1 This is the story of Elkanah, a man of the tribe of Ephraim who lived in Ramathaim-zophim, in the hills of Ephraim. His father's name was Jeroham, His grandfather was Elihu, His great-grandfather was Tohu, His great-great-grandfather was Zuph.
2 He had two wives, Hannah and Peninnah. Peninnah had some children, but Hannah didn't.
3 Each year Elkanah and his families journeyed to the Tabernacle at Shiloh to worship the Lord of the heavens and to sacrifice to him. (The priests on duty at that time were the two sons of Eli--Hophni and Phinehas.)
4 On the day he presented his sacrifice, Elkanah would celebrate the happy occasion by giving presents to Peninnah and her children;
5 but although he loved Hannah very much, he could give her only one present, for the Lord had sealed her womb; so she had no children to give presents to.
6 Peninnah made matters worse by taunting Hannah because of her barrenness.
7 Every year it was the same--Peninnah scoffing and laughing at her as they went to Shiloh, making her cry so much she couldn't eat.
8 "What's the matter, Hannah?" Elkanah would exclaim. "Why aren't you eating? Why make such a fuss over having no children? Isn't having me better than having ten sons?"
9 One evening after supper, when they were at Shiloh, Hannah went over to the Tabernacle. Eli the priest was sitting at his customary place beside the entrance.
10 She was in deep anguish and was crying bitterly as she prayed to the Lord.
11 And she made this vow: "O Lord of heaven, if you will look down upon my sorrow and answer my prayer and give me a son, then I will give him back to you, and he'll be yours for his entire lifetime, and his hair shall never be cut."
12 Eli noticed her mouth moving as she was praying silently and, hearing no sound, thought she had been drinking.
13
14 "Must you come here drunk?" he demanded. "Throw away your bottle."
15 "Oh no, sir!" she replied, "I'm not drunk! But I am very sad and I was pouring out my heart to the Lord. Please don't think that I am just some drunken bum!"
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17 "In that case," Eli said, "cheer up! May the Lord of Israel grant you your petition, whatever it is!"
18 "Oh, thank you, sir!" she exclaimed, and went happily back, and began to take her meals again.
19 The entire family was up early the next morning and went to the Tabernacle to worship the Lord once more. Then they returned home to Ramah, and when Elkanah slept with Hannah, the Lord remembered her petition;
20 in the process of time, a baby boy was born to her. She named him Samuel (meaning "asked of God") because, as she said, "I asked the Lord for him."
21 The next year Elkanah and Peninnah and her children went on the annual trip to the Tabernacle
22 without Hannah, for she told her husband, "Wait until the baby is weaned, and then I will take him to the Tabernacle and leave him there."
23 "Well, whatever you think best," Elkanah agreed. "May the Lord's will be done." So she stayed home until the baby was weaned.
24 Then, though he was still so small, they took him to the Tabernacle in Shiloh, along with a three-year-old bull for the sacrifice, and a bushel of flour and some wine.
25 After the sacrifice they took the child to Eli.
26 "Sir, do you remember me?" Hannah asked him. "I am the woman who stood here that time praying to the Lord!
27 I asked him to give me this child, and he has given me my request;
28 and now I am giving him to the Lord for as long as he lives." So she left him there at the Tabernacle for the Lord to use.
1 This was Hannah's prayer: "How I rejoice in the Lord! How he has blessed me! Now I have an answer for my enemies, For the Lord has solved my problem. How I rejoice!
2 No one is as holy as the Lord! There is no other God, Nor any Rock like our God.
3 Quit acting so proud and arrogant! The Lord knows what you have done, And he will judge your deeds.
4 Those who were mighty are mighty no more! Those who were weak are now strong.
5 Those who were well are now starving; Those who were starving are fed. The barren woman now has seven children; She with many children has no more!
6 The Lord kills, The Lord gives life.
7 Some he causes to be poor And others to be rich. He cuts one down And lifts another up.
8 He lifts the poor from the dust-- Yes, from a pile of ashes-- And treats them as princes Sitting in the seats of honor. For all the earth is the Lord's And he has set the world in order.
9 He will protect his godly ones, But the wicked shall be silenced in darkness. No one shall succeed by strength alone.
10 Those who fight against the Lord shall be broken; He thunders against them from heaven. He judges throughout the earth. He gives mighty strength to his King, And gives great glory to his anointed one."
11 So they returned home to Ramah without Samuel; and the child became the Lord's helper, for he assisted Eli the priest.
12 Now the sons of Eli were evil men who didn't love the Lord.
13 It was their regular practice to send out a servant whenever anyone was offering a sacrifice, and while the flesh of the sacrificed animal was boiling,
14 the servant would put a three-pronged fleshhook into the pot and demand that whatever it brought up be given to Eli's sons. They treated all of the Israelites in this way when they came to Shiloh to worship.
15 Sometimes the servant would come even before the rite of burning the fat on the altar had been performed, and he would demand raw meat before it was boiled, so that it could be used for roasting.
16 If the man offering the sacrifice replied, "Take as much as you want, but the fat must first be burned" as the law requires, then the servant would say, "No, give it to me now or I'll take it by force."
17 So the sin of these young men was very great in the eyes of the Lord; for they treated the people's offerings to the Lord with contempt.
18 Samuel, though only a child, was the Lord's helper and wore a little linen robe just like the priest's.
19 Each year his mother made a little coat for him and brought it to him when she came with her husband for the sacrifice.
20 Before they returned home Eli would bless Elkanah and Hannah and ask God to give them other children to take the place of this one they had given to the Lord.
21 And the Lord gave Hannah three sons and two daughters. Meanwhile Samuel grew up in the service of the Lord.
22 Eli was now very old, but he was aware of what was going on around him. He knew, for instance, that his sons were seducing the young women who assisted at the entrance of the Tabernacle.
23 "I have been hearing terrible reports from the Lord's people about what you are doing," Eli told his sons.
24 "It is an awful thing to make the Lord's people sin.
25 Ordinary sin receives heavy punishment, but how much more this sin of yours that has been committed against the Lord!" But they wouldn't listen to their father, for the Lord was already planning to kill them.
26 Little Samuel was growing in two ways--he was getting taller, and he was becoming everyone's favorite (and he was a favorite of the Lord's, too!).
27 One day a prophet came to Eli and gave him this message from the Lord: "Didn't I demonstrate my power when the people of Israel were slaves in Egypt?
28 Didn't I choose your ancestor Levi from among all his brothers to be my priest, and to sacrifice upon my altar, and to burn incense, and to wear a priestly robe as he served me? And didn't I assign the sacrificial offerings to you priests?
29 Then why are you so greedy for all the other offerings which are brought to me? Why have you honored your sons more than me--for you and they have become fat from the best of the offerings of my people!
30 "Therefore, I, the Lord God of Israel, declare that although I promised that your branch of the tribe of Levi could always be my priests, it is ridiculous to think that what you are doing can continue. I will honor only those who honor me, and I will despise those who despise me.
31 I will put an end to your family, so that it will no longer serve as priests. Every member will die before his time. None shall live to be old.
32 You will envy the prosperity I will give my people, but you and your family will be in distress and need. Not one of them will live out his days.
33 Those who are left alive will live in sadness and grief; and their children shall die by the sword.
34 And to prove that what I have said will come true, I will cause your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, to die on the same day!
35 "Then I will raise up a faithful priest who will serve me and do whatever I tell him to do. I will bless his descendants, and his family shall be priests to my kings forever.
36 Then all of your descendants shall bow before him, begging for money and food. 'Please,' they will say, 'give me a job among the priests so that I will have enough to eat.' "
1 Meanwhile little Samuel was helping the Lord by assisting Eli. Messages from the Lord were very rare in those days,
2 but one night after Eli had gone to bed (he was almost blind with age by now), and Samuel was sleeping in the Temple near the Ark,
3
4 the Lord called out, "Samuel! Samuel!" "Yes?" Samuel replied. "What is it?"
5 He jumped up and ran to Eli. "Here I am. What do you want?" he asked. "I didn't call you," Eli said. "Go on back to bed." So he did.
6 Then the Lord called again, "Samuel!" And again Samuel jumped up and ran to Eli. "Yes?" he asked. "What do you need?" "No, I didn't call you, my son," Eli said. "Go on back to bed."
7 (Samuel had never had a message from Jehovah before.)
8 So now the Lord called the third time, and once more Samuel jumped up and ran to Eli. "Yes?" he asked. "What do you need?" Then Eli realized it was the Lord who had spoken to the child.
9 So he said to Samuel, "Go and lie down again, and if he calls again, say, 'Yes, Lord, I'm listening.' " So Samuel went back to bed.
10 And the Lord came and called as before, "Samuel! Samuel!" And Samuel replied, "Yes, I'm listening."
11 Then the Lord said to Samuel, "I am going to do a shocking thing in Israel.
12 I am going to do all of the dreadful things I warned Eli about.
13 I have continually threatened him and his entire family with punishment because his sons are blaspheming God, and he doesn't stop them.
14 So I have vowed that the sins of Eli and of his sons shall never be forgiven by sacrifices and offerings."
15 Samuel stayed in bed until morning, then opened the doors of the Temple as usual, for he was afraid to tell Eli what the Lord had said to him.
16 But Eli called him. "My son," he said, "what did the Lord say to you?
17 Tell me everything. And may God punish you if you hide anything from me!"
18 So Samuel told him what the Lord had said. "It is the Lord's will," Eli replied; "let him do what he thinks best."
19 As Samuel grew, the Lord was with him and people listened carefully to his advice.
20 And all Israel from one end of the land to the other knew that Samuel was going to be a prophet of the Lord.
21 Then the Lord began to give messages to him there at the Tabernacle in Shiloh, and he passed them on to the people of Israel.
1 At that time Israel was at war with the Philistines. The Israeli army was camped near Ebenezer, the Philistines at Aphek.
2 And the Philistines defeated Israel, killing four thousand of them.
3 After the battle was over, the army of Israel returned to their camp and their leaders discussed why the Lord had let them be defeated. "Let's bring the Ark here from Shiloh," they said. "If we carry it into battle with us, the Lord will be among us and he will surely save us from our enemies."
4 So they sent for the Ark of the Lord of heaven who is enthroned above the angels. Hophni and Phinehas, the sons of Eli, accompanied it into the battle.
5 When the Israelis saw the Ark coming, their shout of joy was so loud that it almost made the ground shake!
6 "What's going on?" the Philistines asked. "What's all the shouting about over in the camp of the Hebrews?" When they were told it was because the Ark of the Lord had arrived,
7 they panicked. "God has come into their camp!" they cried out. "Woe upon us, for we have never had to face anything like this before!
8 Who can save us from these mighty gods of Israel? They are the same gods who destroyed the Egyptians with plagues when Israel was in the wilderness.
9 Fight as you never have before, O Philistines, or we will become their slaves just as they have been ours."
10 So the Philistines fought desperately and Israel was defeated again. Thirty thousand men of Israel died that day, and the remainder fled to their tents.
11 And the Ark of God was captured, and Hophni and Phinehas were killed.
12 A man from the tribe of Benjamin ran from the battle and arrived at Shiloh the same day with his clothes torn and dirt on his head.
13 Eli was waiting beside the road to hear the news of the battle, for his heart trembled for the safety of the Ark of God. As the messenger from the battlefront arrived and told what had happened, a great cry arose throughout the city.
14 "What is all the noise about?" Eli asked. And the messenger rushed over to Eli and told him what had happened.
15 (Eli was ninety-eight years old and was blind.)
16 "I have just come from the battle--I was there today," he told Eli,
17 "and Israel has been defeated and thousands of the Israeli troops are dead on the battlefield. Hophni and Phinehas were killed too, and the Ark has been captured."
