Study Desk

Then the Philistine said, "I have defied the ranks of Israel this day! Give me a man, so that we may fight together."

So David was the youngest. Now the three oldest followed Saul,

So David got up early in the morning and left the flock with a keeper, and took the supplies and went as Jesse had commanded him. And he came to the entrenchment encircling the camp while the army was going out in battle formation, shouting the war cry.

And David said, "The LORD who saved me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear, He will save me from the hand of this Philistine." So Saul said to David, "Go, and may the LORD be with you."

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.

So the Philistine said to David, "Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?" And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.

"This day the LORD will hand you over to me, and I will strike you and remove your head from you. Then I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky and the wild animals of the earth, so that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel,

So David prevailed over the Philistine with the sling and the stone: he struck the Philistine and killed him, and there was no sword in David's hand.

So when David returned from killing the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul with the Philistine's head in his hand.

And David went into battle wherever Saul sent him, and always achieved success; so Saul put him in charge of the men of war. And it was pleasing in the sight of all the people, and also in the sight of Saul's servants.

So Saul removed him from his presence and appointed him as his commander of a thousand; and he went out and came in before the people.

So it came about at the time that Merab, Saul's daughter, was to be given to David, that she was given instead to Adriel the Meholathite as a wife.

For Saul thought, "I will give her to him so that she may become a trap for him, and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him." Therefore Saul said to David, "For a second time you may become my son-in-law, today."

So Saul's servants spoke these words to David. But David said, "Is it trivial in your sight to become the king's son-in-law, since I am only a poor man and insignificant?"

When his servants told David these words, it pleased David to become the king's son-in-law. So before the time had expired,

David set out and went, he and his men, and fatally struck two hundred men among the Philistines. Then David brought their foreskins, and they presented all two hundred of them to the king, so that he might become the king's son-in-law. And Saul gave him his daughter Michal as a wife.

then Saul was even more afraid of David. So Saul was David's enemy continually.

Then the commanders of the Philistines went to battle, and it happened as often as they went out, that David was more successful than all the servants of Saul. So his name was held in high esteem.

So Jonathan informed David, saying, "My father Saul is seeking to put you to death. Now then, please be on your guard in the morning, and stay in a hiding place and conceal yourself.

When there was war again, David went out and fought the Philistines and defeated them with great slaughter, so that they fled from him.