1 Samuel

1 Samuel

 

     1[1-6] Now there was a certain man of Ramathaim Zophim, of the hillsides of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah, son of Jeroham, of Elihu, of Tohu, of Zuph, an Ephraimite. He had two wives who were named Hannah and Peninnah; and Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none. Elkanah went up out of his city each year to worship and sacrifice to Yahweh, the God of All Creation, in Shiloh. The two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, preachers of Yahweh, were there.When the day came that Elkanah sacrificed, he gave some to Peninnah his wife, and to all her children; but to Hannah he gave twice as much because he loved her, but Yahweh hadn’t let her have children.Her rival troubled her very much to upset her, because Yahweh hadn’t let her have children.

     [7-9] As Elkanah did this each year, when she went up to the Place of Worship of Yahweh, so Peninnah troubled Hannah; so she cried, and didn’t eat.Elkanah her husband said to her, Hannah, Why are you crying? And why don’t you eat? And why  are you so upset? Am I not better to you than ten children?So Hannah got up after they had eaten and drunk in Shiloh. Now Eli the preacher was sitting on his seat by the doorpost of the Place of Worship of Yahweh.

     [10-16] She was so sad in her soul that she prayed to Yahweh, and cried very much.She made a promise, saying, “Yahweh, God of All Creation, if you’ll truly look on my trouble, and remember me, and not forget me, but will give me a boy, then I’ll give him to Yahweh all the days of his life, and no razor will come on his head.”As she continued praying before Yahweh, Eli saw her mouth move.Now Hannah talked in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice wasn’t heard; so Eli thought she was drunk.Hesaid to her, “How long will you stay drunk? Put your alcohol away from you.”But Hannah answered, “No, sir, I’m a sorrowful woman; I’ve drunk no wine nor alcoholic drink, but I poured out my troubles to Yahweh.Don’t think of me as a sinful woman, because out of my great comvalleyt and my frustration have I spoken up to now.”

     [17-20] Then Eli answered, “Go in peace; and may the God of Israel give you what you’ve asked.”She said, “Let me be approved in your sight.” So the woman went away, and ate; and her face wasn’t sad anymore.They got up early in the morning, and worshiped before Yahweh, and went back home, and came to their house in Ramah; and Elkanah had sex with Hannah his wife; and Yahweh remembered her.When the time had come, Hannah got pregnant, and had a son; and named him Samuel, saying, “Because I’ve asked him of Yahweh.”

     [21-23] Elkanah and all hisfamily went up to offer to Yahweh the yearly sacrifice, and make a promise.But Hannah didn’t go up because she said to her husband, I won’t go up until the child is weaned; and then I’ll bring him, that he may appear before Yahweh, and stay there forever. Elkanah her husband said to her, “Do what you want; wait until you’ve weaned him; only let Yahweh’s Word stand. So the woman waited and breastfed her son, until she weaned him.

     [24-27] When she had weaned him, she took him up with her, along with three cows, and 6 gallons of meal, and a bottle of wine, and brought him to the Place of Worship of Yahweh in Shiloh; and the child was still young (about 3-5).They killed the bull, and brought the child to Eli.She said, “Oh, sir, as your soul lives, sir, I’m the woman who stood by you here, praying to Yahweh.I prayed for this child; and Yahweh has given me what I asked; so I’ve also given him to Yahweh; as long as he lives he is given to Yahweh. So he worshiped Yahweh, staying there.

 

     2[1-6] Hannah prayed, saying, “My heart triumphs in Yahweh! I blow my horn in praise to Yahweh. My words have won out over my enemies, and I’m happy in Your saving grace. There is no one as holy as Yahweh, for there’s no one besides You, nor is there any rock like our God. Don’t talk so proudly anymore. Don’t let bragging come out of your mouth, for Yahweh is a God who knows and weighs our actions. The weapons of the soldiers are broken. Those who stumbled are strongly tied. Those who were full have gone to work for their bread. Those who were hungry aren’t hungry anymore. Yes, those who had no children will have seven children. Those who have many children will suffer. Yahweh brings death, and Yahweh brings life, who brings down to hell, and brings up to heaven.

  [7-10] Yahweh makes poor and makes rich, who brings low, and also lifts up, and raises up the poor out of the dust. Yahweh lifts up the needy from the pile of ruins, to make them sit with high leaders, and be well known, for the pillars of the earth are Yahweh’s, who has set the world on them.You‘ll keep those who are holy safe, but the sinful will be put to silence in darkness because no one will triumph by their own strength.               Those who struggle with Yahweh will be broken to pieces. You’ll thunder against them in the sky. Yahweh will judge the ends of the earth. You’ll give strength to Your Ruler, and raise the horn of Your chosen one.”

     [11-17] Elkanah went home to Ramah and the child stayed to minister to Yahweh with Eli the preacher. Now the sons of Eli were evil and didn’t know God. It was the practice of the preachers, that when anyone offered a sacrifice, the preacher’s worker came with a three toothed fork in his hand while the meat was boiling; and he stuck it into the pot; and whatever the fork brought up the preacher took with it. They did this in Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there. Yes, before they burnt the fat, the preacher’s worker came, saying to those who sacrificed, “Give us meat to roast for the preacher because he won’t take boiled meat from you, but raw. If the person said to him, “Burn the fat first, and then take as much as you want;” then he would say, “No, give it to me now; and if you won’t, I’ll take it by force.” So their sin was very bad to Yahweh because they hated the offering Yahweh had given them.

[18-21] But Samuel ministered before Yahweh, being a child, tied with a linen breastplate. Besides this, his mother made him a little robe, and brought it to him each year when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice. Eli blessed Elkanah and his wife, saying, Yahweh will give you more children of this woman for the prayer she asked of Yahweh. Then they went home.            Yahweh visited Hannah, and she got pregnant, and had three sons and two daughters. Samuel, her first child, grew up before Yahweh.

     [22-26] Now Eli was very old; and he heard what his sons did to all Israel, and how they had sex with the women who served at the door of the Place of Worship. He said to them, “Why do you do these things? I hear of the evil you do from all these people.   No, my sons, it’s not good what I hear; you make Yahweh’s people disobedient. If one person sins against another, God will judge them; but if anyone sins against Yahweh, who will pray for them? They didn’t listen to the words of their father, because Yahweh thought to kill them. But the child Samuel kept growing, and was thought well of by both Yahweh and people.

     [27-36] A follower of God came to Eli, saying to him, “Yahweh says, ‘Did I reveal myself to your ancestors when they were in Egypt in slavery to Ruler of Egypt’s house? And did I choose them out of all the family groups of Israel to be My preachers, to go up to My altar, to burn incense, to wear a golden breastplate before Me? And did I give to them all the offerings the people of Israel made by fire? Why do you turn your nose up at My sacrifices and offerings which I’ve told them to make in My Place of Worship, and honor your sons above Me, to make yourselves fat with the best of all the offerings of Israel, My people? So Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, I said truly that your family would walk before Me forever; but now Yahweh says, Be it far from Me! Those who respect me I’ll respect, and those who hate me I’ll hate. See, the days come, that I’ll put an end to your power, and to the power of your ancestor’s house, that there won’t be an old man in your family. You’ll see the trouble this causes in My Place of Worship, in spite of all the wealth which I give to Israel; and there won’t be an old man in your family forever.Your children, whom I won’t stop from coming to My altar, will be there to blind your eyes, and to upset your heart; and all your descendants will die at a young age.This will be a sign to you, which will come on your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas; in one day they’ll both die.I’ll raise Me up a faithful preacher, who will do what’s in My heart and mind; and I’ll build him a safe house; and he’ll minister to My  chosen ones forever.Everyone who is left in your house will come and bow down to him to ask for money and a loaf of bread, and will say, ‘Please put me into one of the preachers’ offices, so that I may buy food to eat.’”

 

     3[1-6] The child Samuel ministered to Yahweh under Eli. The word of Yahweh was rare in those days; there were hardly any visions. At that time, when Eli had laid down to sleep (now his eyes had begun to grow dim, so that he couldn’t see), and the lamp of God hadn’t gone out yet, and Samuel had laid down to sleep in the Place of Worship of Yahweh, where the Chest of God was; Yahweh called Samuel; and he said, “Here I am.”He ran to Eli, saying, “Here I am, you called me?” He said, “I didn’t call you; go lie down again.” So he went and laid down again. ThenYahweh called again, “Samuel.” Samuel got up and went to Eli, saying, “Here I am, you called me!” He answered, “I didn’t call, my child; go lie down again.”

     [7-14] Now Samuel still didn’t know Yahweh, nor was the word of Yahweh made known to him yet. Yahweh called Samuel again a third time. He got up and went to Eli, saying, “Here I am, you called me.” Then Eli understood that Yahweh had called the child. So Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down; and if God calls you, say, ‘Speak, Yahweh, Your follower hears You.” So Samuel went and lay down in his place. Yahweh came and stood, and called as at other times, “Samuel, Samuel.” Then Samuel said, “Speak, Your follower hears You.” Then Yahweh said to Samuel, “See, I’ll do something in Israel, at which both the ears of everyone who hears it will tingle.In that day, I’ll do against Eli what I’ve said about his house, from the beginning to the end. I’ve told him that I’ll judge his house forever, for the sin which he knew, because his sons brought punishment on themselves, and he didn’t stop them. So I’ve promised to the house of Eli, that the sin of Eli’s house won’t be covered up with sacrifice nor offering forever.”

[15-21 ] Samuel lay until morning, and opened the doors of the Place of Worship of Yahweh. Samuel was afraid to tell Eli the vision. Then Eli called Samuel, saying, “Samuel, my child.” Samuel said, “Here I am.”Then Eli said, “What did Yahweh say to you? Please don’t hide it from me. God do so to you, and more also, if you hide anything from me of all that God said to you.” So            Samuel told him everything, and hid nothing from him. He said, “It’s truly Yahweh; let God do what’s right.” So          Samuel grew, and Yahweh was with him, and everything he said came true. All Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, knew that Samuel was called to be a preacher of Yahweh. Yahweh was seen again in Shiloh because God made known to Samuel the Word of Yahweh in Shiloh.

 

     4[1-4] The word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out against the Philistines to fight, and camped beside Ebenezer; and the Philistines camped in Aphek. The Philistines got ready to fight against Israel; and when they started fighting, Israel was losing to the Philistines; and they killed 4,000 soldiers of the troops in the field.          When the people had come into the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why has Yahweh defeated us today with the Philistines? Let’s bring the Chest of Promise of Yahweh out of Shiloh to us, so that it may come among us, and save us from our enemies. So the people sent to Shiloh; and they brought the Chest of Promise of Yahweh, the God of All Creation, who sits above the cherubim (angelic winged creatures); and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas were there with the Chest of Promise of God.

     [5-9] When the Chest of Promise of Yahweh came into the camp, all Israel shouted with a great shout, so that it echoed.    When the Philistines heard the noise of the shout, they said, “What does all this noise of shouting mean in the camp of the Hebrews? They understood that the Chest of God had come into the camp. The Philistines were afraid, and they said, “God is in the camp. We’ll be sorry!  Nothing like this has ever happened before! We’ll be sorry! Who will save us from these Israelites? These are the ones that killed the Egyptians with all kinds of troubles in the countryside.Be strong, and behave yourselves like men, you Philistines, that you won’t be workers to the Hebrews, as they’ve been to you; behave yourselves like men, and fight.”

     [10-14] The Philistines fought, and Israel lost, and everyone ran to their tent; and there was a very great slaughter because Israel had lost 30,000 foot soldiers.    The Chest of God was taken by the Philistines; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas were killed. A man of Benjamin ran out of the troops, and came to Shiloh the same day with his clothes torn, and with earth on his head in mourning. When he came, Eli was sitting on his seat by the road, watching, because his heart feared for the Chest of God. When the man came into the city, and told it, the whole city cried out. When Eli heard the noise of the crying, he said, “What does this great noise of crying mean?” So the man hurried, and came and told Eli.

     [15-18] Now Eli was 98 years old; and his eyes were blinded, so that he couldn’t see. The man said to Eli, “I’m the one who came out of the troops, and I ran today out of the troops.” He said, “How went the matter, my child?” The one who brought the news answered, “Israel has been defeated by the Philistines, and there has been a great slaughter among the people also, and your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, too, and the Chest of God has been taken.” When he mentioned the Chest of God, Eli fell from off his seat backward by the side of the gate; and his neck broke, and he died because he was a very fat old man. He had judged Israel for 40 years.