18 When the messenger mentioned what had happened to the Ark, Eli fell backward from his seat beside the gate and his neck was broken by the fall, and he died (for he was old and fat). He had judged Israel for forty years.
19 When Eli's daughter-in-law, Phinehas' wife, who was pregnant, heard that the Ark had been captured and that her husband and father-in-law were dead, her labor pains suddenly began.
20 Just before she died, the women who were attending her told her that everything was all right and that the baby was a boy. But she did not reply or respond in any way.
21 Then she murmured, "Name the child 'Ichabod,' for Israel's glory is gone." (Ichabod means "there is no glory." She named him this because the Ark of God had been captured and because her husband and her father-in-law were dead.)
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1 The Philistines took the captured Ark of God from the battleground at Ebenezer to the temple of their idol Dagon in the city of Ashdod.
2
3 But when the local citizens went to see it the next morning, Dagon had fallen with his face to the ground before the Ark of Jehovah! They set him up again,
4 but the next morning the same thing had happened--the idol had fallen face down before the Ark of the Lord again. This time his head and hands had been cut off and were lying in the doorway; only the trunk of his body was left intact.
5 (That is why to this day neither the priests of Dagon nor his worshipers will walk on the threshold of the temple of Dagon in Ashdod.)
6 Then the Lord began to destroy the people of Ashdod and the nearby villages with bubonic plague.
7 When the people realized what was happening, they exclaimed, "We can't keep the Ark of the God of Israel here any longer. We will all perish along with our god Dagon."
8 So they called a conference of the mayors of the five cities of the Philistines to decide how to dispose of the Ark. The decision was to take it to Gath.
9 But when the Ark arrived at Gath, the Lord began destroying its people, young and old, with the plague, and there was a great panic.
10 So they sent the Ark to Ekron, but when the people of Ekron saw it coming they cried out, "They are bringing the Ark of the God of Israel here to kill us too!"
11 So they summoned the mayors again and begged them to send the Ark back to its own country, lest the entire city die. For the plague had already begun, and great fear was sweeping across the city.
12 Those who didn't die were deathly ill; and there was weeping everywhere.
1 The Ark remained in the Philistine country for seven months in all.
2 Then the Philistines called for their priests and diviners and asked them, "What shall we do about the Ark of God? What sort of gift shall we send with it when we return it to its own land?"
3 "Yes, send it back with a gift," they were told. "Send a guilt offering so that the plague will stop. Then, if it doesn't, you will know God didn't send the plague upon you after all."
4 "What guilt offering shall we send?" they asked. And they were told,
5 "Send five gold models of the tumor caused by the plague, and five gold models of the rats that have ravaged the whole land--the capital cities and villages alike. If you send these gifts and then praise the God of Israel, perhaps he will stop persecuting you and your god.
6 Don't be stubborn and rebellious as Pharaoh and the Egyptians were. They wouldn't let Israel go until God had destroyed them with dreadful plagues.
7 Now build a new cart and hitch to it two cows that have just had calves--cows that never before have been yoked--and shut their calves away from them in the barn.
8 Place the Ark of God on the cart beside a chest containing the gold models of the rats and tumors, and let the cows go wherever they want to.
9 If they cross the border of our land and go into Beth-shemesh, then you will know that it was God who brought this great evil upon us; if they don't but return to their calves, then we will know that the plague was simply a coincidence and was not sent by God at all."
10 So these instructions were carried out. Two cows with newborn calves were hitched to the cart and their calves were shut up in the barn.
11 Then the Ark of the Lord and the chest containing the gold rats and tumors were placed upon the cart.
12 And sure enough, the cows went straight along the road toward Beth-shemesh, lowing as they went; and the Philistine mayors followed them as far as the border of Beth-shemesh.
13 The people of Beth-shemesh were reaping wheat in the valley, and when they saw the Ark, they went wild with joy!
14 The cart came into the field of a man named Joshua and stopped beside a large rock. So the people broke up the wood of the cart for a fire and killed the cows and sacrificed them to the Lord as a burnt offering.
15 Several men of the tribe of Levi lifted the Ark and the chest containing the gold rats and tumors from the cart and laid them on the rock. And many burnt offerings and sacrifices were offered to the Lord that day by the men of Beth-shemesh.
16 After the five Philistine mayors had watched for awhile, they returned to Ekron that same day.
17 The five gold models of tumors which had been sent by the Philistines as a guilt offering to the Lord were gifts from the mayors of the capital cities, Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron.
18 The gold rats were to placate God for the other Philistine cities, both the fortified cities and the country villages controlled by the five capitals. (By the way, that large rock at Beth-shemesh can still be seen in the field of Joshua.)
19 But the Lord killed seventy of the men of Beth-shemesh because they looked into the Ark. And the people mourned because of the many people whom the Lord had killed.
20 "Who is able to stand before Jehovah, this holy God?" they cried out. "Where can we send the Ark from here?"
21 So they sent messengers to the people at Kiriath-jearim and told them that the Philistines had brought back the Ark of the Lord. "Come and get it!" they begged.
1 So the men of Kiriath-jearim came and took the Ark to the hillside home of Abinadab and installed his son Eleazar to be in charge of it.
2 The Ark remained there for twenty years, and during that time all Israel was in sorrow because the Lord had seemingly abandoned them.
3 At that time Samuel said to them, "If you are really serious about wanting to return to the Lord, get rid of your foreign gods and your Ashtaroth idols. Determine to obey only the Lord; then he will rescue you from the Philistines."
4 So they destroyed their idols of Baal and Ashtaroth and worshiped only the Lord.
5 Then Samuel told them, "Come to Mizpah, all of you, and I will pray to the Lord for you."
6 So they gathered there and, in a great ceremony, drew water from the well and poured it out before the Lord. They also went without food all day as a sign of sorrow for their sins. So it was at Mizpah that Samuel became Israel's judge.
7 When the Philistine leaders heard about the great crowds at Mizpah, they mobilized their army and advanced. The Israelis were badly frightened when they learned that the Philistines were approaching.
8 "Plead with God to save us!" they begged Samuel.
9 So Samuel took a suckling lamb and offered it to the Lord as a whole burnt offering and pleaded with him to help Israel. And the Lord responded.
10 Just as Samuel was sacrificing the burnt offering, the Philistines arrived for battle, but the Lord spoke with a mighty voice of thunder from heaven, and they were thrown into confusion, and the Israelis routed them
11 and chased them from Mizpah to Beth-car, killing them all along the way.
12 Samuel then took a stone and placed it between Mizpah and Jeshanah and named it Ebenezer (meaning, "the Stone of Help"), for he said, "The Lord has certainly helped us!"
13 So the Philistines were subdued and didn't invade Israel again at that time because the Lord was against them throughout the remainder of Samuel's lifetime.
14 The Israeli cities between Ekron and Gath, which had been conquered by the Philistines, were now returned to Israel, for the Israeli army rescued them from their Philistine captors. And there was peace between Israel and the Amorites in those days.
15 Samuel continued as Israel's judge for the remainder of his life.
16 He rode circuit annually, setting up his court first at Bethel, then Gilgal, and then Mizpah, and cases of dispute were brought to him in each of those three cities from all the surrounding territory.
17 Then he would come back to Ramah, for his home was there, and he would hear cases there too. And he built an altar to the Lord at Ramah.
1 In his old age, Samuel retired and appointed his sons as judges in his place.
2 Joel and Abijah, his oldest sons, held court in Beersheba;
3 but they were not like their father, for they were greedy for money. They accepted bribes and were very corrupt in the administration of justice.
4 Finally the leaders of Israel met in Ramah to discuss the matter with Samuel.
5 They told him that since his retirement things hadn't been the same, for his sons were not good men. "Give us a king like all the other nations have," they pleaded.
6 Samuel was terribly upset and went to the Lord for advice.
7 "Do as they say," the Lord replied, "for I am the one they are rejecting, not you--they don't want me to be their king any longer.
8 Ever since I brought them from Egypt they have continually forsaken me and followed other gods. And now they are giving you the same treatment.
9 Do as they ask, but warn them about what it will be like to have a king!"
10 So Samuel told the people what the Lord had said:
11 "If you insist on having a king, he will conscript your sons and make them run before his chariots;
12 some will be made to lead his troops into battle, while others will be slave laborers; they will be forced to plow in the royal fields and harvest his crops without pay, and make his weapons and chariot equipment.
13 He will take your daughters from you and force them to cook and bake and make perfumes for him.
14 He will take away the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his friends.
15 He will take a tenth of your harvest and distribute it to his favorites.
16 He will demand your slaves and the finest of your youth and will use your animals for his personal gain.
17 He will demand a tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves.
18 You will shed bitter tears because of this king you are demanding, but the Lord will not help you."
19 But the people refused to listen to Samuel's warning. "Even so, we still want a king," they said,
20 "for we want to be like the nations around us. He will govern us and lead us to battle."
21 So Samuel told the Lord what the people had said,
22 and the Lord replied again, "Then do as they say and give them a king." So Samuel agreed and sent the men home again.
1 Kish was a rich, influential man from the tribe of Benjamin. He was the son of Abiel, grandson of Zeror, great-grandson of Becorath, and great-great-grandson of Aphiah.
2 His son Saul was the most handsome man in Israel. And he was head and shoulders taller than anyone else in the land!
3 One day Kish's donkeys strayed away, so he sent Saul and a servant to look for them.
4 They traveled all through the hill country of Ephraim, the land of Shalisha, the Shaalim area, and the entire land of Benjamin, but couldn't find them anywhere.
5 Finally, after searching in the land of Zuph, Saul said to the servant, "Let's go home; by now my father will be more worried about us than about the donkeys!"
6 But the servant said, "I've just thought of something! There is a prophet who lives here in this city; he is held in high honor by all the people because everything he says comes true; let's go and find him, and perhaps he can tell us where the donkeys are."
7 "But we don't have anything to pay him with," Saul replied. "Even our food is gone, and we don't have a thing to give him."
8 "Well," the servant said, "I have a dollar! We can at least offer it to him and see what happens!"
9 "All right," Saul agreed, "let's try it!" So they started into the city where the prophet lived.
10 As they were climbing a hill toward the city, they saw some young girls going out to draw water and asked them if they knew whether the seer was in town.
11 (In those days prophets were called seers. "Let's go and ask the seer," people would say, rather than, "Let's go and ask the prophet," as we would say now.)
12 "Yes," they replied, "stay right on this road. He lives just inside the city gates. He has just arrived back from a trip to take part in a public sacrifice up on the hill.
13 So hurry, because he'll probably be leaving about the time you get there; the guests can't eat until he arrives and blesses the food."
14 So they went into the city, and as they were entering the gates they saw Samuel coming out toward them to go up the hill.
15 The Lord had told Samuel the previous day,
16 "About this time tomorrow I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin. You are to anoint him as the leader of my people. He will save them from the Philistines, for I have looked down on them in mercy and have heard their cry."
17 When Samuel saw Saul the Lord said, "That's the man I told you about! He will rule my people."
18 Just then Saul approached Samuel and asked, "Can you please tell me where the seer's house is?"
19 "I am the seer!" Samuel replied. "Go on up the hill ahead of me and we'll eat together; in the morning I will tell you what you want to know and send you on your way.
20 And don't worry about those donkeys that were lost three days ago, for they have been found. And anyway, you own all the wealth of Israel now!"
21 "Pardon me, sir," Saul replied. "I'm from the tribe of Benjamin, the smallest in Israel, and my family is the least important of all the families of the tribe! You must have the wrong man!"
22 Then Samuel took Saul and his servant into the great hall and placed them at the head of the table, honoring them above the thirty special guests.
