The Lord will not abandon His people for His great name’s sake, because the Lord has been pleased to make you a people for Himself.

Only fear the Lord [with awe and profound reverence] and serve Him faithfully with all your heart; for consider what great things He has done for you.

Saul chose for himself 3,000 men of Israel; of whom 2,000 were with him in Michmash and in the hill country of Bethel, while 1,000 were with Jonathan at Gibeah of Benjamin. But he sent the rest of the people away, each one to his own tent.

Also some of the Hebrews had crossed the [river] Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead. As for Saul, he was still in Gilgal, and all the people followed him, trembling [in fear and anticipation].

As soon as he finished offering the burnt offering, Samuel finally came; Saul went out to meet and to welcome him.

But now your kingdom shall not endure. The Lord has sought out for Himself a man (David) after His own heart, and the Lord has appointed him as leader and ruler over His people, because you have not kept (obeyed) what the Lord commanded you.”

Then Samuel arose and went up from Gilgal to Gibeah of Benjamin. And Saul assembled and counted the people who were still with him, [only] about six hundred [fighting] men.

Saul was staying in the outskirts of Gibeah under a pomegranate tree in Migron; and with him were about six hundred men,

And his armor bearer said to him, “Do everything that is in your heart (mind); here I am with you in whatever you think [best].”

Then Jonathan climbed up on his hands and feet, his armor bearer following after him. The enemy fell before Jonathan [in combat], and his armor bearer killed some of them after him.

Then Saul said to the people with him, “Take a count and see who has left us.” When they had taken a count, behold, Jonathan and his armor bearer were missing.

Then Saul and all the people who were with him rallied and went into the battle; and behold, every [Philistine] man’s sword was against his companion, in wild confusion.

But one of the people told him, “Your father strictly put the people under an oath, saying, ‘Cursed be the man who eats food today.’” And the people were exhausted [and hungry].

Saul asked [counsel] of God, “Shall I go down after the Philistines? Will You hand them over to Israel?” But He did not answer him that day.

For as the Lord lives, who saves Israel, for even if the guilt is in my son Jonathan, he shall most certainly die.” But not one of all the people answered him.

Now the war against the Philistines was severe (brutal, relentless) all the days of Saul; and whenever Saul saw any mighty or courageous man, he recruited him for his staff.

Thus says the Lord of hosts (armies), ‘I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he set himself against him on the way when Israel came up from Egypt.

So Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, “Blessed are you of the Lord. I have carried out the command of the Lord.”

Then Samuel said to Saul, “Stop, and let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night.” Saul said to him, “Speak.”

So Samuel said to him, “The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to your neighbor, who is better than you.

Then Samuel said, “Bring me Agag, the king of the Amalekites.” And Agag came to him cheerfully. And Agag said, “Surely the bitterness of death has come to an end.”

The Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you grieve for Saul, when I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have chosen a king for Myself among his sons.”

So it happened, when they had come, he looked at Eliab [the eldest son] and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before Him.”

But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

Then Jesse called Abinadab and had him pass before Samuel. But Samuel said, “The Lord has not chosen this one either.”

Next Jesse had Shammah pass by. And Samuel said, “The Lord has not chosen him either.”

Then Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all your sons here?” Jesse replied, “There is still one left, the youngest; he is tending the sheep.” Samuel said to Jesse, “Send word and bring him; because we will not sit down [to eat the sacrificial meal] until he comes here.”

So Jesse sent word and brought him in. Now he had a ruddy complexion, with beautiful eyes and a handsome appearance. The Lord said [to Samuel], “Arise, anoint him; for this is he.”

Now the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord tormented and terrified him.

Saul’s servants said to him, “Behold, an evil spirit from God is tormenting you.

So Saul told his servants, “Find me a man who plays well and bring him to me.”

One of the young men said, “Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite who is a skillful musician, a brave and competent man, a warrior, discerning (prudent, eloquent) in speech, and a handsome man; and the Lord is with him.”

Then David came to Saul and attended him. Saul loved him greatly and [later] David became his armor bearer.

So it came about that whenever the [evil] spirit from God was on Saul, David took a harp and played it with his hand; so Saul would be refreshed and be well, and the evil spirit would leave him.

The [wooden] shaft of his spear was like a weaver’s beam; the blade-head of his spear weighed six hundred shekels of iron. And a shield-bearer walked in front of him.

Goliath stood and shouted to the battle lines of Israel, saying to them, “Why have you come out to draw up for battle? Am I not the Philistine and are you not servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves and have him come down to me.

If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will become your servants; but if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall become our servants and serve us.”

So David got up early in the morning, left the flock with a keeper, picked up the provisions and went just as Jesse had directed him. And he came to the encampment as the army was going out in battle formation shouting the battle cry.

As he was talking with them, behold, the champion, the Philistine of Gath named Goliath, was coming up from the army of the Philistines, and he spoke these same words again; and David heard him.

When the men of Israel all saw the man, they fled from him, and were very frightened.

The men of Israel said, “Have you seen this man who is coming up? Surely he is coming up to defy Israel. The king will reward the man who kills him with great riches, and will give him his daughter [in marriage] and make his father’s house (family) free [from taxes and service] in Israel.”

Then David spoke to the men who were standing by him, “What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes the disgrace [of his taunting] from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he has taunted and defied the armies of the living God?”

