Study Desk

"And the LORD sent you on a mission, and said, 'Go and completely destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are eliminated.'

Samuel said, "Does the LORD have as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices As in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than a sacrifice, And to pay attention is better than the fat of rams.

"Also the Glory of Israel will not lie nor change His mind; for He is not a man, that He would change His mind."

Now the LORD said to Samuel, "How long are you going to mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, because I have chosen a king for Myself among his sons."

But Samuel said, "How can I go? When Saul hears about it, he will kill me." But the LORD said, "Take a heifer with you and say, 'I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.'

So he sent word and brought him in. Now he was reddish, with beautiful eyes and a handsome appearance. And the LORD said, "Arise, anoint him; for this is he."

"May our lord now command your servants who are before you. Have them search for a man who is a skillful musician on the harp; and it shall come about whenever the evil spirit from God is upon you, that he shall play the harp with his hand, and you will become well."

So Saul said to his servants, "Now select for me a man who can play well, and bring him to me."

Then one of the young men responded and said, "Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite who is a skillful musician, a valiant mighty man, a warrior, skillful in speech, and a handsome man; and the LORD is with him."

And Jesse took a donkey loaded with bread and a jug of wine, and he took a young goat, and sent them to Saul by his son David.

Then a champion came forward from the army encampment of the Philistines, named Goliath, from Gath. His height was six cubits and a span.

And he had a bronze helmet on his head, and he wore scale-armor which weighed five thousand shekels of bronze.

He also had bronze greaves on his legs and a bronze saber slung between his shoulders.

The shaft of his spear was like a weaver's beam, and the head of his spear weighed six hundred shekels of iron; and his shield-carrier walked in front of him.

He stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel and said to them, "Why do you come out to draw up in battle formation? Am I not the Philistine, and you the servants of Saul? Choose a man as your representative and have him come down to me.

Then the Philistine said, "I have defied the ranks of Israel this day! Give me a man, so that we may fight together."

So David got up early in the morning and left the flock with a keeper, and took the supplies and went as Jesse had commanded him. And he came to the entrenchment encircling the camp while the army was going out in battle formation, shouting the war cry.

But David said, "What have I done now? Was it not just a question?"

But Saul said to David, "You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight him; for you are only a youth, while he has been a warrior since his youth."

But David said to Saul, "Your servant was tending his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and took a sheep from the flock,