The Book of 1 Samuel

Chapter 1
1 There was a certain man from Ramathaim of the Zuphites, from the hill country of Ephraim; his name was Elkanah son of Jeroham son of Elihu son of Tohu son of Zuph, an Ephraimite.
2 He had two wives; the name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the second was Peninnah. And Peninnah came to have children; but Hannah had no children.
3 From days to days this man went up from his city to worship and to sacrifice to Yahweh of hosts at Shiloh. There Eli and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests for Yahweh.
4 When the day came that Elkanah sacrificed, then he would give to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and her daughters their assigned shares.
5 But to Hannah he would give one double-sized assigned share, for it was Hannah that he loved; yet Yahweh had closed her womb.
6 Moreover her rival would vex her to vexation in order to dishearten her since Yahweh had tightly closed up her womb.
7 This happened year by year. As often as she went up to the house of Yahweh, the other would vex her in this way, so that she lamented and would not eat.
8 Her husband Elkanah said to her, Hannah, why are you lamenting? Why are you not eating? And why does your heart feel bad? Am not I better for you than ten sons?
9 After they had eaten and drunk at Shiloh, Hannah arose and stood before Yahweh while Eli the priest was sitting on the covered seat by the doorjamb of the temple of Yahweh.
10 She was in bitterness of soul when she prayed to Yahweh and lamented, yea lamented.
11 She vowed a vow, saying, O Yahweh of hosts, if You will look, yea look upon the humiliation of Your maidservant and will remember me and not forget Your maidservant, and if You will grant Your maidservant a male descendant, then I will dedicate him to Yahweh for all the days of his life; he shall not drink wine or intoxicant, and no razor-blade shall come upon his head.
12 It came to be as she multiplied her prayers before Yahweh, that Eli was observing her mouth.
13 As for Hannah, she was speaking in her heart; only her lips were moving, yet her voice could not be heard. So Eli reckoned her to be drunk.
14 Eli said to her, How long will you behave drunk? Put away your wine from you, and go from the presence of Yahweh.
15 Hannah answered, saying, Not so, my lord! I am a woman who is hard pressed in spirit; I have drunk no wine or intoxicant. Yet I have been pouring out my soul before Yahweh.
16 You must not take your maidservant for a daughter of worthlessness, since I have spoken hitherto out of the magnitude of my concern and my vexation.
17 So Eli answered, saying, Go in peace! May the Elohim of Israel grant your request that you have asked of Him.
18 She replied, May your handmaid find grace in your eyes! Then the woman went her way and came to her booth where she ate and drank with her husband; and her face was no longer sad for herself.
19 They rose early in the morning and worshiped before Yahweh. Then they returned and came to their house at Ramah. Elkanah knew his wife Hannah; and Yahweh remembered her.
20 So it came to be at the revolution of the days that Hannah had been pregnant and had borne a son. She had called his name Samuel and had said, For it was of Yahweh Elohim of hosts that I have asked for him.
21 When the man Elkanah and all his household were going up to sacrifice to Yahweh at Shiloh the annual sacrifice of the days, and to pay his vow and all the tithes of his field,
22 then Hannah did not go up with him, for she said to her husband, When the lad is weaned, I will bring him; for he must appear before the face of Yahweh and abide there for the eon.
23 Her husband Elkanah replied to her, Do what seems good in your eyes. Stay here until you have weaned him. Only may Yahweh confirm what was coming forth from your mouth. So the woman stayed there and nursed her son until she weaned him.
24 Then she took him up with her to Shiloh, as soon as she had weaned him, with a three year old bull of the herd and bread, one ephah of meal flour and a waterskin of wine. And though the lad was in his early youth, she brought him to the house of Yahweh at Shiloh.
25 Then they slew the young bull, and they brought the lad to Eli.
26 She said, O! My lord! As your soul is alive, my lord, I am the woman who was standing up beside you in this place and praying to Yahweh.
27 For this lad I had prayed, and Yahweh has granted to me my request that I had asked of him.
28 Therefore I have given him as a loan to Yahweh. All the days that he lives, he is one requested for Yahweh. And he bowed down there before Yahweh.

Chapter 2
1 Then Hannah prayed, saying: Glad is my heart in Yahweh! High is my horn in my Elohim! Wide is my mouth over my enemies, For I rejoice in Your salvation.
2 No one is holy like Yahweh; Yea, no one is holy barring You, And no one is righteous like our Elohim.
3 Do not speak with lofty superiority so much; May no impertinence come forth from your mouth! For an El of knowledge is Yahweh; And actions are regulated by Him.
4 The bows of the masters are cracked, Yet those who stumble are belted with valor.
5 The surfeited have hired themselves out for bread; Yet the famishing leave hunger behind. While the barren one has borne seven, She who was abundant in sons has wasted away.
6 Yahweh is putting to death and is keeping alive, He is bringing down to the unseen, and He brings up.
7 Yahweh is making destitute and is enriching; He is laying low and is exalting too.
8 He is raising the poor from the dust And exalts the needy from the ash heap, Seating them with patrons of peoples, Allotting them a throne of glory. For Yahweh’s are the stanchions of the earth; He has set the habitance upon them.
9 He is guarding the feet of His benign ones; Yet the wicked shall be stilled in darkness, For not by vigor has man mastery.
10 As for Yahweh, those contending with Him shall be undone; Against them shall He thunder in the heavens. Yahweh, He shall adjudicate the limits of the earth. He shall give strength to His king; He shall exalt the horn of His anointed one.
11 Then they left him there before Yahweh and went to Ramah, to his house; as for the lad, he remained in the ministry to Yahweh in the presence of Eli the priest.
12 Now the sons of Eli were sons of worthlessness, who did not acknowledge Yahweh
13 or the priests’ due portion from the people. When any one was sacrificing a sacrifice, then a young attendant of the priest would come, while the meat was cooking, with a three-tined fork in his hand,
14 which he would poke into the chafing-pan or large pot or caldron or kettle. All that the fork brought up, the priest would take for himself. Thus they would treat at Shiloh all the Israelites who came there to sacrifice to Yahweh.
15 Moreover, ere they made the fat fume, a young attendant of the priest would come and say to the man who was sacrificing, Do donate some meat to roast for the priest; for he shall not take from you cooked meat out of the caldron, for it should be uncooked.
16 If the man replied to him, Let the fat fume, yea fume awhile, then take for yourself what your soul is yearning for, he would reply, No, for you shall donate it now; and if not, I will take it by brunt force.
17 The sin of the young attendants was very great in the presence of Yahweh, for these men spurned the approach present of Yahweh.
18 Samuel was in the ministry before Yahweh as a lad girded with a linen ephod.
19 His mother would also make a small robe for him, and she would bring it up to him from days to days, when she went up with her husband to sacrifice the sacrifice of days.
20 And Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, saying, May Yahweh repay you and give you seed by this woman in place of the loan she had loaned to Yahweh. Then they went to their place.
21 And Yahweh visited Hannah; she had pregnancies and gave birth to three sons and two daughters, while the lad Samuel grew up in the presence of Yahweh.
22 Now Eli was very old; and he heard of all that his sons were doing to all Israel, and how they lay with the women who were stationed for service at the entrance opening of the tent of appointment.
23 So he would say to them, Why are you doing things like these? For I am hearing from all the people about these things of yours as evil.
24 You must not do so, my sons; for not good is the report that I hear passing about among Yahweh’s people.
25 If a man sins against a man, then Elohim will mediate for him. If a man sins against Yahweh, who should mediate for him? But they did not hearken to their father’s voice; for Yahweh desired to put them to death.
26 Yet the lad Samuel was going on and growing greater in goodness both with Yahweh and with men.
27 A man of Elohim came to Eli and said to him, Thus speaks Yahweh: Did I not reveal, yea reveal Myself to your father’s house when they were in Egypt, servants to the house of Pharaoh?
28 I chose him from all the tribes of Israel to be Mine for the priesthood, to ascend My altar, to fume incense, to wear the ephod before Me. And I assigned to your father’s house all the fire offerings of the sons of Israel for food.
29 Why are you showing disrespect for My sacrifice and for My approach present that I have determined for My habitation? Why are you glorifying your sons more than Me, to make yourselves plump with the first portion of every approach present by My people Israel?
30 Therefore, this is the averring of Yahweh Elohim of Israel: I said, yea said, Your house and your father’s house shall walk about before Me for the eon. Yet now, this is the averring of Yahweh: Far be it from Me! For those glorifying Me shall I glorify, yet those despising Me shall be dishonored.
31 Behold the days are coming (this is the averring of Yahweh), when I will hack down your seed and the seed of your father’s house, to keep them from becoming old in your house.
32 Then you will look on a rival in My habitation, in all that he does good with Israel. And there shall not be an old man in your house all the days.
33 As for the man of yours whom I shall not cut off from My altar, I will cause failure to his eyes and pining to his soul. Yet all the increase of your house shall die by the sword of men.
34 And this is the sign for you that shall befall your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas: On one day shall both of them die.
35 Yet I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest; he shall do all according to what is in My heart and in My soul. And I will build for him a faithful house; he will walk about before My anointed one all the days.
36 Then it will occur that everyone who is left over in your house, shall come and bow down to him for a gerah of silver or a loaf of bread, and he will say, Let me adhere, if you please, to one of the priestly duties, that I may have a morsel of bread to eat.

Chapter 3
1 The lad Samuel was in the ministry before Yahweh under Eli the priest. In those days the word of Yahweh had become rare; there was no vision being unfolded.
2 Then it occurred on that day: Eli was lying down in his own place; his eyes had started to grow dim, and he was not able to see.
3 The lamp of Elohim was not yet quenched, while Samuel was lying down in the temple of Yahweh where the coffer of Elohim was.
4 Then Yahweh called out to Samuel, and he answered, Here I am.
5 He ran to Eli and said, Here I am, for you called out to me. Yet he replied, I did not call; turn back and lie down. So he went back and lay down.
6 Yahweh proceeded to call yet again: Samuel! So Samuel arose and went to Eli and said, Here I am, for you called out to me. Yet he replied, I did not call, my son; turn back and lie down.
7 As for Samuel, he had not yet come to know Yahweh; the word of Yahweh had not yet been revealed to him.
8 Yahweh proceeded to call for the third time: Samuel! So he arose and went to Eli and said, Here I am, for you called out to me. Then Eli understood that Yahweh was calling out to the lad.
9 So Eli told Samuel, Go and lie down. When it occurs that He should call out to you, then you must say, Speak, Yahweh, for Your servant is hearing. So Samuel went back and lay down in his place.
10 Then Yahweh came and stood by and called out as He had done the other times: Samuel! Samuel! And Samuel answered, Speak, for Your servant is hearing.
11 Yahweh said to Samuel: Soon I shall do something in Israel about which both ears of anyone hearing it shall tingle.
12 On that day I shall carry out against Eli all that I have spoken against his house, from start to finish.
13 I told him that I shall judge his house for the eon for the depravity, because he knew that his sons were dishonoring Elohim, and he did not remonstrate with them.
14 Therefore I swore to the house of Eli, The depravity of the house of Eli shall assuredly not be sheltered by sacrifice or approach present for the eon.
15 Samuel lay down until morning; then he rose early in the morning and opened the doors of the house of Yahweh. Now Samuel was fearful to tell Eli of the appearance;
16 yet Eli called Samuel, saying, Samuel, my son! He replied, Here I am.
17 Then he asked, What was the word that He spoke to you? Now do not suppress it from me. Thus may Elohim do to you and thus add to it if you suppress from me anything of the entire message He spoke to you.
18 So Samuel told him all the words and suppressed nothing from him. Eli replied, He is Yahweh! He may do what seems good in His eyes.
19 As Samuel grew up, Yahweh was with him, and He let none of all His promises fall to the earth.
20 From Dan to Beersheba, all Israel realized that Samuel was authenticated as a prophet for Yahweh.
21 And Yahweh continued to appear at Shiloh when Yahweh revealed Himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of Yahweh.

Chapter 4
1 And the word of Samuel came to all Israel. It was in those days that the Philistines convened for war against Israel. So Israel went forth to meet the Philistines in battle. They encamped at Eben-ezer while the Philistines encamped at Aphek.
2 The Philistines arrayed themselves to meet Israel, and the battle was severe. Israel was stricken before the Philistines who smote about 4000 men from the array in the field.
3 When the force came back to the camp, the elders of Israel asked, Why has Yahweh stricken us today before the Philistines? Let us take for us from Shiloh the coffer of the covenant of Yahweh; Let it come to be among us and save us from the palm of our enemies.
4 So the force sent men to Shiloh, and they carried from there the coffer of the covenant of Yahweh of hosts, dwelling over the cherubim. And Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the coffer of the covenant of Elohim.
5 It occurred as the coffer of the covenant of Yahweh came to the camp that all Israel shouted with a loud shouting, so that the earth rumbled.
6 When the Philistines heard the sound of the shouting, they, said, Why is there the sound of this loud shouting in the camp of the Hebrews? When they realized that the coffer of Yahweh had come to the camp,
7 then the Philistines were fearful; for they said, These are the elohim that have come to the camp. And they cried, Woe to us! For nothing like this has occurred heretofore.
8 Woe to us! Who shall rescue us from the hand of these noble elohim? These are those elohim who smote the Egyptians with all kinds of smiting and disease!
9 Show yourselves steadfast and arise like men, Philistines! Otherwise you shall serve the Hebrews just as they have served you. Hence you must be like men, and you must fight.
10 So the Philistines fought; Israel was stricken, and they fled, each man to his tents. The smiting came to be exceedingly great; 30,000 footmen fell out of Israel.
11 The coffer of Elohim was taken, and Hophni and Phinehas, Eli’s two sons, died.
12 A Benjamite man ran from the array and came to Shiloh on the same day. His coats were torn and dust from the ground was on his head.
13 When he came, there was Eli sitting on the covered seat by the roadside and watching, for his heart was trembling for the coffer of Elohim. After the man had come and told the city, the whole city cried out.
14 When Eli heard the sound of the outcry, he asked, What is the sound of this clamor? As for the man, he hastened to come and tell Eli.
15 Now Eli was ninety-eight years old; his eyes were fixed so that he was not able to see.
16 Then the man reported to Eli, I am the one coming from the camp; I fled from the array today. Eli replied, What is the word, my son?
17 The tidings-bearer answered, saying, Israel fled before the Philistines. And it was a great stroke against our force; Hophni and Phinehas, your two sons, are dead too, and the coffer of Elohim was taken.
18 Now it came about, when he mentioned the coffer of Elohim, that Eli fell off the covered seat backward by the side of the gate. A vertebra of his neck was broken, and he died; for the man was old, and he was heavy. He had judged Israel for forty years.
19 His daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was pregnant, about to give birth. When she heard the report that the coffer of Elohim was taken and that her husband’s father and her husband were dead, she crouched down and gave birth; for her throes had turned in on her.
20 As she was now about to die, the women standing by over her said, Do not fear, for you have borne a son. But she did not respond and did not set her heart on it.
21 Yet she called the lad Ichabod, meaning, The glory has departed from Israel, because of the coffer of Elohim being taken and because of the death of her husband’s father and her husband.
22 So she said, The glory has departed from Israel, for the coffer of Elohim was taken.

