He had two wives; the name of one was Hannah and the name of the other was Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.

Now the LORD had closed her womb. Her rival would provoke her severely so that she complained loudly because the LORD had closed her womb.

Hannah got up after she had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the chair by the doorpost of the tent of the LORD.

Hannah made a vow: "LORD of the Heavenly Armies, if you just look at the misery of your maid servant, remember me, and don't forget your maid servant. If you give your maid servant a son, then I'll give him to the LORD for all the days of his life, and a razor is never to touch his head."

They got up early the next morning and worshipped in the LORD's presence, and then they returned and came to their house at Ramah. Elkanah had marital relations with his wife Hannah, and the LORD remembered her.

By the time of the next year's sacrifice, Hannah had become pregnant and had borne a son. She named him Samuel because she said, "I asked the LORD for him."

Hannah did not go up because she had told her husband, "As soon as the child is weaned, I'll take him to appear in the LORD's presence and remain there forever."

"Do what you want," Elkanah told her. "Stay until you have weaned him, only may the LORD bring about what you've said." So Hannah stayed and nursed her son until she had weaned him.

Then, when she had weaned him, she brought him up with her to Shiloh, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour, and a skin of wine. She brought him to the house of the LORD at Shiloh, and the boy was young.

Those who had an abundance of bread now hire themselves out, and those who were hungry hunger no more. While the barren woman gives birth to seven children, she who had many children languishes.

Now Eli was very old, and he had heard everything that his sons were doing to the Israelis, and how they lay with the women who were serving regularly at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.

that I had chosen him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to offer up burnt offerings on my altar, burn incense, and carry the ephod in my presence? And did I not give to your ancestors' family all the Israeli fire-offerings?

The lamp of God had not yet been extinguished, and Samuel was lying down in the tent of the LORD where the Ark of God was.

He said, "I didn't call you, my son. Go back and lie down." Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD and had not yet had the word of the LORD revealed to him.

Later, the LORD came and stood there, calling out, "Samuel! Samuel!" as he had before. Samuel said, "Speak, because your servant is listening."

What Samuel had to say was directed to all Israel, and Israel went out to engage the Philistines in battle. The Israelis were camped at Ebenezer, while the Philistines were camped at Aphek.

When the Philistines heard the noise of the shout, they asked, "What is this noise coming from shouting in the camp of the Hebrews?" Then they realized that the Ark of the LORD had come into the camp,

That very same day, a man who was a descendant of Benjamin ran from the battle line and came to Shiloh, with his garments torn and dirt on his head.

Now Eli was 98 years old, and his vision had failed.

When he mentioned the Ark of God, Eli fell off the seat backwards by the side of the gate. His neck was broken and he died, since he was old and heavy. Eli had judged Israel for 40 years.

She had named the boy Ichabod,saying, "Glory has departed from Israel," because the Ark of God had been captured and because her father-in-law and husband were dead.

But when they got up the next morning, there was Dagon, lying on the ground again in front of the Ark of the LORD. Dagon's head and both of his arms were broken off and lying on the threshold. Only the trunk of Dagon was left intact.

They sent messengers and gathered together all the Philistine lords: "Send away the Ark of the God of Israel, and let it return to where it belongs so that it does not kill us and our people." Meanwhile, a deadly panic had spread all over the town, and God kept on pressuring them there.

"So make a new cart, and take two milk cows that have never had a yoke on them. Hitch the cows to the cart and take their calves away from them and back to the house.

God struck down the men of Beth-shemesh because they had looked into the Ark of the LORD. He struck down 50,070 men among the people, and the people mourned because the LORD struck down the people with a great slaughter.

On that day they fasted there and said, "We have sinned against the LORD." Then Samuel judged the Israelis at Mizpah. When the Philistines heard that the Israelis had gathered at Mizpah, the Philistine lords came up against Israel. When the Israelis heard this, they were afraid of the Philistines.

The LORD continued to oppose the Philistines all during Samuel's life time. The towns that the Philistines had taken from Israel were returned to Israel, from Ekron to Gath, and Israel delivered their territory from Philistine control. There was also peace between Israel and the Amorites.

he had a son named Saul, who was a choice and handsome young man. There was no one among the Israelis as handsome as he, and he was a head taller than any of the other people.

