1tn Heb “and struck them down with a great blow.”

2tn Heb “an ephod went down in his hand.”

3tn The MT reading (“God has alienated him into my hand”) in v. 7 is a difficult and uncommon idiom. The use of this verb in Jer 19:4 is somewhat parallel, but not entirely so. Many scholars have therefore suspected a textual problem here, emending the word נִכַּר (nikkar, “alienated”) to סִכַּר (sikkar, “he has shut up [i.e., delivered]”). This is the idea reflected in the translations of the Syriac Peshitta and Vulgate, although it is not entirely clear whether they are reading something different from the MT or are simply paraphrasing what for them too may have been a difficult text. The LXX has “God has sold him into my hands,” apparently reading מַכַר (makar, “sold”) for MT’s נִכַּר. The present translation is a rather free interpretation.

4tn Heb “with two gates and a bar.” Since in English “bar” could be understood as a saloon, it has been translated as an attributive: “two barred gates.”

5tn Heb “So Saul mustered all his army for battle to go down to Keilah to besiege against David and his men.”

6tn Heb “Saul was planning the evil against him.”

7tn Heb “seeking.”

8tn Heb “they went where they went.”

9tn Heb “all the days.”

10tn Heb “him”; the referent (David) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

11tn Heb “saw.”

12tn Heb “strengthened his hand.”

13tn Heb “to all the desire of your soul.”

14tn Heb “know and see.” The expression is a hendiadys. See also v. 23.

15tn Heb “his place where his foot is.”

16tn Heb “established.”

17tn Heb “I will search him out.”

18tn Heb “to search.”

19sn The name הַמַּחְלְקוֹת סֶלַע (Sela Hammakhleqoth) probably means “Rock of Divisions” in Hebrew, in the sense that Saul and David parted company there (cf. NAB “Gorge of Divisions”; TEV “Separation Hill”). This etymology assumes that the word derives from the Hebrew root II חלק (khlq, “to divide”; HALOT 322 s.v. II חלק). However, there is another root I חלק, which means “to be smooth or slippery” (HALOT 322 s.v. I חלק). If the word is taken from this root, the expression would mean “Slippery Rock.”

20sn Beginning with 23:29, the verse numbers through 24:22 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 23:29 ET = 24:1 HT, 24:1 ET = 24:2 HT, 24:2 ET = 24:3 HT, etc., through 24:22 ET = 24:23 HT. With 25:1 the verse numbers in the ET and HT are again the same.