Study Desk

When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice; and the woman spoke to Saul, saying, "Why have you deceived me? For you are Saul!"

And Samuel said to Saul, "Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?" Saul replied, "I am very distressed, for the Philistines are waging war against me, and God has abandoned me and no longer answers me, either through prophets or in dreams; therefore I have called you, so that you may let me know what I should do."

"And the LORD has done just as He spoke through me; for the LORD has torn the kingdom from your hand and given it to your neighbor, to David.

But the commanders of the Philistines were angry with him, and the commanders of the Philistines said to him, "Make the man go back, so that he will return to his place where you have assigned him, and do not let him go down to battle with us, or in the battle he may become an adversary to us. For how could this man find favor with his lord? Would it not be with the heads of these men?

Then Achish called David and said to him, "As the LORD lives, you have indeed been honest, and your going out and your coming in with me in the army are pleasing in my sight; for I have not found evil in you since the day of your coming to me to this day. Nevertheless, you are not pleasing in the sight of the governors.

Also, David was in great distress because the people spoke of stoning him, for all the people were embittered, each one because of his sons and his daughters. But David felt strengthened in the LORD his God.

And David inquired of the LORD, saying, "Shall I pursue this band of raiders? Will I overtake them?" And He said to him, "Pursue, for you will certainly overtake them, and you will certainly rescue everyone."

But David pursued, he and four hundred men, for two hundred who were too exhausted to cross the brook Besor stayed behind.

They also gave him a slice of fig cake and two cakes of raisins, and he ate; then his spirit revived. For he had not eaten bread or drunk water for three days and three nights.

And nothing of theirs was missing, whether small or great, sons or daughters, plunder, or anything that they had taken for themselves; David brought it all back.

But David said, "You must not do so, my brothers, with what the LORD has given us, for He has protected us and handed over to us the band of raiders that came against us.

"And who will listen to you in this matter? For as is the share of the one who goes down into the battle, so shall be the share of the one who stays by the baggage; they shall share alike."

So it has been from that day forward, that he made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel to this day.

Now when David came to Ziklag, he sent some of the spoils to the elders of Judah, to his friends, saying, "Behold, a gift for you from the spoils of the enemies of the LORD:

And they took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh, and fasted for seven days.

"And he said to me, 'Please stand next to me and finish me off, for agony has seized me because my life still lingers in me.'

And they mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and his son Jonathan, and for the people of the LORD and the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.

"Mountains of Gilboa, May there be no dew nor rain on you, or fields of offerings! For there the shield of the mighty was defiled, The shield of Saul, not anointed with oil.

"I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan; You have been a close friend to me. Your love for me was more wonderful Than the love of women.

Ish-bosheth, Saul's son, was forty years old when he became king over Israel, and he was king for two years. The house of Judah, however, followed David.