Now one day before Saul's arrival, the LORD had revealed to Samuel:

Then Samuel took Saul and his young man and brought them to a room where he gave them a place at the head of those who were invited, of whom there were about 30 men.

When they had come down from the high place into town, Samuel spoke to Saul on the roof.

Samuel took a flask of oil, poured it on Saul's head, kissed him, and said, "The LORD has anointed you Commander-in-Chief over his inheritance, has he not?

When all those who had known Saul previously saw that he was there among the prophets prophesying, the people told one another, "What has happened to Kish's son? Is Saul also among the prophets?"

When he had finished prophesying, he went to the high place.

Saul told his uncle, "He actually told us that the donkeys had been found," but he did not tell him about the matter of kingship about which Samuel had spoken.

They ran and brought him from there. When he stood among the people, he was taller than any of the others by a head.

Saul also went to his house in Gibeah, and the soldiers whose hearts God had touched went with him.

Meanwhile, Nahash, king of the Ammonites, had been severely oppressing the descendants of Gad and descendants of Reuben, gouging out their right eyes and not allowing Israel to have a deliverer. No one was left among the Israelis across the Jordan whose right eye Nahash, king of the Ammonites, had not gouged out. However, 7,000 men had escaped from the Ammonites and entered Jabesh-gilead.

Just then Saul was coming in from the field behind the oxen and he said, "What's with the people? Why are they crying?" They reported to him what the men of Jabesh had said.

They told the messengers who had come, "You are to say this to the men of Jabesh-gilead, "Tomorrow, by the time the sun is hot, you will be delivered.'" The messengers went and reported to the men of Jabesh, and they rejoiced.

The next day Saul separated the people into three companies. They came into the camp during the morning watch, and struck down the Ammonites until the heat of the day. Those who survived were scattered so that no two of them remained together.

Saul chose for himself 3,000 men from Israel. There were 2,000 with Saul in Michmash and the hill country of Bethel, while 1,000 were with Jonathan in Gibeah of Benjamin. He had sent the rest of the people home.

When the men of Israel saw that they were in distress (for the people were in difficult circumstances), the people hid themselves in caves, in thickets, in crags, in tombs, and in pits.

Now a garrison of the Philistines had gone out to the pass of Michmash.

Along with him were Ahitub's son Ahijah, Ichabod's brother, who was Phineas' son and a grandson of Eli the priest of the LORD at Shiloh, who was carrying the ephod. The people did not know that Jonathan had gone.

The Hebrews who had previously been with the Philistines, who had gone up with them from the surrounding areas to the camp, even they joined Israel and those who were with Saul and Jonathan.

All the Israelis who had been hiding in the hill country of Ephraim heard that the Philistines were fleeing, and even they pursued the Philistines in the battle.

But Jonathan had not heard that his father had required the army to swear an oath, so he stretched out the end of the staff that was in his hand and dipped it in the honeycomb. He brought it back to his mouth and his eyes brightened.

How much better if the army had eaten freely today of their enemy's spoil that they found, because the slaughter among the Philistines has not been great."

Then the army told Saul, "Shall Jonathan die, who brought about this great deliverance in Israel? As the LORD lives, not one hair of his head will fall to the ground, because today he did this with God's help."

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

So Samuel replied, "Is it not true that though you were small in your own eyes you became head of the tribes of Israel, and the LORD anointed you king over Israel?

Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death, but Samuel grieved over Saul, and the LORD regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel.

The LORD told Samuel, "Don't look at his appearance or his height, for I've rejected him. Truly, God does not see what man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD sees the heart."

So he sent and brought him. He had a dark, healthy complexion, with beautiful eyes, and he was handsome. The LORD said, "Get up and anoint him, for this is the one."

wore a bronze helmet on his head, and wore bronze scale armor that weighed about 5,000 shekels.

He had bronze armor on his legs and carried a bronze javelin slung between his shoulders.

David was the son of that Ephrathite man named Jesse from Bethlehem in Judah. He had eight sons; at the time when Saul was king he was old, having lived to an advanced age.

David was the youngest, while the three oldest had followed Saul.

David got up early in the morning, left the sheep with a keeper, took the supplies, and went as Jesse had directed him. He arrived at the encampment as the army was going out to the battle line, shouting the battle cry.

David left the supplies he had with him in the care of the supply keeper and ran to the battle line. When he arrived there, he asked his brothers about their well-being.