23 Samuel then instructed the chef to bring Saul the choicest cut of meat, the piece that had been set aside for the guest of honor.
24 So the chef brought it in and placed it before Saul. "Go ahead and eat it," Samuel said, "for I was saving it for you, even before I invited these others!" So Saul ate with Samuel.
25 After the feast, when they had returned to the city, Samuel took Saul up to the porch on the roof and talked with him there.
26 At daybreak the next morning, Samuel called up to him, "Get up; it's time you were on your way!"
27 So Saul got up, and Samuel accompanied him to the edge of the city. When they reached the city walls, Samuel told Saul to send the servant on ahead. Then he told him, "I have received a special message for you from the Lord."
1 Then Samuel took a flask of olive oil and poured it over Saul's head, and kissed him on the cheek and said, "I am doing this because the Lord has appointed you to be the king of his people, Israel!
2 When you leave me, you will see two men beside Rachel's tomb at Zelzah, in the land of Benjamin; they will tell you that the donkeys have been found and that your father is worried about you and is asking, 'How am I to find my son?'
3 And when you get to the oak of Tabor, you will see three men coming toward you who are on their way to worship God at the altar at Bethel; one will be bringing three young goats, another will have three loaves of bread, and the third will have a bottle of wine.
4 They will greet you and offer you two of the loaves, which you are to accept.
5 After that you will come to Gibeath-elohim, also known as "God's Hill," where the garrison of the Philistines is. As you arrive there you will meet a band of prophets coming down the hill playing a psaltery, a timbrel, a flute, and a harp, and prophesying as they come.
6 "At that time the Spirit of the Lord will come mightily upon you and you will prophesy with them, and you will feel and act like a different person.
7 From that time on your decisions should be based on whatever seems best under the circumstances, for the Lord will guide you.
8 Go to Gilgal and wait there seven days for me, for I will be coming to sacrifice burnt offerings and peace offerings. I will give you further instructions when I arrive."
9 As Saul said good-bye and started to go, God gave him a new attitude, and all of Samuel's prophecies came true that day.
10 When Saul and the servant arrived at the Hill of God, they saw the prophets coming toward them, and the Spirit of God came upon him, and he too began to prophesy.
11 When his friends heard about it, they exclaimed, "What? Saul a prophet?"
12 And one of the neighbors added, "With a father like his?" So that is the origin of the proverb, "Is Saul a prophet too?"
13 When Saul had finished prophesying he climbed the hill to the altar.
14 "Where in the world did you go?" Saul's uncle asked him. And Saul replied, "We went to look for the donkeys, but we couldn't find them; so we went to the prophet Samuel to ask him where they were."
15 "Oh? And what did he say?" his uncle asked.
16 "He said the donkeys had been found!" Saul replied. (But he didn't tell him that he had been anointed as king!)
17 Samuel now called a convocation of all Israel at Mizpah
18 and gave them this message from the Lord God: "I brought you from Egypt and rescued you from the Egyptians and from all of the nations that were torturing you.
19 But although I have done so much for you, you have rejected me and have said, 'We want a king instead!' All right, then, present yourselves before the Lord by tribes and clans."
20 So Samuel called the tribal leaders together before the Lord, and the tribe of Benjamin was chosen by sacred lot.
21 Then he brought each family of the tribe of Benjamin before the Lord, and the family of the Matrites was chosen. And finally the sacred lot selected Saul, the son of Kish. But when they looked for him, he had disappeared!
22 So they asked the Lord, "Where is he? Is he here among us?" And the Lord replied, "He is hiding in the baggage."
23 So they found him and brought him out, and he stood head and shoulders above anyone else.
24 Then Samuel said to all the people, "This is the man the Lord has chosen as your king. There isn't his equal in all of Israel!" And all the people shouted, "Long live the king!"
25 Then Samuel told the people again what the rights and duties of a king were; he wrote them in a book and put it in a special place before the Lord. Then Samuel sent the people home again.
26 When Saul returned to his home at Gibeah, a band of men whose hearts the Lord had touched became his constant companions.
27 There were, however, some bums and loafers who exclaimed, "How can this man save us?" And they despised him and refused to bring him presents, but he took no notice.
1 At this time Nahash led the army of the Ammonites against the Israeli city of Jabesh-gilead. But the citizens of Jabesh asked for peace. "Leave us alone and we will be your servants," they pleaded.
2 "All right," Nahash said, "but only on one condition: I will gouge out the right eye of every one of you as a disgrace upon all Israel!"
3 "Give us seven days to see if we can get some help!" replied the elders of Jabesh. "If none of our brothers will come and save us, we will agree to your terms."
4 When a messenger came to Gibeah, Saul's hometown, and told the people about their plight, everyone broke into tears.
5 Saul was plowing in the field, and when he returned to town he asked, "What's the matter? Why is everyone crying?" So they told him about the message from Jabesh.
6 Then the Spirit of God came strongly upon Saul and he became very angry.
7 He took two oxen and cut them into pieces and sent messengers to carry them throughout all Israel. "This is what will happen to the oxen of anyone who refuses to follow Saul and Samuel to battle!" he announced. And God caused the people to be afraid of Saul's anger, and they came to him as one man.
8 He counted them in Bezek and found that there were three hundred thousand of them in addition to thirty thousand from Judah.
9 So he sent the messengers back to Jabesh-gilead to say, "We will rescue you before tomorrow noon!" What joy there was throughout the city when that message arrived!
10 The men of Jabesh then told their enemies, "We surrender. Tomorrow we will come out to you and you can do to us as you wish."
11 But early the next morning Saul arrived, having divided his army into three detachments, and launched a surprise attack against the Ammonites and slaughtered them all morning. The remnant of their army was so badly scattered that no two of them were left together.
12 Then the people exclaimed to Samuel, "Where are those men who said that Saul shouldn't be our king? Bring them here and we will kill them!"
13 But Saul replied, "No one will be executed today; for today the Lord has rescued Israel!"
14 Then Samuel said to the people, "Come, let us all go to Gilgal and reconfirm Saul as our king."
15 So they went to Gilgal and in a solemn ceremony before the Lord they crowned him king. Then they offered peace offerings to the Lord, and Saul and all Israel were very happy.
1 Then Samuel addressed the people again: "Look," he said, "I have done as you asked. I have given you a king.
2 I have selected him ahead of my own sons and now I stand here, an old, gray-haired man who has been in public service from the time he was a lad.
3 Now tell me as I stand before the Lord and before his anointed king--whose ox or donkey have I stolen? Have I ever defrauded you? Have I ever oppressed you? Have I ever taken a bribe? Tell me and I will make right whatever I have done wrong."
4 "No," they replied, "you have never defrauded or oppressed us in any way and you have never taken even one single bribe."
5 "The Lord and his anointed king are my witnesses," Samuel declared, "that you can never accuse me of robbing you." "Yes, it is true," they replied.
6 "It was the Lord who appointed Moses and Aaron," Samuel continued. "He brought your ancestors out of the land of Egypt.
7 "Now stand here quietly before the Lord as I remind you of all the good things he has done for you and for your ancestors:
8 "When the Israelites were in Egypt and cried out to the Lord, he sent Moses and Aaron to bring them into this land.
9 But they soon forgot about the Lord their God, so he let them be conquered by Sisera, the general of King Hazor's army, and by the Philistines and the king of Moab.
10 "Then they cried to the Lord again and confessed that they had sinned by turning away from him and worshiping the Baal and Ashtaroth idols. And they pleaded, 'We will worship you and you alone if you will only rescue us from our enemies.'
11 Then the Lord sent Gideon, Barak, Jephthah, and Samuel to save you, and you lived in safety.
12 "But when you were afraid of Nahash, the king of Ammon, you came to me and said that you wanted a king to reign over you. But the Lord your God was already your King, for he has always been your King.
13 All right, here is the king you have chosen. Look him over. You have asked for him, and the Lord has answered your request.
14 "Now if you will fear and worship the Lord, and listen to his commandments and not rebel against the Lord, and if both you and your king follow the Lord your God, then all will be well.
15 But if you rebel against the Lord's commandments and refuse to listen to him, then his hand will be as heavy upon you as it was upon your ancestors.
16 "Now watch as the Lord does great miracles.
17 You know that it does not rain at this time of the year, during the wheat harvest; I will pray for the Lord to send thunder and rain today, so that you will realize the extent of your wickedness in asking for a king!"
18 So Samuel called to the Lord, and the Lord sent thunder and rain; and all the people were very much afraid of the Lord and of Samuel.
19 "Pray for us lest we die!" they cried out to Samuel. "For now we have added to all our other sins by asking for a king."
20 "Don't be frightened," Samuel reassured them. "You have certainly done wrong, but make sure now that you worship the Lord with true enthusiasm, and that you don't turn your back on him in any way.
21 Other gods can't help you.
22 The Lord will not abandon his chosen people, for that would dishonor his great name. He made you a special nation for himself--just because he wanted to!
23 "As for me, I will certainly not sin against the Lord by ending my prayers for you; and I will continue to teach you those things which are good and right.
24 "Trust the Lord and sincerely worship him; think of all the tremendous things he has done for you.
25 But if you continue to sin, you and your king will be destroyed."
1 By this time Saul had reigned for one year. In the second year of his reign,
2 he selected three thousand special troops and took two thousand of them with him to Michmash and Mount Bethel while the other thousand remained with Jonathan, Saul's son, in Gibeah in the land of Benjamin. The rest of the army was sent home.
3 Then Jonathan attacked and destroyed the garrison of the Philistines at Geba.
4 The news spread quickly throughout the land of the Philistines, and Saul sounded the call to arms throughout Israel. He announced that he had destroyed the Philistine garrison and warned his men that the army of Israel stank to high heaven as far as the Philistines were concerned. So the entire Israeli army mobilized again and joined at Gilgal.
5 The Philistines recruited a mighty army of three thousand chariots, six thousand horsemen, and so many soldiers that they were as thick as sand along the seashore; and they camped at Michmash east of Beth-aven.
6 When the men of Israel saw the vast mass of enemy troops, they lost their nerve entirely and tried to hide in caves, thickets, coverts, among the rocks, and even in tombs and cisterns.
7 Some of them crossed the Jordan River and escaped to the land of Gad and Gilead. Meanwhile, Saul stayed at Gilgal, and those who were with him trembled with fear at what awaited them.
8 Samuel had told Saul earlier to wait seven days for his arrival, but when he still didn't come, and Saul's troops were rapidly slipping away,
9 he decided to sacrifice the burnt offering and the peace offerings himself.
10 But just as he was finishing, Samuel arrived. Saul went out to meet him and to receive his blessing,
11 but Samuel said, "What is this you have done?" "Well," Saul replied, "when I saw that my men were scattering from me, and that you hadn't arrived by the time you said you would, and that the Philistines were at Michmash, ready for battle,
12 I said, 'The Philistines are ready to march against us and I haven't even asked for the Lord's help!' So I reluctantly offered the burnt offering without waiting for you to arrive."
13 "You fool!" Samuel exclaimed. "You have disobeyed the commandment of the Lord your God. He was planning to make you and your descendants kings of Israel forever,
14 but now your dynasty must end; for the Lord wants a man who will obey him. And he has discovered the man he wants and has already appointed him as king over his people; for you have not obeyed the Lord's commandment."
15 Samuel then left Gilgal and went to Gibeah in the land of Benjamin. When Saul counted the soldiers who were still with him, he found only six hundred left!
16 Saul and Jonathan and these six hundred men set up their camp in Geba in the land of Benjamin; but the Philistines stayed at Michmash.
