Study Desk

Now Yahweh will repay each man for his righteousness and his faithfulness; for Yahweh gave you into my hand today, but I was not willing to send forth my hand against the anointed of Yahweh.

Then Saul said to David, "Blessed are you, my son David; you will both accomplish much and surely prevail." So David went on his way, and Saul returned to his place.

Then David said in his heart, "Now I will be swept away one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should utterly escape into the land of the Philistines. Saul then will despair of searching for me anymore in all the territory of Israel, and I will escape from his hand."

And David lived with Achish at Gath, he and his men, each with his household, even David with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the Carmelitess, Nabal's wife.

Now David and his men went up and raided the Geshurites and the Girzites and the Amalekites; for they were the inhabitants of the land from ancient times, as you come to Shur even as far as the land of Egypt.

And David did not leave a man or a woman alive to bring to Gath, saying, "Lest they tell about us, saying, ‘So has David done and so has been his custom all the time he has lived in the country of the Philistines.'"

So Achish believed David, saying, "He has surely made himself odious among his people Israel; therefore he will become my servant forever."

Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had lamented for him and buried him in Ramah, his own city. And Saul had removed from the land those who were mediums and spiritists.

Saul saw the camp of the Philistines and was afraid and his heart trembled greatly.

So Saul said to his servants, "Seek for me a woman who is a medium, that I may go to her and inquire of her." And his servants said to him, "Behold, there is a woman who is a medium at En-dor."

And he said to her, "What is his form?" And she said, "An old man is coming up, and he is wrapped with a robe." And Saul knew that it was Samuel, and he bowed with his face to the ground and prostrated himself.

As you did not listen to the voice of Yahweh and did not execute His burning anger on Amalek, so Yahweh has done this thing to you this day.

But he refused and said, "I will not eat." However, his servants together with the woman urged him, and he listened to them. So he arose from the ground and sat on the bed.

And she brought it before Saul and his servants, and they ate. Then they arose and went away that night.

And the lords of the Philistines were proceeding on by hundreds and by thousands, and David and his men were proceeding on in the rear with Achish.

But the commanders of the Philistines were angry with him, and the commanders of the Philistines said to him, "Make the man return, that he may 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 with what could this man make himself acceptable to his lord? Would it not be with the heads of these men?

Is this not David, of whom they sing in the dances, saying,‘Saul has struck his thousands,And David his ten thousands'?"

So David arose early, he and his men, to go in the morning to return to the land of the Philistines. And the Philistines went up to Jezreel.

Then it happened when David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had made a raid on the Negev and on Ziklag and had struck Ziklag and burned it with fire;

Then David and his men came to the city, and behold, it was burned with fire, and their wives and their sons and their daughters had been taken captive.