύω ('become a son-in-law', Hithpael הִתְחַתֵּן), recurring at vv. 22, 23, 26, 27.

1 Kingdoms 19 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Α′ ΙΘ′

Theme. Saul's hostility becomes open pursuit, and David escapes through the help of Jonathan, Michal, and Samuel.

Outline.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 1 Kingdoms 19 (= 1 Samuel 19 MT) follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. The chapter is dense with Hebraizing idiom: ᾑρεῖτο τὸν Δαυιδ σφόδρα ('loved David exceedingly', v. 1) renders the disposition of חָפֵץ; ἔθετο τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ ἐν τῇ χειρὶ αὐτοῦ ('put his life in his hand', v. 5) is the standard idiom for risking one's life; ζῇ κύριος εἰ ἀποθανεῖται (v. 6) is the Hebrew oath-formula חַי יְהוָה with the self-imprecatory אִם rendered by εἰ as an emphatic negative ('he shall surely not die'). The deliverance-refrain διεσώθη / σῴζεται recurs at vv. 10, 12, 17, 18, quietly attributing David's escapes to divine preservation. In the rescue scene the LXX renders Hebrew תְּרָפִים ('teraphim / household idol') by κενοτάφια ('empty images / cenotaphs', vv. 13, 16) and construes the obscure כְּבִיר הָעִזִּים as ἧπαρ τῶν αἰγῶν ('a goat's liver') placed at the head of the dummy. Place-names are transliterated: Αρμαθαιμ (Ramathaim/Ramah), Ναυαθ (Naioth), Ραμα (Ramah), and Σεφι (Hebrew Secu, שֶּׂכוּ). The Spirit-language is pointed: the πνεῦμα θεοῦ πονηρόν that torments Saul (v. 9) is answered by the πνεῦμα θεοῦ that overpowers his messengers (v. 20) and then Saul himself (v. 23) for prophecy. The closing aetiology εἰ καὶ Σαουλ ἐν προφήταις (v. 24) — phrased in the LXX as an astonished question with the iterative ἔλεγον ('they used to say') — repeats the proverb already coined at 10:11–12.

1 Kingdoms 20 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Α′ Κ′

Theme. David and Jonathan seal their covenant of loyal love as Saul's hatred drives David into exile.

Outline.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 1 Kingdoms (1 Samuel) 20 follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. Chapter 20 is the great covenant-narrative of David and Jonathan, rich in Hebraisms. The new-moon term νεομηνία / νουμηνία (vv. 5, 18, 24) renders חֹדֶשׁ. The oath-formula ζῇ κύριος καὶ ζῇ ἡ ψυχή σου ('as the LORD lives and as your soul lives', v. 3) calques חַי־יְהוָה. Emphatic infinitive-absolute constructions are reproduced by cognate participle + finite verb: γινώσκων οἶδεν (v. 3), ἐπισκεπτόμενος ἐπισκέψηται and παραιτούμενος παρῃτήσατο (v. 6), γινώσκων γνῶ (v. 9), καθίσας οὐ καθήσομαι (v. 5), ταχύνας σπεῦσον (v. 38); the cognate dative appears in θανάτῳ ἀποθάνω (v. 14) and ἐθυμώθη ὀργῇ (v. 30). The idiom ἀποκαλύπτω τὸ ὠτίον ('uncover the ear' = disclose, vv. 2, 12, 13) calques גָּלָה אֹזֶן. The self-imprecation τάδε ποιήσαι ὁ θεός … καὶ τάδε προσθείη (v. 13) renders the standard Hebrew curse-formula. Two transliterated realia preserve obscure terms: εργαβ (vv. 19, 41), the stone/marker beside which David hides (≈ MT 'stone Ezel'), and αματταρι (v. 20), the target at which Jonathan shoots (≈ מַטָּרָה). Saul's tirade is vividly Semitic: υἱὲ κορασίων αὐτομολούντων ('son of deserting girls', v. 30), αἰσχύνη ἀποκαλύψεως μητρός ('shame of your mother's nakedness', v. 30), and the death-verdict υἱὸς θανάτου ('son of death', v. 31). The recurring verdict-formula συντετέλεσται ἡ κακία ('the evil is fully determined', vv. 7, 9, 33) tracks Saul's fixed murderous intent. The covenant-witness formula κύριος μάρτυς / ἔσται μάρτυς ἀνὰ μέσον ἐμοῦ καὶ σοῦ ἕως αἰῶνος (vv. 23, 42) frames the friendship as a divinely witnessed perpetual bond, extended in v. 42 to the σπέρμα of both men — a clause fulfilled in David's kindness to Mephibosheth (2 Kgdms 9). The verb κύριος is the Tetragrammaton throughout except at v. 38, where τὸν κύριον αὐτοῦ denotes Jonathan as the boy's human master (אָדוֹן).

1 Kingdoms 21 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Α′ ΚΑ′

Theme. David's flight to Nob and Gath shows holy provision under pressure while exposing the danger gathering behind him.

Outline.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 1 Kingdoms (1 Reigns = 1 Samuel) 21 follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. The LXX verse-numbering here runs one ahead of the Masoretic/English text: LXX 21:1 (David's departure and Jonathan's return to the city) corresponds to MT 20:42b, so that LXX 21:2–16 = MT/English 21:1–15. The chapter is rich in transliterations where the LXX carries over unrendered Hebrew: νεεσσαραν (v. 8, glossed by συνεχόμενος, 'detained, before the LORD') and the cryptic place-designation θεοῦ πίστις Φελλανι Αλεμωνι (v. 3, reproducing the Hebrew indefinite פְּלֹנִי אַלְמֹנִי). Proper names follow LXX convention: David, Ahimelech (Αβιμελεχ, for MT Ahimelech), Nob (Νομβα), Doeg (Δωηκ), Goliath (Γολιαθ), Achish (Αγχους), Gath (Γεθ), Elah (Ηλα) are all indeclinable. Note the LXX's ὁ Σύρος ('the Syrian/Aramean', v. 8) for MT's 'the Edomite' — probably a confusion of אֲדֹמִי and אֲרַמִּי. The holy bread is named with two parallel LXX/NT phrases: οἱ ἄρτοι τῆς προθέσεως ('bread of setting-forth') and ἄρτοι τοῦ προσώπου ('bread of the face/Presence'), both rendering לֶחֶם הַפָּנִים. David's feigned-madness scene is told with a vivid cascade of imperfects (ἐτυμπάνιζεν, παρεφέρετο, ἔπιπτεν, κατέρρει, v. 14) and three occurrences of the ἐπίλημπτ- root (vv. 15–16), the Koine term ἐπίλημπτος ('epileptic / mad'). The exceptive Hebraism ὅτι ἀλλ᾿ ἤ ('except only', vv. 5, 7) renders כִּי אִם, and the time-idiom ἐχθὲς καὶ τρίτην ἡμέραν ('yesterday and the third day', v. 6) renders תְּמוֹל שִׁלְשֹׁם.

1 Kingdoms 22 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Α′ ΚΒ′

Theme. David gathers the distressed at Adullam while Saul's fury brings the massacre of the priests of Nob.

Outline.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 1 Kingdoms 22 follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. The chapter pivots from David's gathering of a band to the massacre of the priests of Nob. David escapes to the cave of Adullam (τὸ σπήλαιον τὸ Οδολλαμ, v. 1), where the distressed (πᾶς ἐν ἀνάγκῃ), the indebted (ὑπόχρεως) and the embittered in soul (κατώδυνος ψυχῇ) gather to him — about four hundred men with David as their leader (ἡγούμενος, v. 2). He shelters his parents with the king of Moab (vv. 3–4) until the prophet Gad directs him back to the land of Judah (v. 5). The scene then shifts to Saul enthroned under the tamarisk at Gibeah, spear in hand (v. 6), where he accuses his Benjaminite servants of conspiring with "the son of Jesse" (ὁ υἱὸς Ιεσσαι, vv. 7–8). Doeg the Syrian/Edomite (Δωηκ ὁ Σύρος, the LXX rendering the variant אֲדֹמִי/אֲרַמִּי), set over Saul's mules, reports Ahimelech's enquiry of God, provisioning, and gift of Goliath's sword to David (vv. 9–10). Saul summons Ahimelech and the priests of Nob (Νομβα), pronounces the death-sentence in the cognate-dative Hebraism θανάτῳ ἀποθανῇ ("you shall surely die", v. 16) despite Ahimelech's defense of David's loyalty (vv. 14–15), and orders his runners to kill the priests of the LORD (τοὺς ἱερεῖς τοῦ κυρίου, v. 17) — but they refuse to lift their hands against the LORD's priests. Doeg alone obeys, killing that day three hundred and five (Rahlfs τριακοσίους καὶ πέντε; MT eighty-five) men who wore the ephod (αἴροντας εφουδ, v. 18), and putting the whole priestly city to the sword from man to suckling and beast (ἀπὸ ἀνδρὸς ἕως γυναικός … ἐν στόματι ῥομφαίας, v. 19). One son of Ahimelech, Abiathar (Αβιαθαρ), escapes to David (v. 20, διασῴζεται echoing David's own διεσώθη of v. 1) and reports the slaughter (v. 21); David confesses that he is responsible for the lives of Abiathar's father's house (ἐγώ εἰμι αἴτιος τῶν ψυχῶν, v. 22) and pledges him protection with the perfect of safekeeping πεφύλαξαι (v. 23).

1 Kingdoms 23 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Α′ ΚΓ′

Theme. David saves Keilah yet remains a hunted fugitive, preserved by God through betrayals and wilderness escapes.

Outline.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 1 Kingdoms 23 (= 1 Samuel 23) follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. NOTE ON VERSE NUMBERING: the Rahlfs LXX of this chapter has NO verse 12; the verses present are 1–11 and 13–28 (27 verses in all), and the numbering of vv. 13–28 in the LXX runs one behind the Masoretic/English verse numbers from this point. The chapter is a tightly woven narrative of inquiry, deliverance, betrayal, and pursuit. David twice "inquires through the LORD" (ἐπηρώτησεν Δαυιδ διὰ τοῦ κυρίου, vv. 2, 4) before relieving the Philistine siege of KEILAH (ἡ Κεϊλα), a town whose "threshing floors" (τοὺς ἅλω, v. 1) the Philistines were plundering. The arrival of Abiathar son of Abimelech "with the ephod in his hand" (ἔχων εφουδ ἐν τῇ χειρὶ αὐτοῦ, v. 6) supplies the oracular instrument; εφουδ is an indeclinable transliteration of Hebrew אֵפוֹד. Saul interprets David's entry into a walled town "of doors and bars" (πόλιν θυρῶν καὶ μοχλῶν, v. 7) as proof that "God has sold him into my hands" (πέπρακεν αὐτὸν ὁ θεὸς εἰς χεῖράς μου) — a presumption the narrative will overturn. David's second oracle-scene (vv. 9–11) deploys the verb ἀποκλείω ("shut up / hand over by entrapment") and is answered with the bare prediction ἀποκλεισθήσεται ("he will be shut up"), prompting his escape with "about four hundred men" (ὡς τετρακόσιοι, v. 13). The wilderness sections render Hebrew place-names variously by transliteration (Μασερεμ / Μεσσαρα for the strongholds, Ζιφ, Καινή = Horesh, Μααν = Maon, Εχελα = Hachilah, Ιεσσαιμουν = Jeshimon) and by the recurring adjective αὐχμώδης ("parched / arid", vv. 14, 15, 19) for the dry highland. The theological center is the covenant-renewal of vv. 16–18: Jonathan "strengthened his hand in the LORD" (ἐκραταίωσεν τὰς χεῖρας αὐτοῦ ἐν κυρίῳ) and confirmed David's kingship with the words καὶ σὺ βασιλεύσεις ἐπὶ Ισραηλ καὶ ἐγὼ ἔσομαί σοι εἰς δεύτερον ("you shall reign over Israel and I shall be second to you"). The Ziphites' betrayal (vv. 19–24) and the close pursuit at Maon (vv. 25–26), where David was "sheltering himself to flee from before Saul" (σκεπαζόμενος πορεύεσθαι ἀπὸ προσώπου Σαουλ), is broken off only by the messenger summoning Saul to a Philistine incursion (vv. 27–28); the place is therefore named Πέτρα ἡ μερισθεῖσα, "the Rock that was Divided/Parted" (ἐπεκλήθη … διὰ τοῦτο), an etiological place-name closing the chapter on the note of providential rescue.

1 Kingdoms 24 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Α′ ΚΔ′

Theme. David spares Saul in the cave, proving his innocence and refusing to seize the kingdom by violence.

Outline.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 1 Kingdoms (= 1 Samuel) 24 follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. The LXX verse-numbering of this chapter runs one ahead of the English versification (LXX 24:1 = English 23:29); the reference is annotated as given in the Greek. The chapter is rich in Hebraizing idiom: the scene-setting formulae καὶ ἐγενήθη / ἐγένετο ὡς (vv. 2, 17) calque וַיְהִי כַּאֲשֶׁר; the impersonal ἀπηγγέλη … λεγόντων (v. 2) and the participial λαλῶν after συνετέλεσεν (v. 17) reflect the Hebrew infinitive constructions; the oath-particle εἰ (v. 7) renders the self-imprecatory אִם; and the figura etymologica βασιλεύων βασιλεύσεις (v. 21) renders the emphatic infinitive absolute מָלֹךְ תִּמְלוֹךְ. At v. 4 the discreet euphemism παρασκευάσασθαι ('to make ready') softens the Hebrew לְהָסֵךְ אֶת־רַגְלָיו ('to cover his feet'). The robe-skirt David cuts is the πτερύγιον (diminutive of πτέρυξ, 'wing') of the διπλοΐς ('double-folded robe', מְעִיל), a garment whose tearing elsewhere signifies the tearing-away of the kingdom (cf. 1 Kgdms 15:27–28). David's conscience is rendered by the idiom ἐπάταξεν καρδία Δαυιδ αὐτόν (v. 6, 'David's heart smote him'; cf. 2 Kgdms 24:10). The place-names are handled inconsistently: Εγγαδδι and Ισραηλ are transliterated indeclinables, while Σαδαιεμ (v. 3) and Μεσσαρα στενήν (v. 23) Graecize Hebrew descriptive phrases — Μεσσαρα corresponding to מְצוּדָה ('stronghold'), treated as a toponym qualified by στενήν.

1 Kingdoms 25 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Α′ ΚΕ′

Theme. After Samuel's death, Abigail's wisdom restrains David's vengeance and opens the way to her becoming his wife.

Outline.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 1 Kingdoms 25 (= 1 Samuel 25 MT) follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. The chapter opens with the terse death-and-burial notice of Samuel (v. 1) and David's descent εἰς τὴν ἔρημον Μααν, then unfolds the Nabal–Abigail novella. Nabal, the great but harsh (σκληρὸς … πονηρός … κυνικός, 'churlish/doglike', v. 3 — the LXX's interpretive rendering of the Hebrew 'Calebite' as if from כֶּלֶב, 'dog') Carmelite, insults David's men at the sheepshearing with τίς ὁ Δαυιδ καὶ τίς ὁ υἱὸς Ιεσσαι (v. 10). David swears a fierce oath to leave alive not one οὐροῦντα πρὸς τοῖχον ('any that urinates against a wall', vv. 22, 34), the LXX's literal calque of the Hebrew idiom for 'male.' Abigail intercepts him with a hastily-gathered gift (vv. 18–19) and a long, theologically dense speech (vv. 23–31): she takes the ἀδικία upon herself, declares that κύριος will make her lord a sure house (οἶκον πιστόν, v. 28 — language of the dynastic oracle of 2 Kgdms 7) because he fights πόλεμον κυρίου, and frames David's restraint from blood-guilt (αἷμα ἀθῷον, vv. 26, 31) as what will spare his conscience when he becomes ἡγούμενος ἐπὶ Ισραηλ (v. 30). The speech's lyrical centre is v. 29: David's soul bound ἐν δεσμῷ τῆς ζωῆς παρὰ κυρίῳ τῷ θεῷ ('in the bundle of the living with the LORD God'), while his enemies' souls are slung away ἐν μέσῳ τῆς σφενδόνης — an image poignantly recalling David's sling against Goliath. David blesses her εὐλογητὸς κύριος ὁ θεὸς Ισραηλ (v. 32) and relents. The narrative closes with Nabal's drunken βασιλέως-like feast (v. 36), his heart dying within him like a stone (ἐναπέθανεν ἡ καρδία αὐτοῦ … γίνεται ὡς λίθος, v. 37), the LORD's lethal stroke ten days later (ἐπάταξεν κύριος τὸν Ναβαλ, v. 38), and David's marriage to Abigail and to Αχινααμ of Jezreel — with the closing note that Saul had given Μελχολ (Michal), David's wife, to Φαλτι son of Λαις (v. 44). Throughout, κύριος oscillates between the Tetragrammaton (in oaths, blessings, and divine action: vv. 26, 28, 30, 31, 32, 34, 38, 39) and the honorific 'my lord' (κύριέ μου) by which Abigail and the servants address David and Nabal (vv. 10, 14, 17, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31).

1 Kingdoms 26 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Α′ Κϛ′

Theme. David again spares Saul, exposing the king's guilt and leaving vengeance in the Lord's hands.

