Study Desk

When the troops returned to the camp, the elders of Israel asked, "Why has the LORD brought defeat on us before the Philistines today? Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD from Shiloh, so that it may go with us to deliver us from the hand of our enemies."

Then the Ekronites assembled all the rulers of the Philistines and said, "Send away the ark of the God of Israel. It must return to its place, so that it will not kill us and our people!" For a deadly confusion had pervaded the city; the hand of God was heavy upon it.

and said to Samuel, "Do not stop crying out to the LORD our God for us, so that He will deliver us from the hand of the Philistines."

Then the people said to Samuel, "Who said that Saul should not reign over us? Bring those men here, so that we can kill them!"

Is it not the wheat harvest today? I will call on the LORD to send thunder and rain, so that you will know and see what a great evil you have committed in the sight of the LORD by asking for a king."

They pleaded with Samuel, "Pray to the LORD your God for your servants so that we will not die! For we have added to all our sins the evil of asking for a king."

Then he said, "Go among the troops and tell them, 'Each man must bring me his ox or his sheep, slaughter them in this place, and then eat. Do not sin against the LORD by eating meat with the blood still in it.'" So that night everyone brought his ox and slaughtered it there.

"I have sinned," Saul replied. "Please honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel. Come back with me, so that I may worship the LORD your God."

"I will give her to David," Saul thought, "so that she may be a snare to him, and the hand of the Philistines may be against him." So Saul said to David, "For a second time now you can be my son-in-law."

Every time the Philistine commanders came out for battle, David was more successful than all of Saul's officers, so that his name was highly esteemed.

And Saul asked him, "Why have you and the son of Jesse conspired against me? You gave him bread and a sword and inquired of God for him so that he could rise up against me to lie in wait, as he is doing today."

Now David had just finished saying, "In vain I have protected all that belonged to this man in the wilderness so that nothing was missed of all that belongs to him, yet he has paid me back evil for good.

And I will provide a place for My people Israel and will plant them so that they may dwell in a place of their own and be disturbed no more. No longer will the sons of wickedness oppress them as they did at the beginning

so that Your name will be magnified forever when it is said, 'The LORD of Hosts is God over Israel.' And the house of Your servant David will be established before You.

You and your sons and servants are to work the ground for him and bring in the harvest, so that your master's grandson may have food to eat. But Mephibosheth, your master's grandson, is always to eat at my table." Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants.

In the letter he wrote: "Put Uriah at the front of the fiercest battle; then withdraw from him, so that he may be struck down and die."

Who was the one to strike Abimelech son of Jerubbesheth? Was it not a woman who dropped an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died in Thebez? Why did you get so close to the wall?' If so, then you are to say, 'Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead as well.'"

So Amnon lay down and feigned illness. When the king came to see him, Amnon said, "Please let my sister Tamar come and make a couple of cakes in my sight, so that I may eat from her hand."

Then Amnon said to Tamar, "Bring the food into the bedroom, so that I may eat it from your hand." Tamar took the cakes she had made and went to her brother Amnon's bedroom.

"Please," she replied, "may the king invoke the LORD your God to prevent the avenger of blood from increasing the devastation, so that my son may not be destroyed!" "As surely as the LORD lives," he vowed, "not a hair of your son's head will fall to the ground."