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.

When the words that David had spoken were heard, they were reported to Saul, and he sent for him.

Saul put his garments on David, set a bronze helmet on his head, and put armor on 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.

This very day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I'll strike you down and remove your head from you. And this very day I'll give the dead bodies of the Philistine army to the birds of the sky and to the animals of the earth, so that all the earth will know that there is a God in Israel,

David ran and stood over the Philistine. He took the Philistine's sword, pulled it from its sheath, killed him, and then he cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled.

David took the Philistine's head and brought it to Jerusalem, but he put Goliath's weapons in his tent.

When David returned from striking down the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him to Saul with the Philistine's head in his hand.

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.

The next day, while David was playing the lyre as he had before, the evil spirit from the LORD attacked Saul, and he began to rave inside the house with a spear in his hand.

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

Then Michal took the household idol and laid it on the bed with a cover of goat hair placed at its head. Then she covered it with clothes.

The messengers went in, and there was the household idol in the bed with the cover of goat hair at its head!

David escaped and fled. He came to Samuel at Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to him. Then he and Samuel went and stayed at Naioth.

Jonathan told him, "Far from it! You won't die. Look, my father never does anything, great or small, without telling me; so why should my father hide this thing from me? It's not like that!"

David told Jonathan, "Look, the New Moon is tomorrow, and I'm expected to sit down with the king to eat. Let me go so I can hide in the field until the evening of the day after tomorrow.

On the third day go down quickly and come to the place where you hid earlier. Remain beside the rock at Ezel.

David hid in the field. When the New Moon arrived, the king sat down to eat.

So on the second day of the New Moon Jonathan angrily got up from the table without eating because he was upset about David, and because his father had humiliated him.

The servant came to the place where Jonathan had shot it, and Jonathan called out to him, "The arrow is beyond you, isn't it?"

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

So the priest gave him consecrated bread because no bread was there except the Bread of the Presence that had been removed from the LORD's presence and replaced with hot bread on the day it was taken away.

When Saul heard that David and the men who were with him had been found, he was sitting in Gibeah, under the tamarisk tree on the hill, with his spear in his hand. All his officials were standing around him.

Abiathar told David that Saul had killed the priests of the LORD.

Now when Ahimelech's son Abiathar had fled to David in Keilah, the ephod had come down with him.

It was reported to Saul that David had come to Keilah, and Saul said, "The LORD has delivered him into my hand because he has shut himself in by going into a town with double gates and bars."

The LORD said, "They'll hand you over." David and his men, about 600 strong, got up and left Keilah. They moved around wherever they could go. Saul was advised that David had escaped from Keilah, so he stopped the campaign.

David was afraid because Saul had come out to seek his life while David was in the wilderness of Ziph at Horesh.

David rose and stealthily cut off the corner of Saul's robe. Afterwards, David's conscience bothered him because he had cut off the corner of Saul's robe.

Look, this very day you saw with your own eyes that the LORD gave you into my control in the cave, and one of my men told me to kill you, but I had pity on you and responded, "I won't lift my hand against his majesty because he's the LORD's anointed.'

When David had finished saying these things to Saul, Saul asked, "Is this your voice, my son David?" Then Saul cried loudly

David got up and went down to the Wilderness of Paran. Now there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel of Judah, and the man was very rich. He had 3,000 sheep and 1,000 goats, and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel.

Now David had said, "Surely it was for nothing that I protected everything that belonged to this man in the wilderness, and nothing was missing of all that belonged to him. But he has repaid me with evil for good!

For as surely as the LORD God of Israel lives, the one who restrained me from harming you indeed, had you not quickly come to meet me, by dawn there wouldn't be a single male left to Nabal."

David took from her what she had brought him and told her, "Go up to your house in peace. Look, I've heard your request and will grant it."

After Nabal became sober the next morning, his wife told him all that had happened. Nabal's heart failed and he became paralyzed.

When David heard that Nabal had died, he said, "Blessed be the LORD who has judged the dispute over my insult at the hand of Nabal, and has held back his servant from evil. The LORD has repaid Nabal's wickedness."

Meanwhile, Saul had given his daughter Michal, David's wife, to Laish's son Palti from Gallim.

Saul camped by the road on the hill of Hachilah, across from Jeshimon, while David was staying in the wilderness. When he realized that Saul had come after him in the wilderness,