Study Desk

And so then, please let my lord the king listen to the words of his servant: If Yahweh has incited you against me, may he delight in an offering; but if it is mortals, may they be accursed before Yahweh, for they have driven me away today from sharing in the inheritance of Yahweh, saying, ‘Go, serve other gods!'

Yahweh repays to each one his righteousness and his faithfulness, for Yahweh gave you into my hand today, but I was not willing to stretch out my hand against Yahweh's anointed.

Then Saul said to David, "Blessed are you, my son David; you will not only do many things, but also will always succeed!" Then David went on his way and Saul returned to his place.

Then David thought to himself, "Now I will perish one day by the hand of Saul! There is nothing better for me but that I must certainly escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will desist from searching for me further in all of the territories of Israel, and so I will escape from his hand."

David settled with Achish in Gath, he and his men, each with his household. David took along his two wives Ahinoam from Jezreel and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite.

Now David and his men went up and raided the Geshurites and the Girzites and the Amalekites, for they had been living in the land for a long time in the direction of Shur and as far as the land of Egypt.

And David did not leave alive a man or a woman to bring them back to Gath, thinking, "So that they will not report about us, saying, ‘David did thus and so.'" Thus was his practice all the days that he lived in the countryside of the Philistines.

And Achish trusted David, saying, "He has made himself utterly hated among his people in Israel, and he will be my servant forever."

(Now Samuel had died, and all Israel had mourned for him, and they had buried him in Ramah, his own city. And Saul had expelled the mediums and the soothsayers from the land.)

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

So Saul said to his servants, "Search for me a woman who is a medium so that I may go to her and inquire of her." His servants said to him, "Look there is a woman who is a medium in Endor."

So Saul disguised himself and put on other clothes, and he went with two of his men. And they came to the woman by night and he said, "Please consult a spirit for me through the ritual pit, and bring up for me the one whom I tell you."

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

Because you did not obey Yahweh and did not carry out the fierce anger of his wrath against Amalek, therefore Yahweh has done this thing to you today.

But he refused and said, "I will not eat!" However, his servants urged him, and the woman also. So he listened to what they said, and he got up from the ground and sat on the bed.

She brought it before Saul and his servants, and they ate. Then they got up and went away that very night.

The rulers of the Philistines were passing on according to hundreds and thousands, David and his men passing on at the rear with Achish.

Then the commanders of the Philistines said, "What are these Hebrews doing here?" And Achish said to the commanders of the Philistines, "Is this not David, the servant of Saul, the king of Israel, who has been with me for days and years? I have not found anything threatening in him from the day of his desertion until this day!"

But the commanders of the Philistines were angry with him and they said to him, "Send the man back so that he might return to his place where you have assigned him! But he will not go down with us into the battle, so that he does not become an adversary to us in the battle. By what could this fellow make himself favorable to his lord? Is it not with the heads of these men?

Is this not David about whom they sing in the dances, saying, ‘Saul has killed his thousands, but David his ten thousands'?"