17 Three companies of raiders soon left the camp of the Philistines; one went toward Ophrah in the land of Shual,
18 another went to Beth-horon, and the third moved toward the border above the valley of Zeboim near the desert.
19 There were no blacksmiths at all in the land of Israel in those days, for the Philistines wouldn't allow them for fear of their making swords and spears for the Hebrews.
20 So whenever the Israelites needed to sharpen their plowshares, discs, axes, or sickles, they had to take them to a Philistine blacksmith.
21 The schedule of charges was as follows: For sharpening a plow point, 60? For sharpening a disc, 60? For sharpening an axe, 30? For sharpening a sickle, 30? For sharpening an ox goad, 30?
22 So there was not a single sword or spear in the entire "army" of Israel that day, except for Saul's and Jonathan's.
23 The mountain pass at Michmash had meanwhile been secured by a contingent of the Philistine army.
1 A day or so later, Prince Jonathan said to his young bodyguard, "Come on, let's cross the valley to the garrison of the Philistines." But he didn't tell his father that he was leaving.
2 Saul and his six hundred men were camped at the edge of Gibeah, around the pomegranate tree at Migron.
3 Among his men was Ahijah the priest (the son of Ahitub, Ichabod's brother; Ahitub was the son of Phinehas and the grandson of Eli, the priest of the Lord in Shiloh). No one realized that Jonathan had gone.
4 To reach the Philistine garrison, Jonathan had to go over a narrow pass between two rocky crags which had been named Bozez and Seneh.
5 The crag on the north was in front of Michmash and the southern one was in front of Geba.
6 "Yes, let's go across to those heathen," Jonathan had said to his bodyguard. "Perhaps the Lord will do a miracle for us. For it makes no difference to him how many enemy troops there are!"
7 "Fine!" the youth replied. "Do as you think best; I'm with you heart and soul, whatever you decide."
8 "All right, then this is what we'll do," Jonathan told him.
9 "When they see us, if they say, 'Stay where you are or we'll kill you!' then we will stop and wait for them.
10 But if they say, 'Come on up and fight!' then we will do just that; for it will be God's signal that he will help us defeat them!"
11 When the Philistines saw them coming they shouted, "Look! The Israelis are crawling out of their holes!"
12 Then they shouted to Jonathan, "Come on up here and we'll show you how to fight!" "Come on, climb right behind me," Jonathan exclaimed to his bodyguard, "for the Lord will help us defeat them!"
13 So they clambered up on their hands and knees, and the Philistines fell back as Jonathan and the lad killed them right and left,
14 about twenty men in all, and their bodies were scattered over about half an acre of land.
15 Suddenly panic broke out throughout the entire Philistine army, and even among the raiders. And just then there was a great earthquake, increasing the terror.
16 Saul's lookouts in Gibeah saw a strange sight--the vast army of the Philistines began to melt away in all directions.
17 "Find out who isn't here," Saul ordered. And when they had checked, they found that Jonathan and his bodyguard were gone.
18 "Bring the Ark of God," Saul shouted to Ahijah. (For the Ark was among the people of Israel at that time.)
19 But while Saul was talking to the priest, the shouting and the tumult in the camp of the Philistines grew louder and louder. "Quick! What does God say?" Saul demanded.
20 Then Saul and his six hundred men rushed out to the battle and found the Philistines killing each other, and there was terrible confusion everywhere.
21 And now the Hebrews who had been drafted into the Philistine army revolted and joined with the Israelis.
22 Finally even the men hiding in the hills joined the chase when they saw that the Philistines were running away.
23 So the Lord saved Israel that day, and the battle continued out beyond Beth-aven.
24 Saul had declared, "A curse upon anyone who eats anything before evening--before I have full revenge on my enemies."
25 So no one ate anything all day, even though they found honeycomb on the ground in the forest,
26 for they all feared Saul's curse.
27 Jonathan, however, had not heard his father's command; so he dipped a stick into a honeycomb, and when he had eaten the honey he felt much better.
28 Then someone told him that his father had laid a curse upon anyone who ate food that day, and everyone was weary and faint as a result.
29 "That's ridiculous!" Jonathan exclaimed. "A command like that only hurts us. See how much better I feel now that I have eaten this little bit of honey.
30 If the people had been allowed to eat freely from the food they found among our enemies, think how many more we could have slaughtered!"
31 But hungry as they were, they chased and killed the Philistines all day from Michmash to Aijalon, growing more and more faint.
32 That evening they flew upon the battle loot and butchered the sheep, oxen, and calves, and ate the raw, bloody meat.
33 Someone reported to Saul what was happening, that the people were sinning against the Lord by eating blood. "That is very wrong," Saul said. "Roll a great stone over here,
34 and go out among the troops and tell them to bring the oxen and sheep here to kill and drain them, and not to sin against the Lord by eating the blood." So that is what they did.
35 And Saul built an altar to the Lord--his first.
36 Afterwards Saul said, "Let's chase the Philistines all night and destroy every last one of them." "Fine!" his men replied. "Do as you think best." But the priest said, "Let's ask God first."
37 So Saul asked God, "Shall we go after the Philistines? Will you help us defeat them?" But the Lord made no reply all night.
38 Then Saul said to the leaders, "Something's wrong! We must find out what sin was committed today.
39 I vow by the name of the God who saved Israel that though the sinner be my own son Jonathan, he shall surely die!" But no one would tell him what the trouble was.
40 Then Saul proposed, "Jonathan and I will stand over here, and all of you stand over there." And the people agreed.
41 Then Saul said, "O Lord God of Israel, why haven't you answered my question? What is wrong? Are Jonathan and I guilty, or is the sin among the others? O Lord God, show us who is guilty." And Jonathan and Saul were chosen by sacred lot as the guilty ones, and the people were declared innocent.
42 Then Saul said, "Now draw lots between me and Jonathan." And Jonathan was chosen as the guilty one.
43 "Tell me what you've done," Saul demanded of Jonathan. "I tasted a little honey," Jonathan admitted. "It was only a little bit on the end of a stick; but now I must die."
44 "Yes, Jonathan," Saul said, "you must die; may God strike me dead if you are not executed for this."
45 But the troops retorted, "Jonathan, who saved Israel today, shall die? Far from it! We vow by the life of God that not one hair on his head will be touched, for he has been used of God to do a mighty miracle today." So the people rescued Jonathan.
46 Then Saul called back the army, and the Philistines returned home.
47 And now, since he was securely in the saddle as king of Israel, Saul sent the Israeli army out in every direction against Moab, Ammon, Edom, the kings of Zobah, and the Philistines. And wherever he turned, he was successful.
48 He did great deeds and conquered the Amalekites and saved Israel from all those who had been their conquerors.
49 Saul had three sons, Jonathan, Ishvi, and Malchishua; and two daughters, Merab and Michal.
50 Saul's wife was Ahinoam, the daughter of Ahimaaz. And the general-in-chief of his army was his cousin Abner, his uncle Ner's son.
51 (Abner's father, Ner, and Saul's father, Kish, were brothers; both were the sons of Abiel.)
52 The Israelis fought constantly with the Philistines throughout Saul's lifetime. And whenever Saul saw any brave, strong young man, he conscripted him into his army.
1 One day Samuel said to Saul, "I crowned you king of Israel because God told me to. Now be sure that you obey him.
2 Here is his commandment to you: 'I have decided to settle accounts with the nation of Amalek for refusing to allow my people to cross their territory when Israel came from Egypt.
3 Now go and completely destroy the entire Amalek nation--men, women, babies, little children, oxen, sheep, camels, and donkeys.' "
4 So Saul mobilized his army at Telaim. There were two hundred thousand troops in addition to ten thousand men from Judah.
5 The Amalekites were camped in the valley below them.
6 Saul sent a message to the Kenites, telling them to get out from among the Amalekites or else die with them. "For you were kind to the people of Israel when they came out of the land of Egypt," he explained. So the Kenites packed up and left.
7 Then Saul butchered the Amalekites from Havilah all the way to Shur, east of Egypt.
8 He captured Agag, the king of the Amalekites, but killed everyone else.
9 However, Saul and his men kept the best of the sheep and oxen and the fattest of the lambs--everything, in fact, that appealed to them. They destroyed only what was worthless or of poor quality.
10 Then the Lord said to Samuel,
11 "I am sorry that I ever made Saul king, for he has again refused to obey me." Samuel was so deeply moved when he heard what God was saying, that he cried to the Lord all night.
12 Early the next morning he went out to find Saul. Someone said that he had gone to Mount Carmel to erect a monument to himself and had then gone on to Gilgal.
13 When Samuel finally found him, Saul greeted him cheerfully. "Hello there," he said. "Well, I have carried out the Lord's command!"
14 "Then what was all the bleating of sheep and lowing of oxen I heard?" Samuel demanded.
15 "It's true that the army spared the best of the sheep and oxen," Saul admitted, "but they are going to sacrifice them to the Lord your God; and we have destroyed everything else."
16 Then Samuel said to Saul, "Stop! Listen to what the Lord told me last night!" "What was it?" Saul asked.
17 And Samuel told him, "When you didn't think much of yourself, God made you king of Israel.
18 And he sent you on an errand and told you, 'Go and completely destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, until they are all dead.'
19 Then why didn't you obey the Lord? Why did you rush for the loot and do exactly what God said not to?"
20 "But I have obeyed the Lord," Saul insisted. "I did what he told me to; and I brought King Agag but killed everyone else.
21 And it was only when my troops demanded it that I let them keep the best of the sheep and oxen and loot to sacrifice to the Lord."
22 Samuel replied, "Has the Lord as much pleasure in your burnt offerings and sacrifices as in your obedience? Obedience is far better than sacrifice. He is much more interested in your listening to him than in your offering the fat of rams to him.
23 For rebellion is as bad as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as bad as worshiping idols. And now because you have rejected the word of Jehovah, he has rejected you from being king."
24 "I have sinned," Saul finally admitted. "Yes, I have disobeyed your instructions and the command of the Lord, for I was afraid of the people and did what they demanded.
25 Oh, please pardon my sin now and go with me to worship the Lord."
26 But Samuel replied, "It's no use! Since you have rejected the commandment of the Lord, he has rejected you from being the king of Israel."
27 As Samuel turned to go, Saul grabbed at him to try to hold him back and tore his robe.
28 And Samuel said to him, "See? The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to a countryman of yours who is better than you are.
29 And he who is the glory of Israel is not lying, nor will he change his mind, for he is not a man!"
30 Then Saul pleaded again, "I have sinned; but oh, at least honor me before the leaders and before my people by going with me to worship the Lord your God."
31 So Samuel finally agreed and went with him.
32 Then Samuel said, "Bring King Agag to me." Agag arrived all full of smiles, for he thought, "Surely the worst is over and I have been spared!"
33 But Samuel said, "As your sword has killed the sons of many mothers, now your mother shall be childless." And Samuel chopped him in pieces before the Lord at Gilgal.
34 Then Samuel went home to Ramah, and Saul returned to Gibeah.
35 Samuel never saw Saul again, but he mourned constantly for him; and the Lord was sorry that he had ever made Saul king of Israel.
1 Finally the Lord said to Samuel, "You have mourned long enough for Saul, for I have rejected him as king of Israel. Now take a vial of olive oil and go to Bethlehem and find a man named Jesse, for I have selected one of his sons to be the new king."
2 But Samuel asked, "How can I do that? If Saul hears about it, he will kill me." "Take a heifer with you," the Lord replied, "and say that you have come to make a sacrifice to the Lord.
3 Then call Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you which of his sons to anoint."
4 So Samuel did as the Lord had told him to. When he arrived at Bethlehem, the elders of the city came trembling to meet him. "What is wrong?" they asked. "Why have you come?"
