1 Samuel 2:18-20

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. 1 Samuel 2:18 tn The word “now” does not appear in the Hebrew but was added as part of beginning a new topic in a new paragraph. Verse 11b begins similarly.
2. 1 Samuel 2:18 tn Heb “with [or “before”] the face of.” Cf. 1 Sam 2:11 and 1 Kgs 13:6 where the face represents favor.
3. 1 Samuel 2:18 tn The term נַעַר (naʿar), here translated “boy,” often refers to a servant or apprentice in line for a position of authority. The same term describes Samuel in vs 11 and Eli’s sons in vs 17. The repetition helps establish the contrast between Samuel and Eli’s sons.
4. 1 Samuel 2:20 tn The Hebrew verb שִׂים (sim) means “to position, to set down, to set up, to install.”
5. 1 Samuel 2:20 tn Heb “seed.”
6. 1 Samuel 2:20 tc The MT reads “in place of the request which he asked of the Lord.” The LXX reads “in place of the loan which you lent to the Lord.” At Qumran 4QSam^a has the Hiphil form of שָׁאַל (shaʾal), “which she loaned (or entrusted) to the Lord” (cf. 1:28). The masculine verb in the MT is odd, since the context expects Hannah to be the subject. A masculine form would need to be read impersonally or repointed as a passive. The translation most closely follows 4QSam^a and understands the “request” to be Samuel, the requested one. A longer English translation would be “in place of the one which was requested which she dedicated to the Lord.”
7. 1 Samuel 2:20 tc LXX “the man.”
8. 1 Samuel 2:20 tn Heb “his.”