4Q52 Samuel^b

Language: Hebrew

Date:  250 B.C.[1]

Location: Qumran Cave 4

Contents: 1 Samuel 12:3, 5-6; 14:41-42; 15:18; 16:1-11; 19:10-13, 15-17; 20:26-42; 21:1-2, 4-9; 22:8-9; 23:8-20, 22-23

 

1 Samuel 12

3 Here I am. Witness against me before Yahweh, and before his anointed. Whose ox have I taken? Whose donkey have I taken? Whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed? Of whose hand have I taken a bribe to make me blind my eyes? I will restore it to you.”

[..]

5 He said to them, “Yahweh is witness against you, and his anointed is witness today, that you have not found anything in my hand.”

They said, “He is witness.” 6 Samuel said to the people, “It is Yahweh who appointed Moses and Aaron, and that brought your fathers up out of the land of Egypt.

[..]

1 Samuel 14

41 Therefore Saul said to Yahweh, the God of Israel, “Show the right.”

Jonathan and Saul were chosen, but the people escaped[2].

42 Saul said, “Cast lots between me and Jonathan my son.”

Jonathan was selected.

[..]

1 Samuel 15

18 and Yahweh sent you on a journey, and said, ‘Go, and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.’

[..]

1 Samuel 16

1 Yahweh said to Samuel, “How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite; for I have provided a king for myself among his sons.”

2 Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears it, he will kill me.”

Yahweh said, “Take a heifer with you, and say, I have come to sacrifice to Yahweh. 3 Call Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do. You shall anoint to me him whom I name to you.”

4 Samuel did that which Yahweh spoke, and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling, and said, “Seer, Do you come peaceably?”

5 He said, “Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to Yahweh. Sanctify yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice.” He sanctified Jesse and his sons, and called them to the sacrifice. 6 When they had come, he looked at Eliab, and said, “Surely Yahweh’s anointed is before him.”

7 But Yahweh said to Samuel, “Don’t look on his face, or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for I don’t see as man sees. For man looks at the outward appearance, but Yahweh looks at the heart.” 8 Then Jesse called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. He said, “Yahweh has not chosen this one, either.” 9 Then Jesse made Shammah to pass by. He said, “Yahweh has not chosen this one, either.” 10 Jesse made seven of his sons to pass before Samuel. Samuel said to Jesse, “Yahweh has not chosen these.” 11 Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all your children here?”

He said, “There remains yet the youngest. Behold, he is keeping the sheep.”

Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and get him, for we will not sit down until he comes here.”

[..]

1 Samuel 19

10 Saul sought to pin David to the wall with the spear; but he slipped away out of Saul’s presence, and he stuck the spear into the wall. David fled, and escaped that night. 11 Saul sent messengers to David’s house, to watch him, and to kill him in the morning. Michal, David’s wife, told him, saying, “If you don’t save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed.” 12 So Michal let David down through the window. He went away, fled, and escaped. 13 Michal took the teraphim, and laid it in the bed, and put a pillow of goats’ hair at its head, and covered it with clothes.

[..]

15 Saul sent the messengers to see David, saying, “Bring him up to me in the bed, that I may kill him.” 16 When the messengers came in, behold, the teraphim was in the bed, with the pillow of goats’ hair at its head.

17 Saul said to Michal, “Why have you deceived me like this and let my enemy go, so that he has escaped?”

Michal answered Saul, “He said to me, ‘Let me go! Why should I kill you?’ ”

[..]

1 Samuel 20

26 Nevertheless Saul didn’t say anything that day, for he thought, “Something has happened to him. He is not clean. Surely he is not clean.”

27 On the next day after the new moon, the second day, David’s place was empty. Saul said to Jonathan his son, “Why doesn’t the son of Jesse come to eat at the table, either yesterday, or today?”

28 Jonathan answered Saul, “David earnestly asked permission of me to go to Bethlehem. 29 He said, ‘Please let me go, for our family has a sacrifice in the city. As for me, my brother has commanded me to be there. Now please, if I have found favor in your eyes, please let me go away and see my brothers.’ Therefore he has not come to the king’s table.”

30 Then Saul’s anger burned greatly against Jonathan, and he said to him, “You son of a perverse rebellious woman rebellious slave girl, don’t I know that you have chosen the son of Jesse to your own shame, and to the shame of your mother’s nakedness? 31 For as long as the son of Jesse lives on the earth, you will not be established, nor will your kingdom. Therefore now send and bring him to me, for he shall surely die!”