     [19-22] His daughter-in-law, Phinehas’ wife was pregnant, near to be delivered and when she heard the news that the Chest of God was taken, and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she went into labor and had the child because her pains came on her. About the time of her death, the women who stood by her said to her, “Don’t be scared because you’ve had a son.” But she didn’t answer, nor know it.She named the child Ichabod, saying, The glory is gone from Israel; because the Chest of God was taken, and because of her father-in-law and her husband. She said, “The glory is gone from Israel because the Chest of God is taken.”

 

     5[1-5] Now the Philistines had taken the Chest of God, and brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod.The Philistines took the Chest of God, and brought it into the place of worship of Dagon, and set it by their false god Dagon. When the people of Ashdod got up early the next morning, Dagon had fallen down on its face before the Chest of God. They picked Dagon up, and set it in place again. When they got up early the next morning, Dagon had fallen down on its face before the Chest of God; and the head and bothe hands of Dagon lay broken on the doorway; only the stump of Dagon was left. So neither the preachers of Dagon, nor any who come into Dagon’s house, step on the doorway of Dagon in Ashdod, until today.

     [6-9] But the hand of Yahweh was hard on the people of Ashdod, who destroyed them, and punished them with swelling sores, Ashdod and its outskirts. When the people of Ashdod saw that, they said, The Chest of the God of Israel won’t stay with us because God’s hand is very hard on us, and on Dagon, our god.       So they sent and gathered all the leaders of the Philistines to them, saying, “What should we do with the Chest of the God of Israel?” They answered, “Let the Chest of the God of Israel be carried out to Gath.” So they carried the Chest of the God of Israel there.       After they had carried it out, the hand of Yahweh was against that city, causing a deadly disease; and God punished the people of that city, from the least to the greatest; and swelling sores broke out on them.  

     [10-12] So they sent the Chest of God to Ekron, and as the Chest of God came to Ekron, the Ekronites cried out, saying, “They’ve brought the Chest of the God of Israel to us, to kill us and our people.” So they sent and gathered together all the leaders of the Philistines, and they said, “Send the Chest of the God of Israel away, and let it go back to its own place, that it not kill us and our people. For there was a deadly disease throughout the whole city; the hand of God was very hard on them there.              The men who didn’t die were punished with the swelling sores; and the cry of the city went up to heaven.

 

     6[1-9] The Chest of God was in the country of the Philistines seven months. The Philistines called for their preachers and fortune tellers, saying, “What should we do with the Chest of God? Show us how to send it back to where it belongs.”            They answered, “If you send the Chest of the God of Israel back, don’t send it back empty; but go back it to God with a sin offering, of course; then you’ll be healed, and it will be known to you why God’s hand hasn’t lifted from off you.”Then they said, “What should be the sin offering which we’ll go back to God?” They answered, “Make five golden sores, and five golden mice, according to the number of the leaders of the Philistines because one disease was on you all, and on your leaders.       So make likenesses of your sores, and of the mice that hurt the land; and you’ll give glory to the God of Israel, who will take this trouble from you and your gods, and from your land. So why are you stubborn, as the Egyptians and Ruler of Egypt was so stubborn? When God had done amazing things to them, didn’t they let the people go, and they left? So now make a new cart, and take two milk cows, which have never been yoked; and tie the cows to the cart, and bring their calves home from them; and take the Chest of God, and lay it on the cart; and put the jewels of gold, which you send God for a sin offering, in a box beside it; and send it away, that it may go. If it goes toward its own border to Beth Shemesh, then God has done us this great evil; but if not, then we’ll know that it’s not God’s hand that troubled us; it was only a coincidence.”

     [10-12] So they did this, and took two milk cows, and tied them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home; and they put the Chest of God on the cart, and the box with the golden mice and the likenesses of their sores. The cows took the straight  road toward Beth Shemesh; they went along the highway, lowing as they went, and didn’t turn around right or left; and the leaders of the Philistines followed them to the border of Beth Shemesh.

     [13-15] The people of Beth Shemesh were harvesting their wheat crop in the valley; and they looked up, and saw the Chest, and were happy to see it.The cart came into the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh, and stood there where there was a great stone; and they split the wood of the cart, and offered up the cows for a burnt offering to Yahweh. The Levites took down the Chest of God, and its box, in which the jewels of gold were, and put them on the great stone; and the people of Beth Shemesh offered burnt offerings and made sacrifices the same day to Yahweh.        

     [16-18] When the five leaders of the Philistines had seen it, they went back to Ekron the same day. These are the golden sores which the Philistines sent back for a sin offering to Yahweh, one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for Gath, one for Ekron; and the golden mice, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five leaders, both of protected cities and their outskirts, all the way to the great stone where they set down the Chest of God,  which stone is still there today in the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh.

     [19-21] Godpunished the people of Beth Shemesh, because they had looked into the Chest of God, and killed 50,070 men; and the people mourned, because Yahweh had killed the people with a great slaughter. The people of Beth Shemesh said, “Who is able to face Yahweh, this holy God? and to whom will God go up from us?                They sent messengers to the people of Kiriath Jearim, saying, “The Philistines have brought back the Chest of God; come down and get it.”

 

     7[1-6] The people of Kiriath Jearim came and got the Chest of God, and brought it into the house of Abinadab in the hill, and dedicated Eleazar, his son, to keep the Chest of God.The Chest stayed in Kiriath Jearim for 20 long years; and all the house of Israel shouted to Yahweh. Samuel said to all the house of Israel, “If you go back to Yahweh with all your heart, then put away the false gods and the fertility goddess Ashtaroth from among you, and turn your hearts to God, and serve Yahweh only; who will save you from the Philistines. Then the people of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtaroth, and served Yahweh only. Samuel said, “Gather all Israel to Mizpah, and I’ll pray for you to Yahweh.” So they gathered together at Mizpah, and drew water, and poured it out before Yahweh, and fasted on that day, saying, “We’ve sinned against Yahweh.” Samuel judged the people of Israel in Mizpah.

     [7-11] When the Philistines heard that the people of Israel were gathered together at Mizpah, the leaders of the Philistines went up against Israel. When the people of Israel heard it, they were afraid of the Philistines. The people of Israel said to Samuel, “Don’t stop praying to Yahweh our God for us, to save us from the Philistines. ” So Samuel took a sucking lamb, and offered it for a whole burnt offering to Yahweh; and Samuel prayed to Yahweh for Israel; and Yahweh answered him.  As Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines came to fight against Israel; but Yahweh sent a great thunder on the Philistines that day, and confused them so much that they were beaten by Israel. The people of Israel went out of Mizpah, and chased the Philistines, and fought them, until they came to Beth Kar.                    

     [12-17] Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpah and Shen, and called it Ebenezer, saying, Up to now has Yahweh helped us. So the Philistines were defeated, and they didn’t come within the border of Israel anymore; and the hand of Yahweh was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel.   The cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel were given back to Israel. From Ekron to Gath and its border, Israel took back from the Philistines. There was peace between Israel and the Amorites.Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. He went each year in a circuit to Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpah; and he judged Israel in all those places. He go backed to Ramah, where his house was; and he judged Israel and  built an altar to Yahweh there.

 

     8[1-6] When Samuel was old, he made his sons judges over Israel. Now his firstborn was named Joel; and his second  was named Abijah; they were judges in Beersheba. His sons didn’t keep his ways, but turned around after money, and took bribes, and didn’t do what was right  Then all the elders of Israel gathered together, and came to Samuel to Ramah; and they said to him, “See, you’re old, and your sons don’t keep your ways; now make us a Ruler to judge us like all the nations.” But it made Samuel unhappy when they said, “Give us a Ruler to judge us,” so Samuel prayed to Yahweh.

     [7-9] Yahweh said to Samuel, “Listen to what the people say in what they tell you, because they’ve not rejected you, but they’ve rejected Me, that I shouldn’t be Ruler over them. According to all the things they’ve done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even until today, they’ve left Me, and served other gods, so they do also to you.So listen to them; but warn them solemnly and show them how the Ruler will rule over them.”

     [10-18] SoSamuel told all the words of Yahweh to the people who asked for him to give them a Ruler.He said, “This will be how the Ruler who will rule over you; he’ll take your sons, and appoint them to him, for his war vehicles, and to be his riders; and they’ll run before his war vehicles; and he’ll appoint them to him for captains of thousands, and captains of fifties; and he’ll set some to plow his ground, and to harvest his crops, and to make his instruments of war, and the instruments of his war vehicles.He’ll take your daughters to be perfumers, cooks, and bakers. He’ll take the best of your fields, vineyards, and olive groves and give them to his workers. He’ll take a 10^th of your seed, and your vineyards, and give to his officials, and to his workers.He’ll take your male and female workers, and your best soldiers, and your donkeys, and put them to work.He’ll take a 10^th of your flocks; and you’ll be his workers. You’ll cry out in that day because of your Ruler whom you have chosen; and Yahweh won’t answer you in that day.

     [19-22] But the people refused to listen to Samuel; and they said, No; but we want a Ruler over us, that we may also be like all the rest of the nations, and that our Ruler may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles. Samuel heard all the words of the people, and told them to Yahweh. Yahweh said to Samuel, Listen to them, and make them a Ruler. Samuel said to the people of Israel, “Go to your cities.”

 

     9[1-3] Now there was a man of Benjamin whose name was Kish, son of Abiel, of Zeror, of Becorath, of Aphiah, of a Benjamite, a brave warrior. He had a son, whose name was Saul, an extraordinary young man; and there wasn’t anyone better than him among all the people of Israel. From his shoulders and up he was taller than any of the people. The donkeys of Kish, Saul’s father, were lost. Kish said to Saul, his son, “Take one of the workers with you, and go look for the donkeys.”

     [4-10] He passed through the hillsides of Ephraim, and passed through the land of Shalishah, but they didn’t find them; then they passed through the land of Shaalim, and they weren’t there either; and he passed through the land of the Benjamites, but they didn’t find them. When they had come to the land of Zuph, Saul said to his worker who was with him, “Come, let’s go back, in case my father stops caring for the donkeys, and worries about us. He said to him, “See now, there’s in this city a follower of God, and he’s held in great honor; what he says comes true; now let’s go there and see if he can tell us where to go on our journey.” Then Saul said to his worker, “But if we go, what will we bring him? The bread is gone in our bags, and there isn’t a present to bring to the follower of God; what do we have?” The worker answered Saul again, saying, See, I have in my hand a quarter of a silver dollar; that I’ll give to the follower of God, to tell us which way to go.” (In earlier times in Israel when anyone went to ask of God, he said, Come and let’s go to the seer because those who are now called a preacher (prophet) was before called a Seer.)Then Saul said to his worker, Good idea; come, let’s go. So they went to the city where the follower of God was.

     [11-17] As they went up the road to the city, they found young girls going out to draw water, saying to them, “Is the preacher here? They answered them, saying, “He is; see, he’s coming to you; quickly now, for he has come into the city because the people have a sacrifice in the Place of Worship today; as soon as you get into the city, you’ll find him, before he goes up to the Place of Worship to eat; the people won’t eat until he comes, because he blesses the sacrifice; and afterward those who are invited eat. So go quickly, because you’ll find him there now.” They went up to the city; and as they came into the city, Samuel came out toward them, to go up to the Place of Worship. Now Yahweh had told Samuel a day before Saul came, “Tomorrow, about this time, I’ll send you a man out of the land of Benjamin, and you’ll anoint him to be Ruler over My people Israel; and he’ll save My people from the Philistines  because I’ve looked on My people, and I hear their cries.” When Samuel saw Saul, Yahweh said to him, “See, the one of whom I told you! He’ll rule over My people.            

     [18-21] Then Saul came to Samuel in the gate, saying, “Tell me, please, where is the preacher’s house?” Samuel answered Saul, saying, “I’m the preacher; go up before me to the Place of Worship, for you’ll eat with me today; and in the morning I’ll let you go, and will tell you what’s in your heart. As for your donkeys who were lost three days ago, don’t worry about them because they’ve been found. And whom does Israel want? Isn’t it you, and all your father’s house?” Saul answered, “Am I not a Benjamite, of the smallest family group of Israel? And my family, the least of all the family groups of Benjamin? Why then do you say this to me?”

