The Israelites ask for a king

8 When Samuel was old, he made his sons judges for the Israelites.^{[a] 2} The name of his firstborn son was Joel. The name of his second son was Abijah. They were judges in Beersheba town. ³ But Samuel's sons did not live in a good way, as Samuel had done. They took money from people in ways that were not honest. They accepted bribes so that they did not judge in a fair way.

⁴ So all of Israel's leaders went together to meet Samuel at Ramah. ⁵ They said to him, ‘You are old. Your sons do not live in the way that you have done. All the other nations have kings to lead them. So choose a king to rule over us, like they have.’

⁶ When Israel's leaders said, ‘Choose a king who will lead us,’ Samuel was not happy. So he prayed to the Lord. ⁷ The Lord said to Samuel, ‘Listen to everything that the people are saying to you. I myself should be their king. So it is not you that they refuse to accept. It is me that they do not accept to be their king. ⁸ They are doing what they have always done. Since I brought them out of Egypt they have continued to turn away from me. They have chosen to serve other gods. Now they are turning against you in the same way. ⁹ So do what they are asking you to do. But warn them about what will happen. Tell them how their kings will rule over them.’

¹⁰ Samuel spoke to the people who had asked him to give them a king. He told them everything that the Lord had said to him. ¹¹ Samuel said to them, ‘This is how the king will rule over you: He will take your sons to be his soldiers. They will ride his horses and they will drive his chariots. They will have to run in front of his own chariot. ¹² The king will choose some of your sons to be officers in his army. Some will be leaders of 1,000 soldiers. Others will be leaders of 50 soldiers. Some of your sons will have to plough the king's fields. They will have to cut his crops at harvest time. They will have to make weapons for the king to fight wars. They will have to fix his chariots. ¹³ The king will take your daughters to serve him. They will have to make perfume for him. They will also have to cook and bake bread for him. ¹⁴ The king will take your best fields, vines and olive trees away from you. He will give all these to his own officers. ¹⁵ He will take a tenth part of all your seeds and grapes. He will give them to his officers and servants. ¹⁶ He will take your male and female servants for himself. He will take your best cows and your donkeys. He will use them for his own work. ¹⁷ He will take a tenth of all your sheep and your goats. You yourselves will become his servants too. ¹⁸ Then you will complain loudly to the Lord about your king that you have chosen to lead you. But the Lord will not answer you when you do that.’

¹⁹ But the people would not listen to Samuel. They said, ‘No! We want a king to rule us. ²⁰ We want to be like all the other nations! We want a king to rule us. He will be our leader when we go to fight our enemies.’

²¹ Samuel listened to everything that the people said. Then he told the Lord about it all. ²² The Lord said to Samuel, ‘You must do what they want. You must give a king to them.’

Then Samuel told Israel's people, ‘Return to your own towns, each of you.’

Saul looks for his father's donkeys

9 Kish was an important man from the tribe of Benjamin. He was the son of Abiel. Abiel was the son of Zeror. Zeror was the son of Becorath. Becorath was the son of Aphiah. Aphiah was a descendant of Benjamin. ² Kish had a son whose name was Saul. Saul was a handsome young man. No other Israelite was more handsome than he was. When Saul stood with other people, you could see his head above everyone else.

³ Some of Kish's donkeys had run away. Kish said to Saul, ‘Go and look for my donkeys. Take one of the servants with you.’ ⁴ So Saul and the servant travelled through the hill country of Ephraim. They went across Shalisha region. But they did not find the donkeys there. Then they went to Shaalim region. The donkeys were not there either. They travelled through all the tribe of Benjamin's land. They still did not find the donkeys anywhere.

⁵ They reached the land of Zuph's clan. Saul said to his servant, ‘We must return home now. We have been away for a long time. My father will start to think that we have become lost. He will not be thinking about the donkeys any more.’

⁶ The servant replied, ‘There is a servant of God who lives in this town. Everything that he says will happen really happens. So people respect him very much. We should go to meet him. Perhaps he will tell us which way we should go from here.’

⁷ Saul said to his servant, ‘That is good, but what will we give to him? We have eaten all the food that we brought with us in our bags. What else do we have? We must give him something.’

⁸ The servant answered, ‘I still have one small silver coin. I will give that to the servant of God. Then he will tell us which way we should go.’ ⁹ (That was the custom in Israel. If someone needed to hear a message from God, he would say, ‘We should go and talk with the seer.’^[b] The man that we now call a prophet was called a ‘seer’ at that time.)

¹⁰ Saul said to his servant, ‘That is a good idea. We should go now and see him.’ So they went to the town where the servant of God lived.

¹¹ They went up the hill to the town. Some young women came out of the town to get some water at a well. Saul and his servant asked them, ‘Is the seer here?’

¹² They said, ‘Yes, he is here. Go straight along this road. You must hurry. The seer came to the town today because the people will offer a sacrifice. He will go with them to the altar on the hill. ¹³ When you go into the town, you will find him before he goes up there. The people will not start to eat until he comes. First, he must bless the sacrifice. Then he will eat with the people who are there. Go up into the town now and you will find him.’

Saul meets Samuel

¹⁴ Saul and his servant went up towards the town. When they arrived there, Samuel came towards them. He was going up to the altar on the hill. ¹⁵ The day before Saul arrived, the Lord had already spoken to Samuel. He had said, ¹⁶ ‘Tomorrow I will send a man to you who comes from the land of Benjamin. He will arrive at about this time of day. Anoint him to be the ruler over my people, Israel. He will save my people from the power of the Philistines. My people have called out to me for help. Now I have decided to help them.’

¹⁷ When Samuel saw Saul, the Lord said to him, ‘Here is the man that I told you about. He will rule over my people.’

¹⁸ Saul met Samuel at the gate of the town. Saul said to him, ‘Please tell me where the seer's house is.’

¹⁹ Samuel said to him, ‘I am the seer! Go in front of me now to the altar on the hill. You and your servant will eat a meal with me there. Tomorrow morning I will send you back to your home. Before that, I will tell you what you want to know. ²⁰ Someone has already found the donkeys that you lost three days ago. Do not think any more about them. The only thing that the Israelite people want now is you! They want you and all your father's family.’

²¹ Saul answered, ‘I belong to the tribe of Benjamin. It is the smallest tribe in the nation of Israel. And my family belongs to the smallest clan in that tribe. So why do you speak like this to me?’

²² Then Samuel took Saul and his servant into the room where they would eat the meal. He made them sit in the most important seats in front of all the other people. About 30 people had come to eat the meal. ²³ Samuel said to the cook, ‘Please bring me the special piece of meat that I gave to you. I told you to keep that piece separate.’

²⁴ So the cook brought the leg of meat and he put it down in front of Saul. Samuel said to Saul, ‘I kept this special piece of meat for you to eat. Eat it now. I kept it separate for this time when we would eat together. I chose it for you when I asked the people to come and eat this special meal.’

So Saul ate the meal with Samuel that day.

²⁵ They came down from the hill and they went into the town. Samuel took Saul onto the roof of his house and they talked together.^{[c] 26} They got up at dawn the next day. Saul had been sleeping on the roof. Samuel shouted up to him, ‘Get up and prepare to leave. I will send you on your journey.’

Saul got ready to leave to go home. Saul and Samuel went out into the street together. ²⁷ They walked to the edge of the town. Samuel said to Saul, ‘Tell your servant to go on in front of us.’ So he did that.

Then Samuel said, ‘Stay here for a moment. I need to tell you God's message.’

Samuel anoints Saul

10 Then Samuel took a jar of oil and he poured the oil on Saul's head. He kissed Saul. He said:

‘The Lord has anointed you as the leader of his people.^[d] You will rule over them and you will rescue them from the power of their enemies. This is how you will know that the Lord has chosen you to be the leader of the Israelite people:

² After you leave me today, you will meet two men at Zelzah on the border of Benjamin's land. They will be near the grave where Rachel is buried. The men will say to you, “Someone has found the donkeys that you were looking for. Your father is no longer thinking about his donkeys. Now he is upset because he does not know where you are. He continues to ask, ‘What can I do about my son?’ ”

³ After you leave there, you will reach the big tree at Tabor. Three men will meet you there. They are going to Bethel to worship God there. One of the men will have three young goats with him. One of them will have three loaves of bread. The third man will have a bag full of wine. ⁴ They will say “hello” to you and they will offer you two loaves of bread. You must accept the bread. ⁵ Then you must go to God's special hill at Gibeah. Some Philistine soldiers have their camp there. When you reach the town, you will meet a group of prophets. They will be coming down from the hill where people worship God. They will be making music with their harps, tambourines, flutes and lyres. They will be prophesying as they go along. ⁶ Then the Lord's Spirit will come to you with power. You will start to prophesy too. You will change to become like a different person. ⁷ After you see these things happen, you must do whatever seems right to you. God will be with you.

⁸ You must go to Gilgal and then I will come there. I will join with you there to offer burnt offerings and peace offerings to God. You must wait for seven days until I come. When I arrive at Gilgal, I will tell you what you should do.’

⁹ Saul turned away to leave Samuel. At that moment, God gave Saul a new nature. Everything that Samuel had said to Saul happened that day. ¹⁰ When Saul and his servant arrived at Gibeah, a group of prophets met them. God's Spirit came on Saul with power. He started to prophesy as the prophets were doing. ¹¹ People who already knew Saul could not understand what was happening. When they saw him prophesying along with the prophets, they asked each other, ‘What has happened to this son of Kish? Has Saul himself become a prophet?’