Outline.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 1 Kingdoms 26 (= 1 Samuel 26 MT) follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. The chapter is a near-doublet of the cave-of-Engedi episode of ch. 24, retelling David's sparing of Saul in a second, more daring form: a night infiltration of the royal camp. The Ziphites again betray David (v. 1; cf. 23:19); Saul descends to the wilderness of Ziph with three thousand chosen men (v. 2); David sends out spies (κατασκόπους, v. 4) and by night enters the camp with Abishai (Αβεσσα), finding Saul asleep in the entrenchment (λαμπήνη) with his spear (δόρυ) fixed in the ground at his head and a deep stupor from the LORD upon all (θάμβος κυρίου ἐπέπεσεν ἐπ᾽ αὐτούς, v. 12). Abishai begs to pin Saul with the spear (πατάξω αὐτὸν τῷ δόρατι, v. 8), but David twice forbids it with the chapter's theological centre: τίς ἐποίσει χεῖρα αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ χριστὸν κυρίου καὶ ἀθῳωθήσεται; ('who can stretch out his hand against the LORD's anointed and be guiltless?', v. 9; cf. v. 11, v. 23). The phrase χριστὸς κυρίου — the LXX rendering of מְשִׁיחַ יהוה — is the load-bearing term of the whole narrative: Saul's office, not his character, makes his person inviolable. David takes only the spear and the water-jar (τὸν φακὸν τοῦ ὕδατος), crosses the valley to a far hilltop (vv. 12–13), and rebukes Abner (Αβεννηρ) for failing to guard τὸν κύριόν σου τὸν βασιλέα ('your lord the king', v. 15), producing the missing spear as proof (v. 16). Saul recognises David's voice (v. 17); David's appeal protests his innocence and laments his exile from the LORD's inheritance (κληρονομία κυρίου, v. 19) under the proverb of the partridge/night-raven hunted in the mountains (v. 20). Saul confesses ἡμάρτηκα … μεματαίωμαι καὶ ἠγνόηκα πολλὰ σφόδρα ('I have sinned … I have played the fool and erred exceedingly', v. 21), and the episode closes with David's appeal to the LORD's recompense of righteousness and faithfulness (δικαιοσύνας … πίστιν, v. 23) and Saul's parting blessing εὐλογημένος σύ τέκνον (v. 25). The two depart, each to his own place — their final recorded meeting.

1 Kingdoms 27 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Α′ ΚΖ′

Theme. David seeks refuge among the Philistines and builds a precarious life in Ziklag while Saul still hunts him.

Outline.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 1 Kingdoms 27 (= 1 Samuel 27 MT) follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. The chapter is a tautly ironic narrative of calculated double-dealing. David's opening soliloquy, εἶπεν … ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ αὐτοῦ (v. 1), uses the LXX idiom for interior monologue (אָמַר בְּלִבּוֹ), the redundant participle λέγων calquing the Hebrew לֵאמֹר. The number of David's band is τετρακόσιοι ('four hundred', v. 2) in the LXX, against MT's 'six hundred'. The grant of Ziklag is sealed by the etiological formula διὰ τοῦτο … ἕως τῆς ἡμέρας ταύτης (v. 6, עַל כֵּן … עַד הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה), which betrays the narrator's vantage in the era of the Judahite monarchy. The raiding section (vv. 8–9) is carried by a string of iterative imperfects (ἀνέβαινεν, ἐπετίθεντο, ἔτυπτε, ἐζωογόνει, ἐλάμβανεν) depicting habitual action; the geographical note ἀπὸ ἀνηκόντων ἡ ἀπὸ Γελαμψουρ τετειχισμένων (v. 8) is grammatically rough, reflecting a difficult Hebrew Vorlage rendered word-for-word (Γελαμψουρ probably reflects the Hebrew 'as you go to Shur'). The loaded verb ἐζωογόνει / ἐζωογόνησεν ('keep alive', vv. 9, 11) — the very word used of the midwives sparing the Hebrew infants (Exod 1:17–18) and in the herem-laws (Deut 20:16) — is here inverted into total extermination, whose strategic logic (no surviving informant) emerges in v. 11. David's place-names in v. 10 (Ιουδαία, Ιεσμεγα = the Jerahmeelite, Κενεζι = the Kenizzite) are all Judah's own people or allies, the substance of his lie. The chapter climaxes with the cognate intensive ᾔσχυνται αἰσχυνόμενος (v. 12), a Hebraism calquing the infinitive absolute ('he has utterly disgraced himself'), and Achish's dramatically ironic conclusion ἔσται μοι δοῦλος εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα ('he shall be my servant forever'). The recurring frame ἐν ἀγρῷ τῶν ἀλλοφύλων (vv. 7, 11) and the generic ἀλλόφυλοι ('foreigners', the LXX's standard rendering of פְּלִשְׁתִּים) keep the scandal of David's refuge among Israel's enemies in view throughout.

1 Kingdoms 28 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Α′ ΚΗ′

Theme. As Philistine war closes in, Saul seeks the medium of Endor and hears again the sentence of his ruin.

Outline.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 1 Kingdoms 28 (= 1 Samuel 28) follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. The chapter is one of the most dramatically charged narratives in the Kingdoms corpus: the Philistine muster at Σωμαν (Shunem) frames a doomed king's descent into forbidden divination. The chapter opens by re-situating David in the Philistine camp under Αγχους (Achish, vv. 1–2), then reminds the reader that Samuel is dead and that Saul himself had earlier expelled the necromancers (τοὺς ἐγγαστριμύθους καὶ τοὺς γνώστας, v. 3) — a notice that sharpens the irony of all that follows. Abandoned by God, who answers neither ἐν τοῖς ἐνυπνίοις (by dreams) nor ἐν τοῖς δήλοις (by the Urim) nor ἐν τοῖς προφήταις (by prophets, v. 6), Saul seeks out a γυνὴ ἐγγαστρίμυθος ('a woman who is a ventriloquist/medium', v. 7) at Αενδωρ (Endor). The key term ἐγγαστρίμυθος (lit. 'speaking from the belly') is the LXX's standard rendering of Hebrew אוֹב, denoting a necromancer who consults the dead; the abstract dative ἐν τῷ ἐγγαστριμύθῳ at v. 8 names the divinatory practice itself. Disguised and travelling by night, Saul swears 'as the LORD lives' (ζῇ κύριος, v. 10) and demands that Samuel be raised. The woman's terrified cry on seeing Samuel (v. 12) and Saul's recognition of the ἄνδρα ὄρθιον wrapped in a διπλοΐδα ('mantle', v. 14) lead to Samuel's verdict: the LORD has torn the kingdom (διαρρήξει … τὴν βασιλείαν) from Saul's hand and given it to David (v. 17), because Saul did not execute God's wrath on Amalek (v. 18); and 'tomorrow you and your sons will fall' (αὔριον σὺ καὶ οἱ υἱοί σου … πεσοῦνται, v. 19). The chapter closes with Saul collapsing full-length in terror and exhaustion (vv. 20–23) and being fed a last meal — slaughtered heifer and unleavened bread — by the very medium he had come to consult (vv. 24–25). Note that the woman's address to Saul as 'my lord' belongs to the human master-servant register, distinct from κύριος as the divine name in vv. 6, 10, 16, 17, 18, 19.

1 Kingdoms 29 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Α′ ΚΘ′

Theme. The Philistine lords reject David from the campaign, and the Lord keeps him from fighting against Israel.

Outline.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 1 Kingdoms 29 (= 1 Samuel 29 in the Hebrew reckoning) follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. The chapter is a tightly built episode of dramatic irony set on the eve of the battle of Gilboa: the Philistine satraps (σατράπαι) muster their forces at Aphek (vv. 1–2), while David and his men march in the rear (ἐπ᾿ ἐσχάτων) with Achish (Αγχους), the Philistine king of Gath in whose service David has been living as a fugitive from Saul. The LXX reads Αενδωρ ('Endor') at v. 1 where the MT has בָעַיִן ('at the spring') in Jezreel, specifying the well-known spring associated with ch. 28. When the other Philistine commanders see David's contingent they object vehemently (vv. 3–5), recalling the women's victory-song ἐπάταξεν Σαουλ ἐν χιλιάσιν αὐτοῦ καὶ Δαυιδ ἐν μυριάσιν αὐτοῦ ('Saul struck his thousands, and David his ten thousands', v. 5; cf. 18:7; 21:12) and fearing that David will turn coat in battle, becoming an ἐπίβουλος τῆς παρεμβολῆς ('a plotter against the camp', v. 4, a vivid rendering of Hebrew לְשָׂטָן). Achish, who trusts David completely — ζῇ κύριος ὅτι εὐθὴς σύ ('as the LORD lives, you are upright', v. 6) — reluctantly dismisses him εἰς εἰρήνην ('in peace', v. 7). David, with apparent indignation, protests his loyalty (v. 8), but Achish reaffirms the satraps' veto (v. 9) and instructs him to rise at dawn and return (v. 10). The chapter closes with David's prompt obedience: he and his men rise early to depart for Philistine territory (Ziklag), while the Philistines go up to make war on Israel (v. 11). Throughout, κύριος renders the Tetragrammaton only in the oath-formula ζῇ κύριος (v. 6); elsewhere ὁ κύριος / τῷ κυρίῳ designates a human master (Saul in v. 4 and v. 10, Achish as 'my lord the king' in v. 8).

1 Kingdoms 30 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Α′ Λ′

Theme. David recovers the plunder and captives of Ziklag, renewing Judah through victory and generous distribution.

Outline.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 1 Kingdoms (1 Samuel) 30 follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. The chapter narrates the Amalekite raid on Ziklag (Σεκελακ) during David's three-day absence with Achish: the town is burned and all its women and children — including David's two wives, Achinoam the Jezreelitess and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite (v. 5) — are carried off captive, though none are killed (vv. 1–6). David, in extreme distress as the people speak of stoning him (λιθοβολῆσαι αὐτόν, v. 6), strengthens himself in the LORD his God (ἐκραταιώθη Δαυιδ ἐν κυρίῳ θεῷ αὐτοῦ) and inquires by the ephod through Abiathar the priest, receiving the assurance καταλαμβάνων καταλήμψῃ καὶ ἐξαιρούμενος ἐξελῇ (v. 8), a doubled cognate-construction rendering the Hebrew infinitive absolute. David pursues with six hundred men, two hundred of whom are too exhausted (ἐκλυθέντας) to cross the brook Besor and remain behind (vv. 9–10). An abandoned Egyptian slave, revived with bread, a cake of figs (κλάσμα παλάθης) and water after three days, guides the pursuit on oath (vv. 11–15). David finds the Amalekites scattered and feasting, strikes them from dawn to evening, and recovers everyone and everything: 'nothing was missing' (οὐ διεφώνησεν αὐτοῖς … τὰ πάντα ἐπέστρεψεν Δαυιδ, v. 19). Returning to the two hundred at Besor, David overrules the 'evil and worthless men' (πᾶς ἀνὴρ λοιμὸς καὶ πονηρός, v. 22) and establishes the equal-share statute (v. 24), which became a πρόσταγμα καὶ δικαίωμα for Israel 'to this day' (vv. 21–25). Finally David sends portions of the spoil 'from the spoil of the enemies of the LORD' (ἀπὸ τῶν σκύλων τῶν ἐχθρῶν κυρίου, v. 26) to the elders of Judah in a long list of southern towns (vv. 26–31). The place-names of vv. 27–31 are largely indeclinable transliterations of Hebrew toponyms; the reference text of v. 28 carried an inline editorial marker after Εσθιε, which has been stripped, with no word object created for it.

1 Kingdoms 31 — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Α′ ΛΑ′

Theme. Saul dies on Mount Gilboa, and 1 Kingdoms closes in defeat, grief, and the honor of Jabesh-gilead's loyalty.

Outline.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of 1 Kingdoms 31 (= 1 Samuel 31 MT) follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. This is the final chapter of 1 Kingdoms, and it is dominated by a chain of vivid historic presents (πίπτουσιν, συνάπτουσιν, τύπτουσιν, εὑρίσκουσιν, ἔρχονται, ἀποστρέφουσιν, ἀκούουσιν, φέρουσιν, κατακαίουσιν, λαμβάνουσιν, θάπτουσιν, νηστεύουσιν), a hallmark of the OG translation of Kingdoms, which renders the Hebrew wayyiqtol chain with a mixture of aorists and dramatic presents. At v. 1 the men of Israel flee ἐκ προσώπου τῶν ἀλλοφύλων ('from before the Philistines'), a Hebraism (מִפְּנֵי) for flight from a hostile presence, and the slain fall as τραυματίαι ('the pierced/slain', rendering חָלָל) on Mount Γελβουε. At v. 3 the archers are doubly designated οἱ ἀκοντισταί … ἄνδρες τοξόται (rendering הַמּוֹרִים אֲנָשִׁים בַּקֶּשֶׁת), and Saul is wounded εἰς τὰ ὑποχόνδρια ('in the abdomen'), a medical term for the soft parts under the ribs where the OG localizes the mortal wound. At v. 4 Saul's request to his armor-bearer (ὁ αἴρων τὰ σκεύη αὐτοῦ = נֹשֵׂא כֵלִים) uses an imperatival infinitive σπάσαι plus the aorist imperative ἀποκέντησόν, and his dread is of the ἀπερίτμητοι ('uncircumcised'), a contemptuous epithet for the Philistines; his deepest fear is not death but being mocked (ἐμπαίξωσιν). The deaths of Saul (ἐπέπεσεν ἐπ᾽ αὐτήν) and his armor-bearer (καὶ αὐτός … ἐπέπεσεν) are narrated in verbatim parallel (vv. 4–5), and v. 6 gathers all four deaths under κατὰ τὸ αὐτό ('all together', rendering יַחְדָּו). At v. 9 the bitterly ironic participle εὐαγγελίζοντες ('bringing good news', בִּשֵּׂר) heralds Saul's death to the Philistine εἴδωλα ('idols'). At v. 10 Saul's armor is dedicated εἰς τὸ Ἀσταρτεῖον ('temple of Astarte'; MT בֵּית עַשְׁתָּרוֹת), a Greek -εῖον shrine-formation, and his body is fastened (κατέπηξαν, תָּקַע) to the wall of Βαιθσαν. The rescue (vv. 11–13) is performed by πᾶς ἀνὴρ δυνάμεως ('every valiant man', אִישׁ חַיִל, a collective taking a plural verb); they march ὅλην τὴν νύκτα, and at v. 13 bury the bones ὑπὸ τὴν ἄρουραν ('under the tilled field') — where the MT reads תַּחַת הָאֶשֶׁל ('under the tamarisk'), the OG read or interpreted ἄρουρα ('ploughland'). The book closes on the seven-day fast (νηστεύουσιν ἑπτὰ ἡμέρας), its final verb an act of mourning that leaves Israel leaderless and the narrative poised for 2 Kingdoms.

Major translation & exegetical cruxes

Where the Greek legitimately admits more than one rendering or reading — or where the LXX diverges from the Hebrew — the point was flagged in the lexical notes and chapter text_notes rather than decided silently; the more common analysis was generally taken and the alternative noted. The principal cruxes in LXX 1 Kingdoms:

Reference Crux Discussion
1:11 καὶ οἶνον καὶ μέθυσμα οὐ πίεται καὶ σίδηρος οὐκ ἀναβήσεται ἐπὶ τὴν κεφαλὴν αὐτοῦ A LXX plus over the MT: the vow imposes a lifelong Nazirite consecration on the unborn son, combining abstention from wine and strong drink (Num 6:3) with the uncut hair signalled by 'no iron shall come up on his head' (Num 6:5; cf. Samson, Judg 13:5). The transliterated invocation that opens the prayer (Αδωναι κύριε ελωαι σαβαωθ) is likewise expansive, piling up untranslated divine titles. Together these mark the Greek text as a fuller, more liturgically textured version of Hannah's vow.
1:14 καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῇ τὸ παιδάριον Ηλι A noted crux: the Greek makes 'the servant/lad of Eli' (τὸ παιδάριον Ηλι) the subject of the rebuke, whereas the MT and the narrative flow (v. 17, 'Eli answered') assign the speech to Eli himself. The reading may reflect a textual variant or an attempt to soften the priest's own misjudgment; the same word παιδάριον is the chapter's term for the boy Samuel (vv. 22, 24–25, 27). The annotation treats τὸ παιδάριον as the grammatical subject and Ηλι as a genitive of relationship, while noting that the rebuke's content is the classic Eli speech.
1:20 ὅτι παρὰ κυρίου θεοῦ σαβαωθ ᾐτησάμην αὐτόν The folk etymology of the name Σαμουηλ (Samuel). The explanatory clause links the name to αἰτέω / שאל ('ask'), 'because I asked him of the LORD', though the name more plausibly means 'name of God' or 'God has heard'. The pun is deliberate and structural: it binds Samuel to the verbs of asking, granting, and lending that run through Eli's blessing (αἴτημα, v. 17), Hannah's testimony (ᾐτησάμην, v. 27), and the final dedication (κιχρῶ, v. 28).
1:24 ἐν μόσχῳ τριετίζοντι … καὶ οιφι σεμιδάλεως καὶ νεβελ οἴνου The LXX reads a single 'three-year-old bull' (μόσχῳ τριετίζοντι) where the MT has 'three bulls' (פָּרִים שְׁלֹשָׁה), a difference of word-division/vocalization; the single mature bull matches the single slaughter of v. 25 (ἔσφαξεν τὸν μόσχον). The measures οιφι (ephah) and νεβελ (skin-bottle) are retained as Hebrew loanwords rather than translated, a feature of the translator's handling of cultic technical vocabulary.
1:28 κἀγὼ κιχρῶ αὐτὸν τῷ κυρίῳ … χρῆσιν τῷ κυρίῳ The chapter's climactic wordplay. The verb κίχρημι ('lend, make a loan of') with its cognate χρῆσις ('a loan') renders the Hebrew Hiphil הִשְׁאִיל ('to lend'), itself from the same שאל root that generates Samuel's name and the asking-vocabulary of the chapter. Hannah's emphatic κἀγώ ('and I, for my part') answers the LORD's giving in v. 27: the asked-for and granted child is now given back, 'lent' to the LORD for life. The pun is essentially untranslatable — Samuel is at once the 'asked-for one' and the 'lent one' — and the present tense κιχρῶ has performative force, the dedication accomplished in the very speaking.
2:1 ἐστερεώθη ἡ καρδία μου ἐν κυρίῳ … ὑψώθη κέρας μου The opening quatrain of passive/deponent aorists with YHWH as implicit agent is the principal Septuagintal seed of the Magnificat: ἐστερεώθη ἡ καρδία μου stands behind μεγαλύνει ἡ ψυχή μου τὸν κύριον (Luke 1:46) and εὐφράνθην ἐν σωτηρίᾳ σου behind ἠγαλλίασεν τὸ πνεῦμά μου … τῷ σωτῆρί μου (Luke 1:47). The exalted κέρας ('horn', symbol of strength and royal dignity) opens an inclusio closed at v. 10 (κέρας χριστοῦ αὐτοῦ) and is echoed at Luke 1:69.
2:6 κύριος θανατοῖ καὶ ζωογονεῖ, κατάγει εἰς ᾅδου καὶ ἀνάγει The canticle's deepest assertion of divine sovereignty: the four gnomic presents claim YHWH's absolute power over life, death, descent to Sheol, and ascent, echoing Deut 32:39 (ἐγὼ ἀποκτενῶ καὶ ζῆν ποιήσω). The merisms life/death and down/up ground the whole reversal-theology of the song — and, in NT reception, resurrection language (cf. ἀνάγω, Rom 10:7; Heb 13:20).
2:8 ἀνιστᾷ ἀπὸ γῆς πένητα καὶ ἀπὸ κοπρίας ἐγείρει πτωχόν … θρόνον δόξης The reversal crests in the raising of the destitute from dust and dunghill (κοπρία, the place of utter degradation, cf. Job 2:8) to a throne of glory among princes — the verse most directly behind καθεῖλεν δυνάστας ἀπὸ θρόνων καὶ ὕψωσεν ταπεινούς (Luke 1:52). The verbs ἀνιστᾷ / ἐγείρει are the same lexemes used of God's raising up the faithful priest (v. 35) and, in the NT, of resurrection.
2:10 μὴ καυχάσθω ὁ φρόνιμος … ἀλλ᾿ ἢ ἐν τούτῳ καυχάσθω … ὑψώσει κέρας χριστοῦ αὐτοῦ The much-expanded LXX close (well beyond MT) renounces boasting in wisdom, might, and riches except boasting in knowing YHWH — the same threefold pattern as Jer 9:23–24, the tradition Paul cites in ὁ καυχώμενος ἐν κυρίῳ καυχάσθω (1 Cor 1:31; 2 Cor 10:17). The climactic ὑψώσει κέρας χριστοῦ αὐτοῦ ('he will exalt the horn of his anointed') is the first messianic 'horn/anointed' note in 1 Samuel, an inclusio with v. 1 and a proleptic announcement of the Davidic king before the monarchy exists.
2:30 τοὺς δοξάζοντάς με δοξάσω καὶ ὁ ἐξουθενῶν με ἀτιμωθήσεται The reversal-maxim that governs the books of Kingdoms: it inverts Eli's ἐδόξασας τοὺς υἱούς σου ὑπὲρ ἐμέ (v. 29) and revokes the promise of a perpetual priesthood (μηδαμῶς, 'far be it'). Of the same antithetical shape as the Song of Hannah and the Magnificat — God honors the humble who honor him and brings to shame the proud who despise him; the verb ἐξουθενέω is the NT term for the rejected, then vindicated, Christ (Acts 4:11).
3:1 ῥῆμα κυρίου ἦν τίμιον … οὐκ ἦν ὅρασις διαστέλλουσα The programmatic header. τίμιον renders Hebrew יָקָר, which spans 'precious' and 'rare/scarce' — the LXX preserves both: the divine word was prized precisely because it was so seldom heard. The participle διαστέλλουσα ('making distinct / breaking through') glosses נִפְרָץ, construing the lack as the absence of any clearly-discriminating revelatory vision. The double clause frames an era of liturgical continuity but prophetic silence — the silence this chapter decisively breaks.
3:9 / 3:10 λάλει, κύριε, ὅτι ἀκούει ὁ δοῦλός σου / λάλει, ὅτι ἀκούει ὁ δοῦλός σου The theological heart of the chapter: the proper posture before revelation is attentive submission, λάλει ('speak', pres. impv. inviting ongoing divine speech) grounded in ἀκούει ('hears/obeys', the LXX's ἀκούω carrying the nuance hear-and-obey). Notably the LXX omits the vocative κύριε at v. 10 (Samuel saying simply λάλει where Eli had scripted λάλει κύριε), possibly reflecting reverent reticence or a textual variation; the formula's force — the servant wholly at the LORD's disposal — is undiminished.
3:13 κακολογοῦντες θεὸν υἱοὶ αὐτοῦ The LXX names God as the explicit object of the sons' reviling (κακολογέω, 'speak evil of / curse'), where the MT's מְקַלְלִים לָהֶם reads 'bringing a curse on themselves' (a tiqqun sopherim, a scribal softening to avoid 'cursing God'). The LXX thus likely preserves the older, harsher reading — an explicit charge of blasphemy that grounds the everlasting, inexpiable judgement, compounded by Eli's chronic failure to admonish (οὐκ ἐνουθέτει) capped by the trailing ellipsis καὶ οὐδ᾿ οὕτως ('and not even so [did he restrain them]').
3:14 εἰ ἐξιλασθήσεται ἀδικία οἴκου Ηλι The judgement is sealed by divine oath (ὤμοσα). The εἰ is the Hebraistic oath-formula calquing אִם, which in a sworn statement functions as emphatic negation ('[may disaster fall] if …' = 'surely … not'); thus 'the iniquity shall NEVER be atoned for.' The pairing θυμίαμα / θυσίαι ('incense / sacrifices') is a merism for the whole sacrificial cult — ἐξιλάσκομαι (the technical term for כִּפֶּר, 'make atonement') is denied to it ἕως αἰῶνος, placing the guilt of Eli's house permanently beyond cultic remedy.
3:21 προσέθετο κύριος δηλωθῆναι ἐν Σηλωμ … πορευόμενοι ἐπορεύοντο The LXX's expanded conclusion. The opening προσέθετο … δηλωθῆναι ('continued to reveal himself') reverses the drought of v. 1 — the LORD now reliably self-discloses at Shiloh, and Samuel ἐπιστεύθη ('was accredited', cognate of πιστός v. 20) as prophet to all Israel ἀπ᾿ ἄκρων … ἕως ἄκρων. The closing foil employs a figura etymologica, πορευόμενοι ἐπορεύοντο ('they kept right on going'), calquing the Hebrew infinitive-absolute הָלוֹךְ הָלְכוּ to stress the sons' unrelenting persistence in a way that is πονηρά ('evil') ἐνώπιον κυρίου — holding the announced judgement in suspension as the chapter ends.
4:3 λάβωμεν τὴν κιβωτὸν τοῦ θεοῦ ἡμῶν … καὶ σώσει ἡμᾶς The elders correctly diagnose the defeat as YHWH's doing (ἔπταισεν ἡμᾶς κύριος) but draw the wrong conclusion: they treat the ark as a mechanism of deliverance, expecting the object itself to 'save' (σώσει) them. The hortatory λάβωμεν ('let us take') is the dark setup for the chapter's refrain ἐλήμφθη ('it was taken'): they take the ark for victory, and the ark is taken from them. The presumption that the divine presence can be wielded as a talisman is exactly what the narrative dismantles.
4:7–8 οὗτοι οἱ θεοὶ ἥκασιν … οἱ πατάξαντες τὴν Αἴγυπτον The Philistines, lacking monotheist categories, hear of Israel's God as a host of mighty deities (οἱ θεοί, plural) and recall them as those who 'struck Egypt with every plague and in the wilderness.' The irony is double: pagans voice orthodox Exodus theology (using πληγή, the plague-word of Exod 11), and their cry οὐαὶ ἡμῖν anticipates verbally the name Οὐαὶ βαρχαβωθ ('Ichabod') in v. 21. The vocative κύριε on Philistine lips (v. 7) — the very term that renders the Tetragrammaton — lets the enemy invoke for deliverance the God whose ark they dread.
4:18 καὶ συνετρίβη ὁ νῶτος αὐτοῦ … ὅτι πρεσβύτης ὁ ἄνθρωπος καὶ βαρύς It is the mention of the ark (ὡς ἐμνήσθη τῆς κιβωτοῦ), not the death of his sons, that fells Eli — the ark's loss is the deepest wound. He falls backward (ὀπισθίως) from the same δίφρος on which he watched (v. 13) and beside the same πύλη (gate), so the place of his vigil becomes the place of his death. The note that he was βαρύς ('heavy') carries a Hebrew wordplay invisible in Greek: the root כבד underlies both Eli's heaviness (כָּבֵד) and the כָּבוֹד ('glory', δόξα) that departs in v. 22 — the heavy priest falls as the glory leaves.
4:21 Οὐαὶ βαρχαβωθ The LXX renders Hebrew אִי־כָבוֹד ('Ichabod') by a transliteration-plus-gloss: it hears the אִי as an exclamation of woe and translates it οὐαί ('woe / alas', echoing the Philistines of vv. 7–8), then transliterates the remainder as βαρχαβωθ. The name encodes the day's catastrophe; the triple ὑπέρ ('because of the ark of God … her father-in-law … her husband') lists the three griefs in the same order the mother heard them (v. 19), the ark first and foremost — and notably her own impending death is not among them.
4:22 ἀπῴκισται δόξα Ισραηλ ἐν τῷ λημφθῆναι τὴν κιβωτὸν κυρίου The chapter's epitaph glosses the name Ichabod. δόξα renders כָּבוֹד, the manifest presence of YHWH at the ark; the verb ἀποικίζω is the language of forced exile / deportation (rendering גָּלָה), so the glory is depicted as carried into 'captivity' with the ark. The articular infinitive ἐν τῷ λημφθῆναι ties the departure of the glory solely and directly to the ark's capture — the chapter's central event and its final word (κυρίου), setting up the ark-among-the-Philistines narrative of chs. 5–6, where YHWH vindicates his own glory without Israel's armies.
5:3 ἐπάταξεν αὐτοὺς εἰς τὰς ἕδρας The signature affliction of the chapter: ἕδρα (lit. 'seat / fundament') is a euphemistic LXX rendering of עֳפָלִים / טְחֹרִים ('tumors / hemorrhoids'), the painful swellings of the lower body. Their pairing with the mice of v. 6 suggests a rodent-borne pestilence (often read as bubonic plague). The term recurs at vv. 6, 9, 12, and the swellings reappear as golden votive images in the Philistines' guilt-offering (1 Kgdms 6:4–5), unifying the plague narrative across both chapters.
5:4 ἀμφότερα τὰ ἴχνη χειρῶν αὐτοῦ ἀφῃρημένα ἐπὶ τὰ ἐμπρόσθια αμαφεθ … πλὴν ἡ ῥάχις Δαγων ὑπελείφθη The decisive mutilation of the idol: head and both palms (ἴχνη χειρῶν, 'soles/flat-parts of the hands') are severed, leaving only the ῥάχις ('trunk / spine / fishy lower portion'). The translator carried the Hebrew מִפְתָּן ('threshold') across phonetically as the loanword αμαφεθ, then glossed it with τὰ ἐμπρόσθια ('the front part'). The image is the heart of the chapter's polemic: the dead god cannot keep his footing, his hands and head, before YHWH's ark of the covenant.
5:6 καὶ … ἀνεφύησαν μύες The distinctive LXX plus: the mice (μύες) 'sprang up' (ἀναφύω, normally of plants sprouting) across the land, naming explicitly the rodents associated with the plague that the MT mentions only at ch. 6. The pairing of mice and tumors (ἕδραι) is the textual basis for reading the affliction as a rodent-borne pestilence; the εἰς τὰς ναῦς ('on the ships') clause earlier in the verse is text-critically obscure but extends the scourge even to the coastal sphere.
5:9 καὶ ἐποίησαν ἑαυτοῖς οἱ Γεθθαῖοι ἕδρας A pointed Hebraizing idiom: 'the Gittites made for themselves tumors'. The reflexive ἑαυτοῖς gives an ironic edge — those who requested the ark (μετελθέτω … πρὸς ἡμᾶς, v. 8) brought the affliction upon their own bodies. The 'from small to great' merism (ἀπὸ μικροῦ ἕως μεγάλου) underscores that no rank or age escaped.
5:12 ἀνέβη ἡ κραυγὴ τῆς πόλεως εἰς τὸν οὐρανόν The climactic image of the chapter. The κραυγή ('cry / outcry') that goes up 'to heaven' deliberately echoes the cries of oppressed peoples that reach God (the cry of Sodom, Gen 18:21; Israel in Egypt, Exod 2:23; the 'great cry' of Egypt at the firstborn's death, Exod 11:6; 12:30). With bitter irony the Philistine city now occupies Egypt's role: its anguish ascends before the very LORD whose heavy hand caused it, sealing the chapter's theology of YHWH's unrivaled power over the foreign nation and its dead god.
6:3 ἀποδιδόντες ἀπόδοτε αὐτῇ τῆς βασάνου The cognate participle-plus-imperative is the LXX's standard rendering of the Hebrew emphatic infinitive absolute (הָשֵׁב תָּשִׁיבוּ), expressing certainty and intensity: 'by all means render' the reparation. βάσανος ('torment') is the chapter's keyword for the plague-affliction (vv. 4, 8, 17), and τῆς βασάνου is a genitive of cause/respect — the compensation owed for the torment. Even more striking is the wholly Israelite atonement-language placed on Philistine lips in the same verse: ἰαθήσεσθε ('you will be healed', רָפָא) and ἐξιλασθήσεται ὑμῖν ('atonement will be made for you', כִּפֶּר), an implicit acknowledgment of the LORD's supremacy.
6:6 ἵνα τί βαρύνετε τὰς καρδίας ὑμῶν ὡς ἐβάρυνεν Αἴγυπτος καὶ Φαραω The Philistine experts draw an explicit Exodus typology: βαρύνω ('make heavy / harden') is the standard LXX verb for the hardening of Pharaoh's heart (Exod 8:15, 32; 9:7), and ἐνέπαιξεν ('made sport of') echoes Exod 10:2. The warning frames the Philistines' choice in salvation-historical terms — release the ark willingly, or be broken like Egypt, which let Israel go only οὐχὶ ὅτε ἐνέπαιξεν αὐτοῖς ('not until he had made sport of them'). The pagan advisers thus become unwitting theologians of the LORD's power.
6:8, 11, 15 ἐν θέματι βερσεχθαν … τὸ θέμα εργαβ The casket containing the golden objects is named by two obscure transliterations — βερσεχθαν (v. 8) and εργαβ (vv. 11, 15) — both standing in apposition to θέμα ('coffer / deposit') and both left untranslated. Such unrendered transliterations of difficult Hebrew realia are characteristic of the Kingdoms translator, who preserves the foreign word rather than risk a false equivalence; their precise referent (a box or bag for the votive gold) remains uncertain, a window onto the distinctive Greek Vorlage of Samuel–Kings.