     [22-27] Samuel took Saul and his worker, and brought them into the guest room, and made them sit in the best place among those who were invited who were about 30 people. Samuel said to the cook, “Bring the part which I gave you, of which I said to you, ‘Set it by you.’” The cook took up the thigh, and what was on it, and set it before Saul. Samuel said, “See, what has been saved for you! Set it before you and eat; because it been kept for you for this time, for I said, I’ve invited the people.” So Saul ate with Samuel that day. When they had come down from the Place of Worship into the city, he talked with Saul on the housetop.They got up early; and about dawn, Samuel called to Saul on the housetop, saying, “Get up, that I may send you away.” Saul got up, and both of them went out, both he and Samuel.As they were going down at the edge of the city, Samuel said to Saul, “Tell your worker to go on before us (and he went on), but you stay here, that I may tell you the word of God.”

 

     10[1-8] Then Samuel took the bottle of oil, and poured it on his head, and kissed him, saying, “Yahweh has anointed you to be Ruler over the people of God.When you’ve left from me today, then you’ll find two men by Rachel’s grave, in the border of Benjamin at Zelzah; and they’ll tell you, ‘The donkeys which you went to look for are found; and your father has stopped caring for the donkeys, and is worried you, saying, ‘What should I do for my child?’’” Then you’ll go on from there, and you’ll come to the oak of Tabor; and you’ll meet there three men going up to God to Bethel, one carrying three kids, another carrying three loaves of bread, and another carrying a bottle of wine; and they’ll speak to you, and give you two loaves of bread, which you’ll take from them. After that you’ll come to the hill of God, where the fort of the Philistines is; and when you come there to the city, you’ll meet a troop of preachers coming down from the Place of Worship with a psaltery, a tambourine, a pipe, and a harp with them; and they’ll be preaching; and the Spirit of Yahweh will come over you strongly, and you’ll preach with them, and you’ll be turned into another man. When these signs have come to you, do as the occasion will serve you because God is with you. You’ll go down before me to Gilgal; and I’ll come down to you to offer burnt offerings, and to make sacrifices of peace offerings; wait seven days, until I come to you, and show you what to do.”

[9-12] When he had turned his back to go from Samuel, God gave him another heart; and all those signs happened that day. When they came to the hill, a troop of preachers met him; and the Spirit of God came over him strongly, and he preached with them. When all who knew him before saw that he preached with the preachers, then they said to each other “What’s this that has come to the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the preachers? One of the same place answered, “Who is their father?” So it became a saying, “Is Saul also among the preachers?”

[13-21]When he had finished preaching, he came to the Place of Worship.Saul’s uncle said to him and his worker, “Where did you go?” He answered, “To look for the donkeys; and when we couldn’t find them we went to Samuel. Saul’s uncle said, “Tell me, please, what Samuel said to you.” Saul said to his uncle, “He told us clearly that the donkeys were found. But about the matter of the nation, of which Samuel said, he didn’t tell him. Samuel called the people together to Yahweh to Mizpah; and he said to the people of Israel, Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, “I brought up Israel out of Egypt, and I freed you from the Egyptians, and from all the countries that abused you; but today you’ve rejected your God who saves you out of all your disasters and your troubles; and you’ve said to Me, No, but set a Ruler over us. So now present yourselves before Yahweh by your family groups, and by your thousands. So Samuel brought all the family groups of Israel up, and the family group of Benjamin was chosen.He brought the family group of Benjamin up by their families; and the family of the Matrites was chosen; and Saul of Kish was chosen; but when they searched for him, they couldn’t find him.

[22-27] So they asked of Yahweh further, “Has the man come here yet?” Yahweh answered, “See, he has hidden among the baggage.” They ran and fetched him there; and when he stood among the people, he was taller than any of the people from his shoulders up.Samuel said to all the people, “You see him whom Yahweh has chosen, that there’s no one like him among all the people?” All the people shouted, saying, “Long live the Ruler.”Then Samuel told the people how the nation would be ruled, and wrote it in a book, and laid it up before Yahweh. Samuel sent all the people home.Saul also went to his house to Gibeah; and the troops whose hearts God had touched went with him.But certain worthless persons said, “How will this man save us?” They hated him, and didn’t bring him a present, but Saul didn’t say anything.

 

     11[1-3] Then Nahash, the Ammonite came up and camped against Jabesh Gilead; and all the people of Jabesh said to Nahash, “Make an agreement with us, and we’ll serve you.” Nahash said to them, “On this condition I’ll make it with you, that all your right eyes be put out; and I’ll do it to bring shame on all Israel.The elders of Jabesh said to him, “Give us seven days’ relief, so that we may send messengers to all the borders of Israel; and then if no one saves us we’ll come out to you.  

     [4-7] Then the messengers came to Gibeah of Saul, saying these words in the hearing of the people; and all the people raised their voices, and cried.Then Saul came from following the cows out of the field; and Saul said, “What is troubling the people and makes them cry? They told him what the people of Jabesh had said.            The Spirit of God came on Saul strongly when he heard those words, and he was very angry.He took a yoke of cows, and cut them in pieces, and sent them throughout all the borders of Israel by the hand of messengers, saying, “Whoever doesn’t come and follow Saul and Samuel, thiswill be done to their cows. The dread of Yahweh fell on the people, and they came out as one person.

     [8-11] He counted them in Bezek; and the people of Israel were 300,000, and the people of Judah 31,000. They said to the messengers who came, “Tell the people of Jabesh Gilead, “Tomorrow, about noon, you’ll have victory.” The messengers came and told the people of Jabesh; and they were glad.So the people of Jabesh said, Tomorrow we’ll come out to you, and you’ll do with us what you want. On the next day, Saul put the people in three troops; and they came into the middle of the camp in the morning watch, and fought the Ammonites until the heat of the day; and those who are left were scattered, so that no two of them were left together.

     [12-15] The people said to Samuel who are the ones who said, “Will Saul rule over us? Bring them, that we may put them to death.Saul said, “No one will be killed today because today Yahweh has won a great victory in Israel.Then Samuel said to the people, “Come, and let’s go to Gilgal, and renew the nation there. So all the people went to Gilgal; and they made Saul Ruler there before Yahweh in Gilgal; and there they offered sacrifices of peace offerings before Yahweh; and Saul and all the people of Israel were very happy.

 

     12[1-5] Samuel said to all Israel, “See, I’ve listened to your voice in what you said to me, and have made a Ruler over you.               Now, see, the Ruler walks before you; and I’m old and gray-headed; and my children are with you; and I’ve walked before you from my youth until today. Here I am; witness against me before Yahweh, and before God’s people; whose cow have I taken? or whose donkey have I taken? or whom have I cheated? whom have I abused? or of whose hand have I taken a bribe to blind Me with it? and I’ll give back it you. They said, You haven’t cheated us, nor abused us, neither have you taken anything from anyone.He said to them, Yahweh is witness against you, and God’s people are my witness today, that you haven’t found any wrong in me. They said, God is your witness.

     [6-10] Samuel said to the people, “It’s Yahweh who set up Moses and Aaron, and brought your ancestors out of the land of Egypt.So now stand still, that I may plead with you before Yahweh about all the good acts Yahweh did to you and your ancestors.          When Jacob had come into Egypt, and your ancestors cried to Yahweh, then Yahweh sent Moses and Aaron who brought your ancestors out of Egypt, and made them live in this place. But they forgot Yahweh their God, who sold them into the power of Sisera, captain of the troops of Hazor, and into the power of the Philistines, and into the power of the Ruler of Moab; and they fought against them.They cried to Yahweh, saying, We’ve sinned, because we’ve left Yahweh, and have served the Baals and the fertility goddess Ashtaroth; but now save us from our enemies, and we’ll serve you.

     [11-15] Yahweh sent Jerubbaal, Bedan, Jephthah, and Samuel, and saved you from your enemies on every side; and you lived in safety.When you saw that Nahash, the Ruler of the people of Ammon, came against you, you said to me, “No, but we want a Ruler to rule over us; when Yahweh your God was your Ruler.So now see the Ruler whom you’ve chosen, and whom you’ve asked for; and see, Yahweh has set a Ruler over you.If you’ll respect Yahweh, and serve God, and listen to God’s voice, and not rebel against the word of Yahweh, and both you and also the Ruler who rules over you are followers of Yahweh your God well; but if you don’t listen to the voice of Yahweh, but rebel against the Word of God, then the hand of Yahweh be come against you, as it was against your ancestors.

     [16-19] So now stand still and see this great thing which Yahweh will do before your eyes.Isn’t it wheat harvest today? I’ll call to Yahweh to send thunder and rain; and you’ll know and see that this thing is a great evil which you’ve done to Yahweh, in asking for a Ruler.”  So Samuel called to Yahweh; and Yahweh sent thunder and rain that day; and all the people greatly feared Yahweh and Samuel.They all said to Samuel, “Pray for Your followers to Yahweh your God, so that we not die because we’ve added to all our sins this evil, to ask for a Ruler.”

     [20-25] Samuel said to the people, “Don’t be scared; you’ve truly done all this evil; still don’t stop following Yahweh, but serve Yahweh with all your heart; and don’t turn away because then you would go after worthless things which can’t profit nor save you, for they’re worthless.Yahweh won’t leave you, who are God’s people, for God’s great name’s sake, because it has pleased Yahweh to make you God’s own people.              Besides this, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against Yahweh in not praying for you; but I’ll teach you the good and right way.Only respect Yahweh, and serve God in truth with all your heart. Just think about all the great things God has done for you! But if you still do evil, you’ll be destroyed, both you and your Ruler.”

 

     13[1-4] Saul was 40 years old when he began to rule; and when he had ruled two years over Israel, Saul chose 3,000 soldiers of Israel, of which 2,000 were with Saul in Michmash and in the Mount of Bethel, and 1,000 were with Jonathan in Gibeah of Benjamin; and the rest of the people he sent home. Jonathan fought the fort of the Philistines that was in Geba; and the Philistines heard it. Saul blew the horn throughout all the land, saying, “Let the Hebrews hear.” All Israel heard that Saul had fought the fort of the Philistines, and also that Israel was hated by the Philistines. The people were gathered together after Saul to Gilgal.

     [5-7] The Philistines gathered themselves together to fight with Israel, 30,000 war vehicles, and 6,000 riders, and as many people as the sand on the seashore; and they came up, and camped in Michmash, east of Beth Aven.When the people of Israel saw that they were in trouble (for the people were upset), then they hid themselves in caves, thickets, rocks, hidden places, and pits.Some of the Hebrews had gone over the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead; but as for Saul, he was still in Gilgal, and all the people followed him shaking.

     [8-12] He stayed seven days, according to the time that Samuel had set; but Samuel hadn’t come to Gilgal yet; and the people were scattered from him.Saul said, “Bring here the burnt offering to me, and the peace offerings” and he offered the burnt offering.                 As soon as he had finished offering the burnt offering, Samuel came; and Saul went out to meet him, to welcome him.   Samuel said, “What have you done?” Saul said, “I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that you didn’t come at the time set, and that the Philistines gathered together at Michmash; so I said, “Now the Philistines will come down on me to Gilgal, and I haven’t asked for Yahweh’s help; so I made myself offer the burnt offering.

[13-16] Samuel said to Saul, “You’ve done an ungodly thing; you haven’t kept the word of Yahweh your God, which God told you. Yahweh would have set up your rule of Israel forever.                But now your rule won’t last; Yahweh has searched for someone to follow God’s own heart, and Yahweh has set him to be head over his people, because you haven’t done what Yahweh told you.      Samuel got up, and went from Gilgal to Gibeah of Benjamin. Saul counted the people who were there with him, about 600 soldiers.Saul, and Jonathan his son, and the people who were there with them, stayed in Geba of Benjamin; but the Philistines camped in Michmash.

[17-23] The soldiers came out of the camp of the Philistines in three troops; one turned toward Ophrah, to the land of Shual; another turned the way to Beth Horon; and another turned toward the border that looks over the valley of Zeboim toward the countryside. Now there was no blacksmith in all the land of Israel because the Philistines said, ‘In case the Hebrews make themselves weapons;’ but all the Israelites went down to the Philistines, to sharpen their plowshares, mattocks, axes, and sickles; still they had a file for the mattocks, plowshares, forks, and axes, and to set the goads.So in the day of battle, none of the people who were with Saul and Jonathan had any weapons; but Saul and Jonathan his son had three.The fort of the Philistines went out to the pass of Michmash.

 

     14[1-5] Now one day, Jonathan, son of Saul, said to the young man who had his armor, “Come, and let’s go over to the Philistines’ fort, that is on over there. But he didn’t tell his father. Saul stayed in the farthest part of Gibeah under the pomegranate tree which is in Migron. He had about 600 soldiers with him; and Ahijah, son of Ahitub, Ichabod’s brother, son of Phinehas, of Eli, the preacher of Yahweh in Shiloh, was wearing a golden breastplate. The people didn’t know that Jonathan was gone.Between the passes, by which Jonathan searched to go over to the Philistines’ fort, there was a rocky crag on each side; and the name of  one was Bozez, and the name of the other Seneh.  The first crag rose up on the north in front of Michmash, and the other on the south in front of Geba.

     [6-10] Jonathan said to the young man who had his armor, “Come, and let’s go over to the fort of these unbelievers; it may be that Yahweh will work for us because it’s no problem for Yahweh to save by many or by few.”His armor bearer said to him, “Do whatever you want; go, I’m with you whatever you want to do.”Then Jonathan said, “See, we’ll pass over to the men, and we’ll show ourselves to them.If they say to us, ‘Wait until we come to you;’ then we’ll stand still in our place, and won’t go up to them.But if they say, ‘Come up to us;’ then we’ll go up because Yahweh has given them into our hand; and this will be the sign to us.”             

     [11-14] Both of them showed themselves to the fort of the Philistines; and the Philistines said, “See, the Hebrews come out of the holes where they’ve hid themselves.The people of the fort answered Jonathan and his armor bearer, saying, “Come up to us, and we’ll show you something.” Jonathan said to his armor bearer, “Come up after me because Yahweh has handed them over to Israel.”Jonathan climbed up on his hands and feet, and his armor bearer came after him; and Jonathan began to kill them; and his armor bearer killed some of them after him.That first slaughter which Jonathan and his armor bearer made was about 20 soldiers within a half acre of land.

     [15-19] There was an earthquake in the camp, in the field, and among all the people; the fort and the raiders also shook; and the earth quaked with a very great shaking.The guards of Saul in Gibeah of Benjamin looked; and saw that the people ran away, and they went here and there.Then Saul said to the people who were with him, Make a count now, and see who has left us. When they had counted, Jonathan and his armor bearer weren’t there.Saul said to Ahijah, “Bring here the Chest of God.” For the Chest of God was there at that time with the people of Israel.While Saul talked to the preacher, the uproar in the camp of the Philistines went on and got worse; and Saul said to the preacher, “Remove your hand.”

     [20-23] Saul and all the people who were with him gathered together, and came to the battle; and saw that all the Philistines fought each other, and there was a very great confusion.Now the Hebrews who were with the Philistines as before, and who went up with them into the camp from the country all around, even they also turned to fight with the Israelites who were with Saul and Jonathan.Likewise all the people of Israel who had hid themselves in the hillsides of Ephraim when they heard that the Philistines ran, they also followed hard after them in the battle.So Yahweh saved Israel that day; and the battle crossed over by Beth Aven.

     [24-27] The people of Israel were upset that day because Saul had said to the people, “Anyone who eats any food until evening, and I be avenged on my enemies will be punished. So none of them ate any food.All the people came into the forest; and there was honey on the ground.When the people had come to the forest, the honey dropped; but no one put his hand to his mouth because the people feared they would be punished.But Jonathan didn’t hear when his father had made the people promise; so he put forth the end of the walking stick that was in his hand, and dipped it in the honeycomb, and put his hand to his mouth; and his spirit lifted.

     [28-32] Then one of the people said, “Your father directly told the people, making them promise, saying, Anyone who eats food today will be punished.” But the people were faint.Then Jonathan said, “My father has troubled the land. Please look how my spirit is lifted, because I tasted a little of this honey.How much more, if the people had eaten freely today of the stuff of their enemies which they found? Now there’s been no great slaughter among the Philistines. They fought of the Philistines that day from Michmash to Aijalon. The people were very faint; and the people flew on the stuff, and took sheep, and cows, and calves, and killed them on the ground; and the people ate them with the blood.

    [33-35] Then they told Saul, saying, “See, the people sin against Yahweh, in that they eat the meat with the blood.” He said, “You’ve acted unfaithfully; roll a great stone to me today.Saul said, “Scatter yourselves among the people, and tell them, ‘Bring me here all the cows, and sheep, and kill them here, and eat; but don’t sin against Yahweh in eating your meat with the blood. So all the people brought their cows that night, and killed them there. Saul built an altar to Yahweh, which was the first altar that he built to Yahweh.

     [36-39] Saul said, Let’s go down after the Philistines by night, and take all the stuff with them until the morning light, and let’s not leave any of them. They said, “Do whatever you want.” Then the preacher said, “Let’s draw near here to God.”     Saul asked counsel of God, “Should I go down after the Philistines? Will you give them into the power of Israel?” But he didn’t answer him that day.Saul said, “Draw near here, all you leaders of the people; and know and see in which this sin has been today.As Yahweh lives, who saves Israel, though it be in Jonathan my son, he’ll truly die. But there wasn’t anyone among all the people who answered him.

     [40-44] Then he said to all Israel, “Be on one side, and I and Jonathan my son will be on the other side. The people said to Saul, “Do what you want.’So Saul said to Yahweh, the God of Israel, “Show who’s right.” Jonathan and Saul were chosen by the Judgment stones; but the people escaped.Saul said, “Throw judgment stones between me and Jonathan my son. Jonathan was chosen.Then Saul said to Jonathan, “Tell me what you’ve done.” Jonathan told him, “I did taste a little honey with the end of the walking stick that was in my hand; so see, I must die.”  Saul said, “God do so and more also because you’ll truly die, Jonathan.”

  [45-48] The people said to Saul, Will Jonathan die who has saved Israel? Far from it; as Yahweh lives, there won’t one hair of his head fall to the ground because he has worked with God today. So the people rescued Jonathan, so that he didn’t die.Then Saul went up from chasing the Philistines; and the Philistines went back home. Now when Saul had taken rule over Israel, he fought against all his enemies on every side, against Moab, against the people of Ammon, against Edom, against the Rulers of Zobah, and against the Philistines; and wherever he turned, he fought them down.He did bravely, and fought the Amalekites, and freed Israel out of the hands of those who stole from them.

     [49-52] Now the descendants of Saul were Jonathan, Ishvi, and Malchishua; and the names of his two daughters were Merab, the oldest, and Michal, the youngest; and the name of Saul’s wife was Ahinoam, the daughter of Ahimaaz. The captain of his troops was Abner, son of Ner, Saul’s uncle.Kish had Saul; and Ner, who had Abner, was the son of Abiel. There was war against the Philistines all of Saul’s life; and when Saul saw any strong or brave man, he took him to him.

 

     15[1-5] Samuel said to Saul, “Yahweh sent me to anoint you to be Ruler over his people, over Israel; So now listen to the words of Yahweh. Yahweh, the God of All Creation, says, I’ve noticed what Amalek did to Israel, how he set himself against Israel in the way when they came up out of Egypt. Now go and fight Amalek, and completely destroy everything they have, and don’t spare any of them; but kill both man and woman, baby and child, cow and sheep, camel and donkey. Saul called the people, and counted them in Telaim, 200,000 foot soldiers, and 10,000 people of Judah. So Saul went to the city of Amalek, and set up an ambush in the valley.

     [6-9] Saul said to the Kenites, “Go, get away from among the Amalekites, in case I destroy you with them because you showed kindness to all the people of Israel when they came up out of Egypt. So the Kenites went away from the Amalekites. Saul fought the Amalekites, from Havilah as you go to Shur, that is before Egypt.            He took Agag, the Ruler of the Amalekites alive, and completely destroyed all the people with the blade of a sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, cows, fatlings, lambs, and whatever else was good, and didn’t completely destroy them; but everything that was bad or trash, that they destroyed completely.

[10-16] Then the word of Yahweh came to Samuel, saying, “It grieves me that I’ve made Saul Ruler because he won’t follow me, and hasn’t kept my words. Samuel was angry; and he cried to Yahweh all night. Samuel got up early to meet Saul in the morning; and it was told Samuel, saying, “Saul came to Carmel and set up a monument, and turned, and went on, and went down to Gilgal. Samuel came to Saul; and Saul said to him, “Blessed are you by Yahweh; I’ve done the word of Yahweh.Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears, and the lowing of cows which I hear?” Saul said, “They’ve brought them from the Amalekites because the people spared the best of the sheep and cows, to sacrifice to Yahweh your God; and the rest we’ve completely destroyed.”Then Samuel said to Saul, “Stay, and I’ll tell you what Yahweh has said to me this night.” He said to him, “Tell me.”

     [17-21] Samuel said, “Though you were nothing in your own sight, weren’t you made the leader of the family groups of Israel? Yahweh anointed you Ruler over Israel; and Yahweh sent you on a journey, saying, ‘Go, and completely destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they’re all gone.’Why then didn’t you obey the voice of Yahweh, but flew on their stuff, and did what was evil to Yahweh?”Saul said to Samuel, “Yes, I’ve obeyed the voice of Yahweh, and I’ve done what Yahweh sent me to do, and have brought Agag, the Ruler of Amalek, and have completely destroyed the Amalekites.But the people took the stuff, the sheep and cows, the best of the dedicated things, to sacrifice to Yahweh your God in Gilgal.”

  [22-26] Samuel said, “Does Yahweh enjoy burnt offerings and sacrifices, as much as when you obey the voice of Yahweh? See, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen is better than the fat of rams.For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as worshiping a false god. Because you’ve rejected the word of Yahweh, Yahweh has also rejected you from being Ruler.Saul said to Samuel, I’m a sinner, because I’ve sinned against the word of Yahweh, and your words, because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice.So please forgive my sin, and come back with me, that I may worship Yahweh.        Samuel said to Saul, I won’t go back with you because you’ve rejected the word of Yahweh, and Yahweh has rejected you from being Ruler over Israel.

     [27-31] As Samuel turned around to go away, Saul laid hold on the skirt of his robe, and it tore.Samuel said to him, “Yahweh has torn the rule of Israel from you today, and has given it to a neighbor of yours who is better than you.Also the Strength of Israel won’t lie nor change, who isn’t a man that should repent.Then he said, I’ve sinned; still honor me now, please, before the elders of my people, and before Israel, and turn back with me, that I may worship Yahweh your God.So Samuel turned again after Saul; and Saul worshiped Yahweh.

     [32-35] Then Samuel said, “Bring Agag, the Ruler of the Amalekites, to me. So Agag came to him happily, thinking, “Truly the punishment of death is past.”But Samuel said, “As your sword has made women childless, so will your mother be childless among women.” Then Samuel cut Agag in pieces before Yahweh in Gilgal.Then Samuel went to Ramah; and Saul went up to his house to Gibeah of Saul.Samuel didn’t come to see Saul anymore until the day of his death because Samuel mourned for Saul; and Yahweh was troubled to have made Saul Ruler over Israel.

 

     16[1-5] Yahweh said to Samuel, “How long will you mourn for Saul, seeing I’ve rejected him from being Ruler over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go; I’ll send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite because I’ve picked me a Ruler among his sons.” Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears it, he’ll kill me.” Yahweh said, “Take a cow with you, and say, I’ve come to sacrifice to Yahweh.”Call Jesse to the sacrifice, and I’ll show you what to do; and you’ll anoint to me the one whom I name to you.”     Samuel did what Yahweh said, and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him shaking, saying, “Do you come peaceably?          He said, Peaceably; I’m come to sacrifice to Yahweh; dedicate yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice. He dedicated Jesse and his sons, and called them to the sacrifice.

[6-10] When they had come, he looked at Eliab, saying, “Truly Yahweh’s anointing is on him.”But Yahweh said to Samuel, “Don’t look at his face, or how tall he is; because I’ve rejected him; Yahweh doesn’t see as a person sees; people look at the outward appearance, but Yahweh looks at the heart.” Then Jesse called Abinadab, and made him come before Samuel. He said, Nor has Yahweh chosen this one.Then Jesse made Shammah to come. He said, Nor has Yahweh chosen this one.Jesse made seven of his sons to come before Samuel. Samuel said to Jesse, Yahweh hasn’t chosen these.

     [11-13] Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all your children here?” He said, “There is still the youngest left, who is keeping the sheep.” Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and get him because we won’t sit down until he comes here.              He sent, and brought him in. Now he had light skin, and was very good looking. Yahweh said, “Get up, anoint him because this is the one.Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his family members; and the Spirit of Yahweh came strongly on David from that day forward. So Samuel got up, and went to Ramah.

     [14-18] Now the Spirit of Yahweh left from Saul, and an evil spirit sent from Yahweh troubled him.Saul’s workers said to him, “See now, an evil spirit from God troubles you.Let our leader now tell Your followers who are before you, to look out for anyone who is a skillful player on the harp; and when the evil spirit from God is on you, he’ll play with his hand, and you’ll be well. Saul said to his workers, “Find me someone who can play well now, and bring him to me.” Then one of the servants answered, saying, I’ve seen a son of Jesse, the Bethlehemite, who plays well, and who’s a brave warrior, and speaks sensibly, and is a good looking young man; and Yahweh is with him.                           

     [19-23]  So Saul sent messengers to Jesse, saying, “Send me David your son who is with the sheep. Jesse took a donkey loaded with bread, and a bottle of wine, and a young goat, and sent them by David his son to Saul. David came to Saul, and stood before him; and he loved him greatly; and he became his armor bearer. Saul sent to Jesse, saying, “Please let David stand before me because he has found favor to me.”When the evil spirit from God was on Saul, David played the harp; so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit left him.

 

     17[1-7] Now the Philistines gathered together their troops to fight; and they were gathered together at Socoh which belongs to Judah, and camped between Socoh and Azekah, in Ephesdammim.Saul and the people of Israel were gathered together, and camped in the valley of Elah, and got ready for battle against the Philistines. The Philistines stood on one side of the mountain, and Israel stood on the other side; and there was a valley between them.A champion came out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath who was 9 ½ ‘ tall.He had a helmet of brass on his head, and he was clad with a coat of mail that weighed as much as 5,000 coins of brass.He had brass armor on his legs, and a brass lance between his shoulders.The stick of his spear was as long as a weaver’s beam; and his spear’s iron head weighed as much as 600 coins; and the one who carried his shield went before him.

     [8-11] He stood and shouted to the troops of Israel, saying to them, Why have you come out to get your troops in order? Am I not a Philistine, and you workers of Saul? Choose someone to fight for you, and let him come down to me.If he be able to fight with me, and kill me, then we’ll be your workers; but if I triumph against him, and kill him, then you’ll be our workers, and serve us.”     The Philistine said, “I defy the troops of Israel today; give me someone to fight.When Saul and all Israel heard the words of the Philistine, they were troubled, and very afraid.

     [12-18] Now David was of the Ephrathite from Bethlehem Judah whose name was Jesse, who had eight sons and was very old in the days of Saul.The three oldest sons of Jesse had followed Saul to the battle; and their names were Eliab the firstborn, and next to him Abinadab, and the third Shammah. David was the youngest; and the three oldest followed Saul.Now David went back and forth from Saul to feed his father’s sheep at Bethlehem.The Philistine came morning and evening, and showed up for 40 days.Jesse said to David his son, “Take now for your brothers 6 gallons of this parched grain, and these ten loaves, and carry it quickly to the camp to them; and bring these ten cheeses to the captain of their 1,000, and see how your brothers are doing, and bring news of them.

     [19-24] Now Saul, and they, and all the people of Israel were in the valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines.  David got up early in the morning, and left the sheep with a keeper, and went as Jesse had told him and came to the camp, as the troops were going to fight shouting for the battle.  Israel and the Philistines put their troops in order, troop against troop.David left his baggage in the hand of the keeper of the baggage, and ran to the troops, and came to meet his brothers. As he talked with them, the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, came out of the ranks of the Philistines, saying the same words; and David heard them.All the people of Israel when they saw the giant, ran from him, and were very afraid.

     [25-30] The people of Israel said, “Have you seen this giant who has come up? Truly to defy Israel he has come up; and the one who kills him, the Ruler will give great riches, and will give him his daughter, and make his father’s house free in Israel.David said to the men who stood by him, asking, “What will be done to the one who kills this Philistine, and ends this shame on Israel? Who is this unbelieving Philistine, that he defy the troops of the living God?” The people answered him, “So all this will be done to the one who kills him.” Eliab, his oldest brother, heard what he said to the men; and Eliab’s was angry at David, and he said, “Why have you come down? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the countryside? I know how proud you are, and the mischief of your heart; you’ve come down just to see the battle.” David said, “What have I done now? Isn’t there cause?”He turned away from him toward another, saying the same thing; and the people answered him again saying the same thing.

     [31-37] When the words were heard which David said, they told it to Saul; and he sent for him.David said to Saul, “Let no one’s heart fail because of him; I’ll go and fight with this Philistine.Saul said to David, “You’re not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; you’re so young, and he’s a man of war from his youth.ThenDavid said to Saul, I was keeping my father’s sheep; and when a lion or a bear came, and took a lamb out of the flock,I went out after him, and fought him, and took it out of its mouth; and when it came up against me, I caught it by its hair, and fought it, and killed it.Your follower fought both the lion and the bear; and this unbelieving Philistine will be as one of them, seeing he has defied the troops of the living God.” Then David said, “Yahweh, who saved me from the paw of the lion, and the bear, will save me from this Philistine.” Saul said to David, “Go, and Yahweh will be with you.”

  [38-47] Then Saul put his own armor on David, and put a helmet of brass on his head, and dressed him in a coat of mail.David tied his sword on him, and he tried to go but he hadn’t tested it. So David said to Saul, “I can’t go with these; I haven’t tested them. So David took them off.He took his walking stick in his hand, and chose five smooth stones out of the river, and put them in the shepherd’s bag which he had, in his pouch; and his sling was in his hand; and he came to the Philistine. The Philistine came up and came to David; and a man who had his shield went before him.When the Philistine looked and saw David, he hated him because he was but a youth, and had light skin, and was good looking.The Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog that you come to me with sticks?” The Philistine cursed David by his false gods.The Philistine said to David, “Come to me, and I’ll throw your body to the birds of the sky, and to the animals of the field.” Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, spear, and lance; but I come to you in the Name of Yahweh, the God of All Creation, the God of the troops of Israel, Whom you’ve defied.Today Yahweh will give you to me; and I’ll fight you, and take your head off; and I’ll give the dead bodies of the troops of the Philistines today to the birds of the sky, and to the wild animals of the earth; that all the earth may know that there’s a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that Yahweh doesn’t save with sword and spear because the battle is Yahweh’s, who’ll give you into our hand.”

  [48-51] When the Philistine came to meet David, David hurried, and ran toward the troops to meet the Philistine.David put his hand in his bag, and took a stone, and slang it, and hit the Philistine right in the forehead; and the stone sank into his forehead, and he dropped to the floor to the earth.So David overcame the Philistine with a sling and a stone, and fought the Philistine, and killed him; but there was no sword in David’s hand.Then David ran, and stood over the Philistine, and took his sword, and drew it out of its sheath, and killed him, and cut his head off with it. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they ran.

     [52-58] The people of Israel and Judah went up, and shouted, and chased the Philistines, until you come to Gai, and to the gates of Ekron. The wounded of the Philistines fell down by the way to Shaaraim, all the way to Gath, and to Ekron.                 The people of Israel went back from chasing after the Philistines, and they took the stuff from their camp.David took the head of the Philistine, and brought it back to Jerusalem; but he put his armor in his tent. When Saul saw David go against the Philistine, he said to Abner, the captain of the troops, “Abner, whose son is this youth?” Abner said, “As your soul lives, O Ruler, I can’t tell.” The Ruler said, “Ask whose son the young man is!”As David went back from the slaughter of the Philistine, Abner took him, and brought him before Saul with the head of the Philistine in his hand.Saul said to him, “Whose son are you, young man?” David answered, I’m the son Jesse, the Bethlehemite.

 

     18[1-5] When he had finished speaking to Saul, Jonathan and David became best friends, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. Saul took him that day, and wouldn’t let him go home to his father’s house anymore. Then Jonathan and David made an agreement, because he loved him as his own soul. Jonathan stripped off the robe that was on him, and gave it to David, and his clothing, even to his sword, bow, and belt.David went out wherever Saul sent him, and behaved wisely; and Saul set him over the soldiers, and it was good in the sight of all the people, and also in the sight of Saul’s workers.

     [6-12] As they came when David went back from the slaughter of the Philistine, the women came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet Ruler Saul with tambourines with great happiness, and with instruments of music.       The women sang to each other as they played, saying, “Saul has killed his thousands, David his ten thousands.” Saul was very angry, and this saying made him mad; and he said, “They’ve credited to David ten thousands, and to me they’ve only credited thousands;” and what can he have more but the rule of the nation?Saul watched David closely from that day forward.On the next day, an evil spirit from God came over Saul, and he preached in the midst of the house; and David played his harp, as he did day by day. Saul had his spear in his hand and threw it, thinking, “I’ll pin David to the wall.” David left him twice.Saul was afraid of David, because Yahweh was with him, and had left Saul. So Saul stayed away from him, and made him his captain over a thousand; and he went out and came in before the people.

     [14-21] David behaved wisely in all he did; and Yahweh was with him.  When Saul saw that he behaved himself very wisely, he stood in awe of him.But all Israel and Judah loved David because he went out and came in before them.Saul said to David, “See, my oldest daughter Merab, I’ll give her to you as wife; only be brave for me, and fight Yahweh’s battles. Saul thought, “Don’t let my hand kill him, but let the Philistines kill him.”David said to Saul, “Who am I, and what’s my life, or my father’s family in Israel, that I should be son-in-law to the Ruler?” But at the time when Merab, Saul’s daughter, should have been given to David, she was given to Adriel, the Meholathite, as wife.So Michal, Saul’s daughter, loved David; and they told Saul, and it pleased him.SoSaul said, “I’ll give her to him that she may be a trap to him, and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him.” So Saul said to David, “Today you’ll be my son-in-law a second time.”

 [22-30] Saul told his workers, saying, “Talk with David secretly, and say, ‘The Ruler likes you, and all the people love you; So now be the Ruler’s son-in-law.’”Saul’s workers said that to David and David said, “Does it seem to you a little thing to be the Ruler’s son-in-law, seeing that I’m just a poor man, and of little respect?” The workers told Saul what David said. Saul said, “Tell David, ‘The Ruler doesn’t want any dowry except 100 foreskins of the Philistines, to be avenged of his enemies.” Now Saul thought make David fall by the hand of the Philistines.  When his workers told David this, it pleased David well to be the Ruler’s son-in-law. The days weren’t over; and David went, he and his men, and killed 200 Philistine soldiers; and David brought their foreskins, and gave the full number to the Ruler, in order to be the Ruler’s son-in-law. Saul gave him Michal his daughter as wife.Saul saw and knew that Yahweh was with David; and Michal, Saul’s daughter, loved him.Saul was all the more afraid of David; and Saul was David’s enemy continually.Then the leaders of the Philistines came; and as often as they came, David behaved himself more wisely than all the workers of Saul; so that he became well known.

     19[1-5] Saul said to Jonathan his son, and to all his workers, that they should kill David. But Jonathan, Saul’s son, loved David.       Jonathan told David, “Saul my father wants to kill you; So now, please take care of yourself in the morning, and go to a secret place, and hide yourself; and I’ll go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are, and I’ll talk with my father of you; and if I hear anything, I’ll tell you.Jonathan said good things of David to Saul his father, saying to him, “Don’t let the Ruler sin against his worker, David; he hasn’t sinned against you, and he has been very good toward you and has risked his life, and fought the Philistine, and Yahweh won a great victory for all Israel; you saw it, and was happy; so why would you sin against innocent blood, to kill David without a cause?

     [6-10] Saul listened to Jonathan and promised, “As Yahweh lives, he won’t be killed.”Jonathan called David, and told him what Saul had said. Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in him, as before.There was war again; and David went out, and fought with the Philistines, and killed them with a great slaughter; and they ran before him.Then an evil spirit from Yahweh was on Saul, as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand; and David was playing his harp.Saul tried to find a way to pin David to the wall with the spear; but he slipped away from Saul, and he threw the spear into the wall; and David ran, and escaped that night.

     [11-17] Saul sent messengers to David’s house, to watch him, and kill him in the morning; and Michal, David’s wife, told him, saying, “If you don’t save your life tonight, tomorrow you’ll be killed.” So Michal let David down through the window; and he ran and escaped.Michal took the family idol, and laid it in the bed, and put a pillow of goats’ hair at its head, and covered it with the blanket.When Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, “He’s sick.”Saul sent the messengers to see David, saying, “Bring him up to me in the bed, that I may kill him.”When the messengers came in, the family idol was in the bed with the pillow of goats’ hair at its head.Saul said to Michal, “Why have you lied to me like this, and let my enemy go, so that he is escaped?” Michal answered Saul, “He said to me, ‘Let me go; why should I kill you?’”

  [18-24] Now David ran, and escaped, and came to Samuel to Ramah, and told him what Saul had done to him. He and Samuel went and lived in Naioth.It was told Saul, “David is at Naioth in Ramah.”        Saul sent messengers to take David; and when they saw the company of the preachers preaching, and Samuel standing as head over them, the Spirit of God came on the messengers of Saul, and they also preached.When it was told Saul, he sent other messengers, and they also preached. Saul sent messengers again the third time, and they also preached.Then he also went to Ramah, and came to the great well that is in Secu; and he asked, “Where are Samuel and David?” Someone said, “They’re at Naioth in Ramah.” He went there to Naioth in Ramah; and the Spirit of God came on him also, and he went on, and preached until he came to Naioth in Ramah.        He also stripped off his clothes, and preached before Samuel, and lay down naked all that day and night. So they say, “Is Saul also among the preachers?”

 

     20[1-10] David ran from Naioth in Ramah, and came saying to Jonathan, “What have I done? What’s my sin?” and “What’s my sin before your father that he wants to take my life?” He said to him, “Far from it; you won’t die; my father doesn’t do anything either great or small, without telling me; and why should my father hide this from me? It’s not so.”              Besides this, David promised saying, “Your father knows well that we are friends; and he says, ‘Don’t let Jonathan know this, in case he get upset’ but truly as Yahweh lives, and as your soul lives, there’s only a step between me and death.”Then Jonathan said to David, “Whatever you want, I’ll do it for you.”David said to Jonathan, “See, tomorrow is the new moon, and I shouldn’t fail to eat with the Ruler; but let me go, that I may hide myself in the field to the third day at evening.If your father miss me at all, then say, ‘David earnestly asked leave of me that he could run to Bethlehem his city because it’s the yearly sacrifice there for all the family.’If he says, ‘It’s okay;’ I’ll have peace; but if he’s angry, then know that he has planned something evil.So be good to me because you’ve made an agreement with me to Yahweh; but if there’s sin in me, kill me yourself; why should you bring me to your father?”Jonathan said, “Far be it from you because if I should at all know that evil were planned by my father to kill you, then wouldn’t I tell you that?”Then David said to Jonathan, “Who will tell me if your father answers you roughly?”

     [11-15] ThenJonathan said to David, “Come, and let’s go out into the field” so they both went out into the field.Jonathan said to David, “Yahweh, the God of Israel, be witness; when I’ve asked my father about this time tomorrow, or the third day, if there is good toward David, I won’t send to you, and tell it to you?Yahweh do so to Jonathan, and more also, should it please my father to hurt you, if I don’t tell it to you, and send you away, that you may go in peace; and Yahweh be with you, who has been with my father.You won’t only show me the loving kindness of Yahweh, while I still live, that I not die; but also you won’t keep your kindness from my house forever; no, not when Yahweh has destroyed all the enemies of David from the face of the earth.”

     [16-23] So Jonathan made an agreement with the house of David, saying, “Yahweh will require it at the hand of David’s enemies.”  Jonathan made David promise again, for the love that he had for him, because he loved him as he loved his own soul.            Then Jonathan said to him, “Tomorrow is the new moon; and you’ll be missed, because your seat will be empty.                 When you’ve waited three days, go down quickly, and come to the place where you hid yourself when this business first started, and stay by the stone Ezel.I’ll shoot three arrows on its side, as though I shot at a mark.I’ll send the boy, saying, ‘Go, find the arrows.’ If I tell the boy, ‘The arrows are on this side of you; take them, and come because there’s peace toward you and no hurt, as Yahweh lives.But if I say to the boy, ‘The arrows are beyond you; go on,’ then Yahweh has sent you away.           As touching the matter which you and I have spoken of, Yahweh is our witness forever.”

    [24-29] So David hid in the field; and when the new moon had come, the Ruler sat down to eat.The Ruler sat on his seat, as at other times, even on the seat by the wall; and Jonathan stood up, and Abner sat by Saul’s side; but David’s place was empty.Saul didn’t say anything that day because he thought, “Something has happened to him. He isn’t fit. Truly he isn’t fit.”On the next day after the new moon, which was the second day, David’s place was still empty; and Saul said to Jonathan his son, “Why doesn’t the son of Jesse come to eat, neither yesterday, nor today?”  Jonathan answered Saul, “David sincerely asked leave of me to go to Bethlehem; and said, ‘Please let me go, for our family has a sacrifice in the city; and my brother, he has told me to be there; and now, if it’s okay with you, let me get away, I ask, and see my brothers.’ So he hasn’t come to the Ruler’s table.”

     [30-34] Then Saul was very angry with Jonathan, and said to him, “You son of a disobedient rebellious woman, don’t I know that you’ve chosen the son of Jesse to your own shame, and to your mother’s shame?For as long as the son of Jesse lives on the earth, you won’t rule the nation. So bring him to me now, for he’ll truly die!” Jonathan answered Saul his father, saying to him, “Why should he be killed? What has he done?”Saul threw his spear at him to kill him. By this, Jonathan knew that his father planned to put David to death.So Jonathan got up from the table, being very angry, and ate no food the second day of the month because he was upset because his father had shamed David.

     [35-42] In the morning, Jonathan went out into the field at the set time with David, and a little boy with him.He said to his boy, “Run, find the arrows which I shoot.” As the boy ran, he shot an arrow beyond him. When the boy had come to the place of the arrow which Jonathan had shot, Jonathan shouted to the boy, saying, “Isn’t the arrow beyond you?” Jonathan shouted to the boy, “Go fast! Hurry! Don’t wait!” Jonathan’s boy gathered up the arrows, and came back to him.But the boy didn’t know anything; only Jonathan and David knew the matter.Jonathan gave his weapons to the boy, saying to him, “Go, carry them to the city. As soon as the boy was gone, David got up out of a place toward the South, and dropped to the floor to the ground, and bowed himself three times; and they kissed, and cried together, until David was done.Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, because we’ve promised both of us in the Name of Yahweh, saying, Yahweh will be between me and you, and between my children and your children, forever. He got up and left; and Jonathan went back to the city.

 

     21[1-6] Then David came to Nob to Ahimelech the preacher; and Ahimelech came to meet David shaking, saying to him, “Why are you alone, and no one with you?” David said to him, “The Ruler has given me some business to do, and has said to me, “Let no one know about the business on which I send you, and what I’ve told you; and I’ve sent the soldiers to such and such a place. So what do you have? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever there is here.The preacher answered David, saying, “There’s no common bread here, but there’s holy bread; if only the soldiers have kept themselves from women.            David answered the preacher, saying, “It’s true, we’ve not had women for three days since I came out, and the soldiers are holy, though it was only a common journey; how much more then will they’re holy today?So the preacher gave him holy bread because there was nothing there except the holy bread that was taken from before Yahweh, to put fresh bread in when it was taken away.  

     [7-11] Now a certain man of the workers of Saul was there that day, delayed before Yahweh, who was Doeg, the Edomite, the best of the herdsmen who belonged to Saul. David said to Ahimelech, “Isn’t there here with you a weapon? I’ve neither brought my sword nor my weapons with me, because the Ruler’s business needed to be done quickly.” The preacher said, “The sword of Goliath, the Philistine, whom you killed in the valley of Elah, is here wrapped in a cloth behind the golden breastplate; if you’ll take that, take it, because there’s no other except that here.” David said, “There is none like that; give it me.”David ran that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish, the Ruler of Gath. The workers of Achish said to him, “Isn’t this David, the Ruler of the land? Didn’t they sing to each other about him in their dances, saying, ‘Saul has killed his thousands, David his ten thousands’?”

     [12-15] David laid up these words in his heart, and was very afraid of Achish, the Ruler of Gath.He changed his behavior before them, and pretended to be crazy in their hands, and scratched on the doors of the gate, and let his spit fall down on his beard. Then Achish said to his workers, “Look, you see he’s crazy; so why have you brought him to me? Do I lack crazy people, that you’ve brought this idiot to act crazy in my presence? Will this person come into my house?

 

     22[1-4] SoDavid left there, and escaped to the cave of Adullam; and when his family and all his father’s house heard it, they went down there to him. Everyone who was in trouble, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was unhappy, gathered themselves to him; and he became captain over them; and there were with him about 400 soldiers.David went there to Mizpah of Moab; and he said to the Ruler of Moab, “Please let my father and my mother come here, and be with you, until I know what God will do for me.He brought them before the Ruler of Moab; and they lived with him while David was in the stronghold.

     [5-8] The preacher Gad said to David, “Don’t stay in the stronghold; leave, and go to the land of Judah. Then David left, and came into the forest of Hereth.WhenSaul heard that David and the men who were with him were discovered, he was sitting in Gibeah, under the tamarisk tree in Ramah with his spear in his hand, and all his workers were standing about him.Saul said to his workers who stood there, “Listen now, you Benjamites; will the son of Jesse give everyone of you fields and vineyards? Will he make you all captains of thousands and captains of hundreds, that you all have schemed against me, and there’s no one who tells me when my son makes an agreement with the son of Jesse, and there’s none of you who’s sorry for me, or tells me that my son has stirred up my worker against me, to set an ambush, as it is today?

     [9-15] Then Doeg the Edomite answered, who stood by the workers of Saul, saying, “I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech of Ahitub. He asked of Yahweh for him, and gave him food, and the sword of Goliath the Philistine.” Then the Ruler sent to call Ahimelech, the preacher, of Ahitub, and all his father’s house, the preachers who were in Nob; and all of them came to the Ruler.Saul said, “Now listen, son of Ahitub.” He answered, “Here I am, sir.” Saul said to him, “Why have you schemed against me, you and the son of Jesse, in that you’ve given him bread, and a sword, and have prayed to God for him, so that he can come against me, to set an ambush, as it is today?”  Then Ahimelech answered the Ruler, saying, “Who among all your workers is so faithful as David, who is the Ruler’s son-in-law, and is taken into your council, and is honorable in your house?      Have I just today begun to ask of God for him? Be it far from me; don’t let the Ruler blame anything on his worker, nor to all the house of my father because your worker knows nothing of all this.

     [16-23] The Ruler said, “You’ll truly die, Ahimelech, you, and all your father’s house.” The Ruler said to the guard who stood near him, “Kill the preachers of Yahweh; because they are also with David, and because they knew that he ran, and didn’t tell me.” But the workers of the Ruler wouldn’t lay a hand on them, to kill the preachers of Yahweh. The Ruler said to Doeg, “Kill the preachers.” So Doeg, the Edomite, killed the preachers, and he killed on that day 85 persons who wore a linen robe and a golden breastplate.Nob, the city of the preachers, he killed with the blade of a sword, both men and women, children and nursing babies, and cows, donkeys, and sheep, with the blade of a sword.  One of the descendants of Ahimelech, of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped, and ran after David.Abiathar told David that Saul had killed Yahweh’s preachers.David said to Abiathar, I knew on that day when Doeg, the Edomite, was there, that he would tell Saul; I’ve caused the death of all the people of your father’s house.Stay with me, and don’t be scared, because those who want to take my life also want to take your life, but you’ll be safe with me.

 

     23[1-4] They told David, “The Philistines are fighting against Keilah, and are taking their harvest.”So David asked of Yahweh, saying, “Should I go and fight these Philistines?” Yahweh said to David, “Go, and fight the Philistines, and save Keilah.”  David’s men said to him, “We’re afraid here in Judah; how much more then if we go to Keilah against the troops of the Philistines?” Then David asked of Yahweh again. Yahweh answered him, saying, “Get up, go down to Keilah because I’ll hand over the Philistines to you.”

     [5-12] So David and his men went to Keilah, and fought with the Philistines, and took their livestock, and killed them with a great slaughter. David saved the people of Keilah.When Abiathar of Ahimelech ran to David to Keilah, he came down with a golden breastplate in his hand.It was told Saul that David had come to Keilah. Saul said, “God has given him to me because he’s trapped, by going into a town that has gates and bars.” Then Saul called all the people to war, to go down to Keilah, to surround David and his men.When David knew that Saul was secretly planning against him, he said to Abiathar the preacher, “Bring here the golden breastplate.” Then David said, “O Yahweh, God of Israel, Your follower has heard that Saul wants to come to Keilah, to destroy the city for my sake.Will the people of Keilah hand me over to him? Will Saul come down, as Your follower has heard? Yahweh, the God of Israel, I beg you, tell Your follower.” Yahweh said, “He’ll come down.”Then David said, “Will the people of Keilah hand me and my men over to Saul?” Yahweh said, “They’ll hand you over.”         

     [13-18]Then David and his men, who were about 600, got up and left Keilah, and went wherever they could go. It was told Saul that David had escaped from Keilah; and he didn’t go there.David went to the countryside in the mountains, and stayed in the hillsides near Ziph. Saul searched for him everyday, but God didn’t let him fall into his hand.David saw that Saul had come out to take his life; and David was in the countryside of Ziph in the woods.Jonathan, Saul’s son, went to David in the woods, and encouraged him in the Name of God.He said to him, “Don’t be scared because Saul, my father, won’t find you; and you’ll be Ruler over Israel, and I’ll be next to you; and Saul, my father, knows this.”They made an agreement together before Yahweh; and David stayed in the woods, and Jonathan went home.

     [19-23] Then the Ziphites came to Saul to Gibeah, saying, “Doesn’t David hide with us in the strongholds in the woods, in the hill of Hachilah which is on the south of the desert? So now, O Ruler, come down and do whatever you want; and we will hand him over to you.”Saul said, “You are blessed of Yahweh because you’ve had compassion on me. Please go make sure you know, and see where his hiding place is, and who has seen him there because it’s been told me that he’s very sneaky.So find all the lurking places where he hides, and come to me again and let me know for sure, and I’ll go with you; and if he’s in the land, I’ll search for him out all the thousands of Judah.”

     [24-29] They got up, and went to Ziph before Saul; but David and his men were in the countryside of Maon, in the Arabah on the south of the desert.Saul and his men went to look for him. When David was told that, he went down to the rock, and stayed in the countryside of Maon. When Saul heard that, he chased after David in the countryside of Maon. Saul went on one side of the mountain, and David and his men on the other side of the mountain; and David hurried to get away for fear of Saul because Saul and his men surrounded David and his men to take them.But a messenger came to Saul, saying, Come quickly, because the Philistines have made a raid on the land.So Saul stopped chasing after David, and went against the Philistines; so they called that place the Rock of Escape.David went up from there, and lived in the mountains of En Gedi.

 

     24[1-4] When Saul stopped chasing the Philistines, it was told him, “David is in the countryside of En Gedi.” Then Saul took 3,000 of the best soldiers out of all Israel, and went to look for David and his men on the rocks of the wild goats.               He came to the sheep pens by the way, where there was a cave; and Saul went in to relieve himself. Now David and his men were staying in the innermost parts of the cave.The people of David said to him, “This is the day of which Yahweh said to you, ‘See, I’ll give your enemy to you, and you’ll do to him as it seems good to you.’” Then David got up, and cut the bottom of Saul’s robe secretly. 

     [5-15] Afterward, David’s heart bothered him, because he had cut Saul’s robe.He said to his men, “Yahweh forbid that I should do this thing to the Ruler, Yahweh’s anointed, to turn my hand against him, seeing he’s Yahweh’s anointed.” So David checked his men with these words, and didn’t let them go up against Saul. Saul got up out of the cave, and went on.David also got up afterward, and went out of the cave, and shouted to Saul, saying, “Ruler.” When Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the earth, and paid him respect. Then David said to Saul, “Why do you listen to men’s words, who say, ‘See, David wants to hurt you?’ You see today with your own eyes, how Yahweh had given you to me in the cave today; and some told me kill you; but I spared you; and I said, I won’t turn my hand against the Ruler because he is Yahweh’s anointed.                Besides this, my father, see, yes, see the bottom of your robe in my hand because I cut the bottom of your robe, and didn’t kill you, know and see that there’s neither evil nor disobedience in my hand, and I haven’t sinned against you, though you hunt after my life to take it. Yahweh judge between me and you, and Yahweh will avenge me of you; but my hand won’t touch you.As the saying of the ancients says, ‘Out of the sinful comes evil; but my hand won’t touch you. Who are you chasing after, Ruler of Israel? Who are you chasing? After a dead dog, after a flea.Yahweh will be judge, and give sentence between me and you, and plead my case, and take me out of your hand.”

  [16-22] When David had finished speaking these words to Saul, Saul said, ,” Is this truly your voice, my son David?” Saul lifted up his voice, and cried.He said to David, “You’re better than I because you’ve done good to me when I’ve done evil to you.               You’ve told me today how that you’ve been good to me, because when Yahweh had given me to you, you didn’t kill me.For if anyone finds his enemy, will he let him go away unharmed? So may Yahweh reward you good for what you’ve done to me today.Now I know that you’ll truly be Ruler, and that the rule of Israel will be put in your hand.So promise me now by Yahweh, that you won’t kill my children after me, and that you won’t destroy my name out of my father’s house. So David promised Saul and Saul went home; but David and his men went back up to their stronghold.

 

     25[1-8] Samuel died; and all Israel gathered together, and cried for him, and buried him at his home at Ramah. David went down to the countryside of Paran. There was a man in Maon who had many possessions in Carmel, and had 3,000 sheep, and 1,000 goats; and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel.Now the man’s name was Nabal; and his wife’s name was Abigail; and the woman was very smart and beautiful; but the man was rude and evil; and he was of the house of Caleb.        David heard in the countryside that Nabal was shearing his sheep.David sent ten soldiers, and said to the soldiers, “Go up to Carmel, and go to Nabal, and meet him in My Name; and tell him who lives well, ‘Be at peace, and may peace come to your house, and peace be on what you have. Now I’ve heard that you have shearers; your shepherds have now been with us, and we didn’t hurt them, neither did we take anything from them, all the while they were in Carmel.Ask your workers, and they’ll tell you; so do us a favor because we come on a good day. Please give whatever you have on hand to us and to your son David.”

     [9-13] When David’s soldiers came, they said to Nabal all those words in the name of David, and waited.Nabal answered David’s workers, saying, “Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse? There are many workers who quit working for their bosses these days.Should l then take my bread and water, and my meat that I’ve killed for my shearers, and give it to men who I don’t know where they come from?So David’s soldiers turned and went back, and came and told him all these words.                 David said to his men, “Everyone put on your sword.” They tied on their swords; and David also tied on his sword; and there went up after David about 400 soldiers; and 200 stayed by the baggage.

     [14-22] But one of the workers told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, saying, “See, David sent messengers out of the countryside to meet our boss; and he mocked at them.But the men were very good to us, and we weren’t hurt, nor missed anything, as long as we went with them. When we were in the fields; they were a wall to us both night and day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep. So now know and think about what to do because evil is decided against our boss, and against all his house because he is such a worthless person that no one can even speak to him.Then Abigail hurried, and took 200 loaves, and two bottles of wine, and five sheep already dressed, and 15 bushels of parched grain, and 100 clusters of raisins, and 200 cakes of figs, and laid them on donkeys.She said to her workers, “Go on before me; I will come after you. But she didn’t tell her husband, Nabal.As she rode on her donkey, and came down by the hidden side of the mountain, David and his men came down toward her; and she met them.Now David had said, “Truly it was useless that I kept what this person has in the countryside safe, so that nothing was missed of what belonged to him; and he has went back on me evil for good.God do so to the enemies of David, and more also, if I leave so much as one boy of what belongs to him by the morning light.”

[23-31] When Abigail saw David, she hurried, and got off of her donkey, and fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground.She fell at his feet, saying, “On me, sir, on me, be this sin; and please let me speak to you. Listen to me.Please don’t think of this worthless person, Nabal because as his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and disgrace is with him; but I, your servant didn’t see your soldiers, whom you sent.So now, sir, as Yahweh lives, and as your soul lives, seeing Yahweh has kept you from blood guiltiness, and from avenging yourself with your own hand, now let your enemies, and those who look for evil to you, be as Nabal.Now this present which I have brought you, let it be given to the soldiers who follow you.Please forgive the sin of your servant because Yahweh will certainly make you a sure house, because you fight the battles of Yahweh; and evil won’t be found in you all your days.Though men chase you, and want to take your life, still your life will be safe with Yahweh your God; and the souls of your enemies, God will sling out, as from the hollow of a sling.When Yahweh has done to you all the good that was promised about you, and has made you head over Israel, this will be no grief to you, nor offense of heart to you, either that you’ve killed people without cause, or that you have avenged yourself. When Yahweh has done well with you, then remember your servant.”

   [32-35] David said to Abigail, “Happy is Yahweh, the God of Israel, who sent you today to meet me; and you are blessed for your good judgment, that has kept me today from blood guiltiness, and from avenging myself with my own hand.For in truth, as Yahweh, the God of Israel, lives, who has kept me from hurting you, except you had hurried and come to meet me, truly there wouldn’t have been left to Nabal by the morning light so much as one boy.So David got from her hand what she had brought him; and he said to her, “Go up in peace to your house; I’ve listened to you, and I give you respect.”

     [36-38] Abigail went back to Nabal; and he held a celebration in his house, like the celebration of a Ruler; and Nabal’s heart was merry because he was very drunken; so she told him nothing, until morning. In the morning, when Nabal had come back to his senses, his wife told him these things, and he had a heart attack, and he became as stiff as a stone. About ten days later, Yahweh punished Nabal, and he died.

     [39-44] When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Happy is Yahweh, who has pleaded the cause of my shame from the hand of Nabal, and has kept back his follower from evil; and the wrongdoing of Nabal Yahweh has turned back on his own head. David sent word to Abigail that he wanted to marry her.When the workers of David had come to Abigail to Carmel, they said to her, David has sent us to you, to tell you that he wants to marry you.She got up, and bowed herself with her face to the earth, saying, “See, your servant is a worker to wash the feet of the workers of David.Abigail hurried, and rode on a donkey along with five ladies of hers who followed her; and she followed the messengers of David, and became his wife.          David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel; and they both became his wives.Now Saul had given Michal his daughter, David’s wife, to Palti of Laish, who was of Gallim.

 

     26[1-5] The Ziphites came to Saul to Gibeah, saying, “David is hiding in the hill of Hachilah, which is in the desert.” Then Saul got up, and went down to the countryside of Ziph, having 3,000 of the best soldiers of Israel with him, to look for David in the countryside of Ziph. Saul camped in the hill of Hachilah, which is by the desert road. But David stayed in the countryside, and he saw that Saul came after him into the countryside.SoDavid sent out spies, and knew that Saul had come for sure.         David came to the place where Saul had camped; and David saw the place where Saul lay, and Abner of Ner, the captain of his troops; and Saul lay within the place of the wagons, and the people were camped around him.

     [6-11] Then David said to Ahimelech, the Hittite, and to Abishai, of Zeruiah, brother to Joab, “Who will go down with me to Saul to the camp?” Abishai answered, “I’ll go down with you.” So David and Abishai came to the people by night; and Saul lay sleeping within the place of the wagons with his spear stuck in the ground at his head; and Abner and the people lay around him.           Then Abishai said to David, “God has handed over your enemy to you today; so now please let me stab him with the spear to the earth in one stroke, and I won’t have to fight him again.”David said to Abishai, “Don’t kill him because who can put their hand on Yahweh’s anointed, and be guiltless?” David said, “As Yahweh lives, Yahweh will fight him; or his day will come to die; or he’ll go down into battle and die.Yahweh forbid that I should put my hand on Yahweh’s anointed; but now please take the spear that is at his head, and the jar of water, and let’s go.”

 [12-16] So David took the spear and the jar of water from Saul’s head; and they went away; and no one saw it, nor knew it, neither did anyone awake because they were all asleep, because a deep sleep from Yahweh had fallen on them.Then David went over to the other side, and stood on the top of the mountain very far away with a great space being between them; and David cried to the people, and to Abner of Ner, saying, “Don’t you answer, Abner?” Then Abner said, “Who are you who calls to the Ruler?Then David said to Abner, “Aren’t you a brave soldier? Who is like you in Israel? So why haven’t you kept watch over your leader, the Ruler? One of the people came in to kill the Ruler your leader.          What you’ve done isn’t good. As Yahweh lives, you’re worthy to die, because you haven’t kept watch over your leader, Yahweh’s anointed. Now see where the Ruler’s spear is, and the jar of water that was at his head.”

     [17-20] Saul knew David’s voice, saying, “Is it you who speaks, my son David?” David said, “It’s me, Ruler.”He said, “Why do you chase after me? What have I done? Or what evil is in my hand?So now, please hear what I have to say. If it be Yahweh that has stirred you up against me, let God accept an offering; but if it’s a person, let them be punished by Yahweh because they’ve driven me out today that I can’t stay in Yahweh’s land, saying, ‘Go, serve other gods.’So now, don’t let my blood fall to the earth away from the presence of Yahweh because the Ruler of Israel is come out to look for a flea, as if hunting a partridge in the mountains.”

     [21-25] Then Saul said, “I’ve sinned; go back, my son David because I won’t hurt you anymore, because my life was precious in your eyes today; I’ve been the ungodly person, and have wronged you greatly.David answered, “See the spear, O Ruler! So let one of the soldiers come over and get it.Yahweh is good and faithful to all of us; because Yahweh gave you to me today, and I wouldn’t turn my hand against Yahweh’s anointed.See, as your life was valued greatly today in Me, so let my life be valued to Yahweh, and let God save me out of all this abuse.Then Saul said to David, “Happy is my son David; you’ll both do greatly, and will truly triumph. So David went on and Saul went back home.

 

     27[1-4] David said in his heart, I’ll now die one day by the hand of Saul; there isn’t anything better for me than that I should escape into the land of the Philistines; and Saul will lose hope of finding me, and won’t look for me anymore in all the borders of Israel; so I’ll escape out of his hand. So David got up and crossed over with the 600 soldiers who were with him, to Achish of Maoch, Ruler of Gath. David lived with Achish at Gath, he and his men, everyone in his household, David with his two wives, Ahinoam, the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the Carmelitess, Nabal’s wife. It was told Saul that David had run to Gath; and he stopped looking for him.

     [5-7] David said to Achish, “If now I’ve pleased you, give me a place in one of the cities in the nation that I may live there. Why should Your follower live in the royal city with you? Then Achish gave him Ziklag that day; Ziklag belongs to the Rulers of Judah today.David lived in the country of the Philistines a year and four months.   

     [8-12] Then     David and his men went up, and made a raid on the Geshurites, Girzites, and Amalekites. Those nations were the native people of the land, as you go to Shur, all the way to the land of Egypt.David fought them, and saved neither man nor woman alive, and took the sheep, cows, donkeys, camels, and clothing; and he went back, and came to Achish.Achish said, “Against whom have you made a raid today?” David said, “Against the South of Judah, against the South of the Jerahmeelites, and against the South of the Kenites.David saved neither man nor woman alive, to bring them to Gath, saying, “In case they should tell on us, saying, ‘So David did this, and has been doing this all the while he has lived in the country of the Philistines.’” Achish believed David, saying, “He has made his people Israel completely hate him; so he’ll be my worker forever.”

 

     28[1-6] In those days, the Philistines gathered their troops together for war, to fight with Israel. Achish said to David, “Know assuredly, that you’ll go out with me in the troops, you and your men.” David said to Achish, “So you’ll know what your worker will do?” Achish said to David, “So I’ll make you my personal guard forever.” Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had cried for him, and buried him in Ramah, in his own city. Saul had put away all those who spoke to evil spirits, and all the those who practice witchcraft out of the land. The Philistines gathered together, and camped in Shunem; and Saul gathered all Israel together, and they camped in Gilboa. When Saul saw the troops of the Philistines, he shook in fear.  When Saul prayed to Yahweh, Yahweh didn’t answer him, neither by dreams, nor by the Judgment stones, nor by preachers.

[7-14] Then Saul said to his workers, “Look for me a woman who speaks to evil spirits, that I may go to her, and ask of her. His workers said to him, “There’s a woman who speaks to an evil spirit at Endor.” Saul disguised himself, and put on other clothing, and went with two men, and they came to the woman by night; and he said, “Please foretell my future by the evil spirit, and bring up whoever I tell you. The woman said to him, “You know what Saul has done, how he has put away those who speak to evil spirits, and those who practice witchcraft, out of the land; why do you lay a trap for my life, to make me die?”  But               Saul promised her by Yahweh, saying, “As Yahweh lives, no punishment will happen to you for this thing.” Then the woman said, “Who do you want me to bring up for you?” He said, “Bring me up Samuel.” When the woman saw Samuel, she shouted loudly; and the woman said to Saul, “Why have you lied to me? You’re Saul.” The Ruler said to her, “Don’t be scared. What do you see?” The woman said to Saul, “I see a spirit coming up out of the grave.” He asked her, “What does he look like?” She said, “An old man comes up; and he’s covered with a shawl.” Saul understood that it was Samuel, and he bowed his face down, and paid respect.

[15-19] Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you disturbed me, bringing me up?” Saul answered, “I’m very upset because the Philistines make war against me, and God has left me, and won’t answer me anymore, neither by preachers nor dreams; so I’ve called you, that you may make known to me what to do.” Samuel said, “So so why do you ask me, seeing Yahweh has left you, and is your enemy? Yahweh has done to you, just as God said,  by me; and Yahweh has torn the rule out of your hand, and given it to your neighbor, even to David. Because you didn’t obey the voice of Yahweh, and didn’t judge Amalek for God’s great anger, so Yahweh has done this thing to you today. Besides this, Yahweh will give Israel along with you into the power of the Philistines; and tomorrow, you and your sons will be with me; Yahweh will put the troops of Israel also into the power of the Philistines.”

  [20-24] Then Saul immediately fell flat on the earth, and was very afraid, because of the words of Samuel; and there was no strength left in him because he had eaten nothing all that day or night. The woman came to Saul, and saw that he was very troubled, saying to him, “See, your servant has listened to you, and I’ve risked my life, and have obeyed your words which you said to me. So now, please listen also to me, and let me give you something to eat that you may have strength when you go.”             But he refused, saying, “I won’t eat.” But his workers, together with the woman, pushed him; and he listened to them. So he got up from the earth, and sat on the bed. The woman had a fattened calf in the house; and she hurried, and killed it; and she took flour, and kneaded it, and baked bread made without yeast; and she brought it to Saul and his men; and they ate. Then they got up, and went away that night.

 

     29[1-5] Now the Philistines gathered together all their troops to Aphek; and the Israelites camped by the creek which is in Jezreel. The leaders of the Philistines went on by hundreds and by thousands; and David and his men went on in the back with Achish. Then the leaders of the Philistines said, “What are these Hebrews doing here?’ Achish said to the leaders of the Philistines, “This is David, the worker of Saul, the Ruler of Israel, who has been with me these days, or rather these years, and I’ve found no fault in him since he came to me until today?” But the leaders of the Philistines were angry with him; and the leaders of the Philistines said to him, “Make the man go back, that he may go back home where you’ve put him, and let him not go down with us to fight, in case in the battle he become an enemy to us. What if this person should go back to his leader? Wouldn’t it be with the lives of these men?  Isn’t this the David, of whom they sang to each other in dances, saying, Saul has killed his thousands, David his ten thousands?”

  [6-11] Then Achish called David, saying to him, “As Yahweh lives, you’ve been good, and your going out and coming in with me in the troops is good to me and I haven’t found any evil in you since the day you came to me until today; But the leaders don’t want you.So now, go back, and go in peace, that you not make the leaders of the Philistines mad.  David said to Achish, “But what have I done? What wrong have you found in me as long as I’ve been with you until today, that I can’t go and fight against your enemies?” Achish answered David, I know that you’re good to me, as an angel of God; but the leaders of the Philistines have said, ‘He won’t go with us to the battle.’ So now, get up early in the morning, with the workers of your leader who have come with you; and as soon as you’re up early in the morning, and have light, leave.” So David got up early, he and his men, to leave in the morning, to go back into the land of the Philistines. Then Philistines went up to Jezreel.

 

     30[1-4] When David and his men had come to Ziklag on the third day, the Amalekites had made a raid on the South, and on Ziklag, and had destroyed Ziklag, and burned it with fire, and had taken prisoner the women and all who were in it, from the least to the greatest. They didn’t kill anyone, but carried them all off, and left.       When David and his men came to the city, it was burned with fire; and their wives, and their children were taken prisoner. Then David and the people who were with him raised their voices and cried, until they couldn’t cry anymore.

     [5-8] David’s two wives were taken prisoner, Ahinoam, the Jezreelitess, and Abigail, the wife of Nabal, the Carmelite.         David was greatly upset because the people talked of killing him, because everyone was upset and worried about their children; but David strengthened himself in Yahweh God.David said to Abiathar, the preacher, son of Ahimelech, “Please bring me here the golden breastplate.” So Abiathar brought the golden breastplate (containing the Judgment stones) to David.David asked of Yahweh, saying, “If I chase after this troop, will I catch them?” God answered him, “Chase them and you’ll truly overtake them, and will without fail recover all.”

[9-15] So David went with his 600 soldiers, and came to the river Besor, where those who were left behind stayed.But David chased after them with 400 soldiers and 200 stayed behind, who were so faint that they couldn’t go over the river Besor.        They found an Egyptian in the field, and brought him to David, and gave him bread, and he ate; and they gave him water to drink.   They gave him a piece of a cake of figs, and two clusters of raisins; and when he had eaten, his spirit came again to him because he had eaten nothing, nor drunk any water, three days and nights.David said to him, “To whom do you belong? Where are you from?” He said, “I’m a young man of Egypt, worker to an Amalekite; and my boss left me, because three days ago I fell sick.We made a raid on the South of the Cherethites and on what belongs to Judah, and on the South of Caleb; and we burned Ziklag with fire.” David said to him, “Will you bring me down to this troop?” He said, “Promise me by God, that you’ll neither kill me, nor hand me over to my boss, and I’ll bring you down to this troop.”    

     [16-20] When he had brought him down, they were spread out over all the ground, eating and drinking, and dancing, because of all the great stuff that they had taken out of the land of the Philistines, and out of the land of Judah.David fought them from the dusk to the evening of the next day; and not one of them escaped, except 400 soldiers, who rode on camels and ran.   David took back what the Amalekites had taken and rescued his two wives. There wasn’t anything lacking to them, whether small or great, not children, nor stuff, nor anything that they had taken from them; David brought it all back.David took all the flocks and the herds which they drove before the other livestock, saying, “This is my stuff.”

     [21-25] David came to the 200 soldiers, who were so faint that they couldn’t follow him, whom also they had made to stay at the river Besor; and they came to meet David, and to meet the people who were with him; and when David came close to them, he greeted them. Then all the sinners and evil ones who went with David, said, “Because they didn’t go with us, we won’t give them anything of the stuff that we got back, except to each his wife and his children, that he may take them away, and leave.”       Then David said, “You won’t do that, my people, with what Yahweh has given to us who has saved us, and put the troop that came against us into our hand.Who will listen to you in this matter? The share of those who go down to the battle will be the same as the share of those who wait by the baggage; they’ll share alike.From that day forward, he made it a law and a rule for Israel until today.

     [26-31] When David came to Ziklag, he sent of the stuff to the elders of Judah, even to his friends, saying, “See, I have a present for you of the stuff of the enemies of Yahweh. To those who were in Bethel, Ramoth of the South, Jattir,Aroer, Siphmoth, Eshtemoa,and Racal, and to those who were in the cities of the Jerahmeelites and Kenites,and to those who were in Hormah, Borashan, Athach,and Hebron, and to all the places where David and his men had stayed.

 

     31[1-6] 1Now the Philistines fought against Israel; and the people of Israel ran from the Philistines, and fell dead on Mount Gilboa.The Philistines chased Saul and his sons; and the Philistines killed Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua, the sons of Saul.The battle went very bad against Saul, and the archers overtook him; and he was wounded badly by the archers. Then Saul said to his armor bearer, “Draw your sword, and stab me with it, in case these unbelievers come and stab me, and abuse me.” But his armor bearer wouldn’t do it because he was very afraid. So Saul took his sword, and fell on it. When his armor bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also stabbed himself, and died with him. So Saul died, and his three sons, and his armor bearer, and all his men, that same day together.

[7-13] When the people of Israel who were on the other side of the valley, and those who were across the Jordon, saw that the people of Israel ran, and that Saul and his sons were dead, they left the cities, and ran; and the Philistines came and lived in them. On the next day, when the Philistines came to strip the dead, they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa. They cut off his head, and stripped off his armor, and sent into the land of the Philistines all around, to carry the news to the place of their false gods, and to the people. They put his armor in the house of the fertility goddess Ashtaroth; and they fastened his body to the wall of Beth Shan. When the people of Jabesh Gilead heard about what the Philistines had done to Saul, all the soldiers got up, and went all night, and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth Shan; and they came to Jabesh, and burnt them there. They took their bones, and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh, and fasted seven days.