And both of them discovered themselves to the garrison of the Philistines: and the Philistines said, Behold, the Hebrews come forth out of the holes where they had hid themselves.

And the watchmen of Saul in Gibeah of Benjamin looked, and behold, the multitude had melted away and went on here and there.

Then said Saul to the people that were with him, Number now, and see who is gone from us. And when they had numbered, behold, Jonathan and his armor-bearer were not there.

And it came to pass, as soon as Saul had spoken unto the priest, that, the tumultuous noise that was in the camp of the Philistines, went on and on, increasing. Then said Saul unto the priest, - Withdraw thy hand.

The Hebrews who had been for [the] Philistines {previously}, who had gone up with them into the camp all around, even they {joined the Israelites} who were with Saul and Jonathan.

Likewise all the men of Israel who had hid themselves in mount Ephraim, when they heard that the Philistines fled, even they also followed hard after them in the battle.

And the men of Israel were distressed that day: for Saul had adjured the people, saying, Cursed be the man that eateth any food until evening, that I may be avenged on my enemies. So none of the people tasted any food.

And, all the land, had entered into the forest, - and there was honey upon the face of the ground.

And when the people had come into the wood, behold, the honey dropped; but no man put his hand to his mouth: for the people feared the oath.

However, Jonathan had not heard about the oath of his father with the army, so he extended the end of the staff which was in his hand, and he dipped it into the honeycomb. Then he put his hand to his mouth and his eyes gleamed.

How much more, if haply the people had eaten freely to-day of the spoil of their enemies which they found? for had there not been now a much greater slaughter among the Philistines?

And rushing at the goods taken in the fight, the people took oxen and sheep and young oxen, and put them to death there on the earth, and had a meal, taking the flesh with the blood in it.

Then Saul built an altar to the Lord; it was the first time he had built an altar to the Lord.

Now when Saul had taken the kingdom over Israel, he fought against all his enemies on every side, against Moab, and against the children of Ammon, and against Edom, and against the king of Zobah, and against the Philistines; and wherever he turned, he put to the worse.

He acted valiantly, defeated Amalek, and delivered Israel from those who had been plundering them.

The sons of Saul were Jonathan, Ishvi, and Malki-Shua. He had two daughters; the older one was named Merab and the younger Michal.

And Saul sent for the people and had them numbered in Telaim, two hundred thousand footmen and ten thousand men of Judah.

And Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning; and it was told Samuel, saying, "Saul came to Carmel, and behold, he set up a monument for himself, and turned, and passed on, and went down to Gilgal." And Samuel came to Saul, and he was offering up a burnt offering to the LORD, the best of the spoils which he had brought from Amalek.

And Saul saith, 'From Amalek they have brought them, because the people had pity on the best of the flock, and of the herd, in order to sacrifice to Jehovah thy God, and the remnant we have devoted.'

And Samuel saith, 'Hath Jehovah had delight in burnt-offerings and sacrifices as in hearkening to the voice of Jehovah? lo, hearkening than sacrifice is better; to give attention than fat of rams;

And Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death: nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul: and the LORD repented that he had made Saul king over Israel.

And Samuel did that which Yahweh had spoken, and went to Bethlehem. And the elders of the city came trembling to meet him, and one said - Peaceably, comest thou?

And it came to pass when they had come, that he looked on Eliab, and said, Surely the LORD'S anointed is before him.

And he sent and brought him in. And he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the LORD said, "Arise, anoint him, for he is the one."

Now the Spirit of the Lord had left Saul, and an evil spirit sent from the Lord began to torment him,

And Saul and the men of Israel had gathered and pitched by the valley of Elah, and set the battle in order against the Philistines.

And he had a helmet of brass upon his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail; and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of brass.

And he had greaves of brass upon his legs, and a target of brass between his shoulders.

Now David was the son of that Ephrathite of Beth-lehem-judah, whose name was Jesse; and he had eight sons: and the man went among men for an old man in the days of Saul.

The three oldest sons of Jesse had gone and {followed} Saul to the battle. The names of his three sons who went to the battle were Eliab the firstborn, his second [oldest] was Abinadab, and the third was Shammah.

and David was the youngest. The three oldest had followed Saul,

One day Jesse had told his son David: “Take this half-bushel of roasted grain along with these 10 loaves of bread for your brothers and hurry to their camp.