5 But he replied, "All is well. I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Purify yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice." And he performed the purification rite on Jesse and his sons, and invited them too.
6 When they arrived, Samuel took one look at Eliab and thought, "Surely this is the man the Lord has chosen!"
7 But the Lord said to Samuel, "Don't judge by a man's face or height, for this is not the one. I don't make decisions the way you do! Men judge by outward appearance, but I look at a man's thoughts and intentions."
8 Then Jesse told his son Abinadab to step forward and walk in front of Samuel. But the Lord said, "This is not the right man either."
9 Next Jesse summoned Shammah, but the Lord said, "No, this is not the one." In the same way all seven of his sons presented themselves to Samuel and were rejected.
10 "The Lord has not chosen any of them," Samuel told Jesse.
11 "Are these all there are?" "Well, there is the youngest," Jesse replied. "But he's out in the fields watching the sheep." "Send for him at once," Samuel said, "for we will not sit down to eat until he arrives."
12 So Jesse sent for him. He was a fine looking boy, ruddy-faced, and with pleasant eyes. And the Lord said, "This is the one; anoint him."
13 So as David stood there among his brothers, Samuel took the olive oil he had brought and poured it upon David's head; and the Spirit of Jehovah came upon him and gave him great power from that day onward. Then Samuel returned to Ramah.
14 But the Spirit of the Lord had left Saul, and instead, the Lord had sent a tormenting spirit that filled him with depression and fear.
15 Some of Saul's aides suggested a cure.
16 "We'll find a good harpist to play for you whenever the tormenting spirit is bothering you," they said. "The harp music will quiet you and you'll soon be well again."
17 "All right," Saul said. "Find me a harpist."
18 One of them said he knew a young fellow in Bethlehem, the son of a man named Jesse, who was not only a talented harp player, but was handsome, brave, and strong, and had good, solid judgment. "What's more," he added, "the Lord is with him."
19 So Saul sent messengers to Jesse, asking that he send his son David the shepherd.
20 Jesse responded by sending not only David but a young goat and a donkey carrying a load of food and wine.
21 From the instant he saw David, Saul admired and loved him; and David became his bodyguard.
22 Then Saul wrote to Jesse, "Please let David join my staff, for I am very fond of him."
23 And whenever the tormenting spirit from God troubled Saul, David would play the harp and Saul would feel better, and the evil spirit would go away.
1 The Philistines now mustered their army for battle and camped between Socoh in Judah and Azekah in Ephes-dammim.
2 Saul countered with a buildup of forces at Elah Valley.
3 So the Philistines and Israelis faced each other on opposite hills, with the valley between them.
4 Then Goliath, a Philistine champion from Gath, came out of the Philistine ranks to face the forces of Israel. He was a giant of a man, measuring over nine feet tall!
5 He wore a bronze helmet, a two-hundred-pound coat of mail,
6 bronze leggings,
7 and carried a bronze javelin several inches thick, tipped with a twenty-five-pound iron spearhead, and his armor-bearer walked ahead of him with a huge shield.
8 He stood and shouted across to the Israelis, "Do you need a whole army to settle this? I will represent the Philistines, and you choose someone to represent you, and we will settle this in single combat!
9 If your man is able to kill me, then we will be your slaves. But if I kill him, then you must be our slaves!
10 I defy the armies of Israel! Send me a man who will fight with me!"
11 When Saul and the Israeli army heard this, they were dismayed and frightened.
12 David (the son of aging Jesse, a member of the tribe of Judah who lived in Bethlehem) had seven older brothers.
13 The three oldest--Eliab, Abinadab, and Shammah--had already volunteered for Saul's army to fight the Philistines.
14 David was the youngest son and was on Saul's staff on a part-time basis. He went back and forth to Bethlehem to help his father with the sheep.
15
16 For forty days, twice a day, morning and evening the Philistine giant strutted before the armies of Israel.
17 One day Jesse said to David, "Take this bushel of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread to your brothers.
18 Give this cheese to their captain and see how the boys are getting along; and bring us back a letter from them!"
19 (Saul and the Israeli army were camped at the valley of Elah.)
20 So David left the sheep with another shepherd and took off early the next morning with the gifts. He arrived at the outskirts of the camp just as the Israeli army was leaving for the battlefield with shouts and battle cries.
21 Soon the Israeli and Philistine forces stood facing each other, army against army.
22 David left his luggage with a baggage officer and hurried out to the ranks to find his brothers.
23 As he was talking with them, he saw Goliath the giant step out from the Philistine troops and shout his challenge to the army of Israel.
24 As soon as they saw him the Israeli army began to run away in fright.
25 "Have you seen the giant?" the soldiers were asking. "He has insulted the entire army of Israel. And have you heard about the huge reward the king has offered to anyone who kills him? And the king will give him one of his daughters for a wife, and his whole family will be exempted from paying taxes!"
26 David talked to some others standing there to verify the report. "What will a man get for killing this Philistine and ending his insults to Israel?" he asked them. "Who is this heathen Philistine, anyway, that he is allowed to defy the armies of the living God?"
27 And he received the same reply as before.
28 But when David's oldest brother, Eliab, heard David talking like that, he was angry. "What are you doing around here, anyway?" he demanded. "What about the sheep you're supposed to be taking care of? I know what a cocky brat you are; you just want to see the battle!"
29 "What have I done now?" David replied. "I was only asking a question!"
30 And he walked over to some others and asked them the same thing and received the same answer.
31 When it was finally realized what David meant, someone told King Saul, and the king sent for him.
32 "Don't worry about a thing," David told him. "I'll take care of this Philistine!"
33 "Don't be ridiculous!" Saul replied. "How can a kid like you fight with a man like him? You are only a boy, and he has been in the army since he was a boy!"
34 But David persisted. "When I am taking care of my father's sheep," he said, "and a lion or a bear comes and grabs a lamb from the flock,
35 I go after it with a club and take the lamb from its mouth. If it turns on me, I catch it by the jaw and club it to death.
36 I have done this to both lions and bears, and I'll do it to this heathen Philistine too, for he has defied the armies of the living God!
37 The Lord who saved me from the claws and teeth of the lion and the bear will save me from this Philistine!" Saul finally consented, "All right, go ahead," he said, "and may the Lord be with you!"
38 Then Saul gave David his own armor--a bronze helmet and a coat of mail. David put it on,
39 strapped the sword over it, and took a step or two to see what it was like, for he had never worn such things before. "I can hardly move!" he exclaimed, and took them off again.
40 Then he picked up five smooth stones from a stream and put them in his shepherd's bag and, armed only with his shepherd's staff and sling, started across to Goliath.
41 Goliath walked out toward David with his shield-bearer ahead of him, sneering in contempt at this nice little red-cheeked boy!
42
43 "Am I a dog," he roared at David, "that you come at me with a stick?" And he cursed David by the names of his gods.
44 "Come over here and I'll give your flesh to the birds and wild animals," Goliath yelled.
45 David shouted in reply, "You come to me with a sword and a spear, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of the armies of heaven and of Israel--the very God whom you have defied.
46 Today the Lord will conquer you, and I will kill you and cut off your head; and then I will give the dead bodies of your men to the birds and wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel!
47 And Israel will learn that the Lord does not depend on weapons to fulfill his plans--he works without regard to human means! He will give you to us!"
48 As Goliath approached, David ran out to meet him and,
49 reaching into his shepherd's bag, took out a stone, hurled it from his sling, and hit the Philistine in the forehead. The stone sank in, and the man fell on his face to the ground.
50 So David conquered the Philistine giant with a sling and a stone. Since he had no sword,
51 he ran over and pulled Goliath's from its sheath and killed him with it, and then cut off his head. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they turned and ran.
52 Then the Israelis gave a great shout of triumph and rushed after the Philistines, chasing them as far as Gath and the gates of Ekron. The bodies of the dead and wounded Philistines were strewn all along the road to Shaaraim.
53 Then the Israeli army returned and plundered the deserted Philistine camp.
54 (Later David took Goliath's head to Jerusalem, but stored his armor in his tent.)
55 As Saul was watching David go out to fight Goliath, he asked Abner, the general of his army, "Abner, what sort of family does this young fellow come from?" "I really don't know," Abner said.
56 "Well, find out!" the king told him.
57 After David had killed Goliath, Abner brought him to Saul with the Philistine's head still in his hand.
58 "Tell me about your father, my boy," Saul said. And David replied, "His name is Jesse and we live in Bethlehem."
1 After King Saul had finished his conversation with David, David met Jonathan, the king's son, and there was an immediate bond of love between them. Jonathan swore to be his blood brother,
2
3
4 and sealed the pact by giving him his robe, sword, bow, and belt. King Saul now kept David with him and wouldn't let him return home any more.
5 He was Saul's special assistant, and he always carried out his assignments successfully. So Saul made him commander of his troops, an appointment that was applauded by the army and general public alike.
6 But something had happened when the victorious Israeli army was returning home after David had killed Goliath. Women came out from all the towns along the way to celebrate and to cheer for King Saul, and were singing and dancing for joy with tambourines and cymbals.
7 However, this was their song: "Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands!"
8 Of course Saul was very angry. "What's this?" he said to himself. "They credit David with ten thousands and me with only thousands. Next they'll be making him their king!"
9 So from that time on King Saul kept a jealous watch on David.
10 The very next day, in fact, a tormenting spirit from God overwhelmed Saul, and he began to rave like a madman. David began to soothe him by playing the harp, as he did whenever this happened. But Saul, who was fiddling with his spear,
11 suddenly hurled it at David, intending to pin him to the wall. But David jumped aside and escaped. This happened another time, too,
12 for Saul was afraid of him and jealous because the Lord had left him and was now with David.
13 Finally Saul banned him from his presence and demoted him to the rank of captain. But the controversy put David more than ever in the public eye.
14 David continued to succeed in everything he undertook, for the Lord was with him.
15 When King Saul saw this, he became even more afraid of him; but all Israel and Judah loved him, for he was as one of them.
16
17 One day Saul said to David, "I am ready to give you my oldest daughter Merab as your wife. But first you must prove yourself to be a real soldier by fighting the Lord's battles." For Saul thought to himself, "I'll send him out against the Philistines and let them kill him rather than doing it myself."
18 "Who am I that I should be the king's son-in-law?" David exclaimed. "My father's family is nothing!"
19 But when the time arrived for the wedding, Saul married her to Adriel, a man from Meholath, instead.
20 In the meantime Saul's daughter Michal had fallen in love with David, and Saul was delighted when he heard about it.
21 "Here's another opportunity to see him killed by the Philistines!" Saul said to himself. But to David he said, "You can be my son-in-law after all, for I will give you my youngest daughter."
22 Then Saul instructed his men to say confidentially to David that the king really liked him a lot, and that they all loved him and thought he should accept the king's proposition and become his son-in-law.
23 But David replied, "How can a poor man like me from an unknown family find enough dowry to marry the daughter of a king?"
24 When Saul's men reported this back to him,
25 he told them, "Tell David that the only dowry I need is one hundred dead Philistines! Vengeance on my enemies is all I want." But what Saul had in mind was that David would be killed in the fight.
26 David was delighted to accept the offer. So, before the time limit expired,
27 he and his men went out and killed two hundred Philistines and presented their foreskins to King Saul. So Saul gave Michal to him.
28 When the king realized how much the Lord was with David and how immensely popular he was with all the people,
29 he became even more afraid of him and grew to hate him more with every passing day.
30 Whenever the Philistine army attacked, David was more successful against them than all the rest of Saul's officers. So David's name became very famous throughout the land.
1 Saul now urged his aides and his son Jonathan to assassinate David. But Jonathan, because of his close friendship with David,
2 told him what his father was planning. "Tomorrow morning," he warned him, "you must find a hiding place out in the fields.
