Study Desk

Is this not the David about whom they sing in their dances: 'Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands'?"

So David and his men got up early in the morning to return to the land of the Philistines. And the Philistines went up to Jezreel.

On the third day David and his men arrived in Ziklag, and the Amalekites had raided the Negev, attacked Ziklag, and burned it down.

When David and his men came to the city, they found it burned down and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive.

And David was greatly distressed because the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of every man grieved for his sons and daughters. But David found strength in the LORD his God.

So David and his six hundred men went to the Brook of Besor, where some stayed behind

Now his men found an Egyptian in the field and brought him to David. They gave the man water to drink and food to eat-

So David recovered everything the Amalekites had taken, including his two wives.

And he recovered all the flocks and herds, which his men drove ahead of the other livestock, calling out, "This is David's plunder!"

When David arrived in Ziklag, he sent some of the plunder to his friends, the elders of Judah, saying, "Here is a gift for you from the plunder of the LORD's enemies."

and to those in Hebron and in all the places where David and his men had roamed.

The Philistines followed hard after Saul and his sons, and they killed Saul's sons Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua.

Then Saul said to his armor-bearer, "Draw your sword and run it through me, or these uncircumcised men will come and run me through and torture me!" But the armor-bearer refused, because he was terrified. So Saul took his own sword and fell on it.

When his armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he too fell on his own sword and died with him.

So Saul, his three sons, his armor-bearer, and all his men died together that same day.

When the Israelites along the valley and those on the other side of the Jordan saw that the army of Israel had fled and that Saul and his sons had died, they abandoned their cities and ran away. So the Philistines came and occupied their cities.

The next day, when the Philistines came to strip the dead, they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa.

They cut off Saul's head, stripped off his armor, and sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines to proclaim the news in the temples of their idols and among their people.

They put his armor in the temple of the Ashtoreths and hung his body on the wall of Beth-shan.

all their valiant warriors set out, journeyed all night, and retrieved the bodies of Saul and his sons from the wall of Beth-shan. When they arrived at Jabesh, they burned the bodies there.