And David rose early in the morning, and left the sheep with a keeper, and took, and went, as Jesse had commanded him; and he came to the trench, as the host was going forth to the fight, and shouted for the battle.

For Israel and the Philistines had put the battle in array, army against army.

David left the baggage [he had] with him in the {care} of the baggage keeper, ran to the battle line, and came and {asked how his brothers were doing}.

While he [was] speaking to them, {the champion}, whose name was Goliath the Philistine from Gath, [was] coming up from the caves of [the] Philistines. He spoke {just as he had previously}, and David heard [his words].

Previously, an Israelite man had declared: “Do you see this man who keeps coming out? He comes to defy Israel. The king will make the man who kills him very rich and will give him his daughter. The king will also make the household of that man’s father exempt from paying taxes in Israel.”

Now David had spoken to the men [who were] standing with him, saying, "What will be done for the man who defeats this Philistine and removes [the] disgrace from Israel? For who [is] this uncircumcised Philistine that he defies the battle lines of the living God?"

And the troops had spoken to him according to this word, saying, "So it will be done for the man who defeats him."

Then he turned from him toward another person and asked the same thing. The people replied to him the same way as the first one had.

Now the words which David had spoken were heard and they reported [them] {to} Saul, and he summoned him.

Then Saul had his own military clothes put on David. He put a bronze helmet on David’s head and had him put on armor.

And David girded his sword upon his armor, and he essayed to go; for he had not proved it. And David said to Saul, I cannot go with these, for I have not proved them. And David put them off from him.

And he took his staff in his hand, and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in a shepherd's bag which he had, even in a scrip; and his sling was in his hand; and he drew near to the Philistine.

And the Philistine came nearer to David; and the man who had his body-cover went before him.

When the Philistine looked and saw David, he had contempt for him, because he was only a young man. David had a dark, healthy complexion and was handsome.

David defeated the Philistine with a sling and a stone. Even though David had no sword, he struck down the Philistine and killed him.

When Saul had seen David going out to confront the Philistine, he asked Abner the commander of the army, “Whose son is this youth, Abner?”

“My king, as surely as you live, I don’t know,” Abner replied.

So when David returned from striking down the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul. He still had the head of the Philistine in his hand.

And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking to Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.

Jonathan took off the robe that he had on and gave it to David, along with his coat, his sword, his bow, and his belt.

And David went out whithersoever Saul sent him, and behaved himself wisely. And when Saul had set him over his men of war, he pleased all the people, and Saul's servants thereto.

And it came to pass as they came, when David had returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, that the women came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet king Saul, with tabrets, with joy, and with instruments of music.

It happened on the next day, that an evil spirit from God came mightily on Saul, and he prophesied in the midst of the house. David played with his hand, as he did day by day. Saul had his spear in his hand;

And Saul had a spear in his hand, and hurled it; intending to have nailed David to the wall. But David avoided out of his presence two times.

And Saul was afraid of David, because the LORD was with him, and had departed from Saul.

So then Saul said unto David - Lo! my elder daughter Merab, her, will I give thee to wife, only, approve thyself unto me as a son of valour and fight the battles of Yahweh. Saul, however, had said to himself - Let not, my own hand, be upon him, but let, the hand of the Philistines, be upon him.

And Saul's daughter Michal was in love with David: and Saul had word of it and was pleased.

When Saul's servants reported what David had said,

Then Saul said, "This [is] what you must say to David: '{The king desires no bride price} except for a hundred foreskins of [the] Philistines, to avenge himself on the enemies of the king.'" (Now Saul had planned to allow David to fall by the hand of [the] Philistines.)

And when his servants told David these words, it pleased David well to be the king's son-in-law: and the days had not expired.

Then the Philistine commanders (princes) came out to battle, and it happened as often as they did, that David acted more wisely and had more success than all Saul’s servants. So his name was highly esteemed.

Then Saul communed with Jonathan his son, and with all his servants, that they should kill David. But Jonathan Saul's son had a great favour to David,

And Jonathan gave his father Saul a good account of David, and said to him, Let not the king do wrong against his servant, against David; because he has done you no wrong, and all his acts have had a good outcome for you:

Then Jonathan called David and told him all these things. Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he served him as he had done formerly.

And when the messengers had come in, behold, there was an image in the bed, with a pillow of goat's hair for his bolster.

So David fled, and escaped, and came to Samuel to Ramah, and told him all that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and dwelt in Naioth.