3 I'll ask my father to go out there with me, and I'll talk to him about you; then I'll tell you everything I can find out."
4 The next morning as Jonathan and his father were talking together, he spoke well of David and begged him not to be against David. "He's never done anything to harm you," Jonathan pleaded. "He has always helped you in any way he could.
5 Have you forgotten about the time he risked his life to kill Goliath, and how the Lord brought a great victory to Israel as a result? You were certainly happy about it then. Why should you now murder an innocent man? There is no reason for it at all!"
6 Finally Saul agreed and vowed, "As the Lord lives, he shall not be killed."
7 Afterwards Jonathan called David and told him what had happened. Then he took David to Saul and everything was as it had been before.
8 War broke out shortly after that, and David led his troops against the Philistines and slaughtered many of them, and put to flight their entire army.
9 But one day as Saul was sitting at home, listening to David playing the harp, suddenly the tormenting spirit from the Lord attacked him.
10 He had his spear in his hand and hurled it at David in an attempt to kill him. But David dodged out of the way and fled into the night, leaving the spear imbedded in the timber of the wall.
11 Saul sent troops to watch David's house and kill him when he came out in the morning. "If you don't get away tonight," Michal warned him, "you'll be dead by morning."
12 So she helped him get down to the ground through a window.
13 Then she took an idol and put it in his bed, and covered it with blankets, with its head on a pillow of goat's hair.
14 When the soldiers came to arrest David and take him to Saul, she told them he was sick and couldn't get out of bed.
15 Saul said to bring him in his bed, then, so that he could kill him.
16 But when they came to carry him out, they discovered that it was only an idol!
17 "Why have you deceived me and let my enemy escape?" Saul demanded of Michal. "I had to," Michal replied. "He threatened to kill me if I didn't help him."
18 In that way David got away and went to Ramah to see Samuel, and told him all that Saul had done to him. So Samuel took David with him to live at Naioth.
19 When the report reached Saul that David was at Naioth in Ramah,
20 he sent soldiers to capture him; but when they arrived and saw Samuel and the other prophets prophesying, the Spirit of God came upon them and they also began to prophesy.
21 When Saul heard what had happened, he sent other soldiers, but they too prophesied! The same thing happened a third time!
22 Then Saul himself went to Ramah and arrived at the great well in Secu. "Where are Samuel and David?" he demanded. Someone told him they were at Naioth.
23 But on the way to Naioth the Spirit of God came upon Saul, and he too began to prophesy!
24 He tore off his clothes and lay naked all day and all night, prophesying with Samuel's prophets. Saul's men were incredulous! "What!" they exclaimed. "Is Saul a prophet too?"
1 David now fled from Naioth in Ramah and found Jonathan. "What have I done?" he exclaimed. "Why is your father so determined to kill me?"
2 "That's not true!" Jonathan protested. "I'm sure he's not planning any such thing, for he always tells me everything he's going to do, even little things, and I know he wouldn't hide something like this from me. It just isn't so."
3 "Of course you don't know about it!" David fumed. "Your father knows perfectly well about our friendship, so he has said to himself, 'I'll not tell Jonathan--why should I hurt him?' But the truth is that I am only a step away from death! I swear it by the Lord and by your own soul!"
4 "Tell me what I can do," Jonathan begged.
5 And David replied, "Tomorrow is the beginning of the celebration of the new moon. Always before, I've been with your father for this occasion, but tomorrow I'll hide in the field and stay there until the evening of the third day.
6 If your father asks where I am, tell him that I asked permission to go home to Bethlehem for an annual family reunion.
7 If he says, 'Fine!' then I'll know that all is well. But if he is angry, then I'll know that he is planning to kill me.
8 Do this for me as my sworn brother. Or else kill me yourself if I have sinned against your father, but don't betray me to him!"
9 "Of course not!" Jonathan exclaimed. "Look, wouldn't I say so if I knew that my father was planning to kill you?"
10 Then David asked, "How will I know whether or not your father is angry?"
11 "Come out to the field with me," Jonathan replied. And they went out there together.
12 Then Jonathan told David, "I promise by the Lord God of Israel that about this time tomorrow, or the next day at the latest, I will talk to my father about you and let you know at once how he feels about you.
13 If he is angry and wants you killed, then may the Lord kill me if I don't tell you, so you can escape and live. May the Lord be with you as he used to be with my father.
14 And remember, you must demonstrate the love and kindness of the Lord not only to me during my own lifetime,
15 but also to my children after the Lord has destroyed all of your enemies."
16 So Jonathan made a covenant with the family of David, and David swore to it with a terrible curse against himself and his descendants, should he be unfaithful to his promise.
17 But Jonathan made David swear to it again, this time by his love for him, for he loved him as much as he loved himself.
18 Then Jonathan said, "Yes, they will miss you tomorrow when your place at the table is empty.
19 By the day after tomorrow, everyone will be asking about you, so be at the hideout where you were before, over by the stone pile.
20 I will come out and shoot three arrows in front of the pile as though I were shooting at a target.
21 Then I'll send a lad to bring the arrows back. If you hear me tell him, 'They're on this side,' then you will know that all is well and that there is no trouble.
22 But if I tell him, 'Go farther--the arrows are still ahead of you,' then it will mean that you must leave immediately.
23 And may the Lord make us keep our promises to each other, for he has witnessed them."
24 So David hid himself in the field. When the new moon celebration began, the king sat down to eat at his usual place against the wall.
25 Jonathan sat opposite him and Abner was sitting beside Saul, but David's place was empty.
26 Saul didn't say anything about it that day, for he supposed that something had happened so that David was ceremonially impure. Yes, surely that must be it!
27 But when his place was still empty the next day, Saul asked Jonathan, "Why hasn't David been here for dinner either yesterday or today?"
28 "He asked me if he could go to Bethlehem to take part in a family celebration," Jonathan replied.
29 "His brother demanded that he be there, so I told him to go ahead."
30 Saul boiled with rage. "You fool!" he yelled at him. "Do you think I don't know that you want this son of a nobody to be king in your place, shaming yourself and your mother?
31 As long as that fellow is alive, you'll never be king. Now go and get him so I can kill him!"
32 "But what has he done?" Jonathan demanded. "Why should he be put to death?"
33 Then Saul hurled his spear at Jonathan, intending to kill him; so at last Jonathan realized that his father really meant it when he said David must die.
34 Jonathan left the table in fierce anger and refused to eat all that day, for he was crushed by his father's shameful behavior toward David.
35 The next morning, as agreed, Jonathan went out into the field and took a young boy with him to gather his arrows.
36 "Start running," he told the boy, "so that you can find the arrows as I shoot them." So the boy ran and Jonathan shot an arrow beyond him.
37 When the boy had almost reached the arrow, Jonathan shouted, "The arrow is still ahead of you.
38 Hurry, hurry, don't wait." So the boy quickly gathered up the arrows and ran back to his master.
39 He, of course, didn't understand what Jonathan meant; only Jonathan and David knew.
40 Then Jonathan gave his bow and arrows to the boy and told him to take them back to the city.
41 As soon as he was gone, David came out from where he had been hiding near the south edge of the field. Both of them were crying as they said goodbye, especially David.
42 At last Jonathan said to David, "Cheer up, for we have entrusted each other and each other's children into God's hands forever." So they parted, David going away and Jonathan returning to the city.
1 David went to the city of Nob to see Ahimelech, the priest. Ahimelech trembled when he saw him. "Why are you alone?" he asked. "Why is no one with you?"
2 "The king has sent me on a private matter," David lied. "He told me not to tell anybody why I am here. I have told my men where to meet me later.
3 Now, what is there to eat? Give me five loaves of bread or anything else you can."
4 "We don't have any regular bread," the priest replied, "but there is the holy bread, which I guess you can have if only your young men have not slept with any women for awhile."
5 "Rest assured," David replied. "I never let my men run wild when they are on an expedition, and since they stay clean even on ordinary trips, how much more so on this one!"
6 So, since there was no other food available, the priest gave him the holy bread--the Bread of the Presence that was placed before the Lord in the Tabernacle. It had just been replaced that day with fresh bread.
7 (Incidentally, Doeg the Edomite, Saul's chief herdsman, was there at that time for ceremonial purification.)
8 David asked Ahimelech if he had a spear or sword he could use. "The king's business required such haste, and I left in such a rush that I came away without a weapon!" David explained.
9 "Well," the priest replied, "I have the sword of Goliath, the Philistine--the fellow you killed in the valley of Elah. It is wrapped in a cloth in the clothes closet. Take that if you want it, for there is nothing else here." "Just the thing!" David replied. "Give it to me!"
10 Then David hurried on, for he was fearful of Saul, and went to King Achish of Gath.
11 But Achish's officers weren't happy about his being there. "Isn't he the top leader of Israel?" they asked. "Isn't he the one the people honor at their dances, singing, 'Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands'?"
12 David heard these comments and was afraid of what King Achish might do to him,
13 so he pretended to be insane! He scratched on doors and let his spittle flow down his beard,
14 until finally King Achish said to his men, "Must you bring me a madman? We already have enough of them around here! Should such a fellow as this be my guest?"
15
1 So David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam, where his brothers and other relatives soon joined him.
2 Then others began coming--those who were in any kind of trouble, such as being in debt, or merely discontented--until David was the leader of about four hundred men.
3 (Later David went to Mizpeh in Moab to ask permission of the king for his father and mother to live there under royal protection until David knew what God was going to do for him.
4 They stayed in Moab during the entire period when David was living in the cave.)
5 One day the prophet Gad told David to leave the cave and return to the land of Judah. So David went to the forest of Hereth.
6 The news of his arrival in Judah soon reached Saul. He was in Gibeah at the time, sitting beneath an oak tree playing with his spear, surrounded by his officers.
7 "Listen here, you men of Benjamin!" Saul exclaimed when he heard the news. "Has David promised you fields and vineyards and commissions in his army?
8 Is that why you are against me? For not one of you has ever told me that my own son is on David's side. You're not even sorry for me. Think of it! My own son--encouraging David to come and kill me!"
9 Then Doeg the Edomite, who was standing there with Saul's men, spoke up. "When I was at Nob," he said, "I saw David talking to Ahimelech the priest.
10 Ahimelech consulted the Lord to find out what David should do, and then gave him food and the sword of Goliath the Philistine."
11 King Saul immediately summoned Ahimelech and all his family and all the other priests at Nob. When they arrived Saul shouted at him,
12 "Listen to me, you son of Ahitub!" "What is it?" quavered Ahimelech.
13 "Why have you and David conspired against me?" Saul demanded. "Why did you give him food and a sword and talk to God for him? Why did you encourage him to revolt against me and to come here and attack me?"
14 "But sir," Ahimelech replied, "is there anyone among all your servants who is as faithful as David your son-in-law? Why, he is the captain of your bodyguard and a highly honored member of your own household!
15 This was certainly not the first time I had consulted God for him! It's unfair for you to accuse me and my family in this matter, for we knew nothing of any plot against you."
16 "You shall die, Ahimelech, along with your entire family!" the king shouted.
17 He ordered his bodyguards, "Kill these priests, for they are allies and conspirators with David; they knew he was running away from me, but they didn't tell me!" But the soldiers refused to harm the clergy.
18 Then the king said to Doeg, "You do it." So Doeg turned on them and killed them, eighty-five priests in all, all wearing their priestly robes.
19 Then he went to Nob, the city of the priests, and killed the priests' families--men, women, children, and babies, and also all the oxen, donkeys, and sheep.
