Texts in Conversation
1 Samuel 28 shows Samuel declaring that God has become Saul’s enemy. The Greek Septuagint translation is significantly different, stating instead that God is now with Saul’s rival, likely to soften a harsh depiction of God.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
1 Samuel 28:16
Hebrew Bible
15 Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?” Saul replied, “I am terribly troubled! The Philistines are fighting against me and God has turned away from me. He does not answer me anymore—not by the prophets nor by dreams. So I have called on you to tell me what I should do.” 16 Samuel said, “Why are you asking me, now that the Lord has turned away from you and has become your enemy? 17 The Lord has done exactly as I prophesied! The Lord has torn the kingdom from your hand and has given it to your neighbor David!
Date: 600–501 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
LXX 1 Samuel 28:16
Septuagint
15 And Samuel said, Why have you troubled me, that I should come up? And Saul said, I am greatly distressed, and the Philistines war against me, and God has departed from me, and no longer listens to me either by the hand of the prophets or by dreams: and now I have called you to tell me what I shall do. 16 And Samuel said, Why do you ask me, whereas the Lord has departed from you, and has come to be with your neighbor? 17 And the Lord has done to you, as the Lord spoke by me; and the Lord will tear your kingdom out of your hand, and will give it to your neighbor David.
Date: 100–1 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... In 1 Samuel 28:16, Samuel states the reasoning for Saul’s catastrophic fate. The Masoretic text reads “God became your enemy”. In the Septuagint, we read “God is with your neighbour.” Perhaps this phrasing is not the result of translation but of inner-Hebrew correction; someone wrote עם רעך instead of ערך. The graphical closeness does not imply automatically the lacking of consciousness. In any case, the translator of the Septuagint is not the only one who avoids the notion that God should be an enemy of human beings. Also, the Targumist reformulates this passage: “the Memra of the Lord is at the aid of the man whose enemy you are”. Josephus omits this passage ..."
Martin Meiser, The Septuagint and Its Reception: Collected Essays (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2022), 76.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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