¹² A man who lived in Gibeah asked, ‘Do you know who is the father of all these prophets?’ Because of what happened, it became a proverb to say, ‘Has Saul himself become a prophet?’ ¹³ When Saul had finished prophesying, he went up to the hill where people worship God.

¹⁴ When Saul's uncle saw Saul and his servant, he asked them, ‘Where have you been?’ Saul said, ‘We went to look for the donkeys. We could not find them so we went to visit Samuel.’

¹⁵ Saul's uncle said, ‘What did Samuel say to you?’

¹⁶ Saul replied, ‘He told us that someone had found the donkeys.’ But Saul did not tell his uncle that Samuel had said that he would become the king.

Saul becomes the first king of Israel

¹⁷ Samuel sent a message to all Israel's people. He told them to come to Mizpah to meet with the Lord. ¹⁸ He said to them, ‘This is a message from the Lord, Israel's God: “I led you Israelites out from Egypt. I saved you from the power of the Egyptians. I also saved you from other kingdoms that were cruel to you. ¹⁹ I am the one who saves you from all your pain and troubles. But now you have turned against me, your God. You have said, ‘No! We want a king to rule over us instead.’ So now come and stand in front of the Lord. Stand together in your tribes and in your clans.” ’

²⁰ So each tribe came forward to Samuel, tribe by tribe. God chose Benjamin's tribe. ²¹ Then each family from Benjamin's tribe went forward. God chose the family of Matri. Then God chose Kish's son Saul from the family of Matri. They looked for Saul but nobody could find him. ²² So they asked the Lord, ‘Has Saul arrived here yet?’ The Lord said, ‘Yes, but he is hiding among the luggage.’

²³ So they ran to find Saul. They brought him out from there. When Saul stood among the people, you could see his head above everyone else. ²⁴ Samuel said to all the people, ‘Look! Here is the man that the Lord has chosen. There is nobody like him among all the people.’ Then the people shouted, ‘May the king live for a long time!’

²⁵ Then Samuel explained to the people all the rules about a king. He wrote everything in a book. He put the book in a special place where they worshipped the Lord. Then Samuel told all the people to go to back to their homes. ²⁶ Saul himself went back to his home at Gibeah. A group of brave men went with him. God had caused them to want to do that. ²⁷ But some wicked men were complaining. They said, ‘This man will never be able to save us.’ They did not respect Saul. They did not bring him any gifts. But Saul did not say anything against them.

Saul saves Jabesh town

11 One month later, Nahash went with his army to attack Jabesh, a town in Gilead region. Nahash was an Ammonite.^[e] The people in Jabesh said to him, ‘Make an agreement with us so that we will serve you.’ ² Nahash said, ‘I will make an agreement with you only if you let me do this. I must cut out the right eye of every person in your town. I want to bring shame on all Israel's people.’

³ The leaders of Jabesh said to him, ‘Wait for seven more days. We will send a message to all the people in Israel. We will ask them to rescue us. If nobody comes to save us, we will agree to whatever you say.’

⁴ Men took the message to Gibeah, the town where Saul lived. When they told the news to the people there, the people started to weep loudly. ⁵ Saul had been out on his farm. As he was returning home with his cows, he asked, ‘What has happened here? Why are the people weeping?’ They told Saul what the men from Jabesh had said.

⁶ When Saul heard the news, God's Spirit came on him with power. He became very angry. ⁷ He killed two of his oxen. He cut their bodies into pieces. He sent men with the pieces to all the towns in Israel. In each town, the men said, ‘Everyone must join Saul and Samuel to fight in their army. If you do not agree to join them, they will cut up your oxen just like this!’ The people became very afraid of what the Lord would do. So they all came together as one army. ⁸ They met together at Bezek. Saul counted 300,000 men from Israel and 30,000 men from Judah.^[f]

⁹ Saul said to the men who had brought the news from Jabesh, ‘Return to Jabesh. Tell the people, “We will come to rescue you tomorrow, before midday.” ’

So the men took the message to the people in Jabesh. The people were very happy. ¹⁰ The men there said to Nahash, ‘Tomorrow we will come out of the town to you. Then you can do anything that you want to us.’

¹¹ Early the next day, Saul put his soldiers into three groups. At dawn, they attacked the camp of the Ammonite soldiers. The Israelite soldiers continued to kill the Ammonites until midday. The Ammonite soldiers who were still alive ran away in different directions. Each man ran off by himself.

¹² The Israelite people said to Samuel, ‘Bring to us those men who said, “We do not want Saul to rule over us.” We must kill them!’

¹³ Saul said, ‘No, you must not kill anyone today. It is the day when the Lord has rescued Israel's people.’

¹⁴ Samuel said to the people, ‘Now we will all go to Gilgal. We must all agree that Saul will continue to be our king.’ ¹⁵ So everyone went to Gilgal. They went to the place where they worshipped the Lord. They all agreed that Saul would be their king. They offered peace offerings to the Lord. Saul and all the Israelites were very happy.

Samuel speaks for the last time

12 Samuel said to all the Israelites, ‘I have done everything that you asked me to do. I have given you a king to rule over you. ² Listen! You now have a king to be your leader, instead of me. I am old and my hair is grey. My sons are here with you. I have been your leader from the time when I was young until now. ³ Look at me. I stand here where the Lord and his chosen king can see me. Speak now if I have done any wrong thing against you. Have I taken anyone's cow or anyone's donkey? Have I cheated anyone? Have I been cruel to anyone? Have I received bribes from anyone to say that they are not guilty? If I have done any of those things, tell me! Then I will pay back my debt.’

⁴ The Israelites answered, ‘You have not cheated us. You have not been cruel to us. You have not robbed any of us.’

⁵ Samuel said to them, ‘The Lord and his chosen king have heard what you have said today. They know that I have not done a wrong thing against any of you.’

The people replied, ‘Yes, the Lord knows what we have said.’

⁶ Then Samuel said to the people, ‘The Lord chose Moses and Aaron to lead his people. He brought your ancestors out from Egypt. ⁷ You must stand up now for the Lord to judge you. You need to remember all the great things that the Lord has done to help you and your ancestors. ⁸ After Jacob and his family went to Egypt, your ancestors called to the Lord for help. The Lord sent Moses and Aaron to help them. They led your ancestors out of Egypt. They brought them to live here in this land. ⁹ But your ancestors forgot about the Lord their God. So he let their enemies win against them. Sisera led an army from Hazor to attack the Israelites. The Philistines and the king of Moab also attacked them. ¹⁰ Then the Israelites called out to the Lord for help. They said, “We have done bad things. We have turned away from the Lord and we have worshipped idols of Baal and images of Ashtoreth.^[g] Please save us from our enemies and we will worship you.” ¹¹ So the Lord sent Gideon, Barak, Jephthah and Samuel to help you. The Lord saved you from all your enemies so that you could live safely.

¹² But then you saw that Nahash, the king of the Ammonites, was coming to attack you. So you said to me, “Now we want a king to rule over us.” You forgot that the Lord your God is your king. ¹³ Look! Here is the king that you chose. He is the man that you asked to have. The Lord has made him your king. ¹⁴ You must respect the Lord with fear. You must obey what he commands you to do. You and the king who rules over you must serve only the Lord your God. If you do that, everything will go well for you. ¹⁵ But the Lord will punish you and your king if you do not obey him. You must not turn against him again.

¹⁶ Now stand where you are and watch! The Lord will do a great thing and you will see it. ¹⁷ This is the time of the wheat harvest.^[h] I will ask the Lord to send thunder and rain. Then you will understand that you have done an evil thing against the Lord. You asked for a king to rule over you.’

¹⁸ Samuel prayed to the Lord. That same day the Lord sent thunder and rain. All the people became afraid of the Lord and of Samuel. ¹⁹ They said to Samuel, ‘Please pray to the Lord your God for us. We do not want to die! We realize that we have done many bad things in past times. Now we have added to those sins when we asked to have a king.’

²⁰ Samuel said to the people, ‘Do not be afraid. It is true that you have done an evil thing. But do not turn away from the Lord. Instead, serve him with all your strength. ²¹ Do not worship idols. They are useless things. They cannot help you. They will never save you. ²² The Lord was pleased to choose you to be his own people. He will show that he is faithful and he will not leave you alone. ²³ As for me, I will not stop praying for you. That would be a sin against the Lord. I will teach you how to live in the right way. ²⁴ But you must respect and obey the Lord. You must serve him faithfully with all your strength. Remember the great things that he has done for you. ²⁵ If you continue to do evil things, that will be the end of you and your king.’

Jonathan attacks the Philistines

13 Saul was 30 years old when he became king. He ruled Israel as king for 42 years.^{[i] 2} He chose 3,000 men from Israel's army to be with him. 2,000 of those men stayed with him at Michmash and in the hill country of Bethel. Then 1,000 men were with his son Jonathan at Gibeah, in the land of Benjamin's tribe. Saul sent all the other men of the army back to their homes.

³ Some Philistine soldiers had a camp at Geba. Jonathan attacked them there and all the Philistines heard about it. Saul sent a message through all Israel to warn people of the danger. He said, ‘Listen, all you Hebrew people!’^{[j] 4} Everyone in Israel heard this message: ‘Saul has attacked the Philistines' camp. Now the Philistines hate the Israelites even more than they did before.’ So all the soldiers in Israel came to join Saul at Gilgal.