6:12 καὶ ἐκοπίων … καὶ οὐ μεθίσταντο δεξιὰ οὐδὲ ἀριστερά The verb κοπιάω normally means 'grow weary / toil', but here it renders Hebrew גָּעוֹ ('lowing'), depicting the nursing cows bellowing for their penned calves yet refusing to turn back — a poignant index of the supernatural compulsion driving them. The merism δεξιὰ οὐδὲ ἀριστερά ('neither right nor left', cf. Deut 5:32; 17:11) marks total non-deviation: the cows' unswerving straight course is precisely the divinely-set criterion of v. 9, proving the LORD's hand against the alternative of σύμπτωμα ('chance').
6:19 ἐπάταξεν … ἑβδομήκοντα ἄνδρας καὶ πεντήκοντα χιλιάδας ἀνδρῶν The deadly reversal of the chapter: the LORD strikes those who looked on (MT: into) the ark — a violation of its holiness (cf. Num 4:20) — with the very verb (πατάσσω) used of his smiting of the Philistines (5:6); the ark's holiness is no respecter of nations. The casualty figure 'seventy men and fifty thousand men' is a famous textual crux, implausibly large for a small town and preserved in both Greek and Hebrew traditions; the awkward juxtaposition of the two numbers suggests an early gloss or corruption. The episode anticipates the death of Uzzah (2 Sam 6:6–7), where the same lethal holiness strikes an Israelite for irreverent contact with the ark.
6:20 τίς δυνήσεται διελθεῖν ἐνώπιον κυρίου τοῦ ἁγίου τούτου The theological climax: the Beth-shemeshites' rhetorical question confesses that no one can stand unscathed in the immediate presence of the holy God (cf. Exod 33:20; Isa 6:5). The articular ἁγίου τούτου ('this holy [God]') makes the LORD's holiness — demonstrated first in judgment on the Philistines, now on irreverent Israel — the interpretive key to the whole ark-narrative of chs. 4–6. The second question (πρὸς τίνα ἀναβήσεται) seeks another community willing to receive the dangerous presence, setting up the transfer to Kiriath-jearim (v. 21) and the long deferral of the ark's rest until David (2 Sam 6).
7:6 καὶ ὑδρεύονται ὕδωρ καὶ ἐξέχεαν ἐνώπιον κυρίου ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν The water-pouring rite is unique in the OT: the people draw water and pour it out on the ground before the LORD as an act of corporate penitence. The gesture is variously read as symbolizing the pouring out of the heart in contrition (cf. Ps 62:8; Lam 2:19), a libation of self-abasement, or a renunciation rite. Paired with the fast and the confession ἡμαρτήκαμεν, it dramatizes the wholehearted return Samuel demanded in vv. 3–4.
7:9 καὶ ἀνήνεγκεν αὐτὸν ὁλοκαύτωσιν … καὶ ἐπήκουσεν αὐτοῦ κύριος Samuel acts in a priestly-intercessory capacity, offering a single suckling lamb (ἄρνα γαλαθηνὸν ἕνα) as a whole burnt-offering for all the people. The compound ἐπακούω ('hear favourably / answer') marks the LORD's responsive heeding of the prayer — the narrative pivot that v. 10 then manifests in the thunder. The whole-offering of one choice victim 'with all the people' (σὺν παντὶ τῷ λαῷ) binds the nation to the single sacrifice.
7:10 καὶ ἐβρόντησεν κύριος ἐν φωνῇ μεγάλῃ … καὶ συνεχύθησαν The decisive act is divine, not human: the LORD's thunder (βροντάω, rendering רָעַם) is a storm-theophany of the divine warrior (cf. 1 Kgdms 2:10; Ps 18:13), and the verb συγχέω ('throw into confusion', rendering הָמַם) is the classic 'holy-war' motif of God-sent panic that disorders the enemy before any Israelite blow falls. Israel's role (v. 11) is the mop-up pursuit after the LORD has won the battle.
7:12 ἐκάλεσεν τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ Αβενεζερ λίθος τοῦ βοηθοῦ … ἕως ἐνταῦθα ἐβοήθησεν ἡμῖν κύριος The LXX both transliterates the name (Αβενεζερ = Hebrew אֶבֶן הָעֵזֶר) and supplies its Greek meaning (λίθος τοῦ βοηθοῦ, 'stone of the helper'); the etiology is sealed by the cognate verb ἐβοήθησεν ('he has helped'). The phrase ἕως ἐνταῦθα ('thus far') makes the memorial a marker not of a single victory only but of the LORD's help reaching 'up to this point' in Israel's history — a backward-looking confession of sustained divine aid.
7:14 ἀπὸ Ἀσκαλῶνος ἕως Αζοβ … καὶ ἦν εἰρήνη ἀνὰ μέσον Ισραηλ καὶ ἀνὰ μέσον τοῦ Αμορραίου The textual tradition shows variation in the toponyms (the parallel Hebrew has Ekron, and 'Azob' likely reflects a variant of עֶקְרוֹן or a corruption of the boundary list). The closing peace 'between Israel and the Amorite' uses the doubled Hebraism ἀνὰ μέσον … καὶ ἀνὰ μέσον (rendering בֵּין … וּבֵין); 'the Amorite' (ὁ Ἀμορραῖος) functions as a general designation for the indigenous Canaanite population, signalling a comprehensive, settled peace as the resolution of the deliverance.
8:3 ἐξέκλιναν ὀπίσω τῆς συντελείας … ἐξέκλινον δικαιώματα The single verb ἐκκλίνω ('turn aside') frames both the sons' moral deviation (they 'turned aside after gain') and their judicial corruption (they 'perverted [turned aside] judgments'), a deliberate wordplay. συντέλεια (lit. 'completion / end') renders בֶּצַע ('unjust gain'), treating illicit profit as the 'end' toward which the corrupt heart bends; the perverted δικαιώματα ('judgments') ironically anticipate τὸ δικαίωμα τοῦ βασιλέως (vv. 9, 11) — the people flee corrupt judgments only to embrace the king's more oppressive 'ordinance'.
8:7 οὐ σὲ ἐξουθενήκασιν ἀλλ᾿ ἢ ἐμὲ ἐξουδενώκασιν The theological hinge of the chapter. The LXX renders the one Hebrew verb מָאַס ('reject') with two cognate compounds, ἐξουθενέω and ἐξουδενόω ('set at naught / reduce to nothing'), in chiastic antithesis (not-you … but-me) — a stylistic doubling characteristic of the Greek Samuel that heightens the gravity of the verdict. The articular infinitive τοῦ μὴ βασιλεύειν makes the rejection precise: it is YHWH's kingship (βασιλεύειν) that the demand for a human βασιλεύς repudiates. The Hebraizing ἀλλ᾿ ἤ ('but rather', כִּי אִם) recurs in the people's defiant mouth at v. 19.
8:9 διαμαρτυρόμενος διαμαρτύρῃ … τὸ δικαίωμα τοῦ βασιλέως The cognate participle-plus-finite construction (διαμαρτυρόμενος διαμαρτύρῃ, 'solemnly warning you shall warn') is the LXX's standard rendering of the Hebrew infinitive absolute (הָעֵד תָּעִיד), expressing emphatic certainty. τὸ δικαίωμα τοῦ βασιλέως renders מִשְׁפַּט הַמֶּלֶךְ — not the king's 'rights' he is owed but his established 'manner / practice', the customary exactions catalogued in vv. 11–18; the same noun δικαίωμα described the justice the sons perverted (v. 3).
8:11 τοὺς υἱοὺς ὑμῶν λήμψεται λαμβάνω ('take / seize') is the leitmotif verb of the king-warning (λήμψεται, vv. 11, 13, 14, 16), deliberately echoing the corrupt judges who 'were taking' (ἐλάμβανον) bribes (v. 3): monarchy is characterized first and foremost as appropriation. The objects are consistently fronted before the verb (sons, daughters, fields), and each is tagged with the possessive ὑμῶν while the proceeds accrue αὐτοῦ ('his') — a relentless grammatical contrast of what the people lose and what the king gains.
8:17 καὶ ὑμεῖς ἔσεσθε αὐτῷ δοῦλοι The climax of the warning and its bitterest irony: a people who 'served' (ἐδούλευον, v. 8) other gods and demanded a king to be free 'like the nations' will themselves become δοῦλοι — the same word used of the king's own retainers (vv. 14, 16). The verdict reverses the Exodus: YHWH brought them up out of the house of slavery (v. 8), but their self-chosen king will reduce the free nation to bondage.
8:18 βοήσεσθε … καὶ οὐκ ἐπακούσεται κύριος βοάω ('cry out') is the technical verb of Israel's outcry under Egyptian oppression that moved YHWH to deliver (Exod 2:23–25; 3:7–9); here, by deliberate inversion, the cry under the self-chosen king will not be answered (οὐκ ἐπακούσεται, with the compound ἐπ- of favorable response). The reason is stated twice with ἐξελέξασθε ἑαυτοῖς ('you chose for yourselves') — the verb ἐκλέγομαι, normally of YHWH's election of Israel, is here usurped by a people electing their own king, and so bearing its consequences.
8:20 ἐσόμεθα … κατὰ πάντα τὰ ἔθνη … πολεμήσει τὸν πόλεμον ἡμῶν The people's full rationale restates the fatal aspiration of v. 5 ('like all the nations'). The three desired royal functions — δικάσει ('judge'), ἐξελεύσεται ἔμπροσθεν ('go out before', the military idiom יָצָא לִפְנֵי for leading an army), and πολεμήσει τὸν πόλεμον (figura etymologica, 'fight our wars') — reveal that what they crave is a warrior-king. The deepest irony is that YHWH had just performed exactly this role, routing the Philistines on Israel's behalf (1 Kgdms 7:10); they trade the divine warrior for a human one.
9:9 τὸν προφήτην ἐκάλει ὁ λαὸς ἔμπροσθεν ὁ βλέπων A rare narratorial antiquarian gloss bracketed by a twofold ἔμπροσθεν ('formerly'): the term now standard, ὁ προφήτης ('the prophet'), was in earlier times ὁ βλέπων ('the seer', rendering Hebrew הָרֹאֶה). The note authenticates the dialogue (Saul and the maidens actually use ὁ βλέπων at vv. 11, 18) and time-distances the narrator from the events, a mark of the episode's antiquity.
9:15 κύριος ἀπεκάλυψεν τὸ ὠτίον Σαμουηλ The vivid Hebraism 'the LORD uncovered Samuel's ear' (גָּלָה אֶת אֹזֶן) for private, confidential revelation; the aorist carries pluperfect force ('had uncovered'), since the disclosure came 'one day before' Saul's arrival. The flashback grounds the whole 'chance' meeting in divine prearrangement and explains Samuel's instant recognition of the stranger.
9:16 χρίσεις αὐτὸν εἰς ἄρχοντα … καὶ σώσει τὸν λαόν μου The LXX preserves the Hebrew distinction נָגִיד ('ruler / prince-designate', rendered ἄρχοντα), reserving βασιλεύς ('king') for later (10:24): Saul is first 'ruler', and his mandate is deliverance (σώσει) from the ἀλλόφυλοι ('Philistines'). The grounding clauses — ἐπέβλεψα ἐπὶ τὴν ταπείνωσιν τοῦ λαοῦ μου … ἦλθεν βοὴ αὐτῶν πρός με — deliberately echo the Exodus call-narrative (Exod 3:7–9), casting the monarchy as a fresh act of YHWH's saving compassion.
9:20 τίνι τὰ ὡραῖα τοῦ Ισραηλ οὐ σοί The cryptic τὰ ὡραῖα ('the desirable things / the desire of Israel', Hebrew כָּל־חֶמְדַּת יִשְׂרָאֵל) is Samuel's veiled disclosure of Saul's destiny: to whom does all Israel's longing belong if not to Saul and his father's house? The rhetorical οὐ σοί ('is it not to you?') announces the kingship obliquely, baffling Saul and prompting his humility-protest of v. 21 — a deliberate withholding that builds toward the explicit word of ch. 10.
9:24 εἰς μαρτύριον τέθειταί σοι … ἀπόκνιζε The reserved κωλέα ('thigh', the priestly portion of the peace-offering, Lev 7:32–33) is presented to Saul εἰς μαρτύριον ('as a testimony / sign'), the resultative perfect τέθειται marking its deliberate, prearranged reservation 'beyond the others' (παρὰ τοὺς ἄλλους). The honor is public and sacral, a tangible token of election; the brusque, homely ἀπόκνιζε ('break off a piece and eat!') gives the scene rustic immediacy as Samuel urges the bewildered Saul to partake.
9:27 σὺ στῆθι ὡς σήμερον καὶ ἄκουσον ῥῆμα θεοῦ The chapter's closing cliff-hanger: the servant is sent ahead (διελθέτω ἔμπροσθεν ἡμῶν) so that Saul alone may 'stand still' and 'hear a word of God'. The emphatic contrast σὺ … στῆθι and the deferred ῥῆμα θεοῦ (the secret of the kingship, executed at 10:1) leave the narrative suspended on the threshold of the anointing — the whole episode, ending on θεοῦ ('of God'), framed as God's own initiative.
10:1 οὐχὶ κέχρικέν σε κύριος εἰς ἄρχοντα The rhetorical question (οὐχί expecting 'yes') frames the whole act. The LXX renders Hebrew נָגִיד by ἄρχων ('ruler / leader / commander'), not βασιλεύς — a deliberate distinction: at the anointing Saul is YHWH's designated leader-prince, and only at the public Mizpah acclamation (v. 24, ζήτω ὁ βασιλεύς) is he hailed as king. The perfect κέχρικέν marks the anointing as a settled, abiding status; the root χρίω underlies χριστός ('anointed one / Messiah').
10:5–6 ἐφαλεῖται ἐπὶ σὲ πνεῦμα κυρίου … στραφήσῃ εἰς ἄνδρα ἄλλον The vivid verb ἐφάλλομαι ('leap upon', renders צָלַח) depicts the Spirit's sudden, forceful seizure — the same imagery used of the judges and of David (16:13). The promised transformation εἰς ἄνδρα ἄλλον ('into another man') is fulfilled in v. 9 as God gives Saul καρδίαν ἄλλην ('another heart'); the passive στραφήσῃ marks the change as divinely effected, not self-willed. The empowering πνεῦμα is named πνεῦμα κυρίου here and πνεῦμα θεοῦ at v. 10, a stylistic variation for the one divine Spirit.
10:11–12 ἦ καὶ Σαουλ ἐν προφήταις The proverbial question (ascensive καί, 'even / also') expresses astonishment at the incongruity between Saul's known former self and his new Spirit-seized ecstasy. The narrator supplies an etiology — διὰ τοῦτο ἐγενήθη εἰς παραβολήν ('therefore it became a proverb', a Hebraism rendering הָיָה לְמָשָׁל) — and the enigmatic rejoinder καὶ τίς πατὴρ αὐτοῦ; ('and who is their father?') perhaps relativizes prophetic status as a matter not of lineage. The byword recurs at 19:24.
10:19 κατὰ τὰ σκῆπτρα ὑμῶν καὶ κατὰ τὰς φυλὰς ὑμῶν The LXX renders Hebrew שֵׁבֶט ('staff / tribe') literally as σκῆπτρον ('staff / sceptre'), retaining the staff-imagery for the tribal divisions, while φυλή here denotes the next subdivision (clan / family, אֶלֶף). This sets up the stepwise narrowing of the lot in vv. 20–21 (σκῆπτρον → φυλή → ἀνήρ), the technical vocabulary of the casting of lots (κατακληρόομαι, renders the lot-sense of לָכַד, 'be taken').
10:22 ἰδοὺ αὐτὸς κέκρυπται ἐν τοῖς σκεύεσιν Samuel's oracular inquiry uses the technical idiom ἐπερωτάω ἐν κυρίῳ ('inquire of the LORD', שָׁאַל בַּיהוה). YHWH's reply locates Saul among the σκεύη ('baggage / gear', כֵּלִים); the perfect κέκρυπται ('he is [and remains] hidden') marks a settled state of concealment. The humbling detail at the moment of elevation has been read as modesty, fear, or a quiet foreshadowing of the troubled reign to come.
10:26–27 υἱοὶ δυνάμεων … ὧν ἥψατο κύριος καρδίας αὐτῶν / υἱοὶ λοιμοί The chapter closes on a deliberate contrast of two groups, both styled with the Hebraic 'sons of …' idiom: the υἱοὶ δυνάμεων ('men of valor', בְּנֵי חַיִל) whose hearts God touched (ἥψατο … καρδίας, divine causation behind their loyalty), and the υἱοὶ λοιμοί ('worthless men', lit. 'sons of pestilence', rendering בְּנֵי בְלִיַּעַל). The scoffers' sneer τί σώσει ἡμᾶς οὗτος; ('how shall this man save us?') ironically echoes Saul's commission to save Israel (v. 1, σώσεις), and their refusal of the customary δῶρα (tribute) signals rejection of his rule — a tension left unresolved until the deliverance of ch. 11.
11:2 ἐν τῷ ἐξορύξαι ὑμῶν πάντα ὀφθαλμὸν δεξιόν Nahash's terms are expressed by an articular infinitive of condition/means (ἐν τῷ + inf., a Hebraizing calque): the covenant is granted only 'by the gouging out of every right eye.' The targeting of the right eye — the warrior's aiming eye, the left being shielded by the buckler — is calculated cruelty, rendering the men militarily useless while leaving them alive as living tokens of disgrace; the stated purpose καὶ θήσομαι ὄνειδος ἐπὶ Ισραηλ universalizes the shame to the whole nation.
11:6 καὶ ἐφήλατο πνεῦμα κυρίου ἐπὶ Σαουλ The chapter's turning point. The vivid verb ἐφάλλομαι ('leap / spring upon', aor. ἐφήλατο) renders צָלַח ('rush mightily') and depicts the Spirit's irruption as a sudden onslaught, the same charismatic seizure that empowered the judges (Judg 14:6, 19) and would later come on David (1 Kgdms 16:13). The kindling of Saul's anger (ἐθυμώθη … ὀργὴ αὐτοῦ σφόδρα) is the human channel of the divine impulse, transforming the plowman of v. 5 into Israel's deliverer.