Chapter 5
1 As for the Philistines, they had taken the coffer of Elohim and brought it from Eben-ezer to Ashdod.
2 Then the Philistines took the coffer of Elohim and brought it to the house of Dagon and put it beside Dagon.
3 When the Ashdodites rose early on the morrow and entered the house of Dagon, behold, Dagon had fallen on his face to the earth before the coffer of Yahweh! So they raised Dagon and restored him to his place.
4 When they rose early in the morning of the next morrow, behold, Dagon had fallen on his face to the earth before the coffer of Yahweh! Yet the head of Dagon and both palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold; only the trunk of Dagon remained of him.
5 Therefore the priests of Dagon and all those entering the house of Dagon do not tread on the threshold of the house of Dagon at Ashdod until this day.
6 The hand of Yahweh was heavy against the Ashdodites; He made them desolate and smote them with piles, both Ashdod and its territories.
7 When the men of Ashdod saw this, they said, The coffer of Israel’s Elohim should not remain with us; for His hand is harsh against us and against Dagon, our elohim.
8 So they sent word and gathered together all the chieftains of the Philistines unto them and asked, What shall we do with the coffer of Israel’s Elohim? They replied, Let the coffer of Israel’s Elohim be turned around to Gath. So they had the coffer of Israel’s Elohim turned around to Gath.
9 And it occurred, after they had brought it around, that the hand of Yahweh came against the city with a very great discomfiture; He smote the men of the city, from the small unto the great, and piles erupted on them.
10 Then they sent the coffer of Elohim to Ekron. And it occurred, when the coffer of Elohim entered Ekron, that the Ekronites cried out, saying, Why did they bring the coffer of Israel’s Elohim around to us to put us to death, and our people?
11 So they sent word and gathered together all the chieftains of the Philistines and said, Send the coffer of Israel’s Elohim away and let it return to its own place, that it may not put us to death, and our people. For there was a deathly discomfiture in the whole city; the hand of Elohim was very heavy there,
12 and the men who did not die were smitten with piles. The imploration of the city went up unto the heavens.

Chapter 6
1 The coffer of Yahweh remained in the field of the Philistines seven months, and their land was teeming with mice.
2 So the Philistines called for their priests and diviners and sacred scribes, saying, What shall we do about the coffer of Yahweh? Make known to us with what we shall send it off to its own place.
3 They replied, If you are sending away the coffer of the covenant of Yahweh, Israel’s Elohim, do not send it away empty; for you should restore, yea restore it to Him with a guilt offering. Then you shall be healed, and it will be known to you why His hand did not withdraw from you.
4 They asked, What is the guilt offering with which we should restore it to Him? They replied, Corresponding to the number of the chieftains of the Philistines, five piles of gold and five mice of gold; for the one stroke was against all of you and against your chieftains.
5 You must make images of your piles and images of the mice which bring the land down to ruin. Thus you will give glory to Israel’s Elohim; perhaps He may lighten His hand from upon you and from upon your elohim and from upon your land.
6 Why should you harden your heart, just as the Egyptians and Pharaoh had hardened their heart? Was it not when He dealt severely with them that they sent them away, and they departed?
7 Now take and prepare one new cart and two recently freshened young cows, firstlings upon which no yoke has come. You must hitch the young cows to the cart, and you must return their young home, away from them.
8 You must take the coffer of Yahweh and put it on the cart; and in a case by its side, you must place the articles of gold that you restore to Him as a guilt offering. You must send it off so that it can go.
9 Then you will see, should it go up the road to its own territory, to Beth-shemesh, then it was He Who did to us all this great evil. But if not, then we will know that it was not His hand that touched us; but it was by chance that it happened to us.
10 The men did so. They took two young cows, recently freshened firstlings, and hitched them to the cart; yet their young they detained at home.
11 Then they placed the coffer of Yahweh on the cart, and the case with the mice of gold and the images of their piles.
12 The young cows went straight ahead on their way in the direction of Beth-shemesh. They went along a single highway, lowing as they went; and they did not withdraw to the right or left; and the chieftains of the Philistines were walking behind them as far as the boundary of Beth-shemesh.
13 The people of Beth-shemesh were reaping the wheat harvest in the vale. When they lifted up their eyes and saw the coffer, they rejoiced to meet it.
14 The cart was coming into the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite, and there it stood where there was a large stone. They split up the wood of the cart, and they offered up the young cows as an ascent approach to Yahweh.
15 Now the Levites had taken down the coffer of Yahweh and the case that was beside it, in which the articles of gold were; and they had placed them on the large stone. On that day the men of Beth-shemesh offered up their own ascent offerings and sacrificed sacrifices of their own to Yahweh.
16 The five chieftains of the Philistines saw this and returned to Ekron on that day.
17 These were the piles of gold that the Philistines restored as a guilt offering to Yahweh: for Ashdod one, for Gaza one, for Ashkelon one, for Gath one, for Ekron one.
18 As for the mice of gold, they were in number for all the Philistine cities under the five chieftains, from the fortress city to the village shelter. A witness until this day is the large stone on which they left the coffer of Yahweh in the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite.
19 The sons of Jeconiah were corrected among the men of Beth-shemesh, for they had stared into the coffer of Yahweh. So He smote among them seventy men. The people mourned, for Yahweh smote among the people with a great smiting.
20 And the men of Beth-shemesh asked, Who is able to stand before Yahweh, this holy Elohim? And to whom shall the coffer of Yahweh go up from us?
21 So they sent messengers to the dwellers of Kiriath-jearim, saying, The Philistines have restored the coffer of Yahweh. Come down and take it up to you.

Chapter 7
1 Then the men of Kiriath-jearim came and took up the coffer of Yahweh and brought it to the house of Abinadab which was on the hill; and they hallowed his son Eleazar to be in charge of the coffer of Yahweh.
2 It came to be, from the day the coffer had its seat at Kiriath-jearim, after many days had passed, that they amounted to twenty years; and all the house of Israel were plaintive after Yahweh.
3 So Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, If it is with all your heart that you are returning to Yahweh, then put away the foreign elohim and the Ashtaroth from your midst and prepare your heart for Yahweh and serve Him, Him alone. Then He shall rescue you from the hand of the Philistines.
4 And the sons of Israel put away the Baalim and the Ashtaroth and served Yahweh, Him alone.
5 Samuel said, Convene all Israel at Mizpah, and I shall pray about you to Yahweh.
6 They convened at Mizpah, bailed water, poured it out on the earth before Yahweh and fasted on that day. There they said, We have sinned against Yahweh. And Samuel judged the sons of Israel at Mizpah.
7 When the Philistines heard that the sons of Israel had convened at Mizpah, the chieftains of the Philistines marched up against Israel. And when the sons of Israel heard of this, they were fearful because of the Philistines.
8 The sons of Israel said to Samuel, You must not keep silent to cry out for us to Yahweh our Elohim, that He may save us from the hand of the Philistines.
9 Then Samuel took one milk-fed lambkin and offered it up as a wholly fumed ascent offering to Yahweh. And Samuel cried out to Yahweh about Israel, and Yahweh answered him.
10 Now it came to be, as Samuel was offering up the ascent offering and the Philistines were drawing close for the battle against Israel, that Yahweh thundered with a loud thunderclap over the Philistines on that day and discomfited them, so that they were struck down before Israel.
11 Then the men of Israel went forth from Mizpah and pursued the Philistines and smote them as far as below Beth-car.
12 Samuel took one stone, set it up between Mizpah and Jeshanah, and called its name Eben-ezer, Stone of the Helper; for he said, Hitherto Yahweh has helped us.
13 Thus the Philistines were made submissive, and they did not come anymore into Israel’s territory; for the hand of Yahweh was on the Philistines all the days of Samuel.
14 The cities between Ekron and Gath, that the Philistines had taken from Israel, returned to Israel; and Israel reclaimed their territory from the hand of the Philistines. And there was peace between Israel and the Amorite.
15 Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life.
16 As often as year by year, he went around to Bethel and Gilgal and Mizpah; and he judged Israel at all these holy places.
17 Then his return would be to Ramah, for there was his house; there he would judge Israel, and there he built an altar to Yahweh.

Chapter 8
1 It came to be when Samuel was old, that he appointed his sons as judges for Israel.
2 The name of his firstborn son was Joel, and the name of his second was Abijah; they were judging at Beersheba.
3 Yet his sons did not walk in his ways; they stretched their hands out after gain, took bribes, and turned right judgment aside.
4 So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah.
5 They said to him, Behold, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now do appoint for us a king, to judge us like all the other nations.
6 Yet the matter was displeasing in the eyes of Samuel, inasmuch as they had said, Do give to us a king to judge us. So Samuel prayed to Yahweh.
7 But Yahweh said to Samuel: Hearken to the voice of the people, to all that they are saying to you; for it is not you they have rejected; it is Me Whom they have rejected from being King over them.
8 According to all the deeds that they have done to Me from the day I brought them up from Egypt until this day, in that they have forsaken Me and have served other elohim, so also they are doing to you.
9 And now hearken to their voice. Only you should testify, yea testify to them and tell them the customary rights of the king who shall reign over them.
10 Samuel reported all these words of Yahweh to the people who were requesting a king of him.
11 He stated: These will be the customary rights of the king who shall reign over you: He shall take your sons for himself and he will make them serve with his chariots and with his horsemen; and they will run before his chariot.
12 Some he will appoint for himself as chiefs of thousands and chiefs of fifties; others will plow his plowland, reap his harvest, make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariotry.
13 He shall take your daughters for perfumers, for cooks and for bakers.
14 He shall take your fields, your vineyards, your olive groves, the best ones, and he will give them to his courtiers.
15 He shall take the tenth of your seeds and your vineyards, and he will give it to his court officials and to his courtiers.
16 He shall take your menservants, your maidservants and your choice young men, the best ones, and your donkeys, and he will use them for his work.
17 He shall take the tenth of your flock; and you shall become slaves for him.
18 You will cry out on that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves; yet Yahweh shall not answer you on that day.
19 But the people refused to hearken to the voice of Samuel; they said to him, No, for there should be a king over us,
20 that we too would become like all the other nations. Our king will judge us and go forth before us and fight our battles.
21 When Samuel heard all the words of the people, he spoke them in the ears of Yahweh.
22 And Yahweh replied to Samuel, Hearken to their voice, and give them a king to reign for them. Then Samuel said to the men of Israel, go back, each man to his city.

Chapter 9
1 There was a man from Gibeah of Benjamin; his name was Kish son of Abiel son of Zeror son of Becorath son of Aphiah, the son of a Benjamite man, a master of valor.
2 He came to have a son, and his name was Saul, a choice youth and good looking; there was no man of the sons of Israel better looking than he; from his shoulders upward he was taller than any of the people.
3 When the jennies of Saul’s father Kish got lost, Kish said to his son Saul, Take now with you one of the lads; get up, go and seek the jennies.
4 So they passed through the hill country of Ephraim, and they passed through the land of Shalisha, but they did not find them. They passed through the land of Shaalim, yet they were not there. When they passed through the Benjamite land, they still did not find them.
5 They had come into the land of Zuph when Saul said to his lad who was with him, Do come, let us return, lest my father stop worrying about the jennies and become anxious about us.
6 Yet the lad said to him, Behold now, a man of Elohim is in this city, and the man is highly respected; everything that he speaks comes, yea comes true. Now let us go there; perhaps he shall tell us our way on which we should go.
7 Saul replied to his lad, But if we go, what shall we bring the man? For the bread in our bags is used up, and there is no token of regard with us to bring to the man of Elohim. What do we have?
8 The lad answered Saul again, saying, Behold, I find I have a quarter of a shekel of silver in my hand. We may give it to the man of Elohim, and he will tell us about our way.
9 (Beforetime in Israel, when a man went to inquire of Elohim, he would speak thus, Come and let us go to the seer; for beforetime the prophet of today was called a seer.)
10 So Saul said to his lad, Good is your word; do come, let us go. So they went to the city where the man of Elohim was.
11 As they were going up the ascent to the city, they found maidens coming forth to bail water; and they asked them, Is there the seer in this place?
12 They answered them, saying, He is there; behold before you! Make haste now, because today he has come to the city; for there is a sacrifice today for the people on the high-place.
13 As soon as you enter the city, you shall surely find him ere he goes up to the high-place to eat. The people shall not eat until he comes; for he must bless the sacrifice, and afterward those who are invited shall eat. Now go up, for you shall find him right away.
14 So they went up to the city. When they came into the midst of the gate, behold there was Samuel coming forth to meet them on his way up to the high-place.
15 Now one day before Saul came, Yahweh Himself had revealed to the ear of Samuel, saying,
16 About this time tomorrow, I shall send a man to you from the land of Benjamin, and you must anoint him as governor over My people Israel. He will save My people from the hand of the Philistines, for I have seen the humiliation of My people, and their outcry has come to Me.
17 When Samuel saw Saul, Yahweh Himself responded to him: Here is the man of whom I spoke to you; this one shall steer the course of My people.
18 Then Saul came close to Samuel in the midst of the gate and said to him, Do tell me, please, just where is the house of the seer?
19 Samuel answered Saul, saying, I am the seer. Go up before me to the high-place, for you must eat with me today. In the morning I will send you off, and I shall tell you everything that is in your heart.
20 As for your jennies that got lost three days ago today, you must not set your heart on them, for they have been found. Now to whom does all that is desirable in Israel belong if not to you and to all the house of your father?
21 Saul answered, saying, Am I not a Benjamite, from the smallest of the tribes of Israel? My family is the most insignificant of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin. So why do you speak to me in this manner?
22 Then Samuel took Saul and his lad and brought them into the room and gave them a place at the head of those who had been invited; they were about thirty men.
23 Samuel said to the cook, Do bring the assigned share that I gave to you, of which I said to you, Set it aside by you.
24 So the cook raised up the leg and the fat tail and placed them before Saul. And Samuel said to Saul, Behold, what was kept reserved is set before you. Eat; for to this appointed time has it been kept for you, when I had said, I have invited the people. So Saul ate with Samuel on that day.
25 Then they descended from the high-place to the city; and he spoke with Saul on the roof-level.
26 They rose early; it came to be as the dawn ascended, that Samuel called to Saul on the roof-level, saying, Do get up that I may send you off. Saul got up, and the two of them, he and Samuel, went forth, outside.
27 As they were going down to the end of the city, Samuel said to Saul, Tell the lad that he should pass on before us (and he passed on); as for you, stand still for awhile, and I shall announce to you the word of Elohim.