Saul prepares to fight the Philistines

⁵ The Philistines' army came together to fight against the Israelites. The Philistines had 3,000 chariots. They had 6,000 soldiers who rode on horses. Their whole army had more soldiers than the sand on the shore of the sea! The Philistine army went to make their camp at Michmash, which was east of Beth Aven. ⁶ The Israelites realized that they would be in big trouble if the Philistines attacked them. Some of them went and hid in caves or among the bushes. Others hid among the rocks, in holes in the ground or in wells. ⁷ Some of the Israelite soldiers crossed the Jordan River. They escaped to the land of Gad and Gilead.

Saul himself stayed at Gilgal. All the soldiers that were still with him were shaking with fear. ⁸ Samuel had told Saul that he must wait for him to come to Gilgal. Saul waited for seven days as Samuel had said. But Samuel still had not arrived. Saul's army began to leave him.

⁹ So Saul said, ‘Bring the burnt offering and the peace offerings to me.’ Then Saul offered the burnt offering to God. ¹⁰ Just as he finished doing that, Samuel arrived. Saul went to meet Samuel and to say ‘hello’.

¹¹ Samuel asked Saul, ‘What have you done?’

Saul replied, ‘The soldiers were starting to leave me. You had not arrived here at the time that you said you would come. I could see that the Philistine soldiers were preparing for battle at Michmash. ¹² I thought that they would come to attack me at Gilgal. I thought, “Before they do that, I must ask the Lord to help us in the fight.” Because of that, I had to offer the burnt offering to him.’

¹³ Samuel said, ‘You have done a foolish thing. You have not obeyed the command of the Lord your God. If you had obeyed the Lord, he would have let you and your family rule Israel for ever. ¹⁴ But because of what you have done, your kingdom will not continue. Instead, the Lord will find a man who pleases him. The Lord has decided that this man will become the leader of his people, instead of you. He will do that because you have not obeyed his command.’

¹⁵ After that, Samuel left Gilgal. He went to Gibeah in the land of Benjamin's tribe. Saul counted the soldiers who were still with him. There were about 600 men.

¹⁶ Saul and his son Jonathan were staying in Geba, in the land of Benjamin's tribe. They had their soldiers with them there.

The Philistines had their camp at Michmash. ¹⁷ The Philistines sent out three small groups of soldiers to attack towns in Israel. One group went towards Ophrah in the land of Shual. ¹⁸ The second group went towards Beth Horon. The third group went to Israel's border where they could see across Zeboim Valley towards the wilderness.

¹⁹ At that time, there were no people in Israel who could use iron to make things. The Philistines had said, ‘We must not let the Hebrew people make swords and spears.’ ²⁰ So the Israelites had to ask the Philistines to mend their ploughs, axes, hoes and knives that they used on their farms. ²¹ The Israelites had to pay eight grams of silver for the Philistines to make each plough or hoe sharp again. They paid four grams of silver for each axe, knife or ox-goad.^[k]

²² So when the fight started, the soldiers that were with Saul and Jonathan did not have any swords or spears. Only Saul and his son Jonathan had them.

Jonathan attacks the Philistines

²³ A group of Philistine soldiers went to the narrow road across the hills at Michmash.

14 A young man carried the armour of Saul's son Jonathan. One day, Jonathan said to the young man, ‘Come with me. We will go over to the place where the Philistine soldiers have their camp.’ But Jonathan did not tell his father what he was doing.

² Saul was staying near Gibeah. He sat under a big fruit tree at Migron. There were about 600 soldiers with him. ³ The priest Ahijah was with Saul. Ahijah wore the priest's ephod. Ahijah was the son of Ichabod's brother, Ahitub. Ahitub was the son of Phinehas and the grandson of Eli. Eli was the priest who had served the Lord in Shiloh.^[l]

Nobody knew that Jonathan had left. ⁴ To reach the Philistines, he had to go along a narrow valley. There were high rocks on both sides of the road. The name of one rock was ‘Bozez’. The name of the other rock was ‘Seneh’. ⁵ The rock on the north side of the road was near Michmash. The rock on the south side was near Geba.

⁶ Jonathan said to the young man who carried his armour, ‘Now we will go to the camp of those foreign people. Perhaps the Lord will help us to win the fight. He can win a battle whether there are many soldiers or only a few.’

⁷ The young man said, ‘You must do whatever you think is right. I will serve you faithfully all the way.’

⁸ Jonathan said, ‘Listen! We will go across to the Philistines now. We will let them see us. ⁹ They may tell us to stop and wait for them to come to us. If they say that, we will stay here. ¹⁰ But they may ask us to go up and fight against them. Then we will do that. We will know that the Lord has put them under our power. It will be his sign to us.’

¹¹ Jonathan and the young man stood where the Philistine soldiers could see them. The Philistines said, ‘Look! The Hebrews are coming out of the holes where they have been hiding.’ ¹² They shouted to Jonathan and the young man, ‘Come up here to fight against us! We will teach you how to fight!’

Jonathan said to the young man, ‘Follow me as I climb up to them. The Lord has put those men under Israel's power!’

¹³ Jonathan climbed up the rock wall on his hands and his feet. The young man climbed up behind him. Jonathan attacked and killed some of the Philistines. The young man followed behind Jonathan and killed more of them. ¹⁴ In the first fight, Jonathan and his young man killed about 20 Philistines in a small area.

¹⁵ All the other soldiers in the Philistine army then became very afraid. This included the soldiers in the camp, those in the fields, those who were guards, and the groups who were attacking other towns. Even the ground shook because God had made them all very afraid.

¹⁶ Some of Saul's soldiers who were with him in Gibeah were watching the Philistines. They saw that their soldiers were running away in different directions. ¹⁷ Saul said to his men, ‘Count our soldiers. Find out who is not here.’ When they did that, Jonathan and the young man who carried his armour were not there.

¹⁸ Saul said to Ahijah the priest, ‘Bring the ephod here.’ At that time, Ahijah was wearing the ephod. ¹⁹ While Saul was saying this, the Philistine soldiers were making more and more noise. They were all very confused. So Saul said to the priest, ‘Take your hand out of the ephod. It is time to go!’^[m]

²⁰ Then Saul and all the soldiers who were with him marched out to battle. They found that the Philistines were completely confused. They were fighting each other with their swords. ²¹ Before this time, some of the Hebrew men had gone to join with the Philistine army. Now they went back to join the Israelite army with Saul and Jonathan. ²² The Israelite soldiers who had hidden in the hill country of Ephraim also heard the news. When they knew that the Philistine soldiers were running away, they chased after them as well. ²³ In that way, the Lord saved Israel's people on that day. The battle moved all the way to Beth Aven and beyond it.

After the battle

²⁴ The Israelite soldiers became very weak and hungry that day. Saul had told his army to agree to this promise: ‘Nobody may eat any food before this evening. By then I will have won against my enemies. If anyone eats anything before then, may God curse him!’ So no soldier in Saul's army ate any food.

²⁵ Saul's army went into a forest. There was honey on the ground. ²⁶ The men saw all the honey but none of them ate any of it. They were afraid that God would curse them. ²⁷ But Jonathan had not heard about the soldiers' promise to his father. He pushed the end of his stick into the honey. He took some honey on his fingers and he ate it. Then he felt stronger. ²⁸ One of the soldiers told Jonathan, ‘Your father made us promise not to eat any food today. We all agreed that God should curse anyone who eats anything. That is why we are all so weak.’

²⁹ Jonathan said, ‘My father has caused a lot of trouble for all the people. Look what happened when I ate only a little bit of honey. I became strong again! ³⁰ When our army won against our enemies today, we could have eaten the food that they left. Then our soldiers would have been strong enough to kill many more Philistines.’

³¹ That day, the Israelite army killed many Philistine soldiers. They chased the Philistines all the way from Michmash to Aijalon. After this, the Israelites became tired and weak. ³² So they quickly took sheep, cows and calves from the Philistines as food to eat. The soldiers were so hungry that they killed the animals on the ground. Then they ate the meat with the blood still in it.

³³ Someone told Saul, ‘Look at what the army is doing. They are eating meat that still has blood in it. That is a sin against the Lord.’

Saul said to his soldiers, ‘You have turned against the Lord! Find a large stone and roll it here to me.’

³⁴ Then Saul said, ‘Go around to tell all the soldiers, “Bring the cows and the sheep here. Kill them properly and eat them here. Do not eat meat which still has blood in it. That is a sin against the Lord.” ’ So that night every soldier brought an animal. They killed their animals on the stone.

³⁵ Then Saul built an altar to worship the Lord. It was the first time that he had built an altar for the Lord.

³⁶ Then Saul said, ‘We will go tonight and we will attack the Philistines again. We will chase them all night until dawn. We will kill all of them.’

The men answered, ‘Do whatever you think is right.’

But the priest said, ‘We should ask God first.’

³⁷ Saul asked God, ‘Should we attack the Philistines? Will you give us power over them?’ But God did not answer Saul that day.

³⁸ So Saul said to all the leaders of the army, ‘Come here. Someone has done a bad thing today. We must find out who has done it. ³⁹ The Lord is the one who rescues Israel. As surely as the Lord lives, I promise that I will punish the man who has done this bad thing. Whoever it is must die, even if it is my own son Jonathan.’ But nobody in the army said anything.

⁴⁰ Saul said to all the Israelites, ‘You stand on this side. My son Jonathan and I will stand on the other side.’

The people answered, ‘Do what you think is right.’

⁴¹ Then Saul prayed to the Lord, Israel's God. He said, ‘Please show us who has done this sin. Let the special stones, Urim and Thummim, show who has done it.’^[n] The stones chose Jonathan and Saul. They did not choose the soldiers of the army.

