Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brothers: and the Spirit of Yahweh came mightily on David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up, and went to Ramah.

Therefore Saul sent messengers to Jesse, and said, "Send me David your son, who is with the sheep."

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

David came to Saul, and stood before him. He loved him greatly; and he became his armor bearer.

Saul sent to Jesse, saying, "Please let David stand before me; for he has found favor in my sight."

It happened, when the [evil] spirit from God was on Saul, that David took the harp, and played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him.

Now David was the son of that Ephrathite of Bethlehem Judah, whose name was Jesse; and he had eight sons: and the man was an old man in the days of Saul, stricken [in years] among men.

David was the youngest; and the three eldest followed Saul.

Now David went back and forth from Saul to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem.

Jesse said to David his son, "Now take for your brothers an ephah of this parched grain, and these ten loaves, and carry [them] quickly to the camp to your brothers;

David rose up 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 place of the wagons, as the army which was going forth to the fight shouted for the battle.

David left his baggage in the hand of the keeper of the baggage, and ran to the army, and came and greeted his brothers.

As he talked with them, behold, there came up the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, out of the ranks of the Philistines, and spoke according to the same words: and David heard them.

David spoke to the men who stood by him, saying, "What shall be done to the man who kills this Philistine, and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?"

Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spoke to the men; and Eliab's anger was kindled against David, and he said, "Why have you come down? With whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your pride, and the naughtiness of your heart; for you have come down that you might see the battle."

David said, "What have I now done? Is there not a cause?"

When the words were heard which David spoke, they rehearsed them before Saul; and he sent for him.

David said to Saul, "Let no man's heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine."

Saul said to David, "You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth."

David said to Saul, "Your servant was keeping his father's sheep; and when a lion or a bear came, and took a lamb out of the flock,

David said, "Yahweh who delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine." Saul said to David, "Go; and Yahweh shall be with you."

Saul dressed David with his clothing. He put a helmet of brass on his head, and he clad him with a coat of mail.

David strapped his sword on his clothing, and he tried to move; for he had not tested it. David said to Saul, "I can't go with these; for I have not tested them." David took them off.

The Philistine came on and drew near to David; and the man who bore the shield went before him.

When the Philistine looked about, and saw David, he disdained him; for he was but a youth, and ruddy, and withal of a fair face.

The Philistine said to David, "Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?" The Philistine cursed David by his gods.

The Philistine said to David, "Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the sky, and to the animals of the field."

Then David said to the Philistine, "You come to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a javelin: but I come to you in the name of Yahweh of Armies, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.

It happened, when the Philistine arose, and came and drew near to meet David, that David hurried, and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine.

David put his hand in his bag, took a stone, and slung it, and struck the Philistine in his forehead; and the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the earth.

So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and struck the Philistine, and killed him; but there was no sword in the hand of David.

Then David ran, and stood over the Philistine, and took his sword, and drew it out of its sheath, and killed him, and cut off his head therewith. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled.

David took the head of the Philistine, and brought it to Jerusalem; but he put his armor in his tent.

When Saul saw David go forth against the Philistine, he said to Abner, the captain of the army, "Abner, whose son is this youth?" Abner said, "As your soul lives, O king, I can't tell."

As David returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, Abner took him, and brought him before Saul with the head of the Philistine in his hand.

Saul said to him, "Whose son are you, you young man?" David answered, "I am the son of your servant Jesse the Bethlehemite."

It happened, 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.

Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul.

Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him, and gave it to David, and his clothing, even to his sword, and to his bow, and to his sash.

David went out wherever Saul sent him, [and] behaved himself wisely: and Saul set him over the men of war, and it was good in the sight of all the people, and also in the sight of Saul's servants.

It happened as they came, when David 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 tambourines, with joy, and with instruments of music.

The women sang one to another as they played, and said, "Saul has slain his thousands, David his ten thousands."

Saul was very angry, and this saying displeased him; and he said, "They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed but thousands. What can he have more but the kingdom?"

Saul eyed David from that day and forward.

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 threw the spear; for he said, "I will pin David even to the wall!" David escaped from his presence twice.

Saul was afraid of David, because Yahweh was with him, and was departed from Saul.

David behaved himself wisely in all his ways; and Yahweh was with him.

But all Israel and Judah loved David; for he went out and came in before them.

Saul said to David, "Behold, my elder daughter Merab, I will give her to you as wife. Only be valiant for me, and fight Yahweh's battles." For Saul said, "Don't let my hand be on him, but let the hand of the Philistines be on him."

David said to Saul, "Who am I, and what is my life, or my father's family in Israel, that I should be son-in-law to the king?"

But it happened at the time when Merab, Saul's daughter, should have been given to David, that she was given to Adriel the Meholathite as wife.

Michal, Saul's daughter, loved David; and they told Saul, and the thing pleased him.

Saul said, I will give her to him, that she may be a snare to him, and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him. Therefore Saul said to David, "You shall this day be my son-in-law a second time."

Saul commanded his servants, "Talk with David secretly, and say, 'Behold, the king has delight in you, and all his servants love you: now therefore be the king's son-in-law.'"