11:7 ὃς οὐκ ἔστιν ἐκπορευόμενος ὀπίσω Σαουλ … κατὰ τάδε ποιήσουσιν τοῖς βουσὶν αὐτοῦ Saul's summons-by-symbol: the dismembered oxen (ἐμέλισεν, from μέλος, 'limb') carry a horror-sanction enforcing the muster, paralleling the dismembered concubine of Judg 19:29. The casus-pendens relative (ὅς … αὐτοῦ) is a Hebraizing conditional, and the impersonal 3rd plural ποιήσουσιν stands for the passive ('it shall be done'). The pairing 'after Saul and after Samuel' yokes king to prophet; the resulting unanimity ὡς ἀνὴρ εἷς is attributed not to fear of Saul but to the ἔκστασις κυρίου, a divinely sent dread.
11:9, 11 διαθερμάναντος τοῦ ἡλίου … ἕως διεθερμάνθη ἡ ἡμέρα Promise and fulfillment are bound by a single rare verb, διαθερμαίνω ('grow thoroughly hot'). Saul fixes the hour of relief by a genitive absolute, 'when the sun grows hot' (v. 9); the rout then continues 'until the day grew hot' (v. 11), the deliverance falling exactly on the foretold timetable. The dawn assault ἐν φυλακῇ τῇ πρωινῇ ('in the morning watch', the last night-watch before sunrise) is the classic hour of surprise attack (cf. Exod 14:24), and the totality of the rout is stamped by the idiom οὐχ ὑπελείφθησαν … δύο κατὰ τὸ αὐτό ('not two were left together').
11:13 ὅτι σήμερον κύριος ἐποίησεν σωτηρίαν ἐν Ισραηλ The moral and theological climax. The idiom ἐποίησεν σωτηρίαν ('wrought deliverance', rendering עָשָׂה תְּשׁוּעָה) credits the victory wholly to YHWH, not to Saul, and grounds Saul's refusal of vengeance: the day of God's salvation is no day for blood (οὐκ ἀποθανεῖται οὐδείς). The keyword σωτηρία links Saul's confession to the promise relayed to Jabesh (ἡ σωτηρία, v. 9), and his magnanimity stands in pointed contrast to the people's demand to execute his former despisers (v. 12), commending him as a king who rules in deference to the LORD.
12:3 μόσχον τίνος εἴληφα … ἐξίλασμα καὶ ὑπόδημα Samuel's forensic self-defense sweeps every category of judicial corruption — seizure of property (ox, donkey), oppression of persons (κατεδυνάστευσα, ἐξεπίεσα), and bribery (ἐξίλασμα, 'ransom/bribe', rendering כֹּפֶר). The climactic καὶ ὑπόδημα ('even a sandal') reduces the imagined bribe to the most trivial object, the sandal being proverbial for a worthless price (cf. Gen 14:23; Amos 2:6; 8:6). The pledge ἀποδώσω ὑμῖν ('I will restore') guarantees full legal restitution for any proven wrong — a guarantee that presupposes there will be nothing to repay.
12:11 τὸν Ιεροβααλ καὶ τὸν Βαρακ καὶ τὸν Ιεφθαε καὶ τὸν Σαμουηλ The LXX names four deliverers, each governed by the article τόν alone (the names being indeclinable). Ιεροβααλ is Gideon (Judg 6:32); the LXX (with some Hebrew witnesses) reads Βαρακ where the MT has the unknown 'Bedan'; and, strikingly, Samuel names himself (Σαμουηλ) as the fourth — drawing his own ministry into the line of judge-deliverers and making his integrity (vv. 1–5) part of the LORD's saving righteousness. The verb ἐξείλατο ('he delivered') directly answers the people's plea ἐξελοῦ ('deliver', v. 10), and the closing κατῳκεῖτε πεποιθότες ('you dwelt in security', rendering לָבֶטַח) names the very peace the kingship-demand wrongly doubted.
12:17 οὐχὶ θερισμὸς πυρῶν σήμερον … δώσει φωνὰς καὶ ὑετόν The sign's force depends on agronomy: the wheat harvest (May–June) falls in the rainless Canaanite summer, so thunder and rain then are a manifest prodigy (cf. Prov 26:1). φωνάς ('voices') renders קֹלוֹת ('thunders'), the Hebrew idiom treating thunder as the LORD's voice (Exod 9:23; Ps 29). The purpose is conviction — γνῶτε καὶ ἴδετε ('know and see') the greatness of the evil committed αἰτήσαντες ἑαυτοῖς βασιλέα ('in asking a king for yourselves'), a phrase the people then echo verbatim in their confession at v. 19.
12:22 οὐκ ἀπώσεται κύριος τὸν λαὸν αὐτοῦ διὰ τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ τὸ μέγα The theological hinge of the chapter and one of the OT's clearest statements of unconditional election: the LORD will not cast off his people, grounded not in their merit but in his own name (his revealed honour, cf. Ezek 36:22; Josh 7:9) and in his free, gracious adoption of them — ἐπιεικέως ('graciously') … προσελάβετο ὑμᾶς αὑτῷ εἰς λαόν ('he took you to himself for a people'). Paul cites this verse together with Ps 94[93]:14 at Rom 11:1–2 (μὴ ἀπώσατο ὁ θεὸς τὸν λαὸν αὐτοῦ;) to argue that God has not rejected Israel; προσλαμβάνω likewise becomes Paul's verb for divine and mutual acceptance at Rom 14:1; 15:7.
12:23–25 μηδαμῶς … ἀνιέναι τοῦ προσεύχεσθαι περὶ ὑμῶν … προστεθήσεσθε Samuel establishes prophetic intercession as a binding covenant duty: μηδαμῶς ('far be it', rendering חָלִילָה) that he should sin against the LORD by 'ceasing' (ἀνιέναι) to pray for them — to stop interceding would itself be sin (cf. his standing intercession at 7:5; 15:11; Jer 15:1; Ps 99[98]:6). The address closes on a deliberate verbal reversal: the people confessed they had 'added' evil (προστεθείκαμεν, v. 19); now persistent wickedness will mean both people and king 'are added' to destruction (προστεθήσεσθε, v. 25, rendering סָפָה, 'be swept away') — the same root turned from confession into judgment, sealing the two-ways structure of the whole farewell.
13:1 (absent) — The LXX has no verse 1; it lacks MT's regnal-formula ("Saul was … years old when he began to reign …"), whose Hebrew numerals are themselves textually defective. The Greek chapter therefore begins at verse 2, and all versification here follows the Rahlfs numbering 2–23.
13:3 ἠθετήκασιν οἱ δοῦλοι Saul's rallying-cry "the slaves have revolted" (perfect ἀθετέω, "break faith / rebel") frames the uprising from the Philistine overlords' perspective — Israel as vassal "slaves" who have thrown off the yoke; where the MT reads "let the Hebrews hear," the LXX makes the proclamation one of revolt by subjugated vassals (cf. δοῦλοι rendering עֶבֶד).
13:13 μεματαίωταί σοι The verdict opens with an impersonal perfect of ματαιόω — "it has been made foolish as regards you" = "you have acted foolishly" — rendering Hebrew נִסְכָּלְתָּ; the perfect stresses the irreversible, settled folly of usurping the priestly-prophetic sacrifice, the act that forfeits an everlasting Saulide dynasty (τὴν βασιλείαν σου ἕως αἰῶνος).
13:14 ζητήσει κύριος ἑαυτῷ ἄνθρωπον κατὰ τὴν καρδίαν αὐτοῦ The chapter's hinge: "the LORD will seek for himself a man after his own heart" — the unnamed David (cf. 1 Kgdms 16; the verse paraphrased at Acts 13:22). The pointed ἑαυτῷ ("for himself") answers Saul's choosing troops ἑαυτῷ in v. 2; εἰς ἄρχοντα ("to be ruler") renders the Hebrew לְנָגִיד, the leader-designate idiom; κύριος (×3 here) is the Tetragrammaton.
13:21 τρεῖς σίκλοι εἰς τὸν ὀδόντα … ὑπόστασις ἦν ἡ αὐτή A notoriously corrupt verse in the Hebrew; the LXX construes it as a fee-schedule for the Philistine smithing monopoly — three shekels per tool-"tooth" (ὀδόντα, the edge/point), with the same fixed rate (ὑπόστασις, "established charge") for axe and pruning-hook. The word ὑπόστασις here ("rate / standing charge") is the same noun that means "garrison / outpost" at v. 23, the LXX exploiting its wide semantic range.
13:19, 22 τέκτων σιδήρου οὐχ εὑρίσκετο … οὐχ εὑρέθη ῥομφαία καὶ δόρυ The famous iron-monopoly note: the durative imperfect οὐχ εὑρίσκετο depicts the systemic absence of any smith in Israel, by deliberate Philistine policy (μὴ ποιήσωσιν οἱ Εβραῖοι ῥομφαίαν καὶ δόρυ, v. 19), and v. 22 draws out its consequence — on the day of battle no sword or spear was in the hand of the whole army, only with Saul and Jonathan. The contrast οὐχ εὑρέθη … καὶ εὑρέθη sharpens the pathos of near-total disarmament before the Philistine host.
14:6 οὐκ ἔστιν τῷ κυρίῳ συνεχόμενον σῴζειν ἐν πολλοῖς ἢ ἐν ὀλίγοις The theological heart of the chapter: 'there is no constraint on the LORD to save by many or by few.' The neuter participle συνεχόμενον ('a thing constraining/hindering') renders the Hebrew אֵין … מַעְצוֹר ('there is no restraint'); the hopeful optative εἴ τι ποιήσαι ἡμῖν κύριος ('perhaps the LORD will act for us') voices faith without presumption, and the merism 'many or few' answers directly to Saul's depleted six hundred (v. 2) — divine deliverance is independent of human numbers.
14:15 ἐγενήθη ἔκστασις … καὶ ἐθάμβησεν ἡ γῆ καὶ ἐγενήθη ἔκστασις παρὰ κυρίου The God-sent battlefield panic. ἔκστασις renders חֲרָדָה ('trembling/dread') — not mystical ecstasy but the 'terror of God' (cf. Gen 35:5). The inclusio ἐγενήθη ἔκστασις … ἐγενήθη ἔκστασις παρὰ κυρίου frames the verse and ascribes the rout directly to YHWH; the personified quaking earth (ἐθάμβησεν ἡ γῆ, rendering וַתִּרְגַּז הָאָרֶץ) lends the victory a theophanic dimension.
14:24 Σαουλ ἠγνόησεν ἄγνοιαν μεγάλην … ἐπικατάρατος ὁ ἄνθρωπος ὃς φάγεται ἄρτον ἕως ἑσπέρας The narrator's blunt indictment of Saul's oath. The cognate-accusative ἠγνόησεν ἄγνοιαν (figura etymologica, 'erred a great error') frames the curse as culpable folly, not zeal. The curse-formula ἐπικατάρατος ('accursed', rendering אָרוּר; cf. Deut 27) ironically endangers Jonathan, the victory's instrument, and saps the army's strength (ἐξελύθη ὁ λαός, v. 28); Saul's self-centered 'my enemy … I will avenge' contrasts with the LORD-centered deliverance of v. 23.
14:32 καὶ ἤσθιεν ὁ λαὸς σὺν τῷ αἵματι The exhausted people slaughter on the bare ground (ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν) and eat flesh 'with the blood', violating the fundamental Noahic and Levitical prohibition (Gen 9:4; Lev 17:10–14), since the life is in the blood. The threefold ὁ λαός hammers the corporate guilt that Saul's oath has indirectly provoked; Saul's corrective — the slaughter-stone and his first altar (vv. 33–35) — redresses the sin but cannot undo the day's spiritual disorder.
14:41 κύριε ὁ θεὸς Ισραηλ … δὸς δήλους … δὸς δὴ ὁσιότητα The LXX preserves a fuller text than MT, making explicit the mechanism of the sacred lot. δὸς δήλους ('give Urim/clear-tokens') and δὸς ὁσιότητα ('give Thummim/holiness-token') are the LXX's renderings of the Urim (אוּרִים, via δῆλοι 'manifest') and Thummim (תֻּמִּים 'perfections', via ὁσιότης 'holiness'). Saul's prayer asks YHWH to render the verdict through the lot — pointing to Saul/Jonathan or to the people; the lot takes Jonathan and Saul, and the people go free (ὁ λαὸς ἐξῆλθεν).
14:45 ζῇ κύριος εἰ πεσεῖται τῆς τριχὸς τῆς κεφαλῆς αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν … προσηύξατο ὁ λαὸς περὶ Ιωναθαν The people's counter-oath overturns Saul's. Sworn by the living God (ζῇ κύριος), the proverbial pledge εἰ πεσεῖται τῆς τριχὸς … ('not a hair of his head shall fall', the oath-εἰ as emphatic negation; cf. 2 Sam 14:11; Luke 21:18) guarantees Jonathan's total preservation, on the ground that he wrought 'this great deliverance' (τὴν σωτηρίαν τὴν μεγάλην, the σῴζειν of v. 6 realized). The LXX renders the Hebrew פָּדָה ('ransomed') with προσηύξατο ('interceded/prayed for'), casting the rescue as the people's intercession for their innocent savior.
15:11 / 35 παρακέκλημαι … κύριος μετεμελήθη Two divine-regret statements form an inclusio around the chapter. παρακέκλημαι (v. 11) is the perfect of παρακαλέω used in its rare LXX sense 'be moved to regret / relent' (for נִחַם, Niphal); μετεμελήθη (v. 35) is μεταμέλομαι, 'repent / be sorry'. Both render YHWH's anthropopathic grief over Saul's enthronement; the verbatim echo ἐβασίλευσα/ἐβασίλευσεν τὸν Σαουλ binds the two poles. The LXX thus uses two distinct Greek verbs (and a third at v. 29) to render the single Hebrew נִחַם, distributing its nuances across the chapter.
15:22 ἰδοὺ ἀκοὴ ὑπὲρ θυσίαν ἀγαθή The theological climax: obedient hearing (ἀκοή) surpasses sacrifice (θυσία), and attentiveness (ἐπακρόασις) the choicest offering, 'the fat of rams' (στέαρ κριῶν — the fat being the divinely reserved portion, Lev 3:16). The comparative ὑπέρ + acc. ('better than') is a Hebraism for מִן of comparison. The maxim distills the prophetic critique of cult divorced from obedience (cf. Hos 6:6; Mic 6:6–8; Ps 50) and is built on the ἀκού-/ἀκοή leitmotif that runs from v. 1 (ἄκουε) through the indictment (οὐκ ἤκουσας, v. 19) to Saul's self-condemning ἤκουσα τῆς φωνῆς αὐτῶν (v. 24).
15:23 ἁμαρτία οἰώνισμά ἐστιν … θεραφιν ἐπάγουσιν The LXX compresses the Hebrew ('rebellion is as the sin of divination, and stubbornness as iniquity and teraphim') into a stark equation: 'sin is divination (οἰώνισμα, augury for קֶסֶם); teraphim (θεραφιν, the household idols of תְּרָפִים, left untranslated) bring on pain and troubles.' Disobedience is branded as tantamount to the forbidden occult arts (cf. Deut 18:10) — a capital religious crime, not a minor lapse. The verdict-verb ἐξουδενόω ('despise / count as worthless') sounds a verbal lex talionis (ἐξουδένωσας … ἐξουδενώσει σε, repeated v. 26) and pointedly echoes ἐξουδενωμένον of v. 9: Saul destroyed the 'worthless' goods but treated as worthless the very word of the LORD.
15:29 οὐκ ἀποστρέψει οὐδὲ μετανοήσει … οὐχ ὡς ἄνθρωπός ἐστιν The immutability counterpoint to vv. 11 and 35: the LORD 'will not turn back nor relent, for he is not as a man, that he should relent' (cf. Num 23:19). The tension is theological, not contradictory — God's anthropopathic grief over Saul (παρακέκλημαι / μετεμελήθη) does not entail revoking the just verdict; this particular sentence of rejection is fixed. The LXX uniquely adds διαιρεθήσεται Ισραηλ εἰς δύο ('Israel will be divided in two'), reading the rejection as the seed of the eventual division of the kingdom.
15:27–28 ἐκράτησεν … τοῦ πτερυγίου τῆς διπλοΐδος … διέρρηξεν κύριος τὴν βασιλείαν The torn-robe sign-act: as Saul clutches the hem (πτερύγιον, כָּנָף) of Samuel's mantle (διπλοΐς, מְעִיל) and it tears, Samuel reads the accident as a divine pronouncement — διέρρηξεν κύριος τὴν βασιλείαν Ισραηλ ἐκ χειρός σου ('the LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from your hand'). The repeated verb διαρρήγνυμι (vv. 27, 28) fuses sign and reality; the kingdom passes τῷ πλησίον σου τῷ ἀγαθῷ ὑπὲρ σέ ('to your neighbor, the good one, better than you'), a veiled prophecy of David, with ὑπὲρ σέ echoing the comparative ὑπέρ of the v. 22 oracle.
15:33 ἔσφαξεν Σαμουηλ τὸν Αγαγ ἐνώπιον κυρίου ἐν Γαλγαλ The prophet completes the ban the king refused. The talionic sentence (καθότι ἠτέκνωσεν … οὕτως ἀτεκνωθήσεται, 'as your sword bereaved women … so your mother shall be bereaved') matches crime to punishment with the active/passive pair of ἀτεκνόω. The execution-verb ἔσφαξεν (σφάζω, the cultic-slaughter term) marks Agag's death 'before the LORD' as a sacral act of ḥērem — and it occurs at Gilgal, the same cultic site where Saul had offered his disobedient sacrifice (v. 12), so that the place of the false worship becomes the place where both Saul's rejection and Agag's death are sealed.
16:1 ἑόρακα ἐν τοῖς υἱοῖς αὐτοῦ ἐμοὶ βασιλεύειν The perfect ἑόρακα ("I have seen") makes divine election an accomplished fact before any human inspection; YHWH's "seeing" is choosing, and the dative of advantage ἐμοί ("for me") sets the coming king sharply against Saul, the king the people had demanded. The positive ἐμοὶ βασιλεύειν answers and reverses the negated μὴ βασιλεύειν spoken of Saul earlier in the same verse.