⁴² Then Saul said, ‘Let the stones show whether it was Jonathan or me.’ The stones chose Jonathan.

⁴³ Saul said to Jonathan, ‘Tell me what you have done.’

Jonathan told him, ‘I pushed the end of my stick into some honey. I ate a little bit. You have said that I must die.’

⁴⁴ Saul said, ‘Jonathan, you must surely die! I ask God to kill me if I do not punish you with death.’

⁴⁵ But the soldiers said to Saul, ‘No! Jonathan must not die! He has rescued Israel in battle. As surely as the Lord lives, we promise that he will not lose even one hair on his head. It is God who has helped Jonathan to win the fight today.’

In that way, the army saved Jonathan from death.

⁴⁶ After that, Saul stopped fighting against the Philistines. The Philistines returned to their homes.

Saul leads Israel as their king

⁴⁷ After Saul became king of Israel, he fought against all their enemies. He fought against the Moabites, the Ammonites and the Edomites. He fought against the kings who ruled in Zobah. He also fought against the Philistines. Saul won against all Israel's enemies, wherever they were. ⁴⁸ He fought very bravely and he won against the Amalekites. Saul kept Israel safe from all the people who attacked them.

⁴⁹ Saul's sons were Jonathan, Ishvi and Malki-Shua.^[o] Saul had two daughters. Merab was his older daughter. Michal was his younger daughter. ⁵⁰ The name of Saul's wife was Ahinoam. She was the daughter of Ahimaaz. Abner was the leader of Saul's army. He was the son of Saul's uncle, Ner. ⁵¹ Abiel was the father of both Saul's father, Kish, and Abner's father, Ner.

⁵² During all of Saul's life there were wars between the Philistines and the Israelites. If Saul found a strong soldier or a brave man, he caused the man to join his army.

Saul fights against the Amalekites

15 Samuel said to Saul, ‘The Lord sent me to anoint you as king to rule his people, the Israelites. So now listen to this message from the Lord. ² This is what the Lord Almighty says: “It is time to punish the Amalekites! When the Israelites came out of Egypt, the Amalekites attacked them. ³ Now go and attack the Amalekites. Completely destroy everything that they have. Do not save anything. Kill the men and women, as well as their children and babies. Kill their cows, sheep, camels and donkeys.” ’

⁴ So Saul called his army to come together. The men met at Telaim and Saul counted them. There were 200,000 soldiers from Israel and another 10,000 men from Judah's tribe. ⁵ Saul and his army went to the city of the Amalekites. They waited in a small valley to attack their enemy. ⁶ Saul said to the Kenite people, ‘Go away from here! I will kill the Amalekites, but I do not want to kill you. You were kind to the Israelites when they came out from Egypt.’ So the Kenites moved away from the Amalekites.^[p]

⁷ Then Saul attacked the Amalekites. He fought them all the way from Havilah to Shur, which is east of Egypt. ⁸ Saul caught their king, Agag, while he was still alive. Saul's soldiers used their swords to kill all of Agag's people. ⁹ But Saul and the army let King Agag live. Also, they did not kill the best sheep, lambs, cows and fat calves. They kept all the good things and they did not agree to destroy them. But they killed everything that was weak and useless.

Samuel tells Saul God's message

¹⁰ Then the Lord gave this message to Samuel: ¹¹ ‘I am sorry that I chose Saul to be king. He has turned away from me. He has not obeyed my commands.’

When Samuel heard that, he was very upset. He prayed aloud to the Lord all that night.

¹² Samuel got up early the next morning. He went to meet Saul. Someone told Samuel, ‘Saul went to Carmel. He has put up a tall stone to give himself honour. Now he has left there and he has gone to Gilgal.’

¹³ Samuel went and he found Saul. Saul said to Samuel, ‘I pray that the Lord will bless you. I have obeyed the Lord's command.’ ¹⁴ But Samuel said, ‘If that is true, why can I hear the noise of sheep and cows?’

¹⁵ Saul answered, ‘My soldiers took them from the Amalekites. They saved the best sheep and cows. They will offer them to the Lord your God as sacrifices. We killed all the other animals.’

¹⁶ Samuel said to Saul, ‘Listen to me! I will tell you what the Lord said to me last night.’ Saul said, ‘Tell me.’

¹⁷ Samuel said, ‘At one time, you thought that you were not an important person. Now you have become the leader of all the tribes of Israel. The Lord chose you to be king of Israel. ¹⁸ He gave you a job to do. He told you, “Go and kill all those wicked Amalekites. Fight against them until you have destroyed them all.” ¹⁹ Why did you not obey the Lord? Instead you have been greedy. You have hurried to take things for yourself. You have done something evil that does not please the Lord.’

²⁰ Saul said to Samuel, ‘I did obey the Lord! I did the job that the Lord told me to do. I killed all the Amalekites and I brought back Agag, their king. ²¹ But the army did not kill all the sheep and cows that they took from the Amalekites. They brought the best animals to offer as a sacrifice to the Lord your God at Gilgal.’

²² But Samuel said, ‘What makes the Lord happy? Which is better? Is he more pleased when people offer burnt offerings and sacrifices to him? Or is he more pleased when people obey him? Listen! It is better to obey the Lord than to offer sacrifices to him. That is true even if you offer to him the best animals that you have.

²³ You have turned against God. That is worse than using magic. You think that you know what is right better than God does. That is as bad as worshipping idols. You decided not to obey the Lord's command. Now the Lord has decided that you will not be king any longer.’

²⁴ Then Saul said to Samuel, ‘It is true, I have done a bad thing. I did not obey the Lord's command. I did not do what you told me to do. I was afraid of the army. I agreed to do what they wanted. ²⁵ Please forgive my sin. Return with me so that I can worship the Lord.’

²⁶ But Samuel said to Saul, ‘I will not return with you. You refused to obey the Lord's command. So now the Lord has decided that you will no longer be king of Israel.’

²⁷ Samuel turned away to leave Saul. But Saul pulled the edge of Samuel's coat and it tore. ²⁸ Samuel said to him, ‘The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel away from you today. He has given it to a man who is better than you. ²⁹ The great God who rules over Israel always does what he says he will do. He does not change his mind. People may change their minds, but he does not!’

³⁰ Saul said again, ‘I have done a bad thing. But please show Israel's leaders and people that you respect me. Please return with me so that I can worship the Lord your God.’

³¹ So Samuel went back with Saul. Saul worshipped the Lord.

³² Then Samuel said, ‘Bring Agag, king of the Amalekites, to me.’

Agag came to Samuel. Agag was happy because he thought, ‘I am sure that now I will not have to die a painful death.’

³³ But Samuel said to Agag, ‘You have used your sword to kill the children of many mothers. Now your own mother will have no children that are still alive.’ Then Samuel cut Agag into pieces at the Lord's altar in Gilgal.

³⁴ Then Samuel left Gilgal and he went to his home in Ramah. Saul went to his home in Gibeah. ³⁵ Until Samuel died, he never saw Saul again. Samuel was very sad about Saul. But the Lord was sorry that he had chosen Saul to be king of Israel.

Samuel anoints David as king

16 The Lord said to Samuel, ‘Stop being sad about Saul. I have decided that he will no longer be the king of Israel. Fill your horn with olive oil and go.^[q] I am sending you to a man whose name is Jesse. He lives in Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to become king.’

² Samuel said, ‘If I go to do that, people will tell Saul about it. Then he will kill me.’

The Lord said, ‘Take a calf with you. Tell the people that you have come to offer a sacrifice to the Lord. ³ Then ask Jesse to come to the sacrifice. I will show you what to do after that. I will show you the person that you must anoint with the oil.’

⁴ Samuel obeyed the Lord. He went to Bethlehem. The leaders of the town went to meet Samuel, but they were very afraid. They asked him, ‘Have you come to visit us as a friend?’

⁵ Samuel replied, ‘Yes. I do not bring any trouble. I have come to offer a sacrifice to the Lord. Make yourselves clean. Then come to the sacrifice with me.’

Samuel made Jesse and his sons clean to worship the Lord. Then he took them with him to the sacrifice.

⁶ When they arrived, Samuel saw Jesse's son Eliab. Samuel thought, ‘I am sure that the Lord has chosen this man to be king.’

⁷ But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not look at how handsome or how tall Eliab is. I have not chosen him. The Lord does not look at people in the way that people do. People look at the face and body of a person. But the Lord sees what they are like inside.’

⁸ Then Jesse called his son Abinadab. Jesse caused him to stand in front of Samuel. But Samuel said, ‘The Lord has not chosen this man either.’

⁹ Jesse caused his son Shammah to stand in front of Samuel. But Samuel said, ‘The Lord has not chosen this man.’

¹⁰ Jesse caused seven of his sons to stand in front of Samuel. But Samuel said to Jesse, ‘The Lord has not chosen any of these men.’

¹¹ Samuel asked Jesse, ‘Are those all of your sons?’

Jesse answered, ‘I have one more son. He is the youngest. He is taking care of my sheep.’

Samuel said, ‘Send someone to bring him here. We cannot continue to offer the sacrifice until he arrives.’

¹² So Jesse told his men to bring his youngest son for Samuel to see. This young man was handsome and strong and he had beautiful eyes.

The Lord said to Samuel, ‘I have chosen this man. Now anoint him as king.’

¹³ Samuel took the horn that was full of olive oil. He poured the oil over David's head to anoint him. Samuel did this in front of David's brothers. From that moment, the Spirit of the Lord came on David with great power.

