Who loved whom greatly?

[JennyG]

1 Sam. 16 v 21:
And David came to Saul, and stood before him: and he loved him greatly; and he became his armourbearer
I always rather assumed it was Saul who loved David, though (as the saying goes) he had a funny way of showing it. Then it occurred to me the opposite might be meant.
Please can anyone tell me if there is anything in the Hebrew to fix it?

 

[Peairtach]

And David came to Saul and entered his service. And Saul loved him greatly, and he became his armor-bearer. (ESV)

David came to Saul and entered his service. Saul liked him very much, and David became one of his armor-bearers.(NIV)

Then David came to Saul and [fn] attended him; and [fn] Saul loved him greatly, and he became his armor bearer.(NASB)

Courtesy of
Blue Letter Bible - Home Page

 

[JennyG]

thanks, Richard - I found no light in my commentaries, didn't occur to me to try a different translation - I don't use them anyway, and I assumed the original must consist of pronouns. It's how i always understood it before,... till the other day I wondered if it might not make more sense the other way round (as well as keeping the grammatical subjects all in a row)

 

[iainduguid]

The original does only have the pronouns, which is not uncommon in Hebrew. The translations are doing their best to interpret those pronouns to clarify matters for their readers, I think rightly in this case. The point is that Saul appreciated and benefitted from David's musical service, and then in the next chapter from his defeat of Goliath - and yet in spite of all that, he subsequently came to hate David. Reminiscent of Psalm 35:19 and 69:4.

Iain

 

[JennyG]

The original does only have the pronouns, which is not uncommon in Hebrew. The translations are doing their best to interpret those pronouns to clarify matters for their readers

thank you, that was really what I was wondering about. Would it follow that the versions Richard cites are founded purely on translators' hunch?
I don't know how important that one verse is,.. but David probably did show more love towards Saul than vice versa

 

[Jack K]

Would it follow that the versions Richard cites are founded purely on translators' hunch?

I don't know if I'd put it that way. From the info brought up in this thread, I'd say those translation decisions are based on context, which is less sure than actually having the word there in the Hebrew, but better than a pure hunch.