16:7 οὐχ ὡς ἐμβλέψεται ἄνθρωπος ὄψεται ὁ θεός … ἄνθρωπος ὄψεται εἰς πρόσωπον ὁ δὲ θεὸς ὄψεται εἰς καρδίαν The chapter's governing maxim, built on a double prohibition (μὴ … μηδέ) and a triple ὅτι. The LXX renders the Hebrew "the LORD looks on the heart" with God seeing εἰς καρδίαν, the seat of will and character in OT anthropology, against the human gaze that terminates εἰς πρόσωπον ("the face"; Hebrew "the eyes"). The same verb ἐξουδένωκα ("I have rejected") used of Saul (v. 1) now falls on the impressive Eliab — God's verdict, not stature or age, decides.
16:13 ἐφήλατο πνεῦμα κυρίου ἐπὶ Δαυιδ ἀπὸ τῆς ἡμέρας ἐκείνης καὶ ἐπάνω The vivid ἐφάλλομαι ("leap/rush upon") renders Hebrew צלח and depicts the Spirit seizing David with sudden empowering force — the same idiom earlier used of Saul (10:6, 10) and Samson (Judg 14:6). The phrase ἀπὸ τῆς ἡμέρας ἐκείνης καὶ ἐπάνω ("from that day and onward", Hebrew וָמָעְלָה) marks the permanence of the Spirit's rest on David, in deliberate contrast to its intermittent rushing on Saul and its imminent departure (v. 14).
16:14 καὶ ἔπνιγεν αὐτὸν πνεῦμα πονηρὸν παρὰ κυρίου The verse inverts v. 13: where the Spirit rushed upon David, it now departs (ἀπέστη) from Saul, and an evil spirit takes its place. The LXX's striking ἔπνιγεν ("was choking/strangling", for Hebrew בעת "terrify") renders the affliction as a suffocating oppression, the iterative imperfect framing it as recurrent. That the spirit comes παρὰ κυρίου ("from the LORD") voices the OT conviction of YHWH's comprehensive sovereignty even over afflicting spirits (cf. 18:10; 19:9; Judg 9:23), without making God the author of moral evil.
16:16 ζητησάτωσαν τῷ κυρίῳ ἡμῶν ἄνδρα εἰδότα ψάλλειν ἐν κινύρᾳ The courtiers' address τῷ κυρίῳ ἡμῶν ("for our lord") is a human honorific to Saul (Hebrew אֲדֹנֵנוּ), not the Tetragrammaton — the deferential court idiom paired with their self-designation as δοῦλοι. Their prescription εἰδότα ψάλλειν ἐν κινύρᾳ ("skilled to play on the lyre") and the promised ἀναπαύσει σε ("he will give you relief") set up David's introduction (εἰδότα ψαλμόν, v. 18) and the chapter's closing fulfilment (ἀνέψυχεν Σαουλ, v. 23).
16:18 καὶ ὁ ἀνὴρ συνετός … πολεμιστὴς … σοφὸς λόγῳ … ἀγαθὸς τῷ εἴδει καὶ κύριος μετ᾿ αὐτοῦ The servant's sixfold portrait of David — musician, prudent, warrior, wise of speech, fair of form — climaxes in the theologically decisive καὶ κύριος μετ᾿ αὐτοῦ ("and the LORD is with him"), a recurring formula for David's divinely-favoured success (cf. 18:12, 14; 2 Kgds 5:10). To the reader it discloses the secret of v. 13: the Spirit-anointed shepherd is the very man Saul now unknowingly seeks; the martial πολεμιστής before the Goliath account (ch. 17) signals a thematic rather than strictly chronological ordering.
16:23 ἀνέψυχεν Σαουλ … καὶ ἀφίστατο ἀπ᾿ αὐτοῦ τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ πονηρόν The closing iterative summary (a chain of imperfects: ἐλάμβανεν … ἔψαλλεν … ἀνέψυχεν … ἀφίστατο) fulfils the courtiers' proposal of v. 16. ἀναψύχω ("revive / give relief"; cognate with NT ἀνάψυξις, Acts 3:20) names the music's effect, and the final ἀφίστατο … τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ πονηρόν deliberately echoes ἀπέστη … πνεῦμα κυρίου (v. 14), bracketing the chapter's spirit-theme: as the Spirit of the LORD had departed from Saul, so now the evil spirit retreats before the presence of the LORD's anointed.
17:4 ὕψος αὐτοῦ τεσσάρων πήχεων καὶ σπιθαμῆς Codex Vaticanus and the Old Latin give the giant's height as 'four cubits and a span' (~2 m / 6'9"), markedly shorter than the MT's and Hexaplaric 'six cubits and a span' (~2.9 m / 9'9"). The divergence is one of the most discussed numerical variants in the OT; the shorter Greek figure makes Goliath an exceptionally large but humanly possible warrior, and is frequently cited as evidence that the LXX preserves an older, less-amplified textual tradition.
17:12–31 (absent in the short Greek) The largest of the chapter's minuses: the entire second introduction of David and the surrounding material is missing from B. Its absence means David appears at v. 32 with no genealogy or errand, consistent with 16:14–23 where he is already Saul's courtier; the MT pluses are widely held to conflate a separate David-Goliath tradition, making this the classic case for the 'two literary editions' of Samuel.
17:45 κἀγὼ πορεύομαι πρὸς σὲ ἐν ὀνόματι κυρίου σαβαωθ The theological summit: David sets the giant's three weapons (sword, spear, shield) against the single name of κύριος σαβαωθ ('the LORD of hosts'), σαβαωθ transliterating צְבָאוֹת rather than being translated (e.g. as τῶν δυνάμεων). The antithesis σὺ ἔρχῃ … κἀγὼ πορεύομαι answers the giant's own words (v. 43), reframing the duel as a contest over whose God is real — the living God (v. 36) against the giant's lifeless 'gods' (v. 43).
17:47 οὐκ ἐν ῥομφαίᾳ καὶ δόρατι σῴζει κύριος … τοῦ κυρίου ὁ πόλεμος The chapter's thesis, stated baldly: the LORD 'saves not by sword and spear,' for 'the battle is the LORD's.' The gnomic present σῴζει and the predicate genitive τοῦ κυρίου ὁ πόλεμος are the watchword of Israel's holy-war theology (cf. 2 Chr 20:15), making David's victory a demonstration that deliverance is God's work, not the product of weaponry — dramatized in David's bodily inability to fight in armor (v. 39).
17:49–51 διέδυ ὁ λίθος διὰ τῆς περικεφαλαίας … (no v. 50) … ἔλαβεν τὴν ῥομφαίαν αὐτοῦ The Greek's vivid διέδυ ('the stone sank through the helmet', a detail absent in MT) stresses that the single pebble pierced the very bronze catalogued in v. 5. Because the short Greek omits the v. 50 summary ('David prevailed … with a sling and a stone, and there was no sword in David's hand'), the narrative runs straight from the giant's fall to David's taking the giant's OWN sword (v. 51) to kill and behead him — the irony that the swordless shepherd dispatches the giant with the giant's weapon stands without the v. 50 qualification.
18:6–8 ἐπάταξεν Σαουλ ἐν χιλιάσιν αὐτοῦ καὶ Δαυιδ ἐν μυριάσιν αὐτοῦ The women's antiphonal refrain is the narrative engine of the whole chapter. The numerical contrast χιλιάσιν (thousands, Saul) vs. μυριάσιν (ten-thousands, David) is heard by Saul not as praise of both but as an implicit dethronement ('what more can he have but the kingdom?', so the MT's continuation). When Saul quotes it back in v. 8 he reverses the order — David's myriads first, his own thousands last — foregrounding the wound; the idiom πονηρὸν ἐφάνη … ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖς ('it was evil in his eyes', וַיֵּרַע בְּעֵינֵי) names the resentment that hardens into the ὑποβλεπόμενος ('eyeing with suspicion') of v. 9.
18:12, 14 ἐφοβήθη Σαουλ … κύριος μετ᾿ αὐτοῦ The theological key of the chapter, and the seam where the LXX's omission of MT vv. 10–11 is felt: Saul's fear (v. 12) follows directly on his jealous eye (v. 9), with no intervening spear-throwing. The verbless clause κύριος μετ᾿ αὐτοῦ ('the LORD was with him', v. 14, repeated at v. 28) supplies the cause of both David's συνίων (success) and Saul's dread — the LORD's presence with David is precisely what has departed from Saul. The leitmotif συνίημι (הִשְׂכִּיל) fuses 'act prudently' and 'prosper', so that David's wisdom and his success are a single divinely-given thing.
18:21, 25 ἔσται αὐτῷ εἰς σκάνδαλον … Σαουλ ἐλογίσατο αὐτὸν ἐμβαλεῖν εἰς χεῖρας τῶν ἀλλοφύλων The two narratorial asides that unmask Saul's intent. Michal is to be a σκάνδαλον ('snare', מוֹקֵשׁ) — the bride as bait; the bride-price of a hundred ἀκροβυστίαι ('foreskins') is, in Saul's calculation (ἐλογίσατο, חָשַׁב), a contrived death-sentence: David must engage the Philistines in lethal combat to win it. The chilling irony is that the same 'hand of the Philistines' that 'was against Saul' (v. 21) is the hand into which Saul tries to 'cast' David (v. 25) — and David escapes it untouched.
18:20, 26 ηὐθύνθη / εὐθύνθη ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖς The εὐθύνω ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖς idiom ('be straight/pleasing in the eyes', יָשַׁר בְּעֵינֵי) frames the marriage twice with pointed dramatic irony: it pleases Saul (v. 20) because it furnishes the snare, and it pleases David (v. 26) because — unknowing of the lethal design, or undaunted by it — he embraces the very task meant to destroy him. The repeated idiom binds deceiver and intended victim in a single phrase whose meaning diverges between them.
18:29 προσέθετο εὐλαβεῖσθαι ἀπὸ Δαυιδ ἔτι The chapter's closing Hebraism: προσέθετο + infinitive calques יָסַף לְ ('continue / do still more'), so the clause means 'he continued — and increased — to stand in dread of David', the final ἔτι ('still / yet more') leaving the dread open-ended. Where the MT extends this into Saul being David's enemy 'all the days', the Old Greek ends precisely on the note of unrelieved, escalating εὐλαβέομαι — the same wary, almost superstitious dread of v. 15, now the settled posture of a king who has seen that the LORD is with the man he cannot kill.
19:5 ἔθετο τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ ἐν τῇ χειρὶ αὐτοῦ … εἰς αἷμα ἀθῷον A double Hebraism at the heart of Jonathan's plea: the idiom 'put his life in his hand' (שִׂים נֶפֶשׁ בְּכַף) frames David's victory over the Philistine as self-risking service to Israel, while αἷμα ἀθῷον ('innocent blood', דָּם נָקִי) invokes the legal category of bloodguilt — to kill the guiltless David δωρεάν ('without cause', חִנָּם) would be to sin against God's own saving work (ἐποίησεν κύριος σωτηρίαν μεγάλην).
19:6 ζῇ κύριος εἰ ἀποθανεῖται The oath by the living LORD (חַי יְהוָה) with εἰ rendering the self-imprecatory אִם: the suppressed apodosis ('may God do so to me and more') yields the emphatic negative 'he shall surely not die.' The solemnity of the oath, sworn on the Tetragrammaton itself, magnifies the gravity of Saul's swift breach of it (vv. 9–11).
19:13 τὰ κενοτάφια … καὶ ἧπαρ τῶν αἰγῶν The LXX's striking handling of the teraphim scene: תְּרָפִים becomes κενοτάφια ('empty images / cenotaphs'), and the difficult כְּבִיר הָעִזִּים (usually 'a quilt/net of goats'-hair') is read as ἧπαρ τῶν αἰγῶν ('a goat's liver') laid at the head — perhaps to give the disguised dummy a lifelike appearance under the covering cloth. The detail incidentally attests an idol in David's own house, a tension the narrator leaves unremarked.
19:20 Σαμουηλ εἱστήκει καθεστηκὼς ἐπ᾿ αὐτῶν The stative pluperfect εἱστήκει ('was standing') with the perfect participle καθεστηκώς ('set/appointed over them') depicts Samuel as the established head of the prophetic ἐκκλησία (rendering the 'company / band' of prophets, לַהֲקַת הַנְּבִיאִים). His settled authority is the human focal point at which the contagious Spirit of prophecy seizes Saul's would-be arrestors.
19:24 εἰ καὶ Σαουλ ἐν προφήταις The aetiological proverb, here cast as an astonished question (εἰ … 'Is …?') with ascensive καί ('also / even', גַם), repeats the saying first occasioned at 10:11–12 and now sealed by Saul's naked, day-long prophesying before Samuel. The king who set out to seize the LORD's anointed is himself stripped of robe and seized by the LORD's Spirit — the narrative's final, ironic verdict on Saul's war against David.
20:3 γινώσκων οἶδεν … ζῇ κύριος καὶ ζῇ ἡ ψυχή σου David's insistence stacks a cognate infinitive-absolute calque (γινώσκων οἶδεν, 'surely knows', for יָדֹעַ יָדַע) on a double oath-formula ('as the LORD lives and as your soul lives'). The figurative ἐμπέπλησται ἀνὰ μέσον μου καὶ τοῦ θανάτου ('the space between me and death is filled up') renders the difficult Hebrew 'there is but a step between me and death' — the interval is all but closed.
20:13 τάδε ποιήσαι ὁ θεὸς τῷ Ιωναθαν καὶ τάδε προσθείη The classic Hebrew self-imprecation (כֹּה יַעֲשֶׂה … וְכֹה יֹסִיף) by which Jonathan binds himself: 'may God do thus to Jonathan and add thus (if I fail to warn you).' The benediction ἔσται κύριος μετὰ σοῦ καθὼς ἦν μετὰ τοῦ πατρός μου tacitly concedes that the LORD has departed from Saul (imperfect ἦν, 'used to be') and is now with David — a theological transfer of legitimacy.
20:19, 41 / 20:20 εργαβ … αματταρι Two transliterations of obscure Hebrew terms left untranslated by the LXX: εργαβ, the stone/mound by which David hides (the translator did not recognize the word behind MT's 'stone Ezel'/'the Ezel'), and αματταρι, the target/mark at which Jonathan shoots (≈ מַטָּרָה, 'target'). The phonetic rendering is itself evidence of a difficult Vorlage.
20:30 υἱὲ κορασίων αὐτομολούντων … εἰς αἰσχύνην ἀποκαλύψεως μητρός σου Saul's explosive curse is among the most vivid in the Greek OT: the abusive vocative 'son of deserting/wayward girls' (κοράσιον is a contemptuous diminutive; αὐτομολέω = 'desert, go over to the enemy') impugns Jonathan's birth, and αἰσχύνη ἀποκαλύψεως μητρός ('shame of the uncovering of your mother') invokes the Semitic עֶרְוָה idiom to brand Jonathan's alliance with David as a disgrace reaching back to his mother's honor.
20:31 υἱὸς θανάτου οὗτος The death-sentence idiom בֶּן־מָוֶת ('son of death' = one doomed/deserving to die; cf. 2 Kgdms 12:5) makes Saul's murderous intent explicit, answering David's opening fear (v. 1). It is immediately confirmed when Saul hurls his spear at his own son (v. 33), conclusively resolving the test and demonstrating that συντετέλεσται ἡ κακία — 'the evil is fully determined.'
20:42 κύριος ἔσται μάρτυς ἀνὰ μέσον … τοῦ σπέρματός μου καὶ … τοῦ σπέρματός σου ἕως αἰῶνος The chapter's climactic close: the covenant-witness formula of v. 23, now expanded to embrace both lineages forever. The perfect ὀμωμόκαμεν ('we have sworn, and the oath stands') and the swearing ἐν ὀνόματι κυρίου make the bond inviolable and perpetual — the basis on which the future king David will protect Jonathan's house (2 Kgdms 9:1–7).
21:3 θεοῦ πίστις Φελλανι Αλεμωνι The LXX handles the obscure Hebrew designation of the appointed meeting-place (MT פְּלֹנִי אַלְמֹנִי, 'such-and-such a place') by transliterating it (Φελλανι Αλεμωνι) and prefixing a Greek gloss θεοῦ πίστις ('God's faithfulness'); the result is a doubly opaque place-name. The mixture of gloss and transliteration is characteristic of the translator's discomfort with an obscure or formulaic Hebrew idiom; the broader point is simply that David has (allegedly) set his men a secret rendezvous, completing his cover for traveling alone.
21:7 τοὺς ἄρτους τῆς προθέσεως / ἄρτοι τοῦ προσώπου The bread of the Presence (Heb. לֶחֶם הַפָּנִים), the twelve consecrated loaves set weekly before the LORD and lawfully eaten only by the priests (Lev 24:5–9), here given to David and his men out of necessity. This is the OT episode Jesus cites as the decisive precedent for mercy over ritual prescription (Mark 2:25–26; Matt 12:3–4; Luke 6:3–4), arguing that David's hunger justified eating what was 'not lawful' for any but the priests. The identical phrase ἄρτοι τῆς προθέσεως appears in all three Gospel accounts, anchoring the citation to this verse. Notably, Mark 2:26 names 'Abiathar the high priest' where this narrative has Ahimelech (Abiathar's father) — a famous NT–OT harmonization crux.