Then Samuel returned to his home in Ramah.

David becomes Saul's servant

¹⁴ The Spirit of the Lord had now gone away from Saul. The Lord sent an evil spirit to Saul. It gave Saul trouble and fear in his mind.

¹⁵ Saul's servants said to him, ‘We know that God has sent an evil spirit which is giving you much trouble. ¹⁶ If you agree, we will look for a man who can make music on a harp. When the evil spirit gives you trouble, this man can make music. Then you will not feel so upset.’

¹⁷ Saul agreed and he said to his servants, ‘Find someone who can make good music with a harp. Then bring him to me.’

¹⁸ One of the servants said, ‘I know one man who can play a harp very well. He is one of Jesse's sons, who lives in Bethlehem. This man is a brave soldier. He speaks well and he is handsome. The Lord is with him.’

¹⁹ So Saul sent his men to Jesse with this message: ‘Tell your son David to come to me. That is your son who takes care of your sheep.’

²⁰ So Jesse took some loaves of bread, a bag with wine in it, and a young goat. He put them on the back of a donkey and he sent them to Saul with his son David.

²¹ David went to Saul. He became Saul's servant. Saul loved David. David carried Saul's armour for him. ²² Then Saul sent a message to Jesse. He said, ‘I am very pleased with David. Let him stay here as my servant.’

²³ So, when the evil spirit brought trouble to Saul, David made music on his harp. Then Saul would feel happier and the evil spirit would leave him.

David kills Goliath

17 The Philistine army came together. They were ready to fight the Israelites. They met together near Socoh, a town in Judah.^[r] They put up their tents at Ephes Dammim between Socoh and Azekah. ² Saul and the Israelite army put up their tents in the valley of Elah. The soldiers prepared to fight against the Philistines. ³ The Philistines were standing on one hill. The Israelites were on another hill. The valley was between the two armies.

⁴ The Philistines had a strong, brave soldier. His name was Goliath and he came from a town called Gath. He was nearly three metres tall! ⁵ He wore a helmet and armour that were made of bronze. The armour for his body weighed about 57 kilograms. ⁶ He had pieces of bronze to protect his legs. He had a bronze sword that he tied on his back. ⁷ He also carried a heavy spear. It was as thick as a tree. The iron point on the spear weighed about seven kilograms. A man who carried Goliath's shield walked in front of him.

⁸ Goliath stood up and he shouted to the Israelite soldiers, ‘Why have you all got ready to fight against us? I am the great soldier of the Philistine army. You serve Saul as his soldiers. Is that not true? So you must choose one of your men to come and fight against me. ⁹ If he can kill me in a fight, we Philistines will become your slaves. But if I knock him down and I kill him, then you Israelites will become our slaves.’

¹⁰ Then Goliath said, ‘I am not afraid of any of your soldiers! Choose one of your men and we will fight against each other.’

¹¹ King Saul and all the Israelite soldiers heard what Goliath said. It made them very upset and afraid.

¹² At this time, David's father Jesse was a very old man. Jesse belonged to the clan of Ephrathah. He came from Bethlehem town in Judah. He had e ight sons. ¹³ Jesse's three oldest sons had joined Saul's army to fight the war. They were Eliab, Jesse's oldest son, his second son, Abinadab, and his third son, Shammah. ¹⁴ David was Jesse's youngest son. While Jesse's three oldest sons were in Saul's army, ¹⁵ David would sometimes leave Saul and go back home to Bethlehem. He did that to take care of his father's sheep.

¹⁶ For 40 days, Goliath would stand up and insult the Israelite army every morning and every evening.

¹⁷ One day, Jesse said to his son David, ‘Take some food to your brothers in the army. Here is a large bag of grain that we have cooked, and ten loaves of bread. Take them quickly to the army camp. ¹⁸ Also take these ten pieces of cheese to the officer who leads their group of soldiers. Find out whether your brothers are well. Bring something back to me to show how they are. ¹⁹ They are in Elah Valley with Saul and the Israelite army, where they are fighting against the Philistines.’

²⁰ So David got up early the next morning. He left his father's sheep with another shepherd to take care of them. He did what his father had told him to do. He took the food to give to his brothers. When David arrived at the camp of the Israelite army, the soldiers were going out to fight. They were shouting their war songs while they went. ²¹ The Israelite army and the Philistine army stood in their places ready for the fight. They looked towards each other across the valley. ²² David gave his gifts to the officer who took care of the army's food. Then he ran to the place where the Israelite soldiers were standing. He said ‘hello’ to his brothers to see if they were well. ²³ While David was talking to his brothers, Goliath marched out from the Philistine army. He was the great Philistine soldier from Gath. As he came, Goliath was insulting the Israelites as he did every day. David heard what he said. ²⁴ When all the Israelite soldiers saw Goliath, they were very afraid. They ran away from him.

²⁵ The Israelites said to each other, ‘Look at this man! He is so strong! He comes every day to insult us. King Saul will give great riches to any man who can kill Goliath. The king will give his daughter to that man, for him to marry her. His family will never again have to pay taxes to the king.’

²⁶ David asked the men who were standing near him, ‘If someone kills this Philistine soldier and takes away the shame from Israel, what gift will he get? He is an unclean Philistine! He must stop insulting the army of our God, who lives for ever.’

²⁷ The men then told David what the king had promised to do. They said, ‘This is what the king will do to help the man who kills that Philistine soldier.’

²⁸ When David was speaking with the soldiers, his oldest brother, Eliab, heard him. He became angry with David. He asked David, ‘Why have you come here? You should be taking care of a few sheep in the wilderness. Who is taking care of them now? I know how proud you are! I know about your wicked ideas! You came here only to watch the battle.’

²⁹ David said, ‘Have I done anything wrong? I only asked a question.’

³⁰ So David went away and he asked other people the same question. All the men gave him the same answer. ³¹ Some of the soldiers went to King Saul and they told him what David had said. Saul told David to come to him.

³² David said to King Saul, ‘We should not be afraid of this Philistine! I am your servant. I am ready to go and fight against him.’

³³ Saul replied, ‘You could not fight against this strong Philistine. You are only a boy! He has been a brave soldier since he was a young man.’

³⁴ But David said to Saul, ‘Sir, I have been a shepherd who takes care of his father's sheep. Sometimes a lion or a bear would come to take a lamb from among the sheep. ³⁵ Then I would chase after the lion or the bear. I would knock it down and I would save the lamb from its mouth. If the wild animal turned to attack me, I would take hold of its neck. Then I would hit it and kill it. ³⁶ I have killed lions and bears like that. I will do the same to this unclean Philistine. He has insulted the army of our God, who lives for ever. ³⁷ The Lord has kept me safe from lions and bears. He will also save me from the power of this Philistine soldier.’

So Saul said to David, ‘Then do it! I pray that the Lord will help you.’

³⁸ Saul took his own clothes and armour and he put them on David. He put his bronze helmet on David's head. ³⁹ David tied Saul's sword on top of the armour. Then he tried to walk. But he had not worn heavy armour like that before.

So David said to Saul, ‘I cannot wear all this armour to fight. I have not used armour before.’ So David took it all off.

⁴⁰ Instead, David picked up his shepherd's stick. He picked up five round stones from the stream. He put them in the pocket of his shepherd's bag. He held his sling in his hand. Then he walked towards the Philistine soldier.

⁴¹ The Philistine slowly walked towards David. The man who was carrying his shield walked in front of him. ⁴² As he came nearer, the Philistine looked carefully at David. He saw that David was no more than a healthy, handsome boy. That made him laugh at David. ⁴³ He said to David, ‘Do you think that I am just a dog? Can you knock me down with a little stick?’ Then he prayed to his gods that they would curse David.

⁴⁴ The Philistine said to David, ‘Come nearer to me. I will feed the birds and the wild animals with your dead body.’

⁴⁵ David said to him, ‘You have come to fight against me with a sword, a knife and a spear. But I come to fight against you with the authority of the Lord Almighty. He is the God who leads Israel's army, and you have insulted him! ⁴⁶ Today the Lord will make me strong to win against you. I will knock you down and I will cut off your head. Today I will feed the birds and the wild animals with the dead bodies of the Philistine soldiers. Then everyone on the earth will know that there is a God who takes care of Israel. ⁴⁷ The Lord does not need swords or spears to save his people. Everyone here will soon know that! The Lord is the one who fights our battles. He will put you under our power.’

⁴⁸ The Philistine soldier started to move nearer to David to attack him. David ran forward quickly to fight against him. ⁴⁹ David reached into his bag and he took out a stone. He put the stone into his sling and he threw it. The stone hit the Philistine man's head, above his eyes. It went in very deep. Goliath fell down with his face on the ground.

⁵⁰ In that way, David used a sling and a stone to win against the Philistine soldier. He knocked down the Philistine and he killed him. And David did not even hold a sword in his hand! ⁵¹ David then ran and stood over Goliath. He pulled Goliath's sword out and he killed him. Then he used it to cut off Goliath's head.

The Philistines saw that their best soldier was now dead. So they ran away.

⁵² When the soldiers from Israel and Judah saw what had happened, they chased after the Philistines. They shouted their war song as they ran. They chased the Philistines all the way to Gath, and then to the gates of Ekron town. The dead bodies of the Philistine soldiers were lying everywhere on the road to Shaaraim, as far as Gath and Ekron.

