Study Desk

So Saul disguised himself and put on other clothing and left, accompanied by two of his men. They came to the woman at night and said, "Use your ritual pit to conjure up for me the one I tell you."

He said to her, "What about his appearance?" She said, "An old man is coming up! He is wrapped in a robe!" Then Saul realized it was Samuel, and he bowed his face toward the ground and kneeled down.

Since you did not obey the Lord and did not carry out his fierce anger against the Amalekites, the Lord has done this thing to you today.

But he refused, saying, "I won't eat!" Both his servants and the woman urged him to eat, so he gave in. He got up from the ground and sat down on the bed.

She brought it to Saul and his servants, and they ate. Then they arose and left that same night.

When the leaders of the Philistines were passing in review at the head of their units of hundreds and thousands, David and his men were passing in review in the rear with Achish.

The leaders of the Philistines asked, "What about these Hebrews?" Achish said to the leaders of the Philistines, "Isn't this David, the servant of King Saul of Israel, who has been with me for quite some time? I have found no fault with him from the day of his defection until the present time!"

But the leaders of the Philistines became angry with him and said to him, "Send the man back! Let him return to the place that you assigned him! Don't let him go down with us into the battle, for he might become our adversary in the battle. What better way to please his lord than with the heads of these men?

Isn't this David, of whom they sang as they danced, ‘Saul has struck down his thousands, but David his tens of thousands'?"

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

On the third day David and his men came to Ziklag. Now the Amalekites had raided the Negev and Ziklag. They attacked Ziklag and burned it.

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

David was very upset, for the men were thinking of stoning him; each man grieved bitterly over his sons and daughters. But David drew strength from the Lord his God.

So David went, accompanied by his six hundred men. When he came to the Wadi Besor, those who were in the rear stayed there.

David retrieved everything the Amalekites had taken; he also rescued his two wives.

When David came to Ziklag, he sent some of the plunder to the elders of Judah who were his friends, saying, "Here's a gift for you from the looting of the Lord 's enemies!"

and Hebron; and for those in whatever other places David and his men had traveled.

The Philistines stayed right on the heels of Saul and his sons. They struck down Saul's sons Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malki-Shua.

Saul said to his armor bearer, "Draw your sword and stab me with it! Otherwise these uncircumcised people will come, stab me, and torture me." But his armor bearer refused to do it, because he was very afraid. So Saul took his sword and fell on it.

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