Study Desk

Then Saul said to Samuel, "I have sinned, for I have violated the command of the LORD and your words, because I feared the people and listened to their voice.

Now the LORD said to Samuel, "How long are you going to mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, because I have chosen a king for Myself among his sons."

But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God does not see as man sees, since man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."

And David strapped on his sword over his military attire and struggled at walking, for he had not trained with the armor. So David said to Saul, "I cannot go with these, because I have not trained with them." And David took them off.

Then Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself.

Now Saul was afraid of David, because the LORD was with him but had left Saul.

"If your father misses me at all, then say, 'David earnestly requested leave of me to run to Bethlehem, his city, because it is the yearly sacrifice there for the whole family.'

And Jonathan made David vow again because of his love for him, because he loved him as he loved his own life.

"Then behold, I will send the boy, telling him, 'Go, find the arrows.' If I specifically say to the boy, 'Behold, the arrows are on this side of you, get them,' then come, because it is safe for you and there is nothing to harm you, as the LORD lives.

"But if I say to the youth, 'Behold, the arrows are beyond you,' go, because the LORD has sent you away.

Nevertheless Saul did not say anything that day, because he thought, "It must have been an accident; he is not clean, undoubtedly he is not clean."

"He said, 'Please let me go, because our family has a sacrifice in the city, and my brother has ordered me to attend. So now, if I have found favor in your sight, please let me slip away so that I may see my brothers.' For this reason he has not come to the king's table."

Then Jonathan got up from the table in the heat of anger, and did not eat food on the second day of the new moon, because he was worried about David since his father had insulted him.

David said to Ahimelech, "Now is there no spear or sword on hand? For I brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king's matter was urgent."

"Did I just begin to inquire of God for him today? Far be it from me! Do not let the king impute anything against his servant or against any of the household of my father, because your servant knows nothing at all of this whole affair."

And the king said to the guards who were attending him, "Turn around and put the priests of the LORD to death, because their hand also is with David and because they knew that he was fleeing and did not inform me." But the servants of the king were unwilling to reach out with their hands to attack the priests of the LORD.

He said to him, "Do not be afraid, because the hand of Saul my father will not find you, and you will be king over Israel, and I will be second in command to you; and Saul my father knows that as well."

But it came about afterward that David's conscience bothered him because he had cut off the edge of Saul's robe.

So he said to his men, "Far be it from me because of the LORD that I would do this thing to my lord, the LORD'S anointed, to reach out with my hand against him, since he is the LORD'S anointed."

"Behold, this day your eyes have seen that the LORD had handed you over to me today in the cave, and someone said to kill you, but I spared you; and I said, 'I will not reach out with my hand against my lord, because he is the LORD'S anointed.'