⁵³ When the Israelite soldiers had finished chasing and killing the Philistines, they returned. They went into the Philistines' camp and they took their things for themselves. ⁵⁴ David picked up Goliath's head to take it to Jerusalem. But he put Goliath's weapons in his own tent.

⁵⁵ Saul had watched David when he went out to fight the strong Philistine soldier. Saul said to Abner, the leader of his army, ‘Tell me Abner, who is that young man? Who is his father?’

Abner replied, ‘My king, I cannot tell you a lie. I do not know who he is.’ ⁵⁶ The king said, ‘You must find out the name of that man's father.’

⁵⁷ When David returned after he had killed Goliath, Abner took him to Saul. David was still holding Goliath's head in his hand.

⁵⁸ Saul asked him, ‘Young man, who is your father?’ David answered, ‘I am the son of your servant Jesse, who lives in Bethlehem.’

18 David finished talking with Saul. After that, Saul's son Jonathan became a very good friend of David. Jonathan loved David as much as he loved his own life. ² Saul kept David with him from that day. He did not let David go home to his father's house. ³ Jonathan made a special promise to be David's friend, because he loved David as much as he loved his own life. ⁴ Jonathan took off his coat and he gave it to David. He also gave his armour to David, as well as his sword, his bow and his belt.

⁵ David did whatever Saul asked him to do. And he always did it well. So Saul made David an officer to lead his army. That made the soldiers happy, and it also pleased Saul's officers.

⁶ After David had killed the Philistine, Goliath, he and the soldiers returned to their homes. Women came out from all the towns in Israel to meet King Saul. The women were happy as they sang songs and they danced. They made music with tambourines and lyres. ⁷ They sang this song while they danced:

⁸ Saul did not like this song. He became very angry. He thought, ‘The women say that David has killed tens of thousands of men. But they say that I have only killed thousands of men. They will soon want David to be their king.’

⁹ After that, Saul was jealous of David and he watched David carefully.

¹⁰ The next day God caused an evil spirit to come and control Saul. Saul started to prophesy in his house. David was making music on his harp as he did every day. Saul had a spear in his hand. ¹¹ He threw the spear at David. He thought, ‘I will hit David so that it fixes him to the wall.’ He tried to do this twice, but David moved out of the way.

¹² The Lord was with David. But the Lord had left Saul. So Saul was afraid of David. ¹³ So Saul sent David away from him. He made David the leader of 1,000 soldiers. David led the soldiers into battles, but he always came back again.^{[s] 14} David won all his fights because the Lord was with him. ¹⁵ Saul saw that David was a great soldier. So he became more afraid of David. ¹⁶ All the people in Israel and Judah loved David because he led the army in their battles.

David marries Saul's daughter

¹⁷ Saul said to David, ‘Here is my oldest daughter Merab. I will let you marry her. But you must be a brave soldier and you must fight battles for the Lord.’ Saul thought to himself, ‘I will not have to kill David myself. The Philistines will do that.’

¹⁸ But David said to Saul, ‘I am not an important person. My family and my father's clan are not important either. I do not deserve to marry the king's daughter.’

¹⁹ When the time came for Merab to marry David, Saul told her to marry a different man. He gave her to Adriel from Meholah to be his wife.

²⁰ Saul had another daughter, Michal, and she loved David. When somebody told Saul about this, he was very happy. ²¹ He thought, ‘I will let David marry her. I will use her as a trap that will catch him. I will give the Philistines a chance to kill him.’ So Saul said to David, ‘Now you have another chance to marry one of my daughters.’

²² Saul told his servants to say secretly to David, ‘The king is pleased with you. His servants all like you. You should now marry the king's daughter.’

²³ Saul's servants said this to David. But David replied, ‘It is a great honour for someone to marry the king's daughter. But I am poor. I am not important enough.’^[t]

²⁴ Saul's servants told him what David had said. ²⁵ Saul said, ‘Tell David this: The king does not want David to pay money to marry the king's daughter. He can pay for her with the foreskins of 100 dead Philistines. Saul wants David to punish his enemies.’

In this way, Saul thought that he would use the Philistines to kill David.

²⁶ Saul's servants told David what Saul wanted. It made David happy to think that he could marry the king's daughter. Before the time for the wedding arrived, ²⁷ David and his men left their homes. They went and they killed 200 Philistines. David brought all their foreskins to Saul. David gave them to Saul so that he could marry the king's daughter. So Saul agreed to let David marry his daughter Michal.

²⁸ Saul realized that the Lord was with David. He knew that his daughter Michal loved David. ²⁹ So Saul became even more afraid of David. Saul was David's enemy for the rest of his life.

³⁰ The Philistine army continued to march out and attack the Israelites. Every time that they fought, David won more fights than any of Saul's other officers. So David became very famous.

Saul tries to kill David

19 Saul told his son Jonathan and all his servants to kill David. But Jonathan liked David very much. ² So he told David, ‘My father Saul is trying to kill you. Be careful tomorrow morning. Hide in a secret place and stay there. ³ I will go out with my father. I will stand with him in the field where you are hiding. I will talk to him about you. Then I will tell you what he says.’

⁴ Jonathan spoke to his father Saul. He said good things about David. He said to Saul, ‘The king should not do anything bad against David. David is your servant. He has not done anything that is bad against you. Everything that he does really helps you. ⁵ David was not afraid to die when he fought against the Philistine, Goliath. When David killed Goliath, the Lord helped Israel to win a great battle. When you saw it, you were very happy. So why do you now want to kill David? He is not guilty of anything that is wrong. You have no reason to kill him.’

⁶ Saul agreed with Jonathan. He made a promise in the Lord's name that he would not kill David. ⁷ Then Jonathan called to David. He told David everything that the king had said. Jonathan took David back to Saul. So David served King Saul as he had done before.

⁸ The war with the Philistines started again. David went out with his soldiers to fight against them. He attacked them so strongly that the Philistine soldiers ran away.

⁹ Then the Lord caused an evil spirit to control Saul. Saul was sitting in his house. He had a spear in his hand. David was making music with his harp. ¹⁰ Saul threw his spear at David. He wanted to fix David to the wall. But David moved out of the way and the spear hit the wall. That night, David ran away to escape from Saul.

¹¹ Saul sent some of his servants to watch David's house. Saul told them to kill David when he came out in the morning. But David's wife Michal warned him. She said, ‘You must run away tonight. If you do not escape, tomorrow you will die!’ ¹² So Michal helped David to leave the house through a window. He ran away and he escaped.

¹³ Then Michal took an idol and she put it on the bed. She covered the idol with a blanket and she put a pillow of goat's hair at its head.

¹⁴ Saul sent some of his men to take hold of David. Michal told them that David was ill. ¹⁵ Saul then told the men to go back to David's house. He said to them, ‘Bring David to me on his bed. Then I will kill him.’ ¹⁶ The men returned to David's house. They found the idol on the bed and the pillow of goat's hair at its head.

¹⁷ Saul said to Michal, ‘You have deceived me! You have helped my enemy to escape!’ Michal said to him, ‘David told me that I must help him to escape. He said that he would kill me if I did not help him.’

¹⁸ David ran away and he escaped from Saul. He went to visit Samuel at Ramah. David told Samuel everything that Saul had done to him. Then David and Samuel went to live in Naioth.^[u]

¹⁹ Somebody told Saul that David was living at Naioth in Ramah. ²⁰ So Saul sent men to take hold of David. When the men arrived, they saw a group of prophets. Samuel was their leader. They were all prophesying. Then the Spirit of God came on Saul's men. They also started to prophesy. ²¹ When people told Saul about this, he sent more men to Naioth. But they prophesied too. So Saul sent a third group of men. These men also started to prophesy.

²² Then Saul himself went to Ramah. He went as far as the large well at Secu. He asked the people, ‘Where are Samuel and David?’ The people replied, ‘They are at Naioth in Ramah.’

²³ Saul went to Naioth. The Spirit of God came on him also. He started to prophesy as he walked towards Naioth. ²⁴ When he met Samuel, he took off his clothes and he continued to prophesy. He lay on the ground with no clothes all that day and all that night. So people still say, ‘Has Saul really become one of the prophets?’

Jonathan helps David

20 Then David ran away from Naioth at Ramah. He went to Jonathan and he asked him, ‘What bad things have I done? What have I done to hurt your father? Why is he trying to kill me?’

² Jonathan replied, ‘No. You will not die. My father tells me everything that he does, even the little things. So it is not true that he is trying to kill you. He would not hide this from me.’

³ But David answered, ‘Your father knows that you like me very much. He has decided that he will not tell you. He does not want to make you upset. I promise that my words are true, as truly as the Lord lives and you live. I know that I am very near to death.’

⁴ Jonathan said to David, ‘I will do anything that you want me to do for you.’

⁵ David said to Jonathan, ‘Tomorrow we have a special meal because of the new moon.^[v] I should go and eat this meal with the king. Instead, let me go and hide in the field. I will stay there until the third evening. ⁶ Your father may see that I am not at the meal. If he does, say to him, “David asked me to let him go to his home in Bethlehem. His family offer a sacrifice there at this time every year.” ⁷ Your father may say, “That is good.” If he says that, I will know that I am safe. But if he becomes very angry, we will know that he has decided to hurt me. ⁸ Jonathan, please show that you love me. The Lord knows about the promise that you made, to be my friend. If I am guilty of a sin, please kill me yourself. Do not let your father kill me.’

⁹ Jonathan said, ‘No, that will never happen! If I ever find out that my father wants to kill you, I will surely tell you.’