Chapter 10
1 Then Samuel took a vial of oil, poured some on his head and kissed him. He said, Has not Yahweh anointed you as governor over His people, over Israel? And you, you shall steer the course of the people of Yahweh. You shall save them from the hand of their enemies round about. And this is the sign for you, that Yahweh has anointed you as governor over His allotment:
2 When you go from me today, you will come upon two men near the tomb of Rachel in the territory of Benjamin at Zelzah; and they will tell you, The jennies that you went out to seek, have been found; and now your father has abandoned the matter of the jennies and is anxious about you, saying, What shall I do about my son?
3 When you pass on from there and beyond and come as far as the oak of Tabor, you will find there three men going up to the Elohim at Bethel, one carrying three kids, and one carrying three loaves of bread, and one carrying a crock of wine.
4 They will ask after your welfare and give you two wave offerings of bread; and you must take them from their hand.
5 Afterward you shall come to the Hill of Elohim, where the garrison of the Philistines is. And there, as you enter the city, it shall occur that you will come upon a group of prophets descending from the high-place, with zithers, tambourines, flutes and harps before them; and they will be prophesying in ecstasy.
6 Then the spirit of Yahweh will prosper over you, and you will prophesy along with them; you will be transformed into another man.
7 When it occurs that these signs are coming to you, do for yourself whatever your hand shall find, for the One, Elohim, is with you.
8 You must go down before me to Gilgal; and behold, I will be coming down to you to offer up ascent offerings and to sacrifice sacrifices of peace offerings. Seven days shall you wait until I come to you; and I will inform you what you should do.
9 It occurred as he turned around his back to go from Samuel, that Elohim transformed his heart into another; and all those signs came true on that day.
10 When he came from there to Gibeah, behold, the group of prophets met him. Then the spirit of Elohim prospered on him, and he prophesied in their midst.
11 So it came to be, when all the people who had known him heretofore saw him, how he prophesied with the prophets, they said, each man to his associate, What is this that has happened to the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?
12 A man from there responded, saying, And who is his father? Therefore it has become a proverb, Is Saul also among the prophets?
13 When Saul had finished prophesying, he came to the high-place.
14 Saul’s uncle asked him and his lad, Where did you go? He replied, To seek the jennies. And when we saw that they were nowhere to be found, we came to Samuel.
15 Now Saul’s uncle said, Do tell me, please, what Samuel said to you.
16 Saul replied to his uncle, He told, yea told us that the jennies had been found. Yet about the matter of the kingship he did not tell him what Samuel had said.
17 Samuel summoned the people to Yahweh at Mizpah
18 and said to the sons of Israel, Thus speaks Yahweh Elohim of Israel: I brought Israel up out of Egypt and rescued you from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt and from the hand of all the kingdoms that were oppressing you.
19 Yet you have today rejected your Elohim Who has been bringing salvation to you from all your evils and your distresses. But you said, No, for you should set up a king over us. Now station yourselves before Yahweh by your tribes and by your thousands.
20 When Samuel brought near all the tribes of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin was selected by lot.
21 When he brought near the tribe of Benjamin by its families, the Matrite family was selected. When he brought near the Matrite family by masters, Saul son of Kish was selected. Yet when they sought him, he was not found.
22 Then they asked Yahweh again, Has the man come here yet? Yahweh replied, Behold, he is hiding among the baggage.
23 So they ran and took him from there. Then he stationed himself in the midst of the people; from his shoulders upward, he was taller than any of the people.
24 Now Samuel said to all the people, Do you see whom Yahweh has chosen? Indeed, there is no one like him among all the people. At that all the people shouted, saying, Long live the king!
25 Samuel spoke to the people about the customary rights of the kingship; he wrote them in a scroll and left it before Yahweh. Then Samuel dismissed all the people, each man to his home.
26 Saul too went to his home at Gibeah; and going with him were sons of valor whose heart Elohim had touched.
27 But some sons of worthlessness said, How shall this one save us? So they despised him and did not bring any present to him. As for Nahash king of the sons of Ammon, he had oppressed the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben unyieldingly. He had gouged out all their right eyes, thus allowing Israel no saviour. No one remained among the sons of Israel in Transjordan of whom Nahash king of the sons of Ammon had not gouged out every right eye. But 7,000 men had fled before the sons of Ammon and had come to Jabesh-gilead. The following occurred about a month later:

Chapter 11
1 Nahash the Ammonite marched up and encamped against Jabesh-gilead. All the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, Contract a covenant with us, and we shall serve you.
2 But Nahash the Ammonite replied to them, I shall contract a covenant with you on this condition, that all your right eyes are gouged out; I will make this a reproach for all Israel.
3 The elders of Jabesh said to him, Hold back from us for seven days, and let us send messengers throughout the whole territory of Israel; should there be no saviour for us, then we will come forth to you.
4 When the messengers came to Gibeah of Saul and reported these events in the ears of the people, then all the people lifted up their voice and lamented.
5 Now Saul came in from the field, following the herd of cattle. And Saul asked, What ails the people that they should lament? So they related to him the message of the men of Jabesh.
6 The spirit of Elohim prospered over Saul when he heard these words; and his anger was exceedingly hot.
7 He took a team of oxen, cut them in pieces and sent them throughout the whole territory of Israel by the hand of messengers, saying, Should anyone not come forth following Saul and following Samuel, thus shall be done to his oxen! Then the awe of Yahweh fell on the people, and they came forth as one man.
8 When he mustered them at Bezek, there were 300 contingents of the sons of Israel and 30 contingents of the men of Judah.
9 He said to the messengers who had come, Thus shall you speak to the men of Jabesh-gilead: Tomorrow victory shall be yours when the sun is brightly warm. When the messengers came and told this to the men of Jabesh, they rejoiced.
10 So the men of Jabesh said to Nahash the Ammonite, Tomorrow we shall come forth to you, and you may do to us just as it seems good in your eyes.
11 It was on the morrow that Saul positioned the force in three bands. They advanced into the midst of the camp during the morning vigil and smote the sons of Ammon until the day was brightly warm. Thus it came to be that those remaining scattered, and not two among them remained together.
12 Then the people asked Samuel, Who was it who said, Saul, he shall not reign over us! Give us these men, and we shall put them to death.
13 Yet Saul replied, No man shall be put to death on this day! For today Yahweh has given a victory in Israel.
14 Then Samuel said to the people, Come and let us go to Gilgal and renew there the kingship.
15 So all the people went to Gilgal, and there at Gilgal they confirmed Saul as king before Yahweh. Then they sacrificed there sacrifices of peace offerings before Yahweh; and Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced there very much.

Chapter 12
1 Samuel said to all Israel, Behold, I have hearkened to your voice in all that you said to me, and I have given you a king to reign over you.
2 Now here is the king walking before you while I am old and greyhaired, and my sons, here they are with you. As for me, I have walked before you from my youth until this day.
3 Here I am; answer against me in front of Yahweh and in front of His anointed. Whose bull have I taken, or whose donkey have I taken? Whom have I exploited, or whom have I maltreated? From whose hand have I taken a sheltering gift that I should obscure my eyes with it? Answer against me, and I shall restore it to you.
4 They replied, You have not exploited us, and you have not maltreated us, and you have not taken anything from any man’s hand.
5 Then he said to them, Witness is Yahweh among you, and witness is His anointed this day, that you have not found anything in my hand. The people replied, Witness is He!
6 Then Samuel said to the people, Witness is Yahweh, Who appointed Moses and Aaron, and Who brought your fathers up from the land of Egypt.
7 And now stand by; let me enter into judgment with you before Yahweh and tell you all the righteous deeds of Yahweh that He has performed for you and your fathers.
8 When Jacob and his sons came to Egypt, the Egyptians humiliated them, and your fathers cried out to Yahweh. Then Yahweh sent Moses and Aaron; and He brought your fathers forth from Egypt and made them dwell in this place.
9 Yet they forgot Yahweh their Elohim. So He sold them into the hand of Sisera the chief of the military host of Jabin king of Hazor, and into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab; and these made war against them.
10 Then they cried out to Yahweh, saying, We have sinned, for we forsook Yahweh and served the Baalim and the Ashtaroth. Yet now, rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and we shall serve You.
11 So Yahweh sent Jerub-baal, Barak, Jephthah and Samson; and He rescued you from the hand of your enemies round about so that you dwelt in serenity.
12 When you saw that Nahash king of the sons of Ammon advanced against you, you said to me, No, for a king should reign over us though Yahweh your Elohim is your King.
13 And now, behold the king whom you have chosen, for whom you have asked. Here Yahweh has appointed a king over you.
14 If you fear Yahweh, serve Him, hearken to His voice, and do not defy the bidding of Yahweh, then you will be following Yahweh your Elohim, both you and the king who reigns over you.
15 But if you should not hearken to the voice of Yahweh and rebel against the bidding of Yahweh, then the hand of Yahweh will be against you and against your king, as it was against your fathers.
16 Now then, stand by and see this great thing that Yahweh will do before your eyes.
17 Is it not wheat harvest today? I shall call upon Yahweh that He may send thunderclaps and rain. Then give thought and see that your evil deed which you have done, is too great in the eyes of Yahweh, when you requested a king for yourselves.
18 Then Samuel called upon Yahweh, and Yahweh sent thunderclaps and rain on that day, so that all the people feared Yahweh and Samuel exceedingly.
19 The people all said to Samuel, Pray about your servants to Yahweh your Elohim that we must not die, for we have added to all our sins the evil deed of requesting a king for ourselves.
20 Samuel replied to the people, Do not fear! You yourselves have done all this evil; only do not withdraw from following Yahweh; rather you must serve Yahweh with all your heart.
21 Do not be taken away by the service to ineffectual idols which neither benefit nor rescue since they are ineffectual.
22 For the sake of His great Name, Yahweh shall not abandon His people; for Yahweh is disposed to make you His people.
23 Moreover as for me, far be it from me to sin against Yahweh by forbearing to pray about you. So I will serve Yahweh and will direct you in the good and upright way.
24 Then devoutly fear Yahweh; you must serve Him faithfully with all your heart, for consider what great things He has done for you.
25 But if you do evil, yea evil, both you and your king shall be swept away.

Chapter 13
1 Saul was [] years old when he became king, and he reigned over Israel two years.
2 Then Saul chose for himself 3,000 men of Israel; two thousand were with Saul at Michmash and in the hill country of Bethel, and one thousand were with Jonathan at Gibeah of Benjamin; the rest of the force he dismissed, each man to his tent.
3 Jonathan smote the garrison of the Philistines at Geba; and the Philistines heard about it. As for Saul, he had the trumpet blown throughout the land, saying, Let the Hebrews hear!
4 So all Israel heard the report: Saul smote a garrison of the Philistines; now Israel is in bad odor among the Philistines. Thus the people were summoned to follow Saul to Gilgal.
5 As for the Philistines, they were gathered to fight with Israel. And they came up against Israel with three thousand chariots and 6,000 horsemen, and soldiers as numerous as the sand on the seashore. They came up and encamped at Michmash, east of Beth-aven.
6 When the men of Israel saw that there was distress for them since their force was hard pressed, then the people hid in caves, in holes, in crags, in vaulted tunnels, and in cisterns.
7 Some even crossed the fords of the Jordan, to the land of Gad and Gilead. As for Saul, he was still at Gilgal with all the force trembling behind him.
8 He waited seven days, the appointed time that Samuel had set; yet Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the force was scattering from him.
9 So Saul said, Bring close to me the ascent approach and the peace offerings; and he offered up the ascent approach.
10 Now it came to be, as soon as he finished offering up the ascent approach, behold, Samuel was coming. And Saul went forth to meet him and bless him.
11 But Samuel said, What have you done? Saul replied, When I saw that the force scattered from me, and you, you did not come within the appointed days, and the Philistines were being gathered at Michmash,
12 then I thought, Now the Philistines shall come down against me to Gilgal, and I have not yet beseeched the face of Yahweh. So I felt compelled to offer up the ascent offering.
13 Samuel replied to Saul, You acted unwisely! O that you had observed the instruction of Yahweh your Elohim that He enjoined on you! Then Yahweh would now have established your dynasty over Israel for the eon.
14 Yet now your dynasty shall not be confirmed. Yahweh has sought out for Himself a man in accord with His own heart; and Yahweh shall commission him as governor over His people, for you have not observed what Yahweh enjoined on you.
15 Then Samuel arose and went up from Gilgal and went his own way. The rest of the people went up following Saul to meet the fighting force; they came from Gilgal to Gibeah of Benjamin. Saul took a census of the people, those yet found with him, about 600 men.
16 Saul and his son Jonathan and the force available to them stayed at Gibeah of Benjamin, while the Philistines had encamped at Michmash.
17 The raiding-contingent went forth from the camp of the Philistines in three bands. One band would turn toward the Ophrah road for the Shual area,
18 another band would turn toward the Beth-horon road, and the other band would turn toward the boundary road, the one gazing over the ravine of Zeboim toward the wilderness.
19 No artificer in iron was found in all the land of Israel, because the Philistines had said, Otherwise the Hebrews might make swords or spears.
20 So all Israel would go down to the Philistines, each man to get his plowshare honed, also his mattock, his hatchet, and his scythe.
21 Tool-sharpening cost a pim for plowshares and for mattocks, and a third of a shekel for whetting the hatchets and for setting up the goad-points.
22 Thus it came to be on the day of the battle of Michmash that no sword or spear was found in the hand of any of the people who were with Saul and Jonathan; only Saul and his son Jonathan kept hold of them.
23 Now a detachment of Philistines had marched forth to the pass of Michmash.

