Study Desk

So David set out early, he and his men, to leave 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 raided the Negev and Ziklag. When they attacked Ziklag, they burned it with fire.

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

And David was in a very precarious situation, for the people spoke of stoning him, for the souls of all the people were bitter, each one over his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in Yahweh his God.

So David recovered all that the Amalekites had taken; David also rescued his two wives.

Then all the corrupt and useless men among the men who went with David reacted and said, "Because they did not go with us, we will not give them anything from the plunder which we recovered, except each man may take his own wife and children. They must take them along and go!"

Then David came to Ziklag, and he sent some of the plunder to the elders of Judah, to his friends, saying, "Here is a gift for you from the plunder of the enemies of Yahweh!"

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

And the Philistines overtook Saul and his sons, and the Philistines killed Jonathan and Abinadab and Malki-Shua, the sons of Saul.

Then Saul said to his armor bearer, "Draw your sword and thrust me through with it, so that these uncircumcised do not come and thrust me through and make a fool of me!" But his armor bearer was not willing to do so because he was very afraid. So Saul took the sword and fell on it.

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

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

And when the men of Israel who were on the other side of the valley and those who were beyond the Jordan saw that the men of Israel had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned the towns and fled. Thus the Philistines came and lived in them.

And then the next day, the Philistines came to strip the dead and they found Saul and his three sons lying dead on Mount Gilboa.

So they cut off his head and stripped off his armor. Then they sent messengers around in the land of the Philistines to proclaim victory in the temples of their idols and to the people.

And they put his armor in the temple of the Ashtoreth, and they fastened his corpse to the wall of Beth Shan.

all of the valiant men set out and went all night and took the corpse of Saul and the corpses of his sons from the wall of Beth Shan, and they came to Jabesh and burned them there.

On the third day, a man came from the camp from being with Saul, with his clothes torn and with dirt on his head. When he came to David, he fell to the ground and bowed down.

Then David said to him, "How did things go? Please tell me." He answered, "When the army fled from the battle, and many of the people fell; also, Saul and Jonathan his son died."

Then David asked the young man who was reporting to him, "How do you know that Saul and his son Jonathan died?"