Saul's servants spoke those words in the ears of David. David said, "Does it seems to you a light thing to be the king's son-in-law, since I am a poor man, and lightly esteemed?"

The servants of Saul told him, saying, "David spoke like this."

Saul said, "You shall tell David, 'The king desires no dowry except one hundred foreskins of the Philistines, to be avenged of the king's enemies.'" Now Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines.

When his servants told David these words, it pleased David well to be the king's son-in-law. The days were not expired;

and David arose and went, he and his men, and killed of the Philistines two hundred men; and David brought their foreskins, and they gave them in full number to the king, that he might be the king's son-in-law. Saul gave him Michal his daughter as wife.

Saul saw and knew that Yahweh was with David; and Michal, Saul's daughter, loved him.

Saul was yet the more afraid of David; and Saul was David's enemy continually.

Then the princes of the Philistines went forth: and it happened, as often as they went forth, that David behaved himself more wisely than all the servants of Saul; so that his name was highly esteemed.

Saul spoke to Jonathan his son, and to all his servants, that they should kill David. But Jonathan, Saul's son, delighted much in David.

Jonathan told David, saying, "Saul my father seeks to kill you. Now therefore, please take care of yourself in the morning, and live in a secret place, and hide yourself.

Jonathan spoke good of David to Saul his father, and said to him, "Don't let the king sin against his servant, against David; because he has not sinned against you, and because his works have been very good toward you;

for he put his life in his hand, and struck the Philistine, and Yahweh worked a great victory for all Israel. You saw it, and rejoiced. Why then will you sin against innocent blood, to kill David without a cause?"

Jonathan called David, and Jonathan showed him all those things. Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence, as before.

There was war again. David went out, and fought with the Philistines, and killed them with a great slaughter; and they fled before him.

An evil spirit from Yahweh was on Saul, as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand; and David was playing with his hand.

Saul sought to pin David even to the wall with the spear; but he slipped away out of Saul's presence, and he stuck the spear into the wall. David fled, and escaped that night.

Saul sent messengers to David's house, to watch him, and to kill him in the morning. Michal, David's wife, told him, saying, "If you don't save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed."

So Michal let David down through the window. He went, fled, and escaped.

When Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, "He is sick."

Saul sent the messengers to see David, saying, "Bring him up to me in the bed, that I may kill him."

Now David fled, and escaped, and came to Samuel to Ramah, and told him all that Saul had done to him. He and Samuel went and lived in Naioth.

It was told Saul, saying, "Behold, David is at Naioth in Ramah."

Saul sent messengers to take David: and when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing as head over them, the Spirit of God came on the messengers of Saul, and they also prophesied.

Then went he also to Ramah, and came to the great well that is in Secu: and he asked, "Where are Samuel and David?" One said, "Behold, they are at Naioth in Ramah."

David fled from Naioth in Ramah, and came and said before Jonathan, "What have I done? What is my iniquity? What is my sin before your father, that he seeks my life?"

David swore moreover, and said, "Your father knows well that I have found favor in your eyes; and he says, 'Don't let Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved:' but truly as Yahweh lives, and as your soul lives, there is but a step between me and death."

Then Jonathan said to David, "Whatever your soul desires, I will even do it for you."

David said to Jonathan, "Behold, tomorrow is the new moon, and I should not fail to dine with the king; but let me go, that I may hide myself in the field to the third day at evening.

If your father miss me at all, then say, 'David earnestly asked leave of me that he might run to Bethlehem his city; for it is the yearly sacrifice there for all the family.'

Then David said to Jonathan, "Who shall tell me if perchance your father answers you roughly?"

Jonathan said to David, "Come, and let us go out into the field." They both went out into the field.

Jonathan said to David, "Yahweh, the God of Israel, [be witness]: when I have sounded my father about this time tomorrow, [or] the third day, behold, if there be good toward David, shall I not then send to you, and disclose it to you?

but also you shall not cut off your kindness from my house forever; no, not when Yahweh has cut off the enemies of David everyone from the surface of the earth."

So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, "Yahweh will require it at the hand of David's enemies."

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 was come, the king sat him down to eat food.

The king sat on his seat, as at other times, even on the seat by the wall; and Jonathan stood up, and Abner sat by Saul's side: but David's place was empty.

It happened on the next day after the new moon, the second day, that David's place was empty. Saul said to Jonathan his son, "Why doesn't the son of Jesse come to eat, neither yesterday, nor today?"

Jonathan answered Saul, "David earnestly asked leave of me to go to Bethlehem.

Saul cast his spear at him to strike him. By this Jonathan knew that his father was determined to put David to death.

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.

It happened in the morning, that Jonathan went out into the field at the time appointed with David, and a little boy with him.

But the boy didn't know anything. Only Jonathan and David knew the matter.

As soon as the boy was gone, David arose out of [a place] toward the South, and fell on his face to the ground, and bowed himself three times. They kissed one another, and wept one with another, and David wept the most.

Jonathan said to David, "Go in peace, because we have both sworn in the name of Yahweh, saying, 'Yahweh shall be between me and you, and between my seed and your seed, forever.'" He arose and departed; and Jonathan went into the city.