Chapter 14
1 Then it came about one day that Jonathan son of Saul said to his lad, his gear-bearer, Do come, let us cross over to the detachment of the Philistines who are over on that side. Yet he did not tell his father.
2 As for Saul, he was staying at the outmost part of Gibeah under the pomegranate tree by the threshing-site. With him was a force of about 600 men,
3 also Ahijah who was wearing an ephod; he was a son of Ichabod’s brother Ahitub son of Phinehas son of Eli, Yahweh’s priest at Shiloh. As for the force, no one knew that Jonathan had gone.
4 Between the passages by which Jonathan sought to cross over to the detachment of the Philistines, there was a toothlike crag on this side, and another toothlike crag on that side; the name of the one was Bozez, and the name of the other was Seneh.
5 The one tooth was a stanchion on the north opposite Michmash, and the other on the south was opposite Geba.
6 Jonathan said to his lad, his gear-bearer, Do come, let us cross over to the detachment of those uncircumcised. Perhaps Yahweh shall act for us, for there is no restraint to Yahweh to save by many or by few.
7 His gear-bearer replied to him, Do all, whatever is in your heart, what you intend to do! For I am with you; my heart is like your heart!
8 Jonathan continued, Here we are crossing over to those men where we expose ourselves to them.
9 If they say thus to us, Stand still until we make contact with you, then we must stay where we are, and we should not go on up to them.
10 Yet if they say thus to us, Come up to us, then we must go up, for Yahweh has given them into our hand. That shall be the sign for us.
11 So both of them exposed themselves to the Philistine detachment; and the Philistines said, Here the Hebrews are coming forth from the holes where they had hidden themselves.
12 The men of the detachment responded to Jonathan and his gear-bearer, saying, Come up to us, and we shall let you know something. Then Jonathan said to his gear-bearer, Come up after me, for Yahweh has given them into the hand of Israel!
13 And Jonathan crawled up on his hands and on his feet, with his gear-bearer behind him. The Philistines fell before Jonathan when he smote them; and his gear-bearer was putting them to death behind him.
14 This was the first smiting when Jonathan and his gear-bearer smote about twenty men within about half the plowing line in an acre of field.
15 Then a trembling occurred in the Philistine camp, in the field and among their whole force; the detachment and the raiding contingent, they also trembled. The earth was disturbed, and it became a trembling from Elohim.
16 At Gibeah of Benjamin, Saul’s watchmen saw how the throng was dissolved and went hither and thither.
17 So Saul said to the soldiers who were with him, Now muster the forces and see who has gone out from us. So they mustered them, and behold, Jonathan and his gear-bearer were not there.
18 Then Saul said to Ahijah, Do bring close the ephod! For he wore the ephod on that day before the sons of Israel.
19 Now it came about, while Saul spoke to the priest, that the clamor in the Philistine camp went on and became greater. So Saul said to the priest, Gather in your hand!
20 Now Saul and the whole force with him were convoked. Then they set out for a fight; yet behold, there was the sword of each man against his associate, their discomfiture being exceedingly great.
21 And those Hebrews who had been with the Philistines heretofore and had come up with them into the camp, turned about; they too came to be with Israel, with Saul and Jonathan.
22 When all the men of Israel, who were hiding themselves in the hill country of Ephraim, heard that the Philistines had fled, then they too followed hard after them in the fighting.
23 Thus Yahweh saved Israel on that day. As for the fighting, it passed beyond Beth-aven. All the people, about 10,000 men, were with Saul; and the fighting was scattered into every city in the hill country of Ephraim.
24 Yet Saul erred in a great error on that day, when Saul invoked the people, saying, Cursed be the man who eats nourishment before the evening, before I am avenged on my enemies. So none of the soldiers tasted nourishment.
25 Now all those of the land would come into a wildwood when there was honey on the surface of the field.
26 When the soldiers came to the wildwood, behold, its bees had left! But no one let his hand overtake to his mouth, for the soldiers feared the oath.
27 As for Jonathan, he had not heard his father adjure the force. So he stretched out the end of the staff in his hand and dipped it into the wildwood honey. When he brought his hand back to his mouth, his eyes were lighting up.
28 At this a man of the force responded and said, Your father adjured, yea adjured the force, saying, Cursed be the man who eats nourishment today. And so the soldiers are faint.
29 Jonathan replied, My father has brought trouble on the land. See now how my eyes had lit up when I tasted a little of this honey.
30 How much more so the soldiers; O that they would have eaten, yea eaten today of the loot of their enemies when they found it! For now the smiting among the Philistines would have been greater.
31 They smote the Philistines that day from Michmash to Aijalon; yet the soldiers were exceedingly faint.
32 So the soldiers pounced on the loot; they took small cattle, oxen and bull calves of the herd and slew them on the earth, and the soldiers ate them with the blood.
33 When they told Saul, saying, Behold, the people are sinning against Yahweh by eating with the blood, he replied, Treacherous are you! Roll a large stone here to me!
34 And Saul ordered, Scatter among the people and tell them, Let each man bring his bull close to me, and each man his flockling, and slay them on this stone, and then eat. You should not sin against Yahweh by eating with the blood. So all the people brought close, each man whatever was in his hand that night, and they slew it there.
35 Thus Saul built an altar for Yahweh; with it he started altar building for Yahweh.
36 Saul said, Let us go down after the Philistines by night, and let us plunder among them until the morning light; and let us not let one of them remain. The soldiers replied, Do whatever is good in your eyes. But the priest said, Let us draw near here to the One, Elohim.
37 So Saul asked Elohim, Shall I go down after the Philistines? Shall You give them into the hand of Israel? Yet He did not answer him on that day.
38 Then Saul said, Come close here, all you cornerstones of the force, and know and see whereby this sin has come about today.
39 For as Yahweh lives Who brings salvation to Israel, even if it was by him, my son Jonathan, he shall be put to death, yea death. Yet no one of all the soldiers was responding to him.
40 Then he said to all the men of Israel, You shall stay on one side, and I and my son Jonathan, we shall stay on the other side. The soldiers replied to Saul, Do what seems good in your eyes.
41 Saul then said to Yahweh Elohim of Israel, Why have You not answered Your servant today? If this depravity is in me or in my son Jonathan, Yahweh Elohim of Israel, do grant the lot Urim. Yet if it is in Your people Israel, do grant the lot Thummim. Thus Jonathan and Saul were selected, and the soldiers went forth cleared.
42 Then Saul said, Cast the lots between me and my son Jonathan. Thus Jonathan was selected.
43 Now Saul said to Jonathan, Do tell me what you have done. So Jonathan told him saying, I tasted, yea tasted a little honey with the end of the staff that was in my hand. Here I am, let me die.
44 Saul replied, Thus may Elohim do to me and thus add to it. You shall surely die, yea die today.
45 But the soldiers said to Saul, Should Jonathan die today who has brought this great victory to Israel? Far be it, as Yahweh lives, that even a hair from his head should fall to the earth, for he has acted with Elohim this day. Thus the force ransomed Jonathan, and he did not die.
46 Saul gave up the pursuit of the Philistines, and the Philistines went back to their own place.
47 After Saul had seized the kingship over Israel, he fought with all his enemies round about, with Moab and with the sons of Ammon, with Edom and with the king of Zobah, and with the Philistines; and wherever he turned toward them, he was victorious.
48 He acted valiantly and also smote Amalek; thus he rescued Israel from the hand of its robbers.
49 Saul’s sons were Jonathan, Ishvi and Malchishua. As for the names of his two daughters, the name of the firstborn was Merab, and the name of the younger one was Michal.
50 The name of Saul’s wife was Ahinoam daughter of Ahimaaz; and the name of the chief of his militia host was Abner son of Saul’s uncle Ner.
51 Both Kish, Saul’s father, and Ner, Abner’s father, were sons of Abiel.
52 The war against the Philistines was unyielding all the days of Saul. When Saul saw any masterful man or any son of valor, he would add him to his host.

Chapter 15
1 Samuel said to Saul, It was I whom Yahweh sent to anoint you king over His people, over Israel. So now hearken to the voice of the words of Yahweh.
2 Thus says Yahweh of hosts, I have noted what Amalek did to Israel, when he stood against it on the way as it came up from Egypt.
3 So now go, you will smite Amalek and doom him and all that is his. You shall not spare him; but you will put to death both man and woman, both infant and suckling, both bull and flockling, both camel and donkey.
4 Saul summoned the force and mustered them at Telaim: two hundred thousand footmen, and a ten thousand man force of Judah.
5 Then Saul advanced as far as the city of Amalek and lay in ambush in the wadi.
6 Saul said to the Kenite, Come, withdraw, go down from among the Amalekite, lest I sweep you off with him. As for you, you showed kindness to all the sons of Israel when they came up from Egypt. So the Kenite withdrew from among the Amalekite.
7 Then Saul smote the Amalekite from Havilah as far as Shur, which is adjoining Egypt.
8 While he apprehended Agag king of Amalek alive, he doomed all the people to the edge of the sword.
9 But Saul and his soldiers spared Agag and the best of the flock and the herd, the stout fatlings and the butting lambs, and all that was good, and they would not doom them. As for any property that was despised and rejected, they doomed it.
10 The word of Yahweh came to Samuel, saying,
11 I regret that I caused Saul to reign as king, for he has turned away from following Me and has not carried out My words. Now Samuel grew angry, and he cried out to Yahweh all that night.
12 When Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning, then Samuel was told, saying, Saul had gone to Carmel where he erected a monument as a signpost to himself. Then he had turned about and passed on and descended to Gilgal.
13 Samuel came to Saul, just when he had offered up an ascent approach to Yahweh of the first of the loot that he had taken from Amalek. When Samuel came near to Saul, then Saul said to him, Blessed be you by Yahweh! I have carried out the word of Yahweh.
14 Samuel replied, What then is this bleating of the flock in my ears, and the lowing of the herd that I am hearing?
15 Saul answered, I have brought them from the Amalekite, because the soldiers spared the best of the flock and the herd in order to sacrifice them to Yahweh your Elohim. Yet we have doomed the rest.
16 Samuel replied to Saul, Hold back and let me tell you what Yahweh spoke to me last night. Then he said to him, Speak.
17 So Samuel apprised Saul: Is it not true that though you were small in your own eyes, you became head of the tribes of Israel? Yahweh anointed you as king over Israel,
18 and Yahweh sent you on a mission, saying, Go, and you will doom those sinners, the Amalekite; fight against them until you have finished them.
19 Then why did you not hearken to the voice of Yahweh? Why did you pounce on the loot and do what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh?
20 Saul replied to Samuel, Because I hearkened to the voice of the soldiers. When I went on the mission on which Yahweh sent me, I brought back Agag, the king of Amalek, and I doomed Amalek.
21 Yet the soldiers took from the loot some small cattle and large cattle, the first parts of what had been doomed, to sacrifice to Yahweh your Elohim at Gilgal.
22 But Samuel said, Does Yahweh have as much delight in ascent offerings and sacrifices As in hearkening to the voice of Yahweh? Behold, to hearken is better than sacrifice, To pay attention than the fat of rams.
23 For rebellion is like the sin of divination, Insubordination, like the lawlessness of teraphim. Because you rejected the word of Yahweh, He has also rejected you from being king over Israel.
24 Saul replied to Samuel, I have sinned, for I have transgressed the bidding of Yahweh and your words, because I feared the soldiers and I hearkened to their voice.
25 Now I pray, bear with my sin and return with me, so that I may prostrate myself before Yahweh your Elohim.
26 But Samuel said to Saul, I shall not return with you, for you rejected the word of Yahweh, so Yahweh has rejected you from being king over Israel.
27 As Samuel turned around to leave, Saul held fast to the hem of his robe, and it was torn.
28 Samuel said to him, Yahweh has torn the kingship over Israel away from you today and has given it to an associate of yours who is better than you.
29 Moreover, the Permanent One of Israel does not deal falsely, and the Holy One of Israel does not repent, for He is not like a human that He should repent.
30 But Saul pleaded, I have sinned, yet now, I pray, bring glory to me in front of the elders of my people and in front of Israel. Return with me, so that I may prostrate myself before Yahweh your Elohim.
31 So Samuel turned back, following after Saul, and Saul prostrated himself before Yahweh.
32 Then Samuel said, Bring close to me Agag king of Amalek. Agag went to him haltingly. And Agag said, Surely the bitterness of death has withdrawn.
33 Samuel replied, Just as your sword has bereaved other women, so shall your mother be bereaved among women. And Samuel cut down Agag before Yahweh at Gilgal.
34 Then Samuel went to Ramah; as for Saul, he went up to his house at Gibeah of Saul.
35 Samuel did not come again to see Saul until the day of his death, though Samuel mourned for Saul, because Yahweh regretted that He had made Saul king over Israel.

