First-born son … second: the translations “older” and “younger” are more idiomatic English. The meaning is not merely that Joel was older than Abijah, with the possibility that there were other sons older than both of them. Samuel had only two sons. The name Joel means “Yaw (Yahweh) is God.” The name Abijah means “my father is Yahweh.”

Since Samuel had only two sons, it may be more natural to say “the other” in place of his second. And in some languages it may also be more natural to reorder the first part of this verse along the following lines: “Joel was the name of the first-born son and Abijah was the name of the other one.”

Judges: as in verse 1.

Beer-sheba: a town in the Judean desert at the southern end of Israelite territory (see the comment on 3.20). Their father Samuel had carried out his work in the central hill country to the north.

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on the First and Second Books of Samuel, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2001. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .