Saul and the Spirit Medium

28 Now it came about in those days that ^(A)the Philistines gathered their armed camps for war, to fight against Israel. And Achish said to David, “Know for certain that you will go out with me in the camp, you and your men.” ² David said to Achish, “Very well, you will learn what your servant can do.” So Achish said to David, “Then I will assuredly make you ^[a]my bodyguard ^(B)for ^[b]life!”

³ Now ^(C)Samuel was dead, and all Israel had mourned him and buried him ^(D)in Ramah, his own city. And Saul had removed the ^(E)mediums and spiritists from the land. ⁴ So the Philistines assembled and came and camped ^(F)in Shunem; and Saul gathered all Israel together, and they camped in ^(G)Gilboa. ⁵ When Saul saw the camp of the Philistines, he was afraid and his heart trembled greatly. ^6 (H)So Saul inquired of the Lord, but ^(I)the Lord did not answer him, either in ^(J)dreams, or by the ^(K)Urim, or by the prophets. ⁷ Then Saul said to his servants, “Find for me a woman who is a medium, so that I may go to her and inquire of her.” And his servants said to him, “Behold, ^(L)there is a woman who is a medium at ^(M)En-dor.”

⁸ Then Saul ^(N)disguised himself by putting on different clothes, and went, he and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night; and he said, “^(O)Consult the spirit for me, please, and ^(P)bring up for me the one whom I shall ^[c]name for you.” ⁹ But the woman said to him, “Behold, you know ^(Q)what Saul has done, that he has eliminated the mediums and spiritists from the land. Why are you then setting a trap for my life, to bring about my death?” ¹⁰ So Saul swore an oath to her by the Lord, saying, “As the Lord lives, no punishment shall come upon you for this thing.” ¹¹ Then the woman said, “Whom shall I bring up for you?” And he said, “Bring up Samuel for me.” ¹² When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice; and the woman spoke to Saul, saying, “Why have you deceived me? For you are Saul!” ¹³ But the king said to her, “Do not be afraid; but what do you see?” And the woman said to Saul, “I see a ^[d]divine being coming up from the earth.” ¹⁴ He said to her, “^[e]How does he appear?” And she said, “An old man is coming up, and ^(R)he is wrapped in a robe.” Then Saul knew that it was Samuel, and ^(S)he bowed with his face to the ground and paid ^[f]homage.

¹⁵ And Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?” Saul replied, “I am very distressed, for the Philistines are waging war against me, and ^(T)God has abandoned me and ^(U)no longer answers me, either through prophets or in dreams; therefore I have called you, so that you may let me know what I should do.” ¹⁶ Samuel said, “But why ask me, since the Lord has abandoned you and has become your enemy? ¹⁷ And the Lord has done ^[g]just ^(V)as He spoke through me; for the Lord has torn the kingdom from your hand and given it to your neighbor, to David. ¹⁸ Just as ^(W)you did not ^[h]obey the Lord and did not execute His fierce wrath on Amalek, so the Lord has done this thing to you this day. ¹⁹ Furthermore, the Lord will also hand Israel along with you over to the Philistines; so tomorrow ^(X)you and your sons will be with me. Indeed, the Lord will hand the army of Israel over to the Philistines!”

²⁰ Then Saul immediately fell full length to the ground and was very afraid because of Samuel’s words; there was no strength in him either, because he had eaten no ^[i]food all day and all night. ²¹ The woman came to Saul and saw that he was utterly horrified, and she said to him, “Behold, your servant has ^[j]obeyed you, and ^(Y)I have ^[k]taken my life in my hand and have listened to your words which you spoke to me. ²² So now you too, please listen to the voice of your servant, and let me serve you a piece of bread, and eat it, so that you will have strength when you go on your way.” ²³ But he refused and said, “^(Z)I will not eat.” ^(AA)However, his servants together with the woman urged him, and he listened to ^[l]them. So he got up from the ground and sat on ^(AB)the bed. ²⁴ Now the woman had a ^(AC)fattened calf in the house, and she quickly slaughtered it; then she ^(AD)took flour, kneaded it and baked unleavened bread from it. ²⁵ She then served it to Saul and his servants, and they ate. Then they got up and left that night.

The Philistines Mistrust David

29 Now ^(A)the Philistines gathered together all their armies to ^(B)Aphek, while the Israelites were camping by the spring which is in ^(C)Jezreel. ² And the governors of the Philistines were proceeding on, leading hundreds and thousands, and ^(D)David and his men were proceeding in the back with Achish. ³ Then the commanders of the Philistines said, “What are these Hebrews doing here?” And Achish said to the commanders of the Philistines, “Is this not David, the servant of Saul the king of Israel, ^(E)who has been with me these days, or rather these years, and ^(F)I have found nothing at all suspicious in him since the day he ^[a]deserted to me to this day?” ⁴ But the commanders of the Philistines were angry with him, and the commanders of the Philistines said to him, “Make the man go back, so that he will return ^(G)to his place where you have assigned him, and do not let him go down to battle with us, ^(H)or in the battle he may become an adversary to us. For how could this man find favor with his lord? Would it not be with the heads of ^[b]these men? ⁵ Is this not David, ^(I)of whom they sing in the dances, saying,

⁶ Then Achish called David and said to him, “As the Lord lives, you have indeed been honest, and ^(J)your ^[c]going out and your coming in with me in the army are pleasing in my sight; ^(K)for I have not found evil in you since the day of your coming to me to this day. Nevertheless, you are not pleasing in the sight of the governors. ⁷ Now then, return and go in peace, so that you will not do anything wrong in the sight of the governors of the Philistines.” ⁸ However, David said to Achish, “^(L)But what have I done? And what have you found in your servant since the day that I came before you, to this day, that I cannot go and fight against the enemies of my lord the king?” ⁹ But Achish replied to David, “I know that you are pleasing in my sight, ^(M)like an angel of God; nevertheless ^(N)the commanders of the Philistines have said, ‘He must not go up with us into the battle.’ ¹⁰ Now then, rise early in the morning ^(O)with the servants of your lord who have come with you, and as soon as you have risen early in the morning and have light, leave.” ¹¹ So David got up early, he and his men, to leave in the morning to return to the land of the Philistines. And the Philistines went up to Jezreel.

David’s Victory over the Amalekites

30 Then it happened, when David and his men came to ^(A)Ziklag on the third day, that ^(B)the Amalekites had carried out an attack on the ^[a]Negev and on ^(C)Ziklag, and had ^[b]overthrown Ziklag and burned it with fire; ² and they took captive the women and all who were in it, from the small to the great, ^[c](D)without killing anyone, and drove them off and went their way. ³ When David and his men came to the city, behold, it was burned with fire, and their wives, their sons, and their daughters had been taken captive. ⁴ Then David and the people who were with him ^(E)raised their voices and wept until there was no strength in them to weep. ⁵ Now ^(F)David’s two wives had been taken captive, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess and Abigail the ^[d]widow of Nabal the Carmelite. ⁶ Also, David was in great distress because ^(G)the people spoke of stoning him, for all the people were ^[e]embittered, each one because of his sons and his daughters. But ^(H)David felt strengthened in the Lord his God.

⁷ Then ^(I)David said to ^(J)Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelech, “Please bring me the ephod.” So Abiathar brought the ephod to David. ⁸ And ^(K)David inquired of the Lord, saying, “^(L)Shall I pursue this band of raiders? Will I overtake them?” And He said to him, “Pursue, for you will certainly overtake them, ^(M)and you will certainly rescue everyone.” ⁹ So David left, ^(N)he and the six hundred men who were with him, and they came to the brook Besor, where some who were left behind stayed. ¹⁰ But David pursued, he and four hundred men, for ^(O)two hundred who were too exhausted to cross the brook Besor stayed behind.

¹¹ Now they found an Egyptian in the field and brought him to David, and gave him bread and he ate, and they provided him water to drink. ¹² They also gave him a slice of fig cake and two cakes of raisins, and he ate; ^(P)then his spirit ^[f]revived. For he had not eaten bread or drunk water for three days and three nights. ¹³ Then David said to him, “To whom do you belong? And where are you from?” And he said, “I am a young man of Egypt, a servant of an Amalekite; and my master abandoned me when I became sick three days ago. ¹⁴ We carried out an attack on ^(Q)the ^[g]Negev of the Cherethites, and on that which belongs to Judah, and on ^(R)the ^[h]Negev of Caleb, and ^(S)we burned Ziklag with fire.” ¹⁵ Then David said to him, “Will you bring me down to this band of raiders?” And he said, “Swear to me by God that you will not kill me or hand me over to my master, and I will bring you down to this band.”