20 Only Abiathar, one of the sons of Ahimelech, escaped and fled to David.
21 When he told him what Saul had done,
22 David exclaimed, "I knew it! When I saw Doeg there, I knew he would tell Saul. Now I have caused the death of all of your father's family.
23 Stay here with me, and I'll protect you with my own life. Any harm to you will be over my dead body."
1 One day news came to David that the Philistines were at Keilah robbing the threshing floors.
2 David asked the Lord, "Shall I go and attack them?" "Yes, go and save Keilah," the Lord told him.
3 But David's men said, "We're afraid even here in Judah; we certainly don't want to go to Keilah to fight the whole Philistine army!"
4 David asked the Lord again, and the Lord again replied, "Go down to Keilah, for I will help you conquer the Philistines."
5 They went to Keilah and slaughtered the Philistines and confiscated their cattle, and so the people of Keilah were saved.
6 (Abiathar the priest went to Keilah with David, taking his ephod with him to get answers for David from the Lord.)
7 Saul soon learned that David was at Keilah. "Good!" he exclaimed. "We've got him now! God has delivered him to me, for he has trapped himself in a walled city!"
8 So Saul mobilized his entire army to march to Keilah and besiege David and his men.
9 But David learned of Saul's plan and told Abiathar the priest to bring the ephod and to ask the Lord what he should do.
10 "O Lord God of Israel," David said, "I have heard that Saul is planning to come and destroy Keilah because I am here.
11 Will the men of Keilah surrender me to him? And will Saul actually come, as I have heard? O Lord God of Israel, please tell me." And the Lord said, "He will come."
12 "And will these men of Keilah betray me to Saul?" David persisted. And the Lord replied, "Yes, they will betray you."
13 So David and his men--about six hundred of them now--left Keilah and began roaming the countryside. Word soon reached Saul that David had escaped, so he didn't go there after all.
14 David now lived in the wilderness caves in the hill country of Ziph.
15 One day near Horesh he received the news that Saul was on the way to Ziph to search for him and kill him. Saul hunted him day after day, but the Lord didn't let him find him.
16 (Prince Jonathan now went to find David; he met him at Horesh and encouraged him in his faith in God.
17 "Don't be afraid," Jonathan reassured him. "My father will never find you! You are going to be the king of Israel and I will be next to you, as my father is well aware."
18 So the two of them renewed their pact of friendship; and David stayed at Horesh while Jonathan returned home.)
19 But now the men of Ziph went to Saul in Gibeah and betrayed David to him. "We know where he is hiding," they said. "He is in the caves of Horesh on Hachilah Hill, down in the southern part of the wilderness.
20 Come on down, sir, and we will catch him for you and your fondest wish will be fulfilled!"
21 "Well, praise the Lord!" Saul said. "At last someone has had pity on me!
22 Go and check again to be sure of where he is staying and who has seen him there, for I know that he is very crafty.
23 Discover his hiding places and then come back and give me a more definite report. Then I'll go with you. And if he is in the area at all, I'll find him if I have to search every inch of the entire land!"
24 So the men of Ziph returned home.
25 But when David heard that Saul was on his way to Ziph, he and his men went even further into the wilderness of Maon in the south of the desert. But Saul followed them there.
26 He and David were now on opposite sides of a mountain. As Saul and his men began to close in, David tried his best to escape, but it was no use.
27 But just then a message reached Saul that the Philistines were raiding Israel again,
28 so Saul quit the chase and returned to fight the Philistines. Ever since that time the place where David was camped has been called, "The Rock of Escape!"
29 David then went to live in the caves of Engedi.
1 After Saul's return from his battle with the Philistines, he was told that David had gone into the wilderness of Engedi;
2 so he took three thousand special troops and went to search for him among the rocks and wild goats of the desert.
3 At the place where the road passes some sheepfolds, Saul went into a cave to go to the bathroom, but as it happened, David and his men were hiding in the cave!
4 "Now's your time!" David's men whispered to him. "Today is the day the Lord was talking about when he said, 'I will certainly put Saul into your power, to do with as you wish'!" Then David crept forward and quietly slit off the bottom of Saul's robe!
5 But then his conscience began bothering him.
6 "I shouldn't have done it," he said to his men. "It is a serious sin to attack God's chosen king in any way."
7 These words of David persuaded his men not to kill Saul. After Saul had left the cave and gone on his way,
8 David came out and shouted after him, "My lord the king!" And when Saul looked around, David bowed low before him.
9 Then he shouted to Saul, "Why do you listen to the people who say I am trying to harm you?
10 This very day you have seen it isn't true. For the Lord placed you at my mercy back there in the cave, and some of my men told me to kill you, but I spared you. For I said, 'I will never harm him--he is the Lord's chosen king.'
11 See what I have in my hand? It is the hem of your robe! I cut it off, but I didn't kill you! Doesn't this convince you that I am not trying to harm you and that I have not sinned against you, even though you have been hunting for my life?
12 "The Lord will decide between us. Perhaps he will kill you for what you are trying to do to me, but I will never harm you.
13 As that old proverb says, 'Wicked is as wicked does,' but despite your wickedness, I'll not touch you.
14 And who is the king of Israel trying to catch, anyway? Should he spend his time chasing one who is as worthless as a dead dog or a flea?
15 May the Lord judge as to which of us is right and punish whichever one of us is guilty. He is my lawyer and defender, and he will rescue me from your power!"
16 Saul called back, "Is it really you, my son David?" Then he began to cry.
17 And he said to David, "You are a better man than I am, for you have repaid me good for evil.
18 Yes, you have been wonderfully kind to me today, for when the Lord delivered me into your hand, you didn't kill me.
19 Who else in all the world would let his enemy get away when he had him in his power? May the Lord reward you well for the kindness you have shown me today.
20 And now I realize that you are surely going to be king, and Israel shall be yours to rule.
21 Oh, swear to me by the Lord that when that happens you will not kill my family and destroy my line of descendants!"
22 So David promised, and Saul went home, but David and his men went back to their cave.
1 Shortly afterwards Samuel died, and all Israel gathered for his funeral and buried him in his family plot at Ramah. Meanwhile David went down to the wilderness of Paran.
2 A wealthy man from Maon owned a sheep ranch there, near the village of Carmel. He had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats, and was at his ranch at this time for the sheep shearing.
3 His name was Nabal and his wife, a beautiful and very intelligent woman, was named Abigail. But the man, who was a descendant of Caleb, was uncouth, churlish, stubborn, and ill-mannered.
4 When David heard that Nabal was shearing his sheep,
5 he sent ten of his young men to Carmel to give him this message:
6 "May God prosper you and your family and multiply everything you own.
7 I am told that you are shearing your sheep and goats. While your shepherds have lived among us, we have never harmed them, nor stolen anything from them the whole time they have been in Carmel.
8 Ask your young men and they will tell you whether or not this is true. Now I have sent my men to ask for a little contribution from you, for we have come at a happy time of holiday. Please give us a present of whatever is at hand."
9 The young men gave David's message to Nabal and waited for his reply.
10 "Who is this fellow David?" he sneered. "Who does this son of Jesse think he is? There are lots of servants these days who run away from their masters.
11 Should I take my bread and my water and my meat that I've slaughtered for my shearers and give it to a gang who comes from God knows where?"
12 So David's messengers returned and told him what Nabal had said.
13 "Get your swords!" was David's reply as he strapped on his own. Four hundred of them started off with David and two hundred remained behind to guard their gear.
14 Meanwhile, one of Nabal's men went and told Abigail, "David sent men from the wilderness to talk to our master, but he insulted them and railed at them.
15 But David's men were very good to us and we never suffered any harm from them;
16 in fact, day and night they were like a wall of protection to us and the sheep, and nothing was stolen from us the whole time they were with us.
17 You'd better think fast, for there is going to be trouble for our master and his whole family--he's such a stubborn lout that no one can even talk to him!"
18 Then Abigail hurriedly took two hundred loaves of bread, two barrels of wine, five dressed sheep, two bushels of roasted grain, one hundred raisin cakes, and two hundred fig cakes, and packed them onto donkeys.
19 "Go on ahead," she said to her young men, "and I will follow." But she didn't tell her husband what she was doing.
20 As she was riding down the trail on her donkey, she met David coming toward her.
21 David had been saying to himself, "A lot of good it did us to help this fellow. We protected his flocks in the wilderness so that not one thing was lost or stolen, but he has repaid me bad for good. All that I get for my trouble is insults.
22 May God curse me if even one of his men remains alive by tomorrow morning!"
23 When Abigail saw David, she quickly dismounted and bowed low before him.
24 "I accept all blame in this matter, my lord," she said. "Please listen to what I want to say.
25 Nabal is a bad-tempered boor, but please don't pay any attention to what he said. He is a fool--just like his name means. But I didn't see the messengers you sent.
26 Sir, since the Lord has kept you from murdering and taking vengeance into your own hands, I pray by the life of God, and by your own life too, that all your enemies shall be as cursed as Nabal is.
27 And now, here is a present I have brought to you and your young men.
28 Forgive me for my boldness in coming out here. The Lord will surely reward you with eternal royalty for your descendants, for you are fighting his battles; and you will never do wrong throughout your entire life.
29 Even when you are chased by those who seek your life, you are safe in the care of the Lord your God, just as though you were safe inside his purse! But the lives of your enemies shall disappear like stones from a sling!
30 When the Lord has done all the good things he promised you and has made you king of Israel,
31 you won't want the conscience of a murderer who took the law into his own hands! And when the Lord has done these great things for you, please remember me!"
32 David replied to Abigail, "Bless the Lord God of Israel who has sent you to meet me today!
33 Thank God for your good sense! Bless you for keeping me from murdering the man and carrying out vengeance with my own hands.
34 For I swear by the Lord, the God of Israel who has kept me from hurting you, that if you had not come out to meet me, not one of Nabal's men would be alive tomorrow morning."
35 Then David accepted her gifts and told her to return home without fear, for he would not kill her husband.
36 When she arrived home she found that Nabal had thrown a big party. He was roaring drunk, so she didn't tell him anything about her meeting with David until the next morning.
37 By that time he was sober, and when his wife told him what had happened,
38 he had a stroke and lay paralyzed for about ten days, then died, for the Lord killed him.
39 When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, "Praise the Lord! God has paid back Nabal and kept me from doing it myself; he has received his punishment for his sin." Then David wasted no time in sending messengers to Abigail to ask her to become his wife.
40 When the messengers arrived at Carmel and told her why they had come,
41 she readily agreed to his request.
42 Quickly getting ready, she took along five of her serving girls as attendants, mounted her donkey, and followed the men back to David. So she became his wife.
43 David also married Ahinoam from Jezreel.
44 King Saul, meanwhile, had forced David's wife Michal, Saul's daughter, to marry a man from Gallim named Palti (the son of Laish).
1 Now the men from Ziph came back to Saul at Gibeah to tell him that David had returned to the wilderness and was hiding on Hachilah Hill.
2 So Saul took his elite corps of three thousand troops and went to hunt him down.
3 Saul camped along the road at the edge of the wilderness where David was hiding, but David knew of Saul's arrival and sent out spies to watch his movements.
4
5 David slipped over to Saul's camp one night to look around. King Saul and General Abner were sleeping inside a ring formed by the slumbering soldiers. "Any volunteers to go down there with me?"
6 David asked Ahimelech (the Hittite) and Abishai (Joab's brother and the son of Zeruiah). "I'll go with you," Abishai replied.
7 So David and Abishai went to Saul's camp and found him asleep, with his spear in the ground beside his head.
8 "God has put your enemy within your power this time for sure," Abishai whispered to David. "Let me go and put that spear through him. I'll pin him to the earth with it--I'll not need to strike a second time!"