Chapter 16
1 Yahweh said to Samuel, How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go! I am sending you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have selected among his sons a king for Myself.
2 Samuel replied, How can I go? If Saul hears of it, he will kill me. Yahweh answered, Take a heifer of the herd in your hand and say, I have come to sacrifice to Yahweh.
3 You must invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and then I shall make known to you what you should do. You must anoint for Me the one whom I shall designate to you.
4 Samuel did as Yahweh had instructed him. When he came to Bethlehem, the elders of the city trembled as they met him. They asked, Are you coming in peace, O seer?
5 He replied, I have come in peace to sacrifice to Yahweh. Hallow yourselves and rejoice today with me. He himself hallowed Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.
6 It came about when they entered and he looked at Eliab, that he thought, Surely, in front of Yahweh is His anointed.
7 But Yahweh said to Samuel, You must not look at his appearance and at the loftiness of his stature, for I have rejected him. For not as a human sees, does the One, Elohim, see. A human sees the visible appearance, yet Yahweh sees into the heart.
8 Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel; but he said, Yahweh has not chosen this one either.
9 When Jesse made Shammah pass by, he again said, Yahweh has not chosen this one either.
10 Thus Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel, and Samuel said to Jesse, Yahweh has not chosen any of these.
11 Then Samuel asked Jesse, Are the lads finished? He replied, There remains yet the youngest. Yet behold, he is shepherding the flock. Samuel said to Jesse, Do send and procure him, for we shall not gather around until he comes here.
12 So he sent and had him come; he was ruddy, with lovely eyes and of good appearance. And Yahweh said, Rise and anoint him, for this is he.
13 So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the spirit of Yahweh prospered on David from that day onward. Then Samuel rose and went to Ramah.
14 As for the spirit of Yahweh, it had withdrawn from Saul, and an evil spirit from Yahweh frightened him.
15 Saul’s courtiers said to him, Behold now, an evil spirit from Elohim is frightening you.
16 Let our lord now order your courtiers, who are before you, that they should seek a man who knows how to play the harp. Whenever it occurs that an evil spirit from Elohim comes over you, then he will play with his hand, and it will be well with you and give you rest.
17 So Saul said to his courtiers, Select now for me a man who can play well, and you will bring him to me.
18 One of the young attendants answered, saying, Behold, I have observed a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite who knows how to play. He is a master of valor, a man of war, proficient in speech, a handsome man, and Yahweh is with him.
19 So Saul sent messengers to Jesse, saying, Do send to me David, your son who is with your flock.
20 Jesse took a donkey and loaded on it an omer of bread, a skin-bottle of wine, and one kid of the goats, and sent it to Saul by the hand of his son David.
21 So David came to Saul and stood before him. Saul liked him very much, and later David became a gear-bearer for him.
22 Saul sent word to Jesse, saying, Let David now stay before me, for he has found grace in my eyes.
23 Whenever it occurred that an evil spirit from Elohim came over Saul then David took the harp and played with his hand. It inspirited Saul, and it was well with him. Then the evil spirit would withdraw from him.

Chapter 17
1 The Philistines gathered their armed forces together for battle; when they were gathered at Socoh of Judah, they encamped between Socoh and Azekah at Ephes-dammim.
2 Saul and the men of Israel were gathered and encamped in the vale of Elah; there they arrayed themselves in battle order to meet the Philistines.
3 Now the Philistines were standing on this side on a hill, while Israel was standing on that side on a hill, with a ravine between them.
4 A champion marched forth from the array of the Philistines; his name was Goliath of Gath, a man of lofty six cubits and a span.
5 A bronze helmet was on his head, and he had put on a scale body-armor with the weight of the body-armor being 5,000 bronze shekels.
6 He had bronze greaves above his feet, and a bronze scimitar between his shoulders.
7 The shaft of his spear was like a heddle-rod of the weavers, and the cutting-blade of his spear was 600 iron shekels. The bearer of his large shield went before him.
8 He stood and called out to the arrays of Israel; he said to them, Why should you march forth in array for battle? Am I not a Philistine? And you are servants of Saul. Choose for yourselves a man, and let him come down against me.
9 If he should prevail in fighting with me and smite me, then we will become servants to you. Yet if I should prevail over him and smite him, then you will become servants to us, and you must serve us.
10 Then the Philistine vaunted, I challenge the arrays of Israel this day! Give me such a man, and let us fight together.
11 When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and exceedingly fearful.
12 David was the son of this Ephrathite man from Bethlehem of Judah; his name was Jesse, and he had eight sons. In the days of Saul, the man was old, advanced in years.
13 Yet the three elder sons of Jesse had left and gone following Saul to the war. The names of his three sons who had gone to the war were Eliab the firstborn, his second, Abinadab, and the third, Shammah;
14 as for David, he was the youngest. The three elder sons had gone following Saul,
15 yet David would go and return from attendance on Saul to graze the flock of his father at Bethlehem.
16 The Philistine came close early in the morning and in the evening and stationed himself in front of Israel for forty days.
17 Jesse said to his son David, Take now for your brothers an ephah of this toasted grain and these ten loaves of bread, and bring them rapidly to the camp to your brothers.
18 And you shall bring these ten fresh milk cheeses to the chief officer of their contingent. Also you shall check about the well-being of your brothers and procure a surety of them.
19 Saul and they and all the men of Israel were in the vale of Elah, fighting with the Philistines.
20 So David rose early in the morning and let the flock go with a keeper; he took up the supplies and went just as Jesse had instructed him. When he came to the round camp, the army was marching forth to the array, and they shouted for war.
21 Now Israel and the Philistines were arranging in array to meet array.
22 David let the supplies go from him to the hand of the keeper of supplies; he ran to the array and came and asked his brothers about their well-being.
23 While he was speaking with them, behold, the champion was coming up from the arrays of the Philistines; his name was Goliath the Philistine of Gath. He spoke those usual words, and David heard them.
24 All the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled before him and were exceedingly fearful.
25 The men of Israel said to themselves, Have you seen that man coming up? Surely to challenge Israel is he coming up. And it will occur to the man who smites him that the king shall enrich him with great riches; he shall give to him his daughter, and he shall make his father’s house free in Israel.
26 Now David asked the men who stood near him, saying, What shall be done for the man who smites this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he challenges the arrays of the living Elohim?
27 Then the soldiers told him in accord with this promise, declaring, Thus shall it be done for the man who shall smite him.
28 When his eldest brother, Eliab, heard him speaking to the men, Eliab’s anger grew hot against David, and he said, Why is this that you have come down? And with whom did you let the little flock go, those sheep in the wilderness? I know your arrogance and the evil of your heart, for you have come down that you may watch the battle.
29 David replied, What have I done now? Was it not just a question?
30 Then he turned around from beside him toward another and asked this same question. When the soldiers replied to him, their word was like the first word.
31 The things which David spoke were heard and told before Saul; and they took him and brought him to Saul.
32 Then David said to Saul, The heart of my lord must not fall because of him. Your servant, he shall go, and he will fight with this Philistine.
33 Yet Saul replied to David, You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for you are a youth, and he has been a man of war from his youth.
34 David replied to Saul, Your servant became a shepherd for his father’s flock. When a lion or a bear came, and he carried off a flockling from the drove,
35 then I would go forth after him and smite him and rescue it from his mouth. If he rose against me, I would hold him fast by his beard and smite him and put him to death.
36 Your servant has smitten both lion and bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will become like one of them, for he has reproached the arrays of the living Elohim.
37 Then David declared, Yahweh Who rescued me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He shall rescue me from the hand of this Philistine. Saul replied to David, Go! And Yahweh, He may be with you!
38 Then Saul clothed David in his coats, placed a helmet of bronze on his head and put on him a body armor.
39 And David girded his sword on to his coats; yet he tired himself while walking once or twice, for he had not tried them out. So David said to Saul, I am unable to walk in these, for I have not tried them out; and David took them off.
40 Then he took his stave in his hand, chose for himself five smooth stones from the wadi and placed them in the shepherds’ wallet that he had for a pocket. With his sling in his hand, he came close to the Philistine.
41 Now the Philistine came walking near to David, and the man carrying the large shield was before him.
42 When the Philistine looked up and saw David, he despised him, for he was only a youth, ruddy with a well-favored appearance.
43 The Philistine said to David, Am I a cur that you are coming to me with staves and stones? David replied, No, unless you should be more vicious than a cur. The Philistine maledicted David by his elohim,
44 and the Philistine said to David, Do come to me, and let me give your flesh to the flyer of the heavens and to the beast of the field.
45 David replied to the Philistine, You are coming against me with sword and spear and scimitar; yet I am coming against you in the Name of Yahweh of hosts, the Elohim of the arrays of Israel, Whom you have challenged today.
46 Yahweh shall lock you up in my hand this day. I will smite you and take off your head from you; I will give your corpse and the corpses of the camp of the Philistines this day to the flyer of the heavens and to the wild animal of the earth. Then the whole earth shall know that there is an Elohim in Israel.
47 And this whole assembly shall know that Yahweh shall give victory without sword or spear. For Yahweh’s is the battle, and He will deliver you into our hands.
48 Then it occurred when the Philistine arose and came near to meet David, that David ran quickly toward the array to meet the Philistine.
49 David stretched his hand into the wallet and took from there a stone. He slung it and smote the Philistine on his forehead. The stone sank through the helmet into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the earth.
50 David, with sling and stone, was faster than the Philistine; he smote the Philistine and put him to death. But there was no sword in David’s hand;
51 so David ran up and stood over the Philistine, took hold of his sword and pulled it from its scabbard; and with it he put him to death and cut off his head. When the Philistines saw that their master of war was dead, they fled.
52 Then the men of Israel and Judah arose and shouted and pursued the Philistines as far as the entrance of Gath and as far as the gates of Ekron. The slain of the Philistines fell along the Shaaraim road to Gath and to Ekron.
53 When the sons of Israel returned from dashing after the Philistines, they robbed their camps.
54 Then David took the head of the Philistine and was about to bring it to Saul, but he put his weapons in his tent.
55 When Saul had seen David going forth to meet the Philistine, he had said to Abner, chief of the military host, Whose son is this lad, Abner? And Abner had replied, As your soul lives, O king, how should I know?
56 Then the king had ordered, You inquire! Whose son is this stripling?
57 So, when David had returned from smiting the Philistine, Abner had taken him and brought him before Saul, while the head of the Philistine was still in his hand.
58 Saul said to him, Whose son are you, young man? David replied, The son of your servant Jesse, the Bethlehemite.

Chapter 18
1 It came about when he had finished speaking to Saul, that Jonathan’s soul was tied to David’s soul; and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.
2 On that day Saul took him and would not allow him to return to his father’s house.
3 Jonathan contracted a covenant with David, since he loved him as his own soul.
4 And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him and gave it to David along with his coats and even his sword and his bow and his girdle.
5 Then David went forth with the men of war; wherever Saul sent him, he proceeded intelligently, so that Saul set him over the men of war; and it seemed good in the eyes of all the soldiers and also in the eyes of Saul’s courtiers.
6 It came about as they were coming home, when David had returned from smiting the Philistine, that the women from all the cities of Israel went forth singing and dancing in choruses to meet king Saul with tambourines, with rejoicing and with three-stringed instruments.
7 The gamboling women sang in response, saying: Saul has smitten his thousands, Yet David his myriads!
8 Saul’s anger grew exceedingly hot; this matter was displeasing in his eyes, and he said, To David they have ascribed myriads, and to me they have ascribed only thousands. What more can he have but the kingship?
9 Saul was jealously eying David from that day and beyond.
10 It came about on the morrow that an evil spirit from Elohim prospered on Saul. He prophesied inside the house, while David was playing the harp with his hand, as he did day by day; but there was a spear in Saul’s hand.
11 Saul lifted up the spear thinking, I shall smite David into the sidewall. Yet David got around his presence twice.
12 Saul was fearful because of David’s presence since Yahweh came to be with him but had withdrawn from Saul.
13 Hence Saul put him away from himself; he made him his chief of a thousand who marched forth and came in before the soldiers.
14 David continued to proceed intelligently in all his ways, for Yahweh was with him.
15 When Saul saw that he was proceeding very intelligently, he shrank away from his presence.
16 Yet all Israel and Judah loved David, for he marched forth and came in before them.
17 Then Saul said to David, Here is my older daughter Merab; I shall give her to you as a wife. Only become a valiant son for me and fight the battles of Yahweh. As for Saul, he thought, Let my hand not be against him; but let the hand of the Philistines be against him.
18 David replied to Saul, Who am I, and who are my kinfolk, my father’s family in Israel, that I should become son-in-law to the king?
19 But at the time that Merab, Saul’s daughter, should have been given to David, she was given to Adriel the Meholathite as a wife.
20 Now Saul’s daughter Michal loved David. When they told Saul, the matter was upright in his eyes.
21 So Saul thought, I shall give her to him; let her be a trap for him, and let the hand of the Philistines come to be against him. Hence Saul said to David a second time, You may become son-in-law to me today.
22 And Saul instructed his courtiers, Speak to David by stealth, saying, Behold, the king takes delight in you, and all his courtiers like you; so now become son-in-law to the king.
23 Then Saul’s courtiers spoke these words into David’s ears. Yet David replied, Is it lightly esteemed in your eyes to become son-in-law to the king, when I am a man destitute and inconsequential?
24 Saul’s courtiers told him, saying, These are the words that David has spoken.
25 Then Saul said, Thus shall you say to David, No delight has the king in a bride-price, but rather in a hundred foreskins of the Philistines, to take vengeance on the king’s enemies. As for Saul, he devised to cause David’s fall by the hand of the Philistines.
26 So his courtiers told David these words, and the matter was upright in David’s eyes, to become son-in-law to the king. When the days were not yet fulfilled,
27 David rose and went, he and his men, and he smote among the Philistines two hundred men. David brought their foreskins, and he delivered them in full to the king, to become son-in-law to the king. So Saul gave him Michal his daughter as a wife.
28 Saul saw and knew that Yahweh was with David and that all Israel liked him,
29 yet Saul continued to be even more fearful because of David’s presence; so Saul came to be David’s enemy all his days.
30 Then the chiefs of the Philistines would march forth to battle; yet it came to be, as often as they sallied forth, that David was more intelligent than all the other officials of Saul, so that his name became very highly esteemed.