Jonathan said, "Far be it from you to suggest this! If I were at all aware that my father had decided to harm you, wouldn't I tell you about it?"

Jonathan said to David, "Come on. Let's go out to the field." When the two of them had gone out into the field,

And Jonathan said to David, May the Lord, the God of Israel, be witness; when I have had a chance of talking to my father, about this time tomorrow, if his feelings to David are good, will I not send and give you the news?

Jonathan caused David to swear again, for the love that he had to him; for he loved him as he loved his own soul.

So David hid himself in the field: and when the new-moon had come, the king sat down to eat food.

Then Saul hurled his spear at him to kill him. So Jonathan knew {that his father had decided} to kill David.

So Jonathan arose from the table in fierce anger, and ate no food the second day of the month: for he was grieved for David, because his father had done him shame.

Now in the morning, Jonathan went out into the fields at the time he had said to David, and he had a little boy with him.

And when the lad had come to the place of the arrow which Jonathan had shot, Jonathan cried after the lad, and said, Is not the arrow beyond thee?

The servant was not aware of anything. Only Jonathan and David understood what had happened.

As soon as the lad had gone, David rose from the south, and fell on his face to the ground, and bowed himself three times. And they kissed one another, and wept with one another, until David exceeded.

So the priest gave him holy bread, for there was no bread there other than the bread of the Presence. It had been removed from before the Lord in order to replace it with hot bread on the day it had been taken away.

And David said to Ahimelech, Have you no sword or spear with you here? for I have come without my sword and other arms, because the king's business had to be done quickly.

Every man in distress and every man who had a creditor and every embittered man gathered to him, and he became {their commander}. Now there [were] about four hundred men with him.

So he had them stay with the king of Moab; they stayed with him the whole time that David was in the stronghold.

Now Saul heard that David and the men who [were] with him had been located. Saul [was] sitting at Gibeah under the tamarisk [tree] at Ramah. Now his spear [was] in his hand and all his servants [were] stationed around him.

For all of you have conspired against me, and {no one discloses to me} the {making} [of an agreement] between my son and the son of Jesse! None of you have had sympathy for me or {disclosed to me} [that] {my son commissioned my servant against me to ambush me} as [has been done] this day!"

But Doeg the Edomite, who had stationed himself with the servants of Saul, replied, "I saw this son of Jesse come to Ahimelech son of Ahitub at Nob.

And Ahimelech answered the king, and said, "Who is so faithful among all thy servants as David and thereto the king's son-in-law, and goeth at thy bidding, and is had in honour in thine house?

And Abiathar showed David that Saul had slain the LORD'S priests.

So David and his men went to Keilah, and had a fight with the Philistines, and took away their cattle, and put them to the sword with great destruction. So David was the saviour of the people of Keilah.

Now when Abiathar son of Ahimelech had fled to David at Keilah, he had brought with him an ephod.

And it was told to Saul that David had come to Keilah. And Saul said, God hath delivered him into my hand; for he is shut in, by entering into a town that hath gates and bars.

But David had knowledge that Saul imagined mischief against him, and said therefore to Abiathar the priest, "Bring the ephod."

Then David and his men who were about six hundred, arose and departed from Keilah, and went whithersoever they could go. And it was told Saul that David had escaped from Keilah: and he forbore to go forth.

And David saw that Saul had come out to seek his life: and David was in the wilderness of Ziph in a wood.

When the two of them had made a covenant before the Lord, David stayed on at Horesh, but Jonathan went to his house.

Saul said, "You are blessed by the LORD; for you have had compassion on me.

Then Saul and his men departed, to seek him ; but it had been told David, and he had gone down the cliff, and taken up his abode in the wilderness of Maon, - and when Saul had, heard it, he pursued David in the wilderness of Maon.

And Saul and his men went on the one side of the mountain, and David and his men on the other. And David, as a man amazed, made haste to get from Saul. For Saul and his men had compassed David and his men round about, to take them.

And it came to pass, when Saul had returned from following the Philistines, that it was told to him, saying, Behold, David is in the wilderness of En-gedi.

And it came to pass afterward, that David's heart smote him, because he had cut off Saul's skirt.

Behold, this day thine eyes have seen how that the LORD had delivered thee to day into mine hand in the cave: and some bade me kill thee: but mine eye spared thee; and I said, I will not put forth mine hand against my lord; for he is the LORD'S anointed.