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LXX 1 Samuel

Septuagint

About this book
Chapter 3

1 And the child Samuel ministered to the Lord before Eli the priest: and the word of the Lord was precious in those days, there was no distinct vision. 2 And it happened at that time that Eli was sleeping in his place; and his eyes began to fail, and could not see. 3 And the lamp of God was burning before it was trimmed, and Samuel slept in the temple, where was the ark of God. 4 And the Lord called, Samuel, Samuel; and he said, Look, here I am. 5 And he ran to Eli, and said, Here I am, for you called me: and he said, I did not call you; return, go to sleep; and he returned and went to sleep. 6 And the Lord called again, Samuel, Samuel: and he went to Eli the second time, and said, Here I am, for you called me: and he said, I did not call you; return, go to sleep. 7 And it was before Samuel knew God, and before the word of the Lord was revealed to him. 8 And the Lord called Samuel again for the third time: and he arose and went to Eli, and said, Look, I am here, for you called me: and Eli perceived that the Lord had called the child. 9 And he said, Return, child, go to sleep; and it will happen if he shall call you, that you shall say, Speak, Lord, for your servant hears: and Samuel went and lay down in his place. 10 And the Lord came, and stood, and called him as before: and Samuel said, Speak, for your servant hears. 11 And the Lord said to Samuel, Look, I execute my words in Israel; whoever hears them, both his ears shall tingle. 12 In that day I will raise up against Eli all things that I have said against his house; I will begin, and I will make an end. 13 And I have told him that I will be avenged on his house perpetually for the iniquities of his sons, because his sons⁠ spoke evil against God, and he did not admonish them, not even so. 14 I have sworn to the house of Eli, the iniquity of the house of Eli shall not be atoned for with incense or sacrifices for ever. 15 And Samuel slept till morning, and rose early in the morning, and opened the doors of the house of the Lord; and Samuel feared to tell Eli the vision. 16 And Eli said to Samuel, Samuel, child;⁠ and he said, Look, here I am. 17 And he said, What was the word that was spoken to you? Please do not hide it from me: may God do these things to you, and more also, if you hide from me any thing of all the words that were spoken to you in your ears. 18 And Samuel reported all the words, and did not hide them from him. And Eli said, He is the Lord, he shall do that which is good in his sight. 19 And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and there did not fall one of his words to the ground. 20 And all Israel knew from Dan even to Beersheba, that Samuel was faithful as a prophet to the Lord. 21 And the Lord manifested himself again in Shiloh, for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel; and Samuel was accredited to all Israel as a prophet to the Lord from one end of the land to the other: and Eli was very old, and his sons kept advancing in wickedness, and their way was evil before the Lord.

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Compare 1 Samuel 3:16 and LXX 1 Samuel 3:16

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

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Summary

In 1 Samuel 3, Eli calls Samuel “my son,” but in the Greek Septuagint this is changed to “child,” since Samuel is not his son. This change shows a concern for accuracy and how translators corrected their sources when there are interpretive choices.

Passages

1 Samuel 3:16

Hebrew Bible
15 So Samuel lay down until morning. Then he opened the doors of the Lord’s house. But Samuel was afraid to tell Eli about the vision. 16 However, Eli called Samuel and said, “Samuel, my son!” He replied, “Here I am.” 17 Eli said, “What message did he speak to you? Don’t conceal it from me. God will judge you severely if you conceal from me anything that he said to you!”
600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Samuel

LXX 1 Samuel 3:16

Septuagint
15 And Samuel slept till morning, and rose early in the morning, and opened the doors of the house of the Lord; and Samuel feared to tell Eli the vision. 16 And Eli said to Samuel, Samuel, child; and he said, Look, here I am. 17 And he said, What was the word that was spoken to you? Please do not hide it from me: may God do these things to you, and more also, if you hide from me any thing of all the words that were spoken to you in your ears.
100–1 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX 1 Samuel

References

"... 1 Samuel 3:16 includes the address “my child” though Samuel is not really a descendant of Eli. Whereas the Targum does not see the necessity for corrections, the Septuagint writes only τέκνον ('child'). From a hermeneutical point of view, the text must, as far as possible without major corrections, meet the requirement of factual correctness ..."
Martin Meiser, The Septuagint and Its Reception: Collected Essays (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2022), 70.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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