¹⁶ Now when he had brought him down, behold, they were dispersed over all the land, ^(T)eating and drinking and celebrating because of ^(U)all the great plunder that they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah. ¹⁷ And David ^[i]slaughtered them ^(V)from the twilight ^[j]until the evening of ^[k]the next day; and not a man of them escaped, except four hundred young men who rode on ^(W)camels and fled. ¹⁸ So David ^(X)recovered all that the Amalekites had taken, and ^[l]rescued his two wives. ¹⁹ And nothing of theirs was missing, whether small or great, sons or daughters, plunder, or anything that they had taken for themselves; ^(Y)David brought it all back. ²⁰ So David had ^[m]captured all the sheep and the cattle which the people drove ahead of ^[n]the other livestock, and they said, “^(Z)This is David’s plunder.”

The Plunder Is Divided

²¹ When ^(AA)David came to the two hundred men who were too exhausted to follow David and ^[o]had been left behind at the brook Besor, and they went out to meet David and to meet the people who were with him, then David approached the people and greeted them. ²² Then all the wicked and ^[p]worthless men among those who went with David said, “Since they did not go with ^[q]us, we will not give them any of the spoils that we have recovered, except to every man his wife and his children, so that they may lead them away and leave.” ²³ But David said, “You must not do so, my brothers, with what the Lord has given us, for He has protected us and handed over to us the band of raiders that came against us. ²⁴ And who will listen to you in this matter? For ^(AB)as is the share of the one who goes down into the battle, so shall be the share of the one who stays by the baggage; they shall share alike.” ²⁵ So it has been from that day forward, that he made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel to this day.

²⁶ Now when David came to Ziklag, he sent some of the spoils to the elders of Judah, to his friends, saying, “Behold, ^(AC)a ^[r]gift for you from the spoils of ^(AD)the enemies of the Lord: ²⁷ to those who were in ^(AE)Bethel, to those who were in ^(AF)Ramoth of the ^[s]Negev, to those who were in ^(AG)Jattir, ²⁸ to those who were in ^(AH)Aroer, to those who were in Siphmoth, to those who were in ^(AI)Eshtemoa, ²⁹ to those who were in Racal, to those who were in the cities of ^(AJ)the Jerahmeelites, to those who were in the cities of ^(AK)the Kenites, ³⁰ to those who were in ^(AL)Hormah, to those who were in ^(AM)Bor-ashan, to those who were in Athach, ³¹ to those who were in ^(AN)Hebron, and to all the places where David himself and his men ^(AO)walked.”

Saul and His Sons Killed in Battle

31 ^(A)Now the Philistines were fighting against Israel, and the men of Israel fled from the Philistines but fell fatally wounded ^(B)on Mount Gilboa. ² And the Philistines also overtook Saul and his sons, and the Philistines ^[a]killed ^(C)Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchi-shua, the sons of Saul. ^3 (D)The battle went heavily against Saul, and the archers found him; and he was gravely wounded by the archers. ^4 (E)Then Saul said to his armor bearer, “Draw your sword and pierce me through with it, otherwise ^(F)these uncircumcised Philistines will come and pierce me through, and abuse me.” But his armor bearer was unwilling, because he was very fearful. ^(G)So Saul took ^[b]his sword and fell on it. ⁵ When his armor bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell on his sword and died with him. ⁶ So Saul died with his three sons, his armor bearer, and all his men on that day together.

⁷ Now when the people of Israel who were on the other side of the valley, with those who were beyond the Jordan, saw that the men of Israel had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned the cities and fled; then the Philistines came and settled in them.

⁸ It came about on the next day, when the Philistines came to strip those killed, that they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa. ⁹ They cut off his head and stripped off his weapons, and sent them ^[c]throughout the land of the Philistines, ^(H)to bring the good news ^(I)to the house of their idols and to the people. ¹⁰ They put his weapons in the ^[d]temple of ^(J)Ashtaroth, and ^(K)they nailed his body to the wall of ^(L)Beth-shan. ¹¹ Now when ^(M)the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead heard ^[e]what the Philistines had done to Saul, ^12 (N)all the valiant men got up and walked all night, and they took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth-shan, and they came to Jabesh and ^(O)burned them there. ¹³ And they took their bones and ^(P)buried them under ^(Q)the tamarisk tree in Jabesh, and ^(R)fasted for seven days.

The Lord Praised for Rescuing David.

For the music director. A Psalm of David, the servant of the Lord, ^[a]who spoke to the Lord the words of this song on the day that the Lord rescued him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. And he said,