Then he said to all Israel, "You be on one side, and I and Jonathan my son will be on the other side." The people said to Saul, "Do what seems good to you."

Therefore Saul said, ?LORD, God of Israel, why have you not answered your servant this day? If this sin is mine or in Jonathan my son, LORD, God of Israel, give Urim. But if this sin is in your people Israel, give Thummim.? And Jonathan and Saul were chosen, but the people were cleared.

The people said to Saul, "Shall Jonathan die, who has worked this great salvation in Israel? Far from it. As the LORD lives, there shall not one hair of his head fall to the ground; for he has worked with God this day." So the people rescued Jonathan, and he did not die.

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.

And he did valiantly, and struck the Amalekites, and delivered Israel out of the hand of its plunderer.

Samuel said to Saul, "The LORD sent me to anoint you to be king over his people, over Israel. Now therefore listen to the voice of the words of the LORD.

Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'I have marked that which Amalek did to Israel, how he set himself against him in the way, when he came up out of Egypt.

Saul said to the Kenites, "Go, depart, go down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them; for you showed kindness to all the children of Israel, when they came up out of Egypt." So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites.

Samuel said, "Though you were little in your own sight, weren't you made the head of the tribes of Israel? The LORD anointed you king over Israel;

Samuel said to Saul, "I will not return with you; for you have rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD has rejected you from being king over Israel."

Samuel said to him, "The LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day, and has given it to a neighbor of yours who is better than you.

Also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent; for he is not a man, that he should repent."

Then he said, "I have sinned: yet please honor me now before the elders of my people, and before Israel, and come back with me, that I may worship the LORD your God."

And Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death; for Samuel mourned for Saul. And the LORD grieved that he had made Saul king over Israel.

The LORD said to Samuel, "How long will you 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; for I have provided a king for myself among his sons."

Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together, and encamped in the valley of Elah, and set the battle in array against the Philistines.

The Philistines stood on the mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on the mountain on the other side: and there was a valley between them.

He stood and cried to the armies of Israel, and said to them, "Why have you come out to set your battle in array? Am I not a Philistine, and you servants to Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me.

The Philistine said, "I defy the armies of Israel this day. Give me a man, that we may fight together."

When Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they were dismayed, and greatly afraid.

Now Saul, and they, and all the men of Israel, were in the valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines.

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

All the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him, and were terrified.

The men of Israel said, "Have you seen this man who has come up? He has surely come up to defy Israel. It shall be, that the man who kills him, the king will enrich him with great riches, and will give him his daughter, and make his father's house exempt in Israel."

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?"

Your servant struck both the lion and the bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them [Should I not go and smite him, and remove this day a reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised one], since he has defied the armies of the living God?"

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 the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.

Today, the LORD will deliver you into my hand. I will strike you, and take your head from off you. I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky, and to the wild animals of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel,

The men of Israel and of Judah arose, and shouted, and pursued the Philistines, until you come to Gai, and to the gates of Ekron. The wounded of the Philistines fell down by the way to Shaaraim, even to Gath, and to Ekron.

The children of Israel returned from chasing after the Philistines, and they plundered their camp.

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.

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

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?"

for he put his life in his hand, and struck the Philistine, and the LORD 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 said to David, "By the LORD, the God of Israel, when I have sounded my father about this time tomorrow, or the third day, behold, if there is good toward David, shall I not then send to you, and disclose it to you?

Then David said, "O LORD, the God of Israel, your servant has surely heard that Saul seeks to come to Keilah, to destroy the city for my sake.

Will the men of Keilah deliver me up into his hand? Will Saul come down, as your servant has heard? LORD, the God of Israel, I beg you, tell your servant." The LORD said, "He will come down."

He said to him, "Do not be afraid; for the hand of Saul my father shall not find you; and you shall be king over Israel, and I shall be next to you; and that also Saul my father knows."

Then Saul took three thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and went to seek David and his men on the rocks of the wild goats.

Against whom has the king of Israel come out? Whom do you pursue? A dead dog? A flea?

Now, behold, I know that you shall surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand.

Samuel died; and all Israel gathered themselves together, and lamented him, and buried him in his house at Ramah. David arose, and went down to the wilderness of Paran.

It shall come to pass, when the LORD has done to my lord according to all the good that he has spoken concerning you, and shall have appointed you prince over Israel,

David said to Abigail, "Blessed is the LORD, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me.

For indeed, as the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, who has withheld me from hurting you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, surely there wouldn't have been left to Nabal by the morning light so much as one who urinates on a wall."

Then Saul arose, and went down to the wilderness of Ziph, having three thousand chosen men of Israel with him, to seek David in the wilderness of Ziph.

David said to Abner, "Aren't you a man? Who is like you in Israel? Why then have you not kept watch over your lord, the king? For one of the people came in to destroy the king your lord.

Now therefore, do not let my blood fall to the earth away from the presence of the LORD; for the king of Israel has come out to seek a flea, as when one hunts a partridge in the mountains."

David said in his heart, "I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should escape into the land of the Philistines; and Saul will despair of me, to seek me any more in all the borders of Israel. So shall I escape out of his hand."

Achish believed David, saying, "He has made his people Israel utterly to abhor him. Therefore he shall be my servant forever."

It happened in those days, that the Philistines gathered their armies together for warfare, to fight with Israel. Achish said to David, "Know assuredly that you shall go out with me in the army, you and your men."

Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had lamented him, and buried him in Ramah, even in his own city. Saul had removed the mediums, and spiritists, from the land.

