1Sa 2:27 | NET2full | STEP | Then a man of God came to Eli and said to him, “ This is what the Lord has said : ‘I plainly revealed myself to your ancestor’s house when they were slaves to the house of Pharaoh in Egypt .

‏ 1 Samuel 2:27

The Lord Judges the House of Eli

27 Then a man of God came to Eli and said to him, “This is what the Lord has said: ‘I plainly ^{▼▼tn Or “certainly.” The infinitive absolute appears before the finite verb to emphasize its modality, here the indicative mode.} revealed ^{▼▼tc The MT poses as a question “Did I actually reveal myself…?” The LXX records as a statement “I revealed myself…” The syntax of the Hebrew can either ask for information that is not known or be used as a rhetorical question which expects the answer “no.” In this context the expected answer would be “yes.” One approach is to leave the question as in the Hebrew, probably expecting the reader to still think the answer should be “yes,” even though it is the not the syntax for it (ESV, KJV). Another is to add a missing negative “did I not reveal myself…” so that the question expects the answer “yes” (NIV, NAS, NKJV). More likely the interrogative הֲ (ha) is a case of dittography, as the previous word ends with the same letter ה (he) (NRSV, NLT).} myself to your ancestor’s house when they were slaves to the house of Pharaoh in Egypt. ^{▼▼tc Reading with 4QSama and the LXX “when they were in the land of Egypt, slaves to the house of Pharaoh.” The MT omits “slaves,” probably lost due to homoioteleuton.}