9 "No," David said. "Don't kill him, for who can remain innocent after attacking the Lord's chosen king?
10 Surely God will strike him down some day, or he will die in battle or of old age.
11 But God forbid that I should kill the man he has chosen to be king! But I'll tell you what--we'll take his spear and his jug of water and then get out of here!"
12 So David took the spear and jug of water, and they got away without anyone seeing them or even waking up, because the Lord had put them sound asleep.
13 They climbed the mountain slope opposite the camp until they were at a safe distance.
14 Then David shouted down to Abner and Saul, "Wake up, Abner!" "Who is it?" Abner demanded.
15 "Well, Abner, you're a great fellow, aren't you?" David taunted. "Where in all Israel is there anyone as wonderful? So why haven't you guarded your master the king when someone came to kill him?
16 This isn't good at all! I swear by the Lord that you ought to die for your carelessness. Where is the king's spear and the jug of water that was beside his head? Look and see!"
17 Saul recognized David's voice and said, "Is that you, my son David?" And David replied, "Yes, sir, it is.
18 Why are you chasing me? What have I done? What is my crime?
19 If the Lord has stirred you up against me, then let him accept my peace offering. But if this is simply the scheme of a man, then may he be cursed by God. For you have driven me out of my home so that I can't be with the Lord's people, and you have sent me away to worship heathen gods.
20 Must I die on foreign soil, far from the presence of Jehovah? Why should the king of Israel come out to hunt my life like a partridge on the mountains?"
21 Then Saul confessed, "I have done wrong. Come back home, my son, and I'll no longer try to harm you; for you saved my life today. I have been a fool, and very, very wrong."
22 "Here is your spear, sir," David replied. "Let one of your young men come over and get it.
23 The Lord gives his own reward for doing good and for being loyal, and I refused to kill you even when the Lord placed you in my power.
24 Now may the Lord save my life, even as I have saved yours today. May he rescue me from all my troubles."
25 And Saul said to David, "Blessings on you, my son David. You shall do heroic deeds and be a great conqueror." Then David went away and Saul returned home.
1 But David kept thinking to himself, "Some day Saul is going to get me. I'll try my luck among the Philistines until Saul gives up and quits hunting for me; then I will finally be safe again."
2 So David took his six hundred men and their families to live at Gath under the protection of King Achish.
3 He had his two wives with him--Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail of Carmel, Nabal's widow.
4 Word soon reached Saul that David had fled to Gath, so he quit hunting for him.
5 One day David said to Achish, "My lord, if it is all right with you, we would rather live in one of the country towns instead of here in the royal city."
6 So Achish gave him Ziklag (which still belongs to the kings of Judah to this day),
7 and they lived there among the Philistines for a year and four months.
8 He and his men spent their time raiding the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites--people who had lived near Shur along the road to Egypt ever since ancient times.
9 They didn't leave one person alive in the villages they hit and took for themselves the sheep, oxen, donkeys, camels, and clothing before returning to their homes.
10 "Where did you make your raid today?" Achish would ask. And David would reply, "Against the south of Judah and the people of Jerahmeel and the Kenites."
11 No one was left alive to come to Gath and tell where he had really been. This happened again and again while he was living among the Philistines.
12 Achish believed David and thought that the people of Israel must hate him bitterly by now. "Now he will have to stay here and serve me forever!" the king thought.
1 About that time the Philistines mustered their armies for another war with Israel. "Come and help us fight," King Achish said to David and his men.
2 "Good," David agreed. "You will soon see what a help we can be to you." "If you are, you shall be my personal bodyguard for life," Achish told him.
3 (Meanwhile, Samuel had died and all Israel had mourned for him. He was buried in Ramah, his hometown. King Saul had banned all mediums and wizards from the land of Israel.)
4 The Philistines set up their camp at Shunem, and Saul and the armies of Israel were at Gilboa.
5 When Saul saw the vast army of the Philistines, he was frantic with fear
6 and asked the Lord what he should do. But the Lord refused to answer him, either by dreams, or by Urim, or by the prophets.
7 Saul then instructed his aides to try to find a medium so that he could ask her what to do, and they found one at Endor.
8 Saul disguised himself by wearing ordinary clothing instead of his royal robes. He went to the woman's home at night, accompanied by two of his men. "I've got to talk to a dead man," he pleaded. "Will you bring his spirit up?"
9 "Are you trying to get me killed?" the woman demanded. "You know that Saul has had all of the mediums and fortune-tellers executed. You are spying on me."
10 But Saul took a solemn oath that he wouldn't betray her.
11 Finally the woman said, "Well, whom do you want me to bring up?" "Bring me Samuel," Saul replied.
12 When the woman saw Samuel, she screamed, "You've deceived me! You are Saul!"
13 "Don't be frightened!" the king told her. "What do you see?" "I see a specter coming up out of the earth," she said.
14 "What does he look like?" "He is an old man wrapped in a robe." Saul realized that it was Samuel and bowed low before him.
15 "Why have you disturbed me by bringing me back?" Samuel asked Saul. "Because I am in deep trouble," he replied. "The Philistines are at war with us, and God has left me and won't reply by prophets or dreams; so I have called for you to ask you what to do."
16 But Samuel replied, "Why ask me if the Lord has left you and has become your enemy?
17 He has done just as he said he would and has taken the kingdom from you and given it to your rival, David.
18 All this has come upon you because you did not obey the Lord's instructions when he was so angry with Amalek.
19 What's more, the entire Israeli army will be routed and destroyed by the Philistines tomorrow, and you and your sons will be here with me."
20 Saul now fell full length upon the ground, paralyzed with fright because of Samuel's words. He was also faint with hunger, for he had eaten nothing all day.
21 When the woman saw how distraught he was, she said, "Sir, I obeyed your command at the risk of my life.
22 Now do what I say, and let me give you something to eat so you'll regain your strength for the trip back."
23 But he refused. The men who were with him added their pleas to that of the woman until he finally yielded and got up and sat on the bed.
24 The woman had been fattening a calf, so she hurried out and killed it and kneaded dough and baked unleavened bread.
25 She brought the meal to the king and his men, and they ate it. Then they went out into the night.
1 The Philistine army now mobilized at Aphek, and the Israelis camped at the springs in Jezreel.
2 As the Philistine captains were leading out their troops by battalions and companies, David and his men marched at the rear with King Achish.
3 But the Philistine commanders demanded, "What are these Israelis doing here?" And King Achish told them, "This is David, the runaway servant of King Saul of Israel. He's been with me for years, and I've never found one fault in him since he arrived."
4 But the Philistine leaders were angry. "Send them back!" they demanded. "They aren't going into the battle with us--they'll turn against us. Is there any better way for him to reconcile himself with his master than by turning against us in the battle?
5 This is the same man the women of Israel sang about in their dances: 'Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands!' "
6 So Achish finally summoned David and his men. "I swear by the Lord," he told them, "you are some of the finest men I've ever met, and I think you should go with us, but my commanders say no.
7 Please don't upset them, but go back quietly."
8 "What have I done to deserve this treatment?" David demanded. "Why can't I fight your enemies?"
9 But Achish insisted, "As far as I'm concerned, you're as perfect as an angel of God. But my commanders are afraid to have you with them in the battle.
10 Now get up early in the morning and leave as soon as it is light."
11 So David headed back into the land of the Philistines while the Philistine army went on to Jezreel.
1 Three days later, when David and his men arrived home at their city of Ziklag, they found that the Amalekites had raided the city and burned it to the ground,
2 carrying off all the women and children.
3 As David and his men looked at the ruins and realized what had happened to their families,
4 they wept until they could weep no more.
5 (David's two wives, Ahinoam and Abigail, were among those who had been captured.)
6 David was seriously worried, for in their bitter grief for their children, his men began talking of killing him. But David took strength from the Lord.
7 Then he said to Abiathar the priest, "Bring me the oracle!" So Abiathar brought it.
8 David asked the Lord, "Shall I chase them? Will I catch them?" And the Lord told him, "Yes, go after them; you will recover everything that was taken from you!"
9 So David and his six hundred men set out after the Amalekites. When they reached Besor Brook,
10 two hundred of the men were too exhausted to cross, but the other four hundred kept going.
11 Along the way they found an Egyptian youth in a field and brought him to David. He had not had anything to eat or drink for three days and nights,
12 so they gave him part of a fig cake, two clusters of raisins, and some water, and his strength soon returned.
13 "Who are you and where do you come from?" David asked him. "I am an Egyptian--the servant of an Amalekite," he replied. "My master left me behind three days ago because I was sick.
14 We were on our way back from raiding the Cherethites in the Negeb, and had raided the south of Judah and the land of Caleb, and had burned Ziklag."
15 "Can you tell me where they went?" David asked. The young man replied, "If you swear by God's name that you will not kill me or give me back to my master, then I will guide you to them."
16 So he led them to the Amalekite encampment. They were spread out across the fields, eating and drinking and dancing with joy because of the vast amount of loot they had taken from the Philistines and from the men of Judah.
17 David and his men rushed in among them and slaughtered them all that night and the entire next day until evening. No one escaped except four hundred young men who fled on camels.
18 David got back everything they had taken. The men recovered their families and all of their belongings, and David rescued his two wives.
19
20 His troops rounded up all the flocks and herds and drove them on ahead of them. "These are all yours personally, as your reward!" they told David.
21 When they reached Besor Brook and the two hundred men who had been too exhausted to go on, David greeted them joyfully.
22 But some of the ruffians among David's men declared, "They didn't go with us, so they can't have any of the loot. Give them their wives and their children and tell them to be gone."
23 But David said, "No, my brothers! The Lord has kept us safe and helped us defeat the enemy.
24 Do you think that anyone will listen to you when you talk like this? We share and share alike--those who go to battle and those who guard the equipment."
25 From then on David made this a law for all of Israel, and it is still followed.
26 When he arrived at Ziklag, he sent part of the loot to the elders of Judah. "Here is a present for you, taken from the Lord's enemies," he wrote them.
27 The gifts were sent to the elders in the following cities where David and his men had been: Bethel, South Ramoth, Jattir,
28 Aroer, Siphmoth, Eshtemoa,
29 Racal, the cities of the Jerahmeelites, the cities of the Kenites,
30 Hormah, Borashan, Athach, Hebron.
31
1 Meanwhile the Philistines had begun the battle against Israel, and the Israelis fled from them and were slaughtered wholesale on Mount Gilboa.
2 The Philistines closed in on Saul and killed his sons Jonathan, Abinidab, and Malchishua.
3 Then the archers overtook Saul and wounded him badly.
4 He groaned to his armor-bearer, "Kill me with your sword before these heathen Philistines capture me and torture me." But his armor-bearer was afraid to, so Saul took his own sword and fell upon the point of the blade, and it pierced him through.
5 When his armor-bearer saw that he was dead, he also fell upon his sword and died with him.
6 So Saul, his armor-bearer, his three sons, and his troops died together that same day.
7 When the Israelis on the other side of the valley and beyond the Jordan heard that their comrades had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned their cities; and the Philistines lived in them.
8 The next day when the Philistines went out to strip the dead, they found the bodies of Saul and his three sons on Mount Gilboa.
9 They cut off Saul's head and stripped off his armor and sent the wonderful news of Saul's death to their idols and to the people throughout their land.
10 His armor was placed in the temple of Ashtaroth, and his body was fastened to the wall of Beth-shan.
11 But when the people of Jabesh-gilead heard what the Philistines had done,
12 warriors from that town traveled all night to Beth-shan and took down the bodies of Saul and his sons from the wall and brought them to Jabesh, where they cremated them.
13 Then they buried their remains beneath the oak tree at Jabesh and fasted for seven days.