32 Jonathan answered Saul his father, and said to him, “Why should he be put to death? What has he done?”

33 Saul cast his spear at him to strike him. By this Jonathan knew that his father was determined to put David to death. 34 So Jonathan arose shot up from the table in fierce anger, and ate no food the second day of the month; for he was grieved for David, because his father had treated him shamefully. 35 In the morning, Jonathan went out into the field at the time appointed with David, and a little boy with him. 36 He said to his boy, “Run, find now take the arrows which I shoot.” As the boy ran, he shot an arrow beyond him toward the city. 37 When the boy had come to the place of the arrow which Jonathan had shot, Jonathan cried after the boy, and said, “Isn’t the arrow beyond you?” 38 Jonathan cried after the boy lad, “Go fast! Hurry! Don’t delay!” Jonathan’s boy gathered up the arrows, and came to his master. 39 But the boy didn’t know anything. Only Jonathan and David knew the matter. 40 Jonathan gave his weapons to his boy, and said to him, “Go, carry them to the city.”

41 As soon as the boy was gone, David arose out of the south, and fell on his face to the ground, and bowed himself three times. They kissed one another, and wept one with another, and David wept the most. 42 Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, because we have both sworn in Yahweh’s name, saying, ‘Yahweh is between me and you, and between my offspring and your offspring, forever.’ ” He David arose and departed; and Jonathan went into toward the city.

 

1 Samuel 21

1 Then David came to Nob to Ahimelech the priest. Ahimelech came to meet David trembling, and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no man with you?” 2 David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has commanded me to do something, and has said to me, ‘Let no one know anything about the business about which I send you, and what I have commanded you. I have sent the young men to a certain place.’

[..]

4 The priest answered David, and said, “I have no common bread, but there is holy bread; if only the young men have kept themselves from women, and you may eat from it.”

5 David answered the priest, and said to him, “Truly, women have been kept from us as usual these three days. When I came out, the vessels of the young men were holy, though it was only a common journey. How much more then today shall their vessels be holy?” 6 So the priest gave him holy bread; for there was no bread there but the show bread that was taken from before Yahweh, to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away.

7 Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before Yahweh; and his name was Doeg the Edomite, the best of the herdsmen who belonged to Saul. 8 David said to Ahimelech, “Isn’t there here under your hand spear or sword? For I have neither brought my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king’s business required haste.”

9 The priest said, “Behold, the sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the valley of Elah, is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you would like to take that, take it; for there is no other except that here.”

David said, “There is none like that. Give it to me.”

 [..]

1 Samuel 22

8 that all of you have conspired against me, and there is no one who discloses to me when my son makes a treaty with the son of Jesse, and there is none of you who is sorry for me, or discloses to me that my son has stirred up my servant against me, to lie in wait, as it is today?”

9 Then Doeg the Edomite, who stood by the servants of Saul, answered and said, “I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub.

[..]

1 Samuel 23

8 Saul summoned all the people to war, to go down to Keilah, to besiege David and his men. 9 David knew that Saul was devising mischief against him; and he said to Abiathar the priest, “Bring the ephod here.” 10 Then David said, “O Yahweh, the God of Israel, your servant has surely heard that Saul seeks to come to Keilah, to destroy the city for my sake. 11 Will the men of Keilah deliver me up into his hand?[3] Will Saul come down, as your servant has heard? Yahweh, the God of Israel, I beg you, tell your servant.”

Yahweh said, “He will come down.”

12 Then David said, “Will the men of Keilah deliver me and my men into the hand of Saul?”

Yahweh said, “They will deliver you up.”

13 Then David and his men, who were about six hundred, arose and departed out of Keilah, and went wherever they could go. Saul was told that David was escaped from Keilah; and he gave up going there. 14 David stayed in the wilderness in the strongholds, and remained in the hill country in the wilderness of Ziph. Saul sought him every day, but God Yahweh didn’t deliver him into his hand. 15 David saw that Saul had come out to seek his life. David was in the wilderness of Ziph in the wood.

16 Jonathan, Saul’s son, arose, and went to David into the woods, and strengthened his hand in God Yahweh. 17 He said to him, “Don’t be afraid; for the hand of Saul my father won’t find you; and you will be king over Israel, and I will be next to you; and Saul my father knows that also.” 18 They both made a covenant before Yahweh. Then David stayed in the woods, and Jonathan went to his house.

19 Then the Ziphites came up to Saul to Gibeah, saying, “Doesn’t David hide is hiding himself with us in the strongholds in the woods, in the hill of Hachilah, which is on the south of the desert?. 20 Now therefore, O king, come down. According to all the desire of your soul to come down; and our part will be to deliver him up into the king’s hand.”

[..]

22 Please go make yet more sure, and know and see his place where his haunt is, and who has seen him there; for I have been told that he is very cunning. 23 See therefore, and take knowledge of all the lurking places where he hides himself, and come again to me with certainty, and I will go with you. It shall happen, if he is in the land, that I will search him out among all the thousands of Judah.”