Study Desk

And David would leave neither man nor woman alive to bring news to Gath, thinking, "lest they should tell about us and say, ‘So David has done.'" Such was his custom all the while he lived in the country of the Philistines.

And Achish trusted David, thinking, "He has made himself an utter stench to his people Israel; therefore he shall always be my servant."

Now Samuel had died, and all Israel had mourned for him and buried him in Ramah, his own city. And Saul had put the mediums and the necromancers out of the land.

When Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly.

Then Saul said to his servants, "Seek out 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 medium at En-dor."

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

Because you did not obey the voice of the Lord and did not carry out his fierce wrath against Amalek, therefore the Lord has done this thing to you this day.

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

and she put it before Saul and his servants, and they ate. Then they rose and went away that night.

As the lords of the Philistines were passing on by hundreds and by thousands, and David and his men were passing 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, "Send the man back, that he may return to the place to which you have assigned him. He shall not go down with us to battle, lest in the battle he become an adversary to us. For how could this fellow reconcile himself to his lord? Would it not be with the heads of the men here?

Is not this David, of whom they sing to one another in dances, ‘Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands'?"

So David set out with his men early in the morning to return to the land of the Philistines. But the Philistines went up to Jezreel.

Now when David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day, the Amalekites had made a raid against the Negeb and against Ziklag. They had overcome Ziklag and burned it with fire

And when David and his men came to the city, they found it burned with fire, and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive.

And David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because all the people were bitter in soul, each for his sons and daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.

and they gave him a piece of a cake of figs and two clusters of raisins. And when he had eaten, his spirit revived, for he had not eaten bread or drunk water for three days and three nights.

David recovered all that the Amalekites had taken, and David rescued his two wives.

Then all the wicked and worthless fellows among the men who had gone with David said, "Because they did not go with us, we will not give them any of the spoil that we have recovered, except that each man may lead away his wife and children, and depart."

Who would listen to you in this matter? For as his share is who goes down into the battle, so shall his share be who stays by the baggage. They shall share alike."