1 Samuel 2:16

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. 1 Samuel 2:16 tn The Hebrew has a preterite verb, normally “and then he said.” In this case it gives the next event in a sequence that is modal and describes something typical in past time. Most English translations add “if” because this is a possible and common scenario rather than a specific incident only.
2. 1 Samuel 2:16 tc The construction is a Piel infinitive absolute followed by a Hiphil imperfect, the only case of such syntax. Normally the infinitive absolute agrees with the verbal stem of the main verb, or sometimes is Qal when the main verb is not. The LXX renders in the passive voice, “the fat should be burned,” probably interpreting the consonants of these verbs as Pual forms.
3. 1 Samuel 2:16 tc The LXX adds “from any.”
4. 1 Samuel 2:16 tn Heb “whatever your soul desires.”
5. 1 Samuel 2:16 tc The translation follows the Qere and many medieval Hebrew mss (“no”) rather than the MT’s Kethib, which reads “to him.”
6. 1 Samuel 2:16 tc The Qumran text, 4QSam^a, reads “you must give and I will take by force.” 4QSam^a continues with a text similar to vss 13-14, in which the priest’s servant describes stabbing the trident into the pot to take whatever would come up. Either this repetition was original and the MT and LXX eliminated the redundancy, or the tradition behind the Qumran scroll may have read these elements in a different order than the MT and LXX and then added the material to the earlier location (matching the MT and LXX) resulting in the repetition. See Graeme Auld, I & II Samuel (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011) 44-45.