¹⁰ David asked Jonathan, ‘If your father answers you in an angry way, who will tell me?’ ¹¹ Jonathan said, ‘Come with me into the field.’ So they went there together.

¹² Then Jonathan said to David, ‘I make this promise to you, and the Lord, Israel's God, knows that it is true. Tomorrow or the next day I will find out what my father is thinking about you. If he is feeling friendly to you, I will send someone to tell you. ¹³ But if my father wants to hurt you, I will tell you clearly. I ask the Lord to punish me, if I do not tell you. I will help you to escape and be safe. I pray that the Lord will bless you, as he blessed my father. ¹⁴ While I am still alive, please be kind to me. Continue to love me, as the Lord loves his people. And if I die, ¹⁵ continue to be kind to my family. Even when the Lord removes every one of your enemies from the earth, do not forget about my family.’

¹⁶ So Jonathan made an agreement with David's family. He said, ‘I am asking the Lord to destroy all David's enemies.’ ¹⁷ Jonathan asked David to promise again that they would be friends. That was because Jonathan loved David as much as he loved his own life.

¹⁸ Then Jonathan said to David, ‘Tomorrow we will have the special meal because of the new moon. Nobody will be sitting in your seat, so people will know that you are not there. ¹⁹ The day after tomorrow, go back to the place where you hid the other time. Wait beside the rock called Ezel. ²⁰ I will shoot three arrows towards the rock to see where they go. ²¹ Then I will send a boy to find the arrows. If you are not in danger I will say to the boy, “The arrows are on this side of you. Come and bring them here.” That will mean that you are safe. You can then come out from the place where you are hiding. As surely as the Lord lives, I promise that you will not be in trouble. ²² But if I say to the boy, “Look, the arrows are beyond you,” you must run away. It will mean that the Lord has sent you away. ²³ But never forget the promise that we have made to each other. The Lord will make sure that we are faithful to each other.’

²⁴ So David hid in the field. At the time of the new moon, the king sat down to eat the special meal. ²⁵ He sat beside the wall in his usual place. Jonathan sat with his face towards him. Abner sat beside the king. David's seat was empty. ²⁶ Saul did not say anything about it that day. He thought, ‘Perhaps something has happened to David that has made him unclean. I am sure that is why he is not here.’^{[w] 27} The next day after the new moon, David's seat was still empty at the meal. So Saul said to his son Jonathan, ‘Why has Jesse's son not come to the meal? He did not come yesterday or today.’

²⁸ Jonathan answered, ‘David asked me very strongly to let him go to Bethlehem. ²⁹ He said, “Please let me go. My family is offering a sacrifice to God in the town. My brother told me that I must be there. If you agree as my friend, let me go to visit my brothers.” That is why David has not come to eat this meal with the king.’

³⁰ Saul became very angry with Jonathan. He said, ‘You stupid man! I see that you have turned against me! You have become a friend of that son of Jesse. You have brought shame on yourself. Your mother should be ashamed that she gave birth to you! ³¹ You will never rule as king while that son of Jesse is still alive. Send men to go and bring him to me now. He must die!’^[x]

³² Jonathan said to his father, King Saul, ‘Why must David die? What wrong thing has he done?’

³³ Then Saul threw his spear at Jonathan and tried to kill him. So Jonathan knew that his father had decided to kill David. ³⁴ Jonathan was very angry. He got up from the table. He did not eat anything on that second day of the special meal. He was very upset because his father had insulted David.

³⁵ The next morning, Jonathan went out to the field to meet David. He took a young boy with him. ³⁶ He said to the boy, ‘I will shoot some arrows. You must run and find them.’ While the boy was running, Jonathan shot an arrow beyond him. ³⁷ The boy ran to the place where the arrow had reached. Jonathan shouted to him, ‘I think that the arrow is beyond you.’ ³⁸ Then he shouted, ‘Hurry now! Go quickly. Do not wait.’ The boy picked up the arrow and he brought it back to Jonathan. ³⁹ (The boy did not understand what this meant. Only Jonathan and David knew.) ⁴⁰ Then Jonathan gave his bow and arrows back to the boy. He said to the boy, ‘Go now and take these things back to the town.’

⁴¹ When the boy had left, David came out from beside the rock. He went down on his knees in front of Jonathan. He bent down on the ground three times. Then David and Jonathan kissed each other and they wept. David wept even more than Jonathan did.

⁴² Jonathan said to David, ‘Go now and God will keep you safe. We have promised each other in the Lord's name that we will always be friends. The Lord will watch us to make sure that we always keep this promise. He will watch our descendants too, for ever.’

Then David left. Jonathan returned to the town.

David goes to the town of Nob

21 David went to visit Ahimelech the priest. He lived in the town of Nob.^[y] Ahimelech shook with fear when he saw David. He asked David, ‘Why are you alone? Why is nobody with you?’^[z]

² David answered, ‘The king has asked me to do something special. He said to me, “Do not tell anyone where I have sent you. Do not say what I have told you to do.” So I have sent my soldiers to wait for me at a certain place. ³ Do you have anything to eat here? Give me five loaves of bread or anything else that you have.’

⁴ The priest answered David, ‘I do not have any ordinary bread that I can give to you. There is only the special holy bread. You can take it for your men to eat only if they have not had sex with women.’

⁵ David replied, ‘We have not been near women since we left our homes. The young men always keep themselves clean, even on ordinary journeys. So for today's important journey, they will certainly be clean.’

⁶ So the priest gave the holy bread to David because he did not have any other bread. This was the bread which had been on the table in the Lord's tent. The priest would take it from there each day and he would put hot, fresh bread in its place.

⁷ One of Saul's servants was there that day. His name was Doeg. He came from Edom. He was the leader of Saul's shepherds. He was staying in Nob to make offerings to the Lord.

⁸ David asked the priest, Ahimelech, ‘Is there any sword or spear here that I could take? The king sent me quickly to do an important job. So I left home without my sword or any other weapon.’

⁹ Ahimelech answered, ‘The sword of Goliath the Philistine is here. After you killed him in the valley of Elah, we kept the sword here. We covered it with a cloth and we put it behind the ephod. If you want it, you can take it. We do not have any other weapon except that one.’

David said, ‘Give it to me. There is no sword as good as that one.’

David goes to Gath

¹⁰ So on that day, David escaped from Saul. He went to Gath and he visited King Achish there. ¹¹ The servants of King Achish said to him, ‘This man is David, the king of his country! The people sing this song about him when they dance:

¹² David thought carefully about what King Achish's servants were saying. It caused him to be very afraid of Achish, king of Gath. ¹³ So when David was with them, he pretended to be crazy. He made marks with his fingers on the doors of the city's gate. He let water run out of his mouth and go down his beard.

¹⁴ King Achish said to his servants, ‘Look at this man! He is completely crazy! Why did you bring him to me? ¹⁵ I have enough fools around me already. I do not need to see this crazy man as well. Keep him away from my house.’

David at Adullam and Mizpah

22 Then David left Gath and he went to a cave near Adullam.^[ab] His brothers and his father's family discovered where he had gone. So they all went to visit him. ² Everybody who had trouble went to stay with David. People who had debts and those who were angry also went to him. About 400 men went to be with David and he became their leader.

³ David then went to Mizpah, a town in the land of Moab. David said to the king of Moab, ‘Please let my father and my mother stay with you for a short time. I need to learn what God will do to help me.’ ⁴ So David left his parents to stay with the king of Moab. They stayed with the king all the time that David was hiding near there.

⁵ The prophet Gad said to David, ‘Do not stay and hide here. Go to the land of Judah.’ So David left his safe place and he went to Hereth forest.

Saul kills Ahimelech's family at Nob

⁶ One day, Saul was on the hill near Gibeah. He was sitting under a tamarisk tree. He was holding a spear. All his officers stood round him. Then someone told Saul that they knew where David and his men were hiding. ⁷ Saul said to his officers, ‘Listen to me, you men of Benjamin's tribe. Do you really think that this son of Jesse will give fields and vineyards to all of you? Will he make you all officers and leaders in his army? No! ⁸ So why are you trying to deceive me? None of you told me when my own son promised to be a friend of this son of Jesse. You do not feel sorry for me. Now my son is helping one of my own servants to attack me! Yes, he is waiting for his chance to kill me!’

⁹ Doeg, the man from Edom, was standing there with Saul's officers. He said, ‘I saw that son of Jesse when he came to Nob town. He visited Ahitub's son, Ahimelech. ¹⁰ Ahimelech asked the Lord what David should do. Then he gave some food and the sword of Goliath the Philistine to David.’

¹¹ Then King Saul told his men to fetch Ahitub's son, Ahimelech, the priest. They also brought all his father's family who were priests at Nob. They all came to the king.

¹² Saul said to Ahimelech, ‘Listen to me, son of Ahitub.’ Ahimelech answered, ‘I am listening, my king.’

¹³ Saul said to him, ‘You and this son of Jesse have been trying to kill me! You gave him bread and a sword. You prayed to God on his behalf. Now, at this moment, he is waiting for his chance to kill me!’

¹⁴ Ahimelech answered the king, ‘David is the most faithful servant that you have. He is your daughter's husband. He is the captain of the soldiers who keep you safe. Everyone in your house respects him. ¹⁵ I have often prayed to God on David's behalf. This was not the first time. King Saul, do not say that my family or I have done anything wrong. I do not know anything about what is happening.’

¹⁶ But King Saul said, ‘Ahimelech, you must die, together with all your family.’