Chapter 19
1 Saul urged his son Jonathan and all his courtiers to put David to death. But Saul’s son Jonathan had taken intense delight in David.
2 So Jonathan told David, saying, My father Saul is seeking to put you to death. Therefore do be on guard in the morning! You must stay in concealment and hide yourself.
3 As for me, I shall go forth, and I will stand by the side of my father in the field where you are. I shall speak about you to my father; then what I observe, I will tell you.
4 So Jonathan spoke well of David to his father Saul. He said to him, Let not the king sin against his servant, against David, for he has not sinned against you, and his deeds have been of very good service to you.
5 When he took his soul in his palm and smote the Philistine, and Yahweh wrought a great victory for all Israel, you saw it and rejoiced. Why then should you sin against innocent blood by putting David to death gratuitously?
6 Saul hearkened to Jonathan’s voice, and Saul swore, As Yahweh lives, he shall assuredly not be put to death!
7 Jonathan called David, and Jonathan told him all these words. Then Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence as heretofore.
8 When there was war again, David sallied forth and fought against the Philistines; he smote them with a great blow so that they fled in view of him.
9 Now the evil spirit from Yahweh came on Saul, while he was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand, and David was playing the harp with his hand.
10 Saul sought to smite David with the spear into the sidewall; yet he dodged from Saul’s presence, as he smote the spear into the sidewall. So David fled and escaped.
11 It occurred in that night that Saul sent messengers to David’s house to observe him and to put him to death in the morning. But Michal his wife told David, saying, If you are not providing for your soul an escape tonight, tomorrow you will be put to death.
12 Michal had David descend through the window that he might go and run away and escape.
13 Michal took the teraphim and placed them on the couch. She laid goats’ hair gauze where his head should be, and covered it with his cloak.
14 So when Saul sent messengers to take David in, she said, He is ailing.
15 Yet Saul sent the messengers back to see David, saying, Bring him up to me on the couch to put him to death.
16 When the messengers had come in, behold, there were the teraphim on the couch, and goats’ hair gauze where his head should be.
17 So Saul said to Michal, Why did you deceive me thus and send my enemy away so that he might escape? Michal replied to Saul, He said to me, Let me go! Why should I put you to death?
18 As for David, he ran away and escaped. He came to Samuel at Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to him. Then he and Samuel went away and stayed in the homestead.
19 Now Saul was told, saying, Behold, David is in the homestead at Ramah;
20 so Saul sent messengers to take David in. When they saw the assembly of prophets prophesying and Samuel standing stationed over them, then the spirit of Elohim came on Saul’s messengers, and together they prophesied in ecstasy.
21 When they told it to Saul, he sent other messengers; yet they too prophesied in ecstasy. So Saul sent messengers again, the third group; yet they too prophesied in ecstasy.
22 Now the anger of Saul grew hot, and he himself also went to Ramah. When he came as far as the cistern of the threshing site which is on the ridge, he asked, saying, What about Samuel and David? They replied, Behold, they are in the homestead at Ramah.
23 As he went from there to the homestead at Ramah, the spirit of Elohim came on him, on him too, while he went on walking and prophesying in ecstasy until he came to the homestead at Ramah.
24 Then he too stripped off his clothes, and he too prophesied in ecstasy before Samuel; he lay fallen naked all that day and all night. Therefore they say, Is Saul also among the prophets?

Chapter 20
1 David ran away from the homestead at Ramah; he came and said, facing Jonathan, What have I done? What is my depravity? And what is my sin before your father that he is seeking for my soul?
2 Jonathan replied to him, Far be it! You shall not die. Behold, my father does not do any great matter or small matter that he does not reveal to my ear. Now for what reason should my father conceal this matter from me? There is nothing to this!
3 Yet David replied again, saying, Your father must know, yea know, that I have found grace in your eyes; so he has decided, Jonathan must not know this lest he should be grieved. Nevertheless, as Yahweh lives, and your soul lives, there is but a small step between me and death.
4 So Jonathan said to David, Whatever your soul is yearning for, I shall do for you.
5 Then David explained to Jonathan: Behold, tomorrow is the new moon; as for me, I should sit, yea sit with the king to eat. Instead you must send me away, and I will conceal myself in the field until the third evening.
6 Should your father miss, yea miss me, then you say, David asked, yea asked leave of me to run as far as Bethlehem, his city, for the whole family has the annual sacrifice there.
7 If he then says thus, Very well! It means peace with your servant. Yet if his anger grows hot, then know that evil has been determined by him.
8 Now you must deal kindly with your servant, for you have brought your servant into a covenant of Yahweh with you. But if there is any depravity in me, put me to death yourself. Why then should you bring me to your father?
9 Jonathan replied, Far be it from you! For if I should realize, yea realize that evil has been determined by my father to come over you, would I not tell you about it?
10 Then David asked Jonathan, Who shall tell me if your father should answer you harshly?
11 Jonathan said to David, Do come! Let us go forth into the field! So both of them went forth into the field.
12 Then Jonathan said to David, By Yahweh Elohim of Israel! I shall sound out my father about this time tomorrow or the third day; if he is well disposed toward David, shall I not then send word to you and reveal it into your ear?
13 Thus may Yahweh do to Jonathan and thus add to it! But should it seem well to my father to do you evil, then I will reveal it into your ear and send you away that you can go unharmed. May Yahweh be with you, just as He was with my father.
14 Nor, while I am still alive, shall you fail to show me the benignity of Yahweh; and even if I die,
15 you shall not cut off your kindness from my house for the eon, not even when Yahweh cuts off the enemies of David, each man off the surface of the ground.
16 Thus has Jonathan contracted with the house of David; and Yahweh will seek it out from the hand of David’s enemies.
17 So Jonathan continued to adjure David, in his love for him, for he loved him with the love of his own soul.
18 Then Jonathan said to him, Tomorrow is the new moon, and you will be missed, for your empty seat shall be noted.
19 When you count three days, you shall descend very quickly; and you must come to the place where you were concealed on the day of the deed, and you must stay beside the departure stone.
20 As for me, I shall shoot three arrows to one side of it, pointing to a target for myself.
21 Now behold, I shall send the lad, saying, Go, find the arrows. If I shall say, yea say to the lad, Behold, the arrows are this way from you, take them, then do come! For there is peace for you, and there is no plot, as Yahweh lives!
22 But if I shall say thus to the stripling, Behold, the arrows are beyond you, then leave, for Yahweh has sent you away.
23 As for the promise that we have discussed, I and you, behold, Yahweh is witness between me and you for the eon.
24 So David concealed himself in the field. When the new moon came, the king sat down to eat bread.
25 The king sat on his seat as he had done time upon time, in the sidewall seat; Jonathan sat opposite him while Abner sat at Saul’s side. But David was missing from his place.
26 Saul did not say anything that day, for he thought: He is absent by some chance; he is not clean; surely he has not been cleansed.
27 Then it came to be on the morrow after the new moon, the second day, that David was missing from his place. So Saul said to his son Jonathan, For what reason has the son of Jesse not come to eat bread both yesterday and today?
28 Jonathan answered Saul, David asked, yea asked of me to go to Bethlehem.
29 He said, please let me go, for our family is holding a sacrifice in the city. As for me, my brothers gave me instruction. So now, if I have found grace in your eyes, please let me slip away and let me see my brothers. For this reason he has not come to the king’s table.
30 Then Saul’s anger against Jonathan grew exceedingly hot, and he said to him, Son of a revolting maiden! Do I not know that you are partner with the son of Jesse, to your own shame and to the shame of your mother’s nakedness?
31 For all the days that the son of Jesse lives on the ground, you and your kingship, you shall not be established. Now therefore send out and take him in for me, for he is a son of death.
32 Jonathan responded to his father Saul, saying to him, Why should he be put to death? What has he done?
33 At that, Saul lifted up the spear at him as if to smite him; and Jonathan realized that evil had been determined upon by his father, to put David to death.
34 So Jonathan arose from the table in the heat of anger; he did not eat bread on the second day of the new moon festival, for he was grieved for David, and because his father had mortified him.
35 When the morning came, Jonathan went forth to the field for the appointment with David, and a young lad was with him.
36 He said to his lad, Run! Find now the arrows which I am shooting. While the lad was running, he shot the arrow to make it pass beyond him.
37 When the lad came to the place where Jonathan had shot the arrow, then Jonathan called after the lad, saying, Is not the arrow, beyond you?
38 And Jonathan called after the lad, Quickly! Do hurry! Do not stay there! So Jonathan’s lad picked up the arrows and brought them to his lord.
39 As for the lad, he did not know anything about it; only Jonathan and David, they knew of the matter.
40 Then Jonathan gave his gear to the lad who was with him, and he told him, Go! Bring them to the city.
41 When the lad had gone, David arose from beside the departure stone; he fell with his nostrils to the earth and bowed down three times. Then each man kissed his associate; and they wept, each man with his associate, while their affection magnified.
42 Jonathan said to David, Go in peace! Since we, both of us, we have sworn in the Name of Yahweh, saying, Yahweh is witness between me and you, and between my seed and your seed for the eon. Then David arose and departed, while Jonathan was entering the city.

Chapter 21
1 David came to Ahimelech the priest at Nob. Ahimelech was overanxious when he met David, and he said to him, For what reason are you alone, and no man is with you?
2 David replied to Ahimelech the priest, It was the king who gave me instructions in a matter and said to me, Let no one know anything about the matter on which I am sending you, nor what I instructed you. As for the lads, I appointed them to a place so and so.
3 Now then, what have you on hand? Five loaves of bread? Do give them into my hand, or whatever is available.
4 The priest answered David, saying, I have no profane bread on hand, but there is holy bread; if only the lads have kept themselves from women, you may eat it.
5 David responded to the priest, saying to him, But rather, women were restrained from us, as heretofore; when I went forth, all the lads were hallowed even if it was a profane mission. Yet today indeed, they are hallowed with their vessels.
6 So the priest gave him holy bread, for there was no bread there save the bread of presence taken away from before Yahweh, in order to place warm bread on the day it was taken.
7 Now there was a man of Saul’s officials on that day, retained before Yahweh; his name was Doeg the Edomite, the sturdiest of the runners belonging to Saul.
8 David said to Ahimelech, Is there nothing that you have here on hand, a spear or a sword? For I did not take my sword or any other of my weapons in my hand, because the king’s matter was urgent.
9 The priest replied, The sword of Goliath the Philistine whom you smote in the vale of Elah, it is here, wrapped in raiment, behind the ephod. If you are taking it for yourself, take it, for there is no other except it in this place. David said, There is none like it; give it to me. So he gave it to him.
10 David arose and ran away on that day from the face of Saul. When he came to Achish king of Gath,
11 the courtiers of Achish said to him, Is this not David the king of the land? Did they not respond about this one with dancing in choruses, saying, Saul has smitten his thousands, Yet David his myriads?
12 David took these words to his heart, and he was very fearful in view of Achish king of Gath.
13 So he altered his sanity in their eyes and was raving while in their hand; he was tambourining on the doors of the gate and let his spittle run down on his beard.
14 Then Achish said to his courtiers, Here you see a man presenting himself as mad. Why do you bring him to me?
15 Do I lack mad men that you bring this one to present himself as mad for me? Should this one enter my house?

Chapter 22
1 David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam; and when his brothers and all his father’s house heard, they went down there to him.
2 And others convened around him: every man under constraint, every man who had a creditor, and every man bitter of soul. He became chief over them, and there were about four hundred men with him.
3 From there David went to Mizpah of Moab and said to the king of Moab, Please let my father and my mother come forth and stay with you until I know what Elohim may do for me.
4 So he left them in the presence of the king of Moab, and they dwelt with him all the days that David remained in the fastness.
5 Yet Gad the prophet said to David, You should not stay in the fastness; depart! You must come yourself to the land of Judah. So David left and came to the wildwood of Hereth.
6 Then Saul heard where David was known to be, he and the men who were with him; now Saul was at Gibeah, sitting under the tamarisk on the high place, with his spear in his hand and all his courtiers stationed by him.
7 Saul said to his courtiers stationed by him, Hear now, sons of Benjamin! Will the son of Jesse also give fields and vineyards to all of you? Will he constitute all of you chiefs of thousands and chiefs of hundreds,
8 because all of you have conspired against me, and no one was revealing in my ear when my son contracted a covenant with the son of Jesse? No one of you was sparing me and revealing in my ear when my son set up my servant against me to wait in ambush as he does this day.
9 Then Doeg, the Edomite, responded; he was stationed over the courtiers of Saul, and he said, I saw the son of Jesse coming toward Nob to Ahimelech son of Ahitub, the priest.
10 He inquired of Yahweh for him and gave provisions to him; he also gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.
11 Then the king sent to call Ahimelech son of Ahitub, the priest, and all the priests of his father’s house at Nob. So all of them came to the king.
12 Saul said, Hear now, son of Ahitub! He replied, Here I am; speak, my lord.
13 Now Saul asked him, Why have you conspired against me, you and the son of Jesse, in that you have given him bread and a sword and have inquired of Elohim for him, that he should rise against me and wait in ambush as he does this day?
14 Ahimelech answered the king, saying, But who among all your servants is as faithful as David, the king’s son-in-law, chief over your household-guard, and is illustrious in your house?
15 Did I start that day to inquire of Elohim for him? Far be it from me! Let not the king place anything against his servant or against any of my father’s house; for your servant knew nothing at all about this matter, small or great.
16 But the king replied, To die shall you die, Ahimelech, you and all of your father’s house.
17 Then the king commanded the runners stationed by him, Turn around and put the priests of Yahweh to death, for their hand also is with David since they knew that he was running away and did not reveal it to my ear. But the king’s servants would not stretch forth their hand to come upon the priests of Yahweh.
18 So the king said to Doeg, You, turn around! Come upon the priests! Then Doeg, the Edomite, turned around and came upon the priests himself; on that day, he put to death eighty-five men wearing the linen ephod.
19 Also Nob, the city of the priests, he smote with the edge of the sword both man and woman, both infant and suckling, also bull, donkey and flockling, all with the edge of the sword.
20 Yet one son of Ahimelech son of Ahitub escaped; his name was Abiathar, and he ran away following after David.
21 Then Abiathar told David that Saul had killed the priests of Yahweh.
22 David replied to Abiathar, I knew on that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would tell, yea tell Saul. As for me, I am debtor to every soul of your father’s house.
23 Do stay with me; do not fear, for he who seeks my soul is seeking your soul too; but you are under guard with me.