The Philistines gathered themselves together, and came and encamped in Shunem: and Saul gathered all Israel together, and they encamped in Gilboa.

Moreover the LORD will deliver Israel also with you into the hand of the Philistines; and tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. The LORD will deliver the army of Israel also into the hand of the Philistines."

Then the leaders of the Philistines said, "What about these Hebrews?" And Achish said to the leaders of the Philistines, "Isn't this David, the servant of Saul the king of Israel, who has been with me these days, or rather these years, and I have found no fault in him since he fell away to this day?"

It was so from that day forward, that he made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel to this day.

Now the Philistines fought against Israel: and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines, and fell down slain on Mount Gilboa.

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 fled, and that Saul and his sons were dead, they forsook the cities, and fled; and the Philistines came and lived in them.

David said to him, "Where do you come from?" He said to him, "I have escaped out of the camp of Israel."

They mourned, and wept, and fasted until evening, for Saul, and for Jonathan his son, and for the people of the LORD, and for the house of Israel; because they were fallen by the sword.

"Your glory, Israel, is slain on your high places. How the mighty have fallen.

You daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you in scarlet delicately, who put ornaments of gold on your clothing.

and he made him king over Gilead, and over the Ashurites, and over Jezreel, and over Ephraim, and over Benjamin, and over all Israel.

Ishbosheth, Saul's son, was forty years old when he began to reign over Israel, and he reigned two years. But the house of Judah followed David.

The battle was very severe that day: and Abner was beaten, and the men of Israel, before the servants of David.

So Joab blew the trumpet; and all the people stood still, and pursued after Israel no more, neither fought they any more.

to transfer the kingdom from the house of Saul, and to set up the throne of David over Israel and over Judah, from Dan even to Beersheba."

Abner sent messengers to David on his behalf, saying, "Whose is the land?" and saying, "Make your alliance with me, and behold, my hand shall be with you, to bring all Israel around to you."

Abner had communication with the elders of Israel, saying, "In times past, you sought for David to be king over you.

Now then do it; for the LORD has spoken of David, saying, 'By the hand of my servant David, I will save my people Israel out of the hand of the Philistines, and out of the hand of all their enemies.'"

Abner also spoke in the ears of Benjamin: and Abner went also to speak in the ears of David in Hebron all that seemed good to Israel, and to the whole house of Benjamin.

Abner said to David, "I will arise and go, and will gather all Israel to my lord the king, that they may make a covenant with you, and that you may reign over all that your soul desires." David sent Abner away; and he went in peace.

So all the people and all Israel understood that day that it was not of the king to kill Abner the son of Ner.

The king said to his servants, "Do you not know that there a prince and a great man has fallen this day in Israel?

When Saul's son heard that Abner was dead in Hebron, his hands became feeble, and all Israel was troubled.

Then came all the tribes of Israel to David to Hebron, and spoke, saying, "Behold, we are your bone and your flesh.

In times past, when Saul was king over us, it was you who led out and brought in Israel. The LORD said to you, 'You shall be shepherd of my people Israel, and you shall be prince over Israel.'"

So all the elders of Israel came to the king to Hebron; and king David made a covenant with them in Hebron before the LORD; and they anointed David king over Israel.

In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months; and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty-three years over all Israel and Judah.

And David knew that the LORD had established him king over Israel, and that he had exalted his kingdom for his people Israel's sake.

When the Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over Israel, all the Philistines went up to seek David; and David heard of it, and went down to the stronghold.

David again gathered together all the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand.

David and all the house of Israel played before the LORD with all their strength and with songs, and with harps, and with stringed instruments, and with tambourines, and with castanets, and with cymbals.

So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet.

He gave to all the people, even among the whole multitude of Israel, both to men and women, to everyone a portion of bread, a date cake, and a raisin cake. So all the people departed everyone to his house.

Then David returned to bless his household. Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, "How glorious the king of Israel was today, who uncovered himself today in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovers himself."

David said to Michal, "It was before the LORD, who chose me above your father, and above all his house, to appoint me prince over the people of the LORD, over Israel. therefore I will celebrate before the LORD.

For I have not lived in a house since the day that I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt, even to this day, but have moved around in a tent and in a tabernacle.

In all places in which I have walked with all the children of Israel, did I say a word to any of the tribes of Israel, whom I commanded to be shepherd of my people Israel, saying, 'Why have you not built me a house of cedar?'"'

Now therefore you shall tell my servant David this, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts, "I took you from the sheep pen, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people, over Israel.

I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in their own place, and be moved no more; neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more, as at the first,

and as from the day that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel. I will cause you to rest from all your enemies. Moreover the LORD tells you that the LORD will make you a house.

What one nation in the earth is like your people, even like Israel, whom God went to redeem for himself as a people, and to make himself a name, and to do great things for you, and awesome things for your land, before your people, whom you redeemed for yourself out of Egypt, from the nations and their gods?

You established for yourself your people Israel to be a people to you forever; and you, LORD, became their God.

Let your name be magnified forever, saying, 'The LORD of hosts is God over Israel; and the house of your servant David shall be established before you.'

For you, the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, have revealed to your servant, saying, 'I will build you a house.' Therefore your servant has found in his heart to pray this prayer to you.

David reigned over all Israel; and David executed justice and righteousness to all his people.

Now when Joab saw that the battle was set against him before and behind, he chose of all the choice men of Israel, and put them in array against the Syrians:

When the Syrians saw that they were defeated by Israel, they gathered themselves together.

It was told David; and he gathered all Israel together, and passed over the Jordan, and came to Helam. The Syrians set themselves in array against David, and fought with him.