21:8 Δωηκ ὁ Σύρος … συνεχόμενος νεεσσαραν ἐνώπιον κυρίου The narrator's ominous aside that Doeg was 'detained before the LORD' at the sanctuary that very day plants the seed of the catastrophe of ch. 22, where Doeg informs Saul and then personally massacres the eighty-five priests of Nob. The LXX renders MT 'Edomite' as ὁ Σύρος ('Syrian/Aramean'), and carries over an untranslated Hebrew term (νεεσσαραν, probably related to נֶעְצָר, 'detained/kept back'), redundantly glossing it with the participle συνεχόμενος ('being detained'); the precise sense of his 'detention before the LORD' (a vow? ritual obligation? ceremonial uncleanness?) is left unexplained.
21:12 ἐπάταξεν Σαουλ ἐν χιλιάσιν αὐτοῦ καὶ Δαυιδ ἐν μυριάσιν αὐτοῦ The Philistine servants quote the very victory-refrain that first turned Saul against David (1 Kgdms 18:7), now ironically deployed in Gath: the song that made David Israel's hero makes him a marked man among Israel's enemies. The escalating parallelism (thousands // ten thousands, χιλιάσιν // μυριάσιν) is the same comparison that 'displeased' Saul (18:8–9); its reappearance here knots David's two great dangers — Saul's jealousy and Philistine vengeance — into a single crisis that forces the feigned-madness ruse.
21:14 ἐτυμπάνιζεν ἐπὶ ταῖς θύραις … τὰ σίελα αὐτοῦ κατέρρει ἐπὶ τὸν πώγωνα αὐτοῦ The LXX paints David's feigned insanity with grotesque concreteness, where the Hebrew is terser: he 'drums' (ἐτυμπάνιζεν, for MT's 'made marks/scrabbled', וַיְתָו) on the city doors, is 'carried about' in a flailing frenzy, collapses against the gates, and drools into his beard. The run of vivid imperfects renders the sustained performance, and the spittle-in-the-beard detail (absent of dignity, unmistakable as madness) clinches the disguise — a striking instance of the LXX heightening the narrative's psychological and physical vividness. The episode is celebrated in the superscription of Ps 33(34), 'when he changed his behavior before Abimelech.'
22:2 πᾶς ἐν ἀνάγκῃ … ὑπόχρεως … κατώδυνος ψυχῇ A distributive tricolon (rendering the Hebrew מָצוֹק / נֹשֶׁא / מַר־נֶפֶשׁ) naming the three classes of social outcast who rally to David — the distressed, the debtor, and the embittered — transforming a fugitive into the ἡγούμενος ('leader') of a four-hundred-man company and seeding the militia that will become his royal following.
22:6 ὑπὸ τὴν ἄρουραν τὴν ἐν Ραμα The LXX ἄρουρα ('tilled field / arable land') renders Hebrew אֶשֶׁל ('tamarisk tree') under which Saul sits enthroned (cf. 31:13); the static tableau — Saul on the βουνός ('height', likely Gibeah) with δόρυ ('spear') in hand and servants standing by — fixes the menacing emblem of his perpetual readiness for violence (cf. 18:10–11; 19:9–10; 26:7).
22:8 ὁ ἀποκαλύπτων τὸ ὠτίον μου The Hebraism ἀποκαλύπτω/ἀπεκάλυψα τὸ ὠτίον ('uncover the ear' = disclose/inform), rendering גָּלָה אֹזֶן, recurs through Saul's complaint (vv. 8, 17): his grievance is that no one informs him of Jonathan's covenant with David. David is reduced from παῖς to δοῦλος ('my servant/slave') turned ἐχθρός ('enemy'), the fixed paranoid frame of the king's speech.
22:16 θανάτῳ ἀποθανῇ Αβιμελεχ The cognate-dative formula renders the Hebrew emphatic infinitive absolute מוֹת תָּמוּת ('you shall surely die'), the LXX's standard device for the construction (cf. Gen 2:17); Saul pronounces irrevocable sentence on the very 'whole house of the father' that Ahimelech had just pleaded to spare (v. 15), brushing aside the fourfold catalogue of David's proven loyalty (πιστός, γαμβρός, ἄρχων, ἔνδοξος, v. 14).
22:18 τριακοσίους καὶ πέντε ἄνδρας πάντας αἴροντας εφουδ The LXX numbers the slain priests at 305, against the MT's 85 (חֲמִשָּׁה וּשְׁמֹנִים) — a numerical text-variant. That the Israelite guards 'were not willing' (οὐκ ἐβουλήθησαν, v. 17) to lift their hands against the LORD's priests, while the foreigner Doeg obeys without scruple, sharpens the sacrilege; the descriptor αἴροντας εφουδ ('wearing the ephod', the transliterated אֵפוֹד) marks every victim an ordained, officiating priest.
22:19 ἐν στόματι ῥομφαίας ἀπὸ ἀνδρὸς ἕως … προβάτου The herem-language of total destruction — the Hebraism ἐν στόματι ῥομφαίας ('by the edge/mouth of the sword', לְפִי חֶרֶב) with a double merism (man-to-woman, infant-to-suckling) capped by the livestock — depicts Saul wreaking upon a priestly city the very utter destruction he had withheld from Amalek (ch. 15), a damning structural irony.
22:22 ἐγώ εἰμι αἴτιος τῶν ψυχῶν οἴκου τοῦ πατρός σου David's confession — αἴτιος ('responsible / the cause / culpable') — is an extraordinary self-indictment: with foreknowledge of Doeg's presence (ἤιδειν … ἀπαγγέλλων ἀπαγγελεῖ, the cognate infinitive-absolute construction expressing certainty), he owns the bloodguilt for the priests' deaths. The contrast with Saul's conscienceless cruelty is the chapter's moral fulcrum, and the closing πεφύλαξαι (v. 23) makes David the protector under whom the surviving priesthood shelters.
23:6 ἔχων εφουδ ἐν τῇ χειρὶ αὐτοῦ The flashback to Abiathar's flight (sole survivor of Saul's massacre at Nob, 22:20) supplies the chapter's oracular instrument. εφουδ is an indeclinable transliteration of Hebrew אֵפוֹד — the LXX renders the cultic term rather than translating it — and it is "the ephod of the LORD" (τὸ εφουδ κυρίου, v. 9) by which David "inquires through the LORD" (vv. 2, 4, 9–11). The detail "in his hand" (Hebraism, בְּיָדוֹ) stresses the ready, physical availability of the means of divine guidance that distinguishes David's piety from Saul's presumption.
23:7 πέπρακεν αὐτὸν ὁ θεὸς εἰς χεῖράς μου Saul's interpretation of the report is the dark mirror of David's faith. The perfect πέπρακεν ("has sold," πιπράσκω, rendering מָכַר) is a harsh commercial metaphor for divine handover, and εἰς χεῖράς μου ("into my hands") ironically claims for Saul the very handover-formula the LORD had just spoken over David's enemies (εἰς χεῖράς σου, v. 4). The narrator will overturn the boast at v. 14 (οὐ παρέδωκεν αὐτὸν κύριος) and again at vv. 27–28, where God, not Saul, disposes of David's fate.
23:11 ἀποκλεισθήσεται David's twofold question and the LORD's one-word reply turn on ἀποκλείω ("shut up / confine / hand over by entrapment"). The verb forms a triple ring: Saul's perfect ἀποκέκλεισται (v. 7, "he has shut himself in"), David's interrogative future opening v. 11, and the terse divine oracle ἀποκλεισθήσεται ("he will be shut up") closing it. The bare, decisive answer confirms Keilah's coming treachery — the very citizens David had saved (v. 5) would surrender him — and precipitates the immediate escape of v. 13.
23:14 οὐ παρέδωκεν αὐτὸν κύριος εἰς τὰς χεῖρας αὐτοῦ The chapter's theological center. The same handover-verb παραδίδωμι by which the LORD gave David's enemies into his hand (v. 4) is here negated for David's enemy: Saul sought him "all the days" (πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας), but "the LORD did not give him into his hands." The placement of the divine name as subject of the negated handover directly refutes Saul's boast πέπρακεν … ὁ θεός (v. 7) and the Ziphites' presumption κεκλείκασιν … εἰς τὰς χεῖρας τοῦ βασιλέως (v. 20): YHWH alone governs David's destiny.
23:17 ἐγὼ ἔσομαί σοι εἰς δεύτερον Jonathan's confession is the spiritual summit of the chapter and an astonishing renunciation. Saul's own heir not only foretells David's kingship (σὺ βασιλεύσεις ἐπὶ Ισραηλ) but volunteers the rank just below the throne — εἰς δεύτερον ("as second," rendering מִשְׁנֶה, "deputy / second-in-command"), the Hebraizing predicate-εἰς marking the office he accepts. The closing καὶ Σαουλ … οἶδεν οὕτως ("and Saul knows it is so") asserts that even the persecuting king secretly recognizes David as the LORD's anointed (cf. 24:21); covenant love triumphs over dynastic ambition.
23:28 ἐπεκλήθη ὁ τόπος ἐκεῖνος Πέτρα ἡ μερισθεῖσα The etiological close. The formula διὰ τοῦτο ἐπεκλήθη ("therefore it was called," cf. Gen 11:9; 16:14) memorializes the rescue: the rock where David sheltered (πέτραν, v. 25) becomes "the Rock that was Divided" (ἡ μερισθεῖσα, aor. pass. ptcp. of μερίζω, rendering Hebrew מַחְלְקוֹת, "Rock of Divisions/Partings"). The name commemorates the double "parting" of pursuer and pursued — first by the mountain that divided the two bands (v. 26), then by the Philistine summons that drew Saul away (v. 27) — a permanent witness in the land that the LORD, not Saul, holds David's life.
24:7 τῷ κυρίῳ μου τῷ χριστῷ κυρίου The verse turns on a deliberate doubling of κύριος in two registers: τῷ κυρίῳ μου ('my lord') is David's deferential title for Saul as human sovereign (rendering אֲדֹנִי), while χριστὸς κυρίου ('the LORD's anointed') names YHWH (the Tetragrammaton) as the one whose anointing makes Saul sacrosanct. The same distinction recurs at v. 11 (κύριόν μου = Saul; χριστὸς κυρίου = YHWH) and v. 9 (κύριε βασιλεῦ = human address). David's whole ethic rests on it: he reveres the man because he reveres the God who anointed him, so that to harm Saul would be ἀσέβεια against YHWH himself.
24:4 παρασκευάσασθαι An elegant LXX euphemism. The Hebrew לְהָסֵךְ אֶת־רַגְלָיו ('to cover his feet') is itself a euphemism for relieving oneself; the LXX generalizes it further into the colorless 'to make ready / prepare oneself,' so discreet that the bodily detail vanishes entirely — a translator's modesty that nonetheless preserves the narrative's irony of the king caught at his most vulnerable.
24:14 ἐξ ἀνόμων ἐξελεύσεται πλημμέλεια David cites a wisdom-proverb (ἡ παραβολὴ ἡ ἀρχαία, 'the ancient maxim', rendering מָשָׁל): 'out of the wicked comes wickedness.' Its argumentative force is exculpatory — wrongdoing betrays itself in the wrongdoer's deeds; since David's deeds (sparing the king) show no wickedness, he cannot be the schemer Saul's informants allege. The gnomic future ἐξελεύσεται states the principle as a timeless truth.
24:15 ὀπίσω κυνὸς τεθνηκότος καὶ ὀπίσω ψύλλου ἑνός David's self-abasement reaches its rhetorical nadir: he is 'a dead dog' (κύων being already a term of contempt, intensified by the perfect participle τεθνηκότος) and 'a single flea' (ψύλλος, proverbially negligible and elusive; cf. 1 Kgdms 26:20). The bathos shames Saul by exposing the grotesque disproportion between a king with three thousand elite troops and so worthless a quarry.
24:21 βασιλεύων βασιλεύσεις A figura etymologica (participle + cognate future) rendering the Hebrew infinitive absolute מָלֹךְ תִּמְלוֹךְ, 'you shall surely reign.' On the lips of the reigning, rejected king it is a stunning concession: Saul himself certifies David's destined accession and the establishment (στήσεται) of the kingdom in David's hands — the very permanence denied to Saul's own house (1 Kgdms 13:13–14). The dynastic oath Saul then demands (vv. 22–23) is the natural sequel, fulfilled in David's later kindness to Mephibosheth (2 Kgdms 9).
25:3 ὁ ἄνθρωπος κυνικός The LXX renders the difficult Hebrew וְהוּא כָלִבִּי ('and he was a Calebite') as if derived from כֶּלֶב ('dog'), yielding κυνικός ('doglike/churlish/cynical'). The interpretive rendering crowns the negative characterization (σκληρός, πονηρός, κυνικός) against Abigail's threefold goodness (ἀγαθὴ συνέσει, καλὴ τῷ εἴδει), making the wise wife / churlish husband antithesis the engine of the whole episode.
25:22 οὐροῦντα πρὸς τοῖχον The crude idiom 'one urinating against a wall' is the LXX's literal calque of the Hebrew מַשְׁתִּין בְּקִיר, an expression for 'male.' David's oath to leave none of Nabal's males alive by morning (repeated verbatim at v. 34, οὐρῶν πρὸς τοῖχον) marks the height of his rash anger and the precise blood-guilt Abigail rushes to avert.
25:28 ποιῶν ποιήσει κύριος τῷ κυρίῳ μου οἶκον πιστόν The figura etymologica ποιῶν ποιήσει ('doing he will do' = 'will surely make') renders the Hebrew emphatic infinitive absolute, expressing certainty; οἶκος πιστός ('a sure house') is the very phrase of the Davidic dynastic oracle (2 Kgdms 7:16; cf. 3 Kgdms 11:38). Abigail, before David is king, prophesies the enduring dynasty grounded in his fighting πόλεμον κυρίου ('the battles of the LORD').
25:29 ἡ ψυχὴ κυρίου μου ἐνδεδεμένη ἐν δεσμῷ τῆς ζωῆς The lyrical heart of the speech: David's life 'bound in the bundle of the living' (δεσμὸς τῆς ζωῆς renders צְרוֹר הַחַיִּים, a treasured pouch in which something precious is tied for safekeeping) with the LORD God, while his enemies' lives are hurled away ἐν μέσῳ τῆς σφενδόνης ('from the midst of the sling'). The sling-image evokes David's own victory over Goliath (1 Kgdms 17:49), and the verse has become a classic Jewish epitaph-formula for the righteous dead.
25:37–38 ἐναπέθανεν ἡ καρδία αὐτοῦ … ἐπάταξεν κύριος τὸν Ναβαλ The pointed reversal of the merry, wine-warmed heart of v. 36: when sober Nabal hears 'these things,' his heart 'dies within him' (the vivid compound ἐναποθνῄσκω) and he becomes ὡς λίθος ('like a stone') — a seizure or stroke. Ten days later ἐπάταξεν κύριος τὸν Ναβαλ — the verb of divine lethal judgment (cf. Exod 12:29) makes Nabal's death explicitly YHWH's act, vindicating David's restraint: vengeance belonged to God, not to David's sword (cf. v. 39, ἀπέστρεψεν … εἰς κεφαλὴν αὐτοῦ).
26:9 τίς ἐποίσει χεῖρα αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ χριστὸν κυρίου καὶ ἀθῳωθήσεται The rhetorical question whose expected answer is 'no one' is the theological hinge of the chapter (repeated at vv. 11, 16, 23). χριστὸς κυρίου renders מְשִׁיחַ יהוה ('the anointed of YHWH'): the king's person is inviolable not because of his conduct — Saul is a murderous persecutor — but because of the LORD's own act of anointing. To raise a hand against the anointed is to assail God's choice and to incur ineradicable bloodguilt (ἀθῳόω = 'be held guiltless', from נָקָה). The LXX bequeaths the term χριστὸς κυρίου to the NT (cf. Luke 2:26).
26:12 θάμβος κυρίου ἐπέπεσεν ἐπ᾽ αὐτούς The narrator's theological key: the raid succeeds not by David's stealth but by divine intervention. θάμβος ('stupor / trance') here renders תַּרְדֵּמָה, the same 'deep sleep' that fell on Adam (Gen 2:21) and Abraham (Gen 15:12); θάμβος κυρίου makes YHWH the author of the camp's helplessness. By delivering Saul into David's reach, God turns the sparing of Saul into a deliberate moral choice rather than a missed opportunity — the triple negation οὐκ ἦν ὁ βλέπων … γινώσκων … ἐξεγειρόμενος underscores the totality of the stupor.
26:16 υἱοὶ θανατώσεως … τὸν βασιλέα κύριον ὑμῶν τὸν χριστὸν κυρίου Within a single verse κύριος appears in both registers the chapter exploits: κύριον ὑμῶν ('your lord', the human-master sense, = Saul as the guards' sovereign) and χριστὸν κυρίου ('the anointed of the LORD', the divine genitive). The Hebraism υἱοὶ θανατώσεως ('sons of death', בְּנֵי מָוֶת) brands the negligent guards as deserving capital punishment — Saul's two-fold dignity (royal and sacral) makes their dereliction doubly grave.
26:19 ἐξέβαλόν με σήμερον μὴ ἐστηρίσθαι ἐν κληρονομίᾳ κυρίου … δούλευε θεοῖς ἑτέροις David equates exile from κληρονομία κυρίου (נַחֲלַת יהוה, 'the LORD's inheritance' = the land as the sphere of covenant worship) with being told to 'serve other gods' (θεοῖς ἑτέροις, the Deuteronomic אֱלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים). The verse reflects an ancient theology of territorial worship: to be driven from YHWH's land is to be driven from his presence (ἐξ ἐναντίας προσώπου κυρίου, v. 20). David curses the human instigators (ἐπικατάρατοι … ἐνώπιον κυρίου) while leaving open that the LORD himself may be the cause, in which case sacrifice can appease (ὀσφρανθείη θυσίας σου).