Chapter 23
1 They told David, saying, Behold, Philistines are fighting against Keilah, and they are robbing the threshing sites.
2 So David inquired of Yahweh saying, Shall I go and smite these Philistines? Yahweh replied to David, Go! You must smite the Philistines and save Keilah.
3 Yet David’s men said to him, Behold, we are fearful while here in Judah; how much more so if we go to Keilah against the arrays of the Philistines!
4 So David proceeded to inquire of Yahweh again, and Yahweh answered him, saying, Arise, go down to Keilah! For I am delivering the Philistines into your hand.
5 Then David and his men marched to Keilah and fought against the Philistines. When they fled before him, he drove away their cattle and smote them with a great smiting. Thus David saved the dwellers of Keilah.
6 It came to be, after Abiathar son of Ahimelech had run away to David, that he went down with David to Keilah with the ephod in his hand.
7 When Saul was told that David had come to Keilah, then Saul thought, Elohim has sold him into my hand; for he has locked himself up by entering a city with double doors and bars.
8 So Saul summoned all the soldiers for war, to march down to Keilah and to besiege David and his men.
9 Since David knew that Saul was engrossed in planning evil against him, he told Abiathar the priest, Do bring close the ephod!
10 Then David said, O Yahweh Elohim of Israel, Your servant has heard, yea heard that Saul seeks to come to Keilah to wreck the city on account of me.
11 Will the possessors of Keilah surrender me into his hand? Will Saul come down, just as Your servant has heard? O Yahweh Elohim of Israel, I pray, tell Your servant! Yahweh replied, He will come down.
12 David continued, Will the possessors of Keilah surrender me and my men into the hand of Saul? Yahweh replied, They will surrender you.
13 So David arose with his men, about six hundred men; they marched forth from Keilah and went wherever they could go. When Saul was told that David had escaped from Keilah, he desisted from going forth.
14 So David stayed in the fastnesses of the wilderness; he remained in the hill country, in the wilderness of Ziph. Saul was seeking him all these days, but Yahweh did not give him into his hand.
15 Yet David was fearful that Saul had come forth to seek his soul while David was at Horesh in the wilderness of Ziph.
16 Then Saul’s son Jonathan arose and went to David at Horesh; he encouraged his hand in Yahweh
17 and said to him, Do not fear, for the hand of my father Saul shall not find you. You shall reign over Israel, and I myself shall become second to you. Even my father Saul knows this is so.
18 And the two of them contracted a covenant before Yahweh. David remained at Horesh; as for Jonathan, he went to his own house.
19 Some Ziphites went up to Saul at Gibeah, saying, Is not David concealing himself among us in the fastnesses at Horesh on the hill of Hachilah which is south of the desolation?
20 So now, according to all your soul’s yearning, O king, come down, yea come down! And our part shall be to surrender him into the hand of the king.
21 Saul replied, Blessed be you of Yahweh, for you spare me.
22 Go now and prepare further! Become acquainted with his place and observe where his swift foot comes to be; for someone told me, he is crafty, very crafty.
23 Hence observe and get to know all the hiding places where he hides himself! You must return to me prepared; then I will go with you. It will come to be that, if he is in the area, I will also search him out among all the thousands of Judah.
24 So they arose and went toward Ziph, before Saul, while David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon, in the Arabah south of the desolation.
25 Then Saul with his men went to seek him; yet David was told of it, and he went down to the crag and stayed in the wilderness of Maon. When Saul heard of it, he pursued after David into the wilderness of Maon.
26 Saul and his men went on one side of this mountain, while David and his men were on the other side of this mountain. So David was hurrying away, running from the presence of Saul; but Saul and his men were encircling David and his men in order to apprehend them.
27 Yet a messenger came to Saul, saying, Do hasten and come, for the Philistines are ransacking the land.
28 So Saul returned from his pursuit of David and went to meet the Philistines. Therefore they called that place the Crag of Apportionments.
29 Then David went up from there and stayed in the fastnesses of En-gedi.

Chapter 24
1 It came to be, just as Saul returned from following after the Philistines, that they told him, saying, Behold, David is in the wilderness of En-gedi.
2 So Saul took 3,000 men, chosen from all Israel, and went to seek David and his men on the surface of the rocks of the ibexes.
3 Along the way he came to the stone dike sheepfolds for the flock; and there was a cave where Saul entered to overshadow his feet. Now David and his men were sitting in the recesses of the cave.
4 David’s men said to him, This is the day of which Yahweh said to you, Behold, I am giving your enemy into your hand; you may do to him just as seems good in your eyes. So David arose and cut off by stealth the hem of the robe that was Saul’s.
5 It came to be afterward that David’s heart smote him because he had cut off the hem of the robe that was Saul’s.
6 Then David said to his men, Far be it from me, by Yahweh, that I should do this thing to my lord, Yahweh’s anointed, to stretch forth my hand against him, for he is Yahweh’s anointed.
7 David made his men hearken to these words and did not allow them to rise up against Saul. As for Saul, he got up from the cave and went on his way.
8 Afterward David got up and came forth from the cave; he called after Saul, saying, My lord, the king! When Saul looked behind him, David bowed his head and prostrated himself with his nostrils to the earth.
9 David said to Saul, Why do you hearken to the words of anyone who says, Behold, David is seeking evil against you?
10 Behold, this day your eyes have seen how Yahweh has given you today into my hand in the cave. Yet I refused to kill you, for I commiserated with you. I said, I shall not stretch out my hand against my lord, since he is Yahweh’s anointed.
11 Now my father, see, yea see the hem of your robe in my hand; for when I cut off the hem of your robe, I did not kill you. Know and see that there is no evil or transgression on my hand, and I have not sinned against you; yet you are hunting my soul to take it.
12 May Yahweh judge between me and you! May Yahweh take vengeance upon you for me, yet my hand shall not be against you.
13 Just as the proverb of aforetime says, From the wicked ones goes forth wickedness. Yet my hand shall not be against you.
14 After whom has the king of Israel gone forth? Whom are you pursuing? A dead cur? A single flea?
15 Yahweh will be Adjudicator, and He will rightly judge between me and you. May He see and contend my cause with redress for me from your hand.
16 It came to be, as David finished speaking these words to Saul, that Saul said, Is this your voice, my son David? And Saul lifted up his voice and wept.
17 He said to David, You are more righteous than I; for you have requited me with good, yet I have requited you with evil.
18 As for you, you have told me today how you have dealt well with me; although Yahweh surrendered me into your hand, you did not kill me.
19 When a man finds his enemy in distress, will he let him go on his way with goodness? Therefore Yahweh, may He repay you with good for what you have done to me this day.
20 Now behold, I know that you shall be king, yea king, and the kingship of Israel will prosper in your hand.
21 Now do swear to me by Yahweh that you shall not cut off my seed after me or exterminate my name from my father’s house.
22 Then David swore to Saul, and Saul went to his house. As for David and his men, they went up to the fastness.

Chapter 25
1 Samuel died, and all Israel convened and wailed for him. They entombed him in his homeland at Ramah. Then David arose and went down to the wilderness of Maon.
2 There was a man in Maon, yet his business was at Carmel. The man was very wealthy; he had a flock of 3,000 sheep and 1,000 goats; now he was shearing his flock at Carmel.
3 The man’s name was Nabal, and his wife’s name was Abigail. The woman was of good intelligence and of lovely shape; as for the man, he was a Calebite, obstinate and evil in his actions.
4 When David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his flock,
5 David sent ten lads. David said to the lads, Go up to Carmel. When you come to Nabal, you will ask him in my name for peace.
6 And thus you must say to my brother, Peace to you! Peace to your house, and peace to all that you have!
7 And now, behold, I have heard that you have shearers. Now your shepherds were with us in the wilderness, and we did not mistreat them, nor was anything of theirs missed all the days they were at Carmel.
8 Ask your lads, and they shall tell you. Hence may my lads find grace in your eyes, for we have come on a good day. Do give now, whatever your hand may find, to your servants and to your son David.
9 So when David’s lads came, they spoke to Nabal according to all these words in the name of David. When they stopped,
10 Nabal answered David’s servants saying, Who is David? And who is the son of Jesse? Nowadays there are many servants who are breaching away, each one from the face of his lord.
11 Should I take my bread and my wine and my slaughtered meat that I have slaughtered for the shearers of my sheep and give it to men whom I do not know from where they are!
12 So David’s lads turned back to their way and returned. They came and told him about all these words.
13 Then David said to his men, Gird on, each man his sword! And they girded on, each man his sword, while David too girded on his sword. About four hundred men went up following David; yet two hundred remained with the gear.
14 One young man of the lads told Nabal’s wife Abigail, saying, Behold, David sent messengers from the wilderness to bless our lord; but he pounced on them.
15 Yet the men were very good to us, we were not mistreated, and we did not miss anything all the days that we went about with them when we were in the field.
16 They were a wall for us both by night and by day, all the days that we were with them grazing the flock.
17 Now know this and consider what you should do! For evil has been determined against our lord and against all his household. He is too much of a son of decadence to speak to him.
18 Abigail quickly took two hundred loaves of bread, two crocks of wine, five dressed flocklings, five seahs of toasted grain, a hundred clusters of raisins and two hundred pressed dried fig cakes, and loaded them on the donkeys.
19 Then she said to her lads, Pass on before me! Behold me coming after you! But she did not tell her husband Nabal.
20 It came to be that she was riding on the donkey and descending in the concealment of the mountain, when David and his men happened to be descending toward her. So she encountered them.
21 As for David, he had said, Surely for a false hope have I guarded all that this one had in the wilderness; there was not anything missed of all that belonged to him. Yet he has paid me back evil for good!
22 Thus may Elohim do to the enemies of David, and thus may He add, if I let remain until morning anyone of all who are his, any man-child.
23 When Abigail saw David, she quickly got down off her donkey, fell before David on her face and prostrated herself to the earth.
24 When she fell at his feet, she said, On me, my lord, be the depravity! I pray, let your maidservant speak in your ears! Hear the words of your maidservant!
25 I pray, let not my lord set his heart against this man of decadence, Nabal; for as his name, so is he: Decadent is his name, and decadence is with him. As for me, your maidservant, I did not see my lord’s lads whom you sent.
26 And now, my lord, as Yahweh lives and as your soul lives, since Yahweh has withheld you from coming to bloodshed and from getting victory for yourself by your own hand, may now your enemies and those who seek evil for my lord, become like Nabal.
27 So now, let this blessing gift, which your maidservant has brought to my lord, be given to the lads walking in the footsteps of my lord.
28 I pray, bear with the transgression of your maidservant! For Yahweh shall grant, yea grant my lord a sure house, because my lord is fighting the battles of Yahweh, and evil is not found in you throughout your days.
29 Should anyone rise up to pursue you and to seek your soul, then my lord’s soul will come to be tied up in the bundle of the living with Yahweh your Elohim. But the soul of your enemies He shall sling out as from the midst of the palm of the sling.
30 It will come to be when Yahweh does for my lord according to all the good that He promised concerning you, and commissions you as governor over Israel,
31 then this shall not be for you a cause for remorse or a stumbling block to the heart of my lord, by shedding blood gratuitously and by my lord’s own hand getting victory for himself. When Yahweh has dealt well with my lord, then you must remember your maidservant!
32 David replied to Abigail, Blessed be Yahweh Elohim of Israel, Who sent you this day to meet me.
33 Blessed be your discretion, and blessed be you who has detained me this day from coming to bloodshed and from getting victory for myself by my own hand.
34 Nevertheless, as Yahweh Elohim of Israel lives, Who has withheld me from doing evil to you, for unless you had quickly come to meet me, assuredly no man-child would have been left to Nabal until the morning light.
35 Then David took from her hand what she had brought to him; and he said to her, Go up in peace to your house! See, I have hearkened to your voice that I may lift up your face.
36 When Abigail came to Nabal, behold, he had a banquet in his house like a king’s banquet. So Nabal’s heart felt good in him, and he was drunk unto excess. So she did not tell him a thing, small or great, until the morning light.
37 Yet it came to be in the morning when the wine had gone forth from Nabal, and his wife had told him these things, that his heart died within him, and he became like a stone.
38 It was about ten days later that Yahweh struck Nabal and he died.
39 When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, Blessed be Yahweh Who contended my cause concerning my reproach from the hand of Nabal and kept His servant back from evil. For Yahweh has reversed the evil of Nabal on his own head. Then David sent word and proposed to Abigail to take her for himself as a wife.
40 So David’s servants came to Abigail at Carmel and spoke to her, saying, David has sent us to you to take you for himself as a wife.
41 She arose and prostrated herself, with her nostrils to the earth, and said, Behold, your maidservant is a handmaid to wash the feet of my lord’s servants.
42 Then Abigail quickly arose and rode on her donkey, with five of her maidens walking at her feet. Thus she went after David’s messengers and became his wife.
43 David had also taken Ahinoam from Jezreel; and so both of them became his wives.
44 Saul had given his daughter Michal, David’s wife, to Palti son of Laish who was from Gallim.

Chapter 26
1 The Ziphites came to Saul at Gibeah, saying, Is not David concealing himself with us on the hill of Hachilah, adjoining the desolation?
2 So Saul rose and went down to the wilderness of Ziph, and with him 3,000 chosen men of Israel, to seek David in the wilderness of Ziph.
3 While Saul encamped on the hill of Hachilah adjoining the desolation, by the road, David was staying in the wilderness. When he discerned that Saul had come after him to the wilderness,
4 David sent out spies that he might know that Saul had come prepared from Keilah.
5 Then David rose in stealth and came to the place where Saul had encamped, and David saw the place where Saul lay, and Abner son of Ner, the chief of his military host. Now Saul was lying within the round camp, while the soldiers were camping round about him.
6 Then David responded and said to Ahimelech the Hittite and to Abishai son of Zeruiah, Joab’s brother, saying, Who will go down with me into the camp to Saul? Abishai replied, I shall go down with you.
7 When David and Abishai came upon the soldiers by night, there was Saul lying asleep in the round camp, with his spear stuck into the earth by his headrest; Abner and the soldiers were lying round about him.
8 Abishai said to David, Today Elohim has surrendered your enemy into your hand. Now let me smite him with the spear into the earth only once, and I shall not repeat this to him.
9 But David replied to Abishai, You must not bring him to ruin, for who could stretch forth his hand against the anointed of Yahweh, and be innocent?
10 As Yahweh lives, David continued, but rather Yahweh Himself should strike him down, whether his day comes and he will die, or he goes down in battle and is swept away.
11 Far be it from me, by Yahweh, to stretch forth my hand against the anointed of Yahweh! Now then, do take the spear which is by his headrest and the cruse of water, and let us go on our way.
12 So David took the spear and the cruse of water from beside Saul’s headrest, and they went on their way. There was no one seeing and no one knowing and no one waking; all of them were sleeping, for a stupor from Yahweh had fallen on them.
13 Then David passed on to the other side and stood on the summit of the hill afar off, with much space between them.
14 David called out to the soldiers and to Abner son of Ner, saying, Are you not answering, Abner? At that Abner responded and said, Who are you that you call out to the king?
15 David replied to Abner, Are you not a man? And who is like you in Israel? Why then did you not keep guard over your lord the king? For one of our soldiers came to bring ruin to the king your lord.
16 Not good is this thing that you have done. As Yahweh lives, sons of death are you all who did not keep guard over your lord, over the anointed of Yahweh. Now look! Where is the king’s spear? And where is the cruse of water that was by his headrest?
17 Saul recognized David’s voice and asked, Is this your voice, my son David? And David replied, It is my voice, my lord the king.
18 Then he said, Why then is my lord pursuing after his servant? What sin have I done? What evil deed is found on my hand?
19 Therefore, I pray, may my lord the king hearken to the words of his servant. If Yahweh incited you against me, let Him smell an approach present. Yet if the sons of mankind did it, cursed are they before Yahweh! For they have driven me out today from adhering to the allotment of Yahweh, saying, Go, serve other elohim.
20 Oh, let my blood not fall to the earth aloof from the presence of Yahweh! For the king of Israel has come forth to seek a single flea, just as one pursues a partridge in the mountains.
21 Saul replied, I have sinned. Return, my son David, for no longer shall I do evil to you, inasmuch as my soul has been precious in your eyes this day. Behold, I have acted unwisely, and I am very much in error.
22 David responded and said, Here is the king’s spear. Let one of the lads cross over and take it.
23 As for Yahweh, He shall recompense each man for his righteousness and for his faithfulness. Though Yahweh gave you into my hand today, I would not stretch forth my hand against the anointed of Yahweh.
24 And behold, just as your soul was great this day in my eyes, so may my soul be great in the eyes of Yahweh, and may He rescue me from all distress.
25 Saul replied to David, Blessed be you, my son David! You shall surely accomplish, yea accomplish all, and you shall surely prevail, yea prevail. Then David went on his way, and Saul, he returned to his place.

Chapter 27
1 David said in his heart, Some day now I shall be swept away by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than to escape, yea escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will despair of me to seek me further in all the territory of Israel, and I will escape from his hand.
2 So David arose, and crossed over, he and six hundred men with him, to Achish son of Maoch, king of Gath.
3 David stayed with Achish at Gath, he and his men, each man with his household, and David with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelite, and Abigail, former wife of Nabal, the Carmelite.
4 When Saul was told that David had run away to Gath, he did not continue to seek him further.
5 David said to Achish, Now if I have found grace in your eyes, let them grant me a place in one of the field cities, and let me dwell there. Why should your servant dwell in the royal city with you?
6 So Achish granted him Ziklag on that day; wherefore Ziklag has belonged to Judah’s kings until this day.
7 The number of days that David dwelt in the field of the Philistines was a years’ days and four months.
8 David with his men went up and ransacked the Geshurite, the Gizrite and the Amalakite; for they were the dwellers of the land from Telam as you come to Shur, as far as the land of Egypt.
9 When David smote the land, he would not leave a man or a woman alive; yet he would take flocks and herds, donkeys and camels, and garments. When he returned and came to Achish,
10 then Achish would ask, Whom have you ransacked today? And David would reply, The Negeb of Judah, or the Negeb of the Jerahmeelite, or the Negeb of the Kenite.
11 David would not leave a man or a woman alive to bring them to Gath, for he thought, Lest they denounce us, saying, Thus did David. Thus was his custom all the days while he dwelt in the field of the Philistines.
12 Now Achish put his faith in David, saying, He has made himself a stink, yea a stink among his people in Israel, and so he has become mine as a servant for the eon.

Chapter 28
1 It was in those days that the Philistines convened their fighting forces for enlistment to make war against Israel. And Achish said to David, You realize, yea realize that with me you shall march forth into the army camp, you and your men.
2 David replied to Achish, Wherefore, now you know what your servant can do. And Achish said to David, Therefore, I shall constitute you keeper of my head all your days.
3 As for Samuel, he had died, and all Israel had wailed for him; they had entombed him in Ramah, in his own city. And Saul, he had caused the mediums and the wizards to withdraw from the land.
4 When the Philistines convened, they came and encamped at Shunem, while Saul convened all the men of Israel; and they encamped on Mount Gilboa.
5 When Saul saw the army camp of the Philistines, he was fearful, and his heart trembled exceedingly.
6 Saul inquired of Yahweh, but Yahweh did not answer him, either by dreams or by Urim or by prophets.
7 Then Saul said to his courtiers, Seek for me a woman, a possessor of a medium, that I can go to her and inquire through her. His courtiers told him, Behold, a woman, a possessor of a medium, is in Endor.
8 So Saul disguised himself; he put on other clothes and went out, he and two men with him. They came to the woman by night, and he said, Divine now for me by medium and bring up for me the one I shall tell you.
9 The woman replied to him, Now you know what Saul has done, how he has cut off the mediums and the wizards from the land. So why are you laying a trap for my soul to put me to death?
10 Saul swore to her by Yahweh, saying, As Yahweh lives, assuredly no depravity shall befall you in this matter.
11 At that, the woman asked, Whom shall I bring up for you? He replied, Samuel, bring him up 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? You are Saul!
13 The king said to her, Do not fear. What do you see? The woman replied to Saul, I see elohim coming up from the earth.
14 He asked her, What is his shape? She answered, An erect man is coming up, and he is muffled in a robe. Then Saul knew that it was Samuel; so he bowed his head low, nostrils to the earth, and prostrated himself.
15 Samuel said to Saul, Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up? Saul replied, Utter distress is mine. The Philistines are fighting against me, and Elohim has withdrawn from me and does not answer me any longer, either by means of the prophets or in dreams. So I did call on you to let me know what I should do.
16 Samuel said, Why are you asking me when Yahweh has withdrawn from you and is with your associate?
17 Yahweh is doing to you just as He spoke by means of me. Yahweh is tearing the kingship from your hand and is giving it to your associate, to David,
18 inasmuch as you did not hearken to the voice of Yahweh and did not execute the heat of His anger on Amalek. Therefore Yahweh does this thing to you this day.
19 Yahweh shall also give Israel with you into the hand of the Philistines. Tomorrow you and your sons with you shall fall. Indeed Yahweh shall give the army camp of Israel into the hand of the Philistines.
20 Saul fell headlong down, his full stature to the earth, for he was exceedingly fearful because of Samuel’s words. Besides, there was no vigor in him, for he had not eaten bread all day and all night.
21 The woman came to Saul and saw that he was utterly flustered. She said to him, Behold, your maidservant hearkened to your voice; I put my soul in my palm when I acquiesced to your words that you spoke to me.
22 So now, I pray, you also hearken to the voice of your maidservant! Let me place before you a morsel of bread. Eat it! Then there shall be vigor in you when you go on your way.
23 He refused, saying, I will not eat. But his courtiers and even the woman urged him, and he hearkened to their voice. He got up from the earth and sat on the couch.
24 The woman had a stall-fed calf at the house; she quickly slaughtered it. Then she took meal flour and kneaded it, and baked unleavened bread of it.
25 She brought this close before Saul and before his courtiers, and they ate. Then they rose and went away that night.

Chapter 29
1 The Philistines convened all their armed forces at Aphek, while Israel was encamping by the spring in Jezreel.
2 As the chieftains of the Philistines were advancing with their hundreds and thousands, David and his men were advancing in the rear with Achish.
3 The chiefs of the Philistines asked, What about these Hebrews? Achish replied to the chiefs of the Philistines, Is this not David, the servant of king Saul of Israel, who has been with me this year’s days or this second year? I have not found anything against him from the day he fell away to me until this day.
4 But the chiefs of the Philistines were wrathful against him; and the chiefs of the Philistines said to him, Make the man return! Let him turn back to his place where you posted him. He should not march down with us to the battle that he may not become an adversary to us in our camp. For with what could this man approve himself to his lord, if not with the heads of these, our men?
5 Is this not David about whom they responded with dancing in choruses, saying, Saul has smitten his thousands, Yet David his myriads!
6 So Achish called David and said to him, As Yahweh lives, you have been upright, and your marching forth and your coming with me into the army camp has been good in my eyes, for I have not found badness in you from the day you came to me until this day. Yet in the eyes of the chieftains you are not good.
7 So now return and go in peace that you may not do anything bad in the eyes of the chieftains of the Philistines.
8 David replied to Achish, But what have I done? What have you found against your servant from the day on which I came to be before you until this day, that I should not come to fight against the enemies of my lord the king?
9 Then Achish answered and said to David, I know that you are good in my eyes, like a messenger of Elohim. Only the chiefs of the Philistines, they have said, He shall not go up with us into the battle.
10 So now, rise early in the morning, you and your lord’s servants who came with you, and you will go to the place where I posted you. You must not keep any decadent word in your heart, for in my view you are good. So you will rise early in the morning; when there is light for you, then go!
11 So David rose early, he and his men, to go in the morning and return to the land of the Philistines, while the Philistines went up to fight Israel.

Chapter 30
1 It was on the third day that David and his men came to Ziklag. As for the Amalakite, they had ransacked the Negeb and Ziklag. They had smitten Ziklag and burned it with fire.
2 They had taken captive the women and all who were in it, from the smallest unto the greatest. They had not put anyone to death; rather they had driven them along and had gone their way.
3 When David and his men came to the city, behold, it was burned with fire, and their wives and their sons and their daughters had been taken captive.
4 David and the soldiers with him lifted their voice and lamented until there was no more vigor in them to lament.
5 As for David’s two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelite, and Abigail (former wife of Nabal) the Carmelite, they had been taken captive too.
6 It was very distressing to David, for the soldiers spoke of stoning him because all the soldiers were bitter in soul, each man for his sons and for his daughters. Yet David encouraged himself in Yahweh his Elohim.
7 David said to the priest Abiathar son of Ahimelech, Do now bring the ephod close to me! So Abiathar brought the ephod close to David.
8 Then David inquired of Yahweh, saying, Shall I pursue after this raiding party? Will I overtake it? He replied to him, Pursue, for you shall overtake, yea overtake, and you shall rescue, yea rescue.
9 So David went forth, he and the six hundred men with him; and they came to the Wadi Besor where those stayed who were left behind.
10 While David pursued, he and his four hundred men, two hundred men stayed behind who were too fatigued to cross over the Wadi Besor.
11 They found an Egyptian man in the field and took him to David. They gave him bread and he ate, and they gave him water to drink.
12 They also gave him a slice of pressed dried fig cake and two clusters of raisins; and as he ate his spirit returned to him, for he had neither eaten bread nor drunk water for three days and three nights.
13 Then David asked him, To whom do you belong, and from where are you? He replied, I am an Egyptian lad, the slave of an Amalekite man. Yet my lord forsook me because I had become ill; today it is three days.
14 We had ransacked the Negeb of the Kerethite and that of Judah and the Negeb of Caleb. Ziklag we burned with fire.
15 Then David asked him, Can you lead me down to this raiding party? He replied, Do swear to me by Elohim, you assuredly shall not put me to death, you assuredly shall not surrender me into the hand of my lord, and I shall lead you down to this raiding party.
16 So he led him down there; and behold, they were deployed all over the surface of the countryside, eating and drinking and celebrating because of all the great loot they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah.
17 David came upon them and smote them from the morning twilight until the evening of the morrow; none of them escaped except four hundred youthful men who rode on camels and fled.
18 Then David rescued all that Amalek had taken. Even his two wives David rescued.
19 Nothing of theirs was missing, from the smallest to the greatest, including sons and daughters. From the loot and from all that they had taken for themselves, David restored everything.
20 Then David took all the flocks and the herds, which they drove before that other livestock; and they said, This is David’s loot.
21 Then David came to the two hundred men who had been too fatigued to go along, following after David. So they had been left seated at the Wadi Besor. Now they came forth to meet David and to meet the soldiers with him. As David with his soldiers came close, they asked after their well-being.
22 But all the vicious and worthless ones among the men who had gone with David spoke up in response: Because they did not go with us, we shall not give them any of the loot that we rescued, save to each man his wife and his children. They may lead them off and go.
23 David replied, You shall not do so after what Yahweh has given to us. He guarded us and delivered into our hand the raiding party that had come against us.
24 So who would hearken to you in this matter? For, as his portion is who goes down into the battle, so shall be the portion of the one sitting by the gear; they shall apportion alike.
25 And it came about from that day onward, that he constituted it as a statute and as a custom for Israel until this day.
26 When David came to Ziklag, he sent some of the loot to the elders of Judah, to his associates, saying, Here is a blessing gift for you from the loot of the enemies of Yahweh.
27 He sent to those in Bethel, to those in Ramoth-negeb, to those in Jattir,
28 to those in Aroer, to those in Siphmoth, to those in Eshtemoa,
29 to those in Carmel, to those in the cities of the Jerahmeelite, to those in the cities of the Kenite,
30 to those in Hormah, to those in Bor-ashan, to those in Athach,
31 to those in Hebron, to all the places where David had roved, he and his men.

Chapter 31
1 When the Philistines fought against Israel, the men of Israel fled before the Philistines, and many fell slain on Mount Gilboa.
2 The Philistines followed hard after Saul and after his sons, and the Philistines smote Jonathan, Abinadab and Malchishua, the sons of Saul.
3 Then the fighting was heavy around Saul; the shooters, the men with the bow, found him; and he was wounded very severely by the shooters.
4 So Saul said to his gear-bearer, Draw your sword and stab me with it, lest these uncircumcised come and stab me and abuse me. Yet his gear-bearer did not comply, for he was very fearful. Then Saul took the sword and fell upon it.
5 When his gear-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he too fell upon his sword and died with him.
6 Thus Saul died, and his three sons and his gear-bearer, on that day, even all his men together.
7 When the men of Israel who were across the vale and who were across the Jordan saw that the men of Israel had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, then they forsook their cities and fled. So the Philistines came and dwelt in them.
8 It was on the morrow when the Philistines came to strip those slain, that they found Saul and his three sons, fallen on Mount Gilboa.
9 They cut off his head, stripped him of his gear, and sent messengers to the land of the Philistines round about to bear the tidings to the house of their fetishes and to their people.
10 They placed his gear in the house of Ashtaroth and fastened his body to the wall of Beth-shan.
11 After the dwellers of Jabesh-gilead had heard about him (what the Philistines had done to Saul),
12 all men of valor rose up and marched all night; they took down the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth-shan. When they came back to Jabesh, they burned them there.
13 Then they took their bones and entombed them under the tamarisk at Jabesh; and they fasted seven days.