¹⁷ Then the king said to the guards who were near him, ‘Now kill the Lord's priests! They have been helping David. They knew that he was running away from me. But they did not tell me.’ But the king's officers refused to hurt the Lord's priests.

¹⁸ So the king said to Doeg, ‘You must kill the priests.’ So Doeg, the man from Edom, killed the priests that same day. He killed 85 priests who wore linen ephods. ¹⁹ He also killed all the people in Nob, which was the town where the priests lived. He killed the men and women, children and babies. He also killed the cows, donkeys and sheep.

²⁰ But one man called Abiathar escaped. He was one of Ahimelech's sons. Abiathar ran away to see David. ²¹ Abiathar told David that Saul had killed the Lord's priests. ²² David said to him, ‘When I went to see your father at Nob, Doeg was there too. I knew that he would tell Saul about me. So I have caused the death of everybody in your father's family. ²³ Please stay here with me. Do not be afraid. Saul wants to kill you and he wants to kill me too. You will be safe with me.’

David saves Keilah town

23 The Philistines were attacking the town of Keilah.^[ac] They were taking away the grain that the people had brought from their fields. Someone told David about this. ² So David asked the Lord, ‘Should I go and attack those Philistines?’

The Lord answered him, ‘Go and attack the Philistines. Save Keilah town.’

³ But David's men said to him, ‘We are afraid when we are here in Judah. If we go to attack the Philistine army at Keilah, we will be in even more danger.’ ⁴ So David asked the Lord again. The Lord answered again, ‘Go to Keilah. I will put the Philistines under your power.’

⁵ So David and his men went to Keilah. They fought against the Philistines and they killed many of them. Also, they took away their animals. In that way, David saved the people who lived in Keilah.

⁶ When Ahimelech's son Abiathar had run away, he had come to David at Keilah. And he had brought the priests' ephod with him.

David escapes from Saul again

⁷ Someone told Saul that David was now at Keilah. Saul said, ‘God has now put David under my power. David has gone into a town that has high walls and strong gates. He will not be able to leave that place.’^{[ad] 8} So Saul called his army to join him. They prepared to go to Keilah and to attack David and his men.

⁹ Somebody told David that Saul was preparing to attack him. David said to Abiathar the priest, ‘Bring the ephod here.’ ¹⁰ David prayed, ‘Lord, Israel's God. I am your servant. I have heard news that Saul is preparing to attack Keilah. He wants to destroy this town because I am here. ¹¹ Will the leaders in Keilah give me to Saul? Will Saul really come here, as I have heard that he will? Lord, Israel's God, please tell me what will happen.’ The Lord said, ‘Saul will come.’

¹² David asked the Lord again, ‘Will the leaders in Keilah give me and my men to Saul?’ The Lord said, ‘They will do that.’^[ae]

¹³ So David and his 600 men left Keilah. They moved around to stay in different places. People told Saul that David had escaped from Keilah. So Saul decided that he would not go there.

¹⁴ David stayed in places where he would be safe. They were in the desert, and in the hill country of Ziph.^[af] Saul always tried to find David. But God did not let Saul catch David.

¹⁵ David was at Horesh in the Ziph Desert. He heard news that Saul was coming there to kill him. ¹⁶ Saul's son, Jonathan, went to visit David at Horesh. He told David to be brave, because God would keep him safe. ¹⁷ Jonathan said to David, ‘Do not be afraid. My father will never be able to hurt you. You will be the next king to rule over Israel. I will be your most important officer. My father Saul also knows that is true.’

¹⁸ Jonathan and David promised again in the Lord's name that they would be faithful friends of one another. Then Jonathan went to his home. David stayed at Horesh.

¹⁹ Some people from Ziph went to visit Saul at Gibeah. They said to Saul, ‘David is hiding among our people. He is on Hakilah hill, south of Jeshimon. He is hiding in the Horesh hills. ²⁰ Now, King Saul, we know that you want to catch David. So you can come to our land at any time. We will help you to catch him.’

²¹ Saul replied, ‘I ask the Lord to bless you, because you have been kind to me. ²² Do a bit more to help me now. Make sure that you know where he is. Find the people who have seen him there. I have heard that David is very clever. ²³ Find all the places where he hides. When you know all about him, come back and tell me. Then I will come with you. If he is still in that region, I will surely find him. I will look through all the land of Judah and I will catch him.’

²⁴ So the people returned to Ziph before Saul himself went there. David and his men were in the Maon Desert. This was south of Jeshimon, in the Jordan Valley. ²⁵ Saul and his men started to look for David. But David heard about this. So he and his men went to hide at a great rock in the Maon Desert. When Saul heard about this, he and his men went into the Maon Desert to find David.

²⁶ Saul and his men were going along one side of the mountain. David and his men were on the other side of the mountain. They were moving quickly to escape from Saul. Saul and his men were getting very near to David and his men. They would soon catch them.

²⁷ But then a man arrived with a message for Saul. He said to Saul, ‘Come quickly. The Philistines are attacking our land!’ ²⁸ So Saul stopped chasing after David. Instead, he went to fight against the Philistines. So people call that place ‘The rock where they escaped’.

²⁹ David left that place. He went to hide in the safe places at En Gedi.

David refuses to kill Saul

24 When Saul had finished fighting against the Philistines, he returned to his home. Someone told him that David was in the desert at En Gedi. ² So Saul chose 3,000 of the best soldiers in Israel. They went to look for David and his men near Wild Goat Rocks.

³ Saul came to the place near the road where the shepherds keep their sheep. There was a cave near to this place. Saul went in there to use it as a toilet.

David and his men were hiding at the back of the same cave. ⁴ David's men said to him, ‘This is the day that the Lord told you about! The Lord said to you, “I will give your enemy to you. Then you can decide what is the right thing to do to him.” ’ So David stood up very quietly. He went and he cut off a small piece of cloth from Saul's coat. Saul did not know what had happened.

⁵ After that, David thought that he had done something wrong. He felt sorry that he had cut a piece of cloth from Saul's coat. ⁶ David said to his men, ‘I ask the Lord to stop me doing anything wrong to my master. The Lord has chosen him to be Israel's king. I must never do anything to hurt him. He is the king that the Lord has chosen.’ ⁷ David spoke like this to stop his men from attacking Saul.

Then Saul left the cave and he started to travel along the road.

⁸ After that, David went out of the cave. He shouted to Saul, ‘My master and my king!’ Saul looked behind him. David went down on his knees with his face on the ground to respect the king. ⁹ David said to Saul, ‘You should not listen to the people who say, “David wants to hurt you.” ¹⁰ You can see that the Lord has kept you safe today when I had a chance to hurt you in the cave. Some of my men wanted me to kill you, but I did not agree. I said, “I will not hurt my master, because the Lord has chosen him to be king.” ¹¹ My father, look at what I have in my hand! It is a small piece of your coat. I cut this off the corner of your coat, but I did not kill you. So you must know that I do not want to do anything bad against you. I have not turned against you. I am not guilty of anything, but you are chasing after me so that you can kill me. ¹² The Lord is the judge who will decide which of us is guilty. I pray that he will punish you for what you are doing to me. But I myself will never do anything to hurt you. ¹³ You know the proverb, “Evil people do evil things.” But I will never try to hurt you. ¹⁴ You are Israel's king. So why are you chasing after someone like me? I am less important than a dead dog or a little fly! ¹⁵ The Lord will be the judge to decide who is right. I pray that he will see that I am not guilty. I pray that he will save me from your power.’

¹⁶ When David stopped speaking, Saul said, ‘Is that really you, David my son?’ Then Saul started to weep loudly. ¹⁷ He said to David, ‘You are a better man than I am. You have been kind to me even when I have tried to hurt you. ¹⁸ You have shown me today how kind you have been to me. The Lord gave you a chance to hurt me, but you did not kill me. ¹⁹ If someone catches his enemy, he does not let him escape. But you have not tried to hurt me today. So I ask that the Lord will bless you in return. ²⁰ I know that you will be the king of Israel one day. The kingdom will be strong when you rule. ²¹ So promise me in the Lord's name that you will not kill any of my descendants. Please make sure that people do not forget my family's name.’

²² So David made a strong promise to Saul. Then Saul returned to his home. But David and his men went back to the place where they had been hiding.

Samuel dies

25 Then Samuel died. All the Israelites met together and they were very sad. Then they buried Samuel at his home in Ramah.

David went down to the Paran desert.

Nabal insults David

^2-3 There was a very rich man who lived at Maon. His name was Nabal. He was a descendant of Caleb. His wife's name was Abigail. She was wise and beautiful. But Nabal was a cruel man who did evil things.

Nabal had some land near Carmel. He had 3,000 sheep and 1,000 goats. He was with his men in Carmel as they cut the wool from his sheep.

⁴ While David was in the desert, he heard that Nabal was cutting the wool from his sheep. ⁵ So David sent ten young men to meet with Nabal. He said to them, ‘Go to Carmel and find Nabal. Tell him that David says “hello”. ⁶ Then give him this message: “We hope that you and your family are all well. We hope that everything you have is doing well. ⁷ David has heard that you are now cutting the wool from your sheep. When your shepherds were with us near Carmel, we did not hurt them. We did not take anything from them. ⁸ Your servants will tell you that, if you ask them. Now we have come to you at this special holiday time. So please be kind to the young men that David has sent to see you. They are your servants as well as his servants. Please give any extra food that you have to these young men and to your good friend David.” ’

⁹ David's men went to Carmel. They gave David's message to Nabal. They waited for Nabal to reply.