26:20 καθὼς καταδιώκει ὁ νυκτικόραξ ἐν τοῖς ὄρεσιν The LXX reads νυκτικόραξ ('night-raven / owl', a nocturnal bird of prey) where the MT has קֹרֵא ('partridge'). The Greek figure intensifies the pathos: the king of Israel demeans his majesty by hunting one fugitive's life as an ill-omened nocturnal predator hunts in the hills. The simile caps David's appeal with the absurd disproportion between the royal army (three thousand men, v. 2) and its quarry — a single hunted ψυχή.
26:25 ποιῶν ποιήσεις καὶ δυνάμενος δυνήσει Saul's blessing closes with a double figura etymologica (participle + cognate finite verb), the LXX's standard calque of the Hebrew infinitive absolute (עָשֹׂה תַעֲשֶׂה … יָכֹל תּוּכַל, 'you will surely do … surely prevail'). The construction expresses certainty and intensity: the doomed king unwittingly endorses his anointed supplanter, foretelling David's effective success and power. The same Hebraism appears throughout the LXX for emphatic prediction (cf. ἐκβαλεῖ ὑμᾶς ἐκβολῇ, Exod 11:1).
27:1 προστεθήσομαι … εἰς χεῖρας Σαουλ The future passive προστεθήσομαι ('I shall be added / swept away') renders a Hebrew text the LXX read as if from יָסַף ('add') rather than the likely נִסְפֶּה ('be swept away / perish', from סָפָה); the sense in context is David's fear of being 'gathered up' into Saul's hand and destroyed. The bracketing of the verse by σωθῶ … σωθήσομαι ('escape … be saved') frames David's whole reasoning around deliverance — sought, paradoxically, in the land of the enemy.
27:2 οἱ τετρακόσιοι ἄνδρες The LXX reads 'four hundred' men where MT 1 Sam 27:2 has 'six hundred' (cf. 1 Sam 23:13; 25:13; 30:9). The lower figure is a genuine LXX/Vorlage variant, not an error of transmission within the Greek; it is retained verbatim.
27:8 ἀπὸ ἀνηκόντων ἡ ἀπὸ Γελαμψουρ τετειχισμένων One of the chapter's most opaque clauses. The substantival participle ἀπὸ ἀνηκόντων ('from those reaching/belonging') and the loose article ἡ reflect a literal rendering of a difficult or partly corrupt Hebrew describing the land's inhabited extent. Γελαμψουρ is an indeclinable place-name probably conflating the Hebrew phrase 'as you go to Shur' (בּוֹאֲךָ שׁוּרָה); τετειχισμένων ('fortified') describes the region's walled settlements, heightening the totality of David's conquest 'as far as the land of Egypt'.
27:9 οὐκ ἐζωογόνει ἄνδρα καὶ γυναῖκα The verb ζωογονέω ('keep alive') is freighted: it is the LXX word for the midwives who 'kept the male children alive' against Pharaoh's order (Exod 1:17–18) and the term of the herem ('you shall keep nothing alive', Deut 20:16). Here, negated and applied to David, the same verb that once marked the preservation of Israel's life now marks total slaughter — and v. 11 reveals its purpose is not zeal but concealment: a strategy of leaving no witness.
27:12 ᾔσχυνται αἰσχυνόμενος … ἔσται μοι δοῦλος εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα The cognate construction (finite perfect + present participle of αἰσχύνω) is the LXX's standard calque of the Hebrew infinitive absolute, intensifying to 'he has utterly disgraced himself' — Achish's conviction that David is irredeemably alienated from Israel. The whole verse turns on dramatic irony: every clause of Achish's confident reasoning is true on its surface (David has indeed slaughtered and lied) yet false in its inference (David is not Achish's man but Israel's future king); the resounding εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα ('forever') is the deception's ironic capstone, echoing David's own self-styling as ὁ δοῦλός σου in v. 5.
28:3, 7–9 ἐγγαστρίμυθος / γνώστης ἐγγαστρίμυθος (lit. 'one who speaks from the belly', a ventriloquist whose voice seems to come from the dead) is the standard LXX rendering of אוֹב, a necromancer consulting a 'familiar spirit'; it is regularly paired with γνώστης ('knower / wizard', rendering יִדְּעֹנִי). The chapter exploits the word's range: in vv. 3, 7, 9 it names the medium-person (γυνὴ ἐγγαστρίμυθος), but at v. 8 the abstract instrumental ἐν τῷ ἐγγαστριμύθῳ ('by the familiar spirit') names the divinatory practice/spirit itself, rendering בָּאוֹב. The bitter irony is structural: Saul had outlawed precisely this class (περιεῖλεν, v. 3; the woman's stronger ἐξωλέθρευσεν, v. 9), and now breaks his own decree.
28:6 ἐν τοῖς δήλοις δῆλοι (lit. 'the clear/manifest things', from δῆλος) is the LXX's rendering of the Urim (אוּרִים), the priestly oracular lots; the related noun δήλωσις renders Urim elsewhere (e.g. Exod 28:30). The threefold ἐν (ἐνύπνια / δῆλοι / προφῆται) catalogues the three sanctioned channels of revelation, all now silent — the theological engine driving Saul to necromancy; the same triad recurs (minus the Urim) on Saul's own lips at v. 15.
28:13 Θεοὺς ἑόρακα ἀναβαίνοντας ἐκ τῆς γῆς The plural Θεούς ('gods') renders the ambiguous Hebrew אֱלֹהִים, here a numinous, preternatural being rising from the underworld; the plural form leaves the apparition's nature eerily indeterminate (a 'god / divine being' from below). The participle ἀναβαίνοντας ('coming up') is cognate in sense with the necromantic ἀνάγω ('bring up') of the request (vv. 8, 11), and ἐκ τῆς γῆς ('out of the earth') denotes Sheol, the realm of the dead.
28:17 διαρρήξει κύριος τὴν βασιλείαν σου The future διαρρήγνυμι ('tear apart', rendering קָרַע) deliberately reactivates the torn-robe sign of 15:27–28, where Samuel's rent garment symbolized the torn kingdom; what was enacted symbolically there is now pronounced as accomplished judgment (πεποίηκεν … καθὼς ἐλάλησεν ἐν χειρί μου). The kingdom is 'torn from your hand' (ἐκ χειρός σου) and 'given to your neighbor, to David' (τῷ πλησίον σου τῷ Δαυιδ) — the διαρρήξει/δώσει pair (tear-away / give) structuring the dynastic transfer, and the frame of vv. 1–2 (David in the Philistine camp) sealing the irony.
28:19 αὔριον σὺ καὶ οἱ υἱοί σου … πεσοῦνται The single adverb αὔριον ('tomorrow', מָחָר) is the most chilling word of the oracle, fixing Saul's and his sons' death to the very next day (fulfilled at Gilboa, ch. 31). The verse is framed by the repeated εἰς χεῖρας ἀλλοφύλων ('into the hands of the Philistines'), and the verb πεσοῦνται ('will fall', נָפַל) reappears immediately in narration as Saul ἔπεσεν ἑστηκώς ('fell full-length', v. 20) — his collapse a foreshadowing of his fall in battle. The fronted παρεμβολή ('camp', the chapter's keyword from v. 1) underscores the totality of the coming defeat.
28:20 ἔπεσεν ἑστηκὼς ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν The perfect participle ἑστηκώς ('standing') with ἔπεσεν yields 'he fell (at) full length / full-stretched', rendering the Hebrew מְלֹא־קוֹמָתוֹ ('the fullness of his stature'). The notice recalls Saul's introduction as the tallest man in Israel (10:23): the king who once stood head and shoulders above the people now lies prostrate his whole length on the ground, drained of ἰσχύς ('strength') by terror and a day-and-night fast — a vivid emblem of the fallen monarchy.
29:1 καὶ Ισραηλ παρενέβαλεν ἐν Αενδωρ τῇ ἐν Ιεζραελ The LXX names the spring of Endor (Αενδωρ, עֵין דֹּאר) where the MT of 1 Sam 29:1 reads simply 'at the spring (בָעַיִן) which is in Jezreel.' The LXX's specification ties this muster narratively to the necromancy scene at Endor in ch. 28, locating both events in the same well-known valley locale on the eve of Gilboa.
29:4 μὴ γινέσθω ἐπίβουλος τῆς παρεμβολῆς … ἐν ταῖς κεφαλαῖς τῶν ἀνδρῶν ἐκείνων The LXX's ἐπίβουλος ('plotter / treacherous adversary', from ἐπιβουλεύω) renders the Hebrew לְשָׂטָן ('an adversary / accuser'), crystallizing the precise fear of an enemy embedded within one's own camp. The lords then answer their own rhetorical question with grim realism: David could buy back Saul's favor 'with the heads of these men' (the Philistine soldiers) — an image echoing David's earlier presentation of Philistine trophies (18:27).
29:5 ἐπάταξεν Σαουλ ἐν χιλιάσιν αὐτοῦ καὶ Δαυιδ ἐν μυριάσιν αὐτοῦ The famous women's victory-couplet, first sung at 18:7 and recalled by Achish's servants at 21:12, returns here as the lords' clinching argument. The tight Hebrew parallelism with its escalation (thousands → ten thousands, χιλιάσιν → μυριάσιν) is precisely what makes David more dangerous than Saul in Philistine eyes; the single verb ἐπάταξεν governs both cola by gapping, the standard LXX handling of Hebrew verbal parallelism.
29:6 ζῇ κύριος ὅτι εὐθὴς σύ Remarkably, the Philistine Achish swears by Israel's God — the oath-formula ζῇ κύριος ('as the LORD lives', Hebrew חַי יְהוָה) on the lips of a pagan king is a striking LXX touch of dramatic characterization, and the chapter's sole use of κύριος for the Tetragrammaton (everywhere else κύριος denotes a human master). The MT enriches the praise with 'as an angel of God'; the LXX keeps it compact (εὐθὴς … ἀγαθός) but no less warm. The 'eyes' idiom (ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖς μου … ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖς τῶν σατραπῶν) frames David's predicament: good to Achish, not good to the lords.
29:8 πολεμῆσαι τοὺς ἐχθροὺς τοῦ κυρίου μου τοῦ βασιλέως David's protest turns on a studiedly ambiguous phrase: 'the enemies of my lord the king.' From Achish's standpoint the king is himself and the enemies are Israel; but David's words could equally mean Saul's enemies. This deliberate equivocation — sustained by the deferential vassal-idiom τοῦ κυρίου μου τοῦ βασιλέως — is the dramatic-ironic heart of the chapter: the reader cannot be sure whether David is feigning zeal or quietly reserving his true loyalty, and the narrative never resolves it.
29:10 λόγον λοιμὸν μὴ θῇς ἐν καρδίᾳ σου The vivid idiom λόγον λοιμόν ('a baneful/pestilent word') renders Hebrew דָּבָר רָע, where λοιμός ('pestilence / plague') is pressed into adjectival service for a resentful grudge harbored in the heart. Achish's gentle warning μὴ θῇς ἐν καρδίᾳ σου ('do not set in your heart') asks David to nurse no bitterness over the dismissal — a tenderness immediately vindicated by David's prompt, unresentful obedience at dawn (v. 11, ὤρθρισεν fulfilling ὄρθρισον / ὀρθρίσατε).
30:6 ἐκραταιώθη Δαυιδ ἐν κυρίῳ θεῷ αὐτοῦ The theological pivot of the chapter. The passive ἐκραταιώθη (rendering the Hebrew Hithpael חָזַק, 'strengthened himself') bears reflexive force: against the despair of his men, who in their bitterness (κατώδυνος ψυχή) speak of stoning him (λιθοβολῆσαι αὐτόν), David finds resolve not in his circumstances or his troops but ἐν κυρίῳ — in covenant relationship with YHWH. Every action that reverses the catastrophe flows from this inward turn.
30:8 καταλαμβάνων καταλήμψῃ καὶ ἐξαιρούμενος ἐξελῇ A double figura-etymologica (participle + cognate finite verb), the LXX's standard rendering of the Hebrew emphatic infinitive absolute (הַשֵּׂג תַּשִּׂיג … הַצֵּל תַּצִּיל). The oracle guarantees not merely pursuit but certain overtaking and full rescue; ἐξελῇ (from ἐξαιρέω) is precisely fulfilled at v. 18 (ἐξείλατο) and summed at v. 19 (τὰ πάντα ἐπέστρεψεν) — the divine word that structures the whole recovery.
30:19 οὐ διεφώνησεν αὐτοῖς … τὰ πάντα ἐπέστρεψεν Δαυιδ διαφωνέω, lit. 'be discordant / out of tune', is used idiomatically in the LXX for 'be missing / lost' (cf. Num 31:49). The negation, expanded by a sweeping merism (small to great, spoil, sons and daughters, everything) and clinched by the fronted τὰ πάντα ('the whole'), declares an absolute, miraculous completeness of recovery — the realized fulfillment of the oracle's ἐξελῇ.
30:22 πᾶς ἀνὴρ λοιμὸς καὶ πονηρός λοιμός ('plague / pestilence') used adjectivally is the LXX's vivid rendering of בְּלִיַּעַל ('worthless / base') — a 'plague of a man'; paired with πονηρός ('evil') it brands the selfish faction. Their argument (the stay-behinds did not fight, so deserve no spoil) is the foil for David's theology of the spoil as the LORD's gift, not the warriors' wage.
30:24 κατὰ τὴν μερίδα τοῦ καταβαίνοντος εἰς πόλεμον οὕτως ἔσται ἡ μερὶς τοῦ καθημένου ἐπὶ τὰ σκεύη David's equal-share ruling, expressed in a balanced comparative formula and summed by κατὰ τὸ αὐτὸ μεριοῦνται ('they shall share alike'). The substantival participles contrast the combatant (ὁ καταβαίνων εἰς πόλεμον, idiom for joining battle) with the rear-guard (ὁ καθήμενος ἐπὶ τὰ σκεύη); v. 25 elevates the decision to a permanent πρόσταγμα καὶ δικαίωμα 'until this day', a classic LXX etiological formula.
31:3 ἐτραυματίσθη εἰς τὰ ὑποχόνδρια The OG localizes Saul's wound with a medical term, ὑποχόνδρια ('the soft parts under the cartilage of the breastbone', i.e. the upper abdomen), where the MT has only מְאֹד ('greatly'). The translator interprets the Hebrew adverbial intensification as a vital, mortal wound to the midsection, motivating Saul's immediate plea for a death-blow in v. 4; the cognate τραυματίζω links Saul's wounding to the τραυματίαι ('slain') of v. 1.
31:4 μὴ ἔλθωσιν οἱ ἀπερίτμητοι οὗτοι … καὶ ἐμπαίξωσίν μοι Saul's negative-purpose clause (μή + aorist subjunctives) reveals that his terror is of dishonor, not death: ἀπερίτμητοι ('uncircumcised', עֲרֵלִים) is the standard contemptuous Israelite slur for the Philistines (cf. 1 Kgdms 14:6; 17:26), and ἐμπαίζω ('mock, make sport of', עָלַל Hithpael) names the abuse he cannot bear. His suicide is meant to forestall it — yet vv. 9–10 show the body desecrated anyway, the dread fulfilled in death.
31:9 εὐαγγελίζοντες τοῖς εἰδώλοις αὐτῶν The OG uses the verb of glad tidings, εὐαγγελίζω (rendering בִּשֵּׂר), for the Philistines' announcement of Saul's death — a sharp irony, since the same root carries the gospel of salvation in Isaiah (40:9; 52:7) and the NT. Here the 'good news' is the death of the LORD's anointed, proclaimed before worthless idols (εἴδωλα); the narrative implicitly mocks the idols' apparent 'triumph' over YHWH, which the ark-narrative of 1 Kgdms 5 had already exposed as illusory.
31:10 ἀνέθηκαν τὰ σκεύη αὐτοῦ εἰς τὸ Ἀσταρτεῖον Saul's armor is dedicated as a votive trophy (ἀνατίθημι, the verb of cultic dedication) in the temple of Astarte — the Philistine mirror-image of Israel's storing of Goliath's sword 'behind the ephod' at the sanctuary (1 Kgdms 21:9). The Greek coinage Ἀσταρτεῖον (a -εῖον shrine-formation from Astarte) renders the MT's בֵּית עַשְׁתָּרוֹת; the dedication of the king's gear to a foreign goddess marks the nadir of Saul's reign, which had begun with the Spirit of God rushing upon him (1 Kgdms 10:10; 11:6).
31:13 θάπτουσιν ὑπὸ τὴν ἄρουραν τὴν Ιαβις Where the MT buries the bones תַּחַת הָאֶשֶׁל ('under the tamarisk') at Jabesh, the OG reads ὑπὸ τὴν ἄρουραν ('under the tilled field/ploughland') — the translator either read a different Vorlage or interpreted the rare אֶשֶׁל by its agricultural setting. The seven-day fast (νηστεύουσιν ἑπτὰ ἡμέρας) that follows is the customary full term of mourning (cf. Gen 50:10); as the closing act of 1 Kingdoms, it leaves the book suspended in grief, the throne empty, and the reader turned toward 2 Kingdoms, where the loyalty of Jabesh will be blessed by David (2 Kgdms 2:5–7) and the bones of Saul and Jonathan finally laid to rest (2 Kgdms 21:12–14).

How the data set is organized

The interpretive tiers (syntactic function, semantic force, discourse structure, and the proposed argument outlines) are interpretive by nature; where readings legitimately differ, the more common analysis was generally chosen, and the lexical notes are condensed orientation rather than a substitute for a lexicon (e.g. LEH / Muraoka) or a full commentary.