The men told him, “That is what will be done for the man who kills him.”

Then David turned away from Eliab to someone else and asked the same question; and the people gave him the same answer as the first time.

When the words that David spoke were heard, the men reported them to Saul, and he sent for him.

David said to Saul, “Let no man’s courage fail because of him (Goliath). Your servant will go out and fight with this Philistine.”

Then Saul dressed David in his garments and put a bronze helmet on his head, and put a coat of mail (armor) on him.

The Philistine came and approached David, with his shield-bearer in front of him.

When the Philistine looked around and saw David, he derided and disparaged him because he was [just] a young man, with a ruddy complexion, and a handsome appearance.

So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone, and he struck down the Philistine and killed him; but there was no sword in David’s hand.

So he ran and stood over the Philistine, grasped his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him, and cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw that their [mighty] champion was dead, they fled.

When David returned from killing [Goliath] the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul with the head of the Philistine in his hand.

Saul asked him, “Whose son are you, young man?” And David answered, “I am the son of your servant Jesse of Bethlehem.”

When David had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was bonded to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as himself.

Saul took David that day and did not let him return to his father’s house.

Then Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself.

Jonathan stripped himself of the outer robe that he was wearing and gave it to David, with his armor, including his sword, his bow, and his belt.

So David went out wherever Saul sent him, and he acted wisely and prospered; and Saul appointed him over the men of war. And it pleased all the people and also Saul’s servants.

Then Saul became very angry, for this saying displeased him; and he said, “They have ascribed to David ten thousands, but to me they have ascribed [only] thousands. Now what more can he have but the kingdom?”

Saul hurled the spear, for he thought, “I will pin David to the wall.” But David evaded him twice.

Now Saul was afraid of David, because the Lord was with him, but had departed from Saul.

So Saul had David removed from his presence and appointed him as his commander of a thousand; and he publicly associated with the people.

David acted wisely and prospered in all his ways, and the Lord was with him.

When Saul saw that he was prospering greatly, he was afraid of him.

Then Saul said to David, “Behold I will give you my older daughter Merab as a wife; only be brave for me and fight the Lord’s battles.” For Saul thought, “My hand shall not be against him, but let the hand of the Philistines be against him.”

Now Michal, Saul’s daughter, loved David; and when they told Saul, it pleased him.

Saul said, “I will give her to him so that she may become a snare (bad influence, source of trouble) to him, and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him.” So Saul said to David for a second time, “You shall be my son-in-law today.”

The servants of Saul told him what David said.

When his servants told David these words, it pleased him to become the king’s son-in-law. Before the time [for the marriage] arrived,

David arose and went, he and his men, and killed two hundred Philistine men, and David brought their foreskins [as proof of death] and presented every one of them to the king, so that he might become the king’s son-in-law. So Saul gave him Michal, his [younger] daughter, as a wife.

When Saul saw and knew that the Lord was with David, and that Michal, his daughter, loved him,

Then Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father and said to him, “May the king not sin against his servant David, since he has not sinned against you, and since his deeds have been very beneficial to you.

So Jonathan called David and told him all these things. And Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence [serving him] as previously.

Then there was war again, and David went out and fought with the Philistines and defeated them with a great slaughter, and they fled before him.

Then Saul sent messengers to David’s house to watch for him, so that he might kill him in the morning. But Michal, David’s wife, told him, “If you do not save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed.”

Then Saul sent the messengers [again] to see David, saying, “Bring him up to me on his bed [if necessary], so that I may kill him.”

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

So he went on to Naioth in Ramah; and the Spirit of God came upon him too, and he went along continually prophesying until he came to Naioth in Ramah.

If he says, ‘All right,’ your servant will be safe; but if he is very angry, then be certain that he has decided on evil.

Jonathan made David vow again because of his love for him, for Jonathan loved him as himself.

Yet Saul did not say anything that day, for he thought, “It is an incident [of some kind] and he is not [ceremonially] clean—surely he is unclean.”

Then Saul’s anger burned against Jonathan and he said to him, “You son of a wayward, rebellious woman! Do I not know that you have chosen the son of Jesse [over me] to your own shame, and to the shame of your mother’s nakedness?

For as long as the son of Jesse lives on the earth, neither you [as heir to the throne] nor your kingdom will be established. So now, send [someone] and bring him to me, for he must die.”

Then Saul hurled his spear at him to strike him down, so Jonathan knew [without any doubt] that his father had decided to put David to death.

Then Jonathan stood up from the table in the heat of anger, and ate no food on that second day of the new moon (month), for he grieved and worried about David because his father had dishonored him.

In the morning Jonathan went out to the field for the meeting with David, and a young boy was with him.

And he said to his boy, “Run, please find the arrows which I am about to shoot.” As the boy ran, he shot an arrow past him.

When the boy came to the place where Jonathan had shot the arrow, Jonathan called to him, “Is the arrow not beyond you?”

Jonathan gave his weapons to his boy and said to him, “Go, take them to the city.”

Then David went to Nob to Ahimelech the priest; and Ahimelech came trembling [in fear] to meet David and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no one with you?”

So the priest gave him the consecrated bread; for there was no bread there except the bread of the Presence which was removed from before the Lord in order to put hot bread in its place when it was taken away.

The servants of Achish said to him, “Is this not David the king of the land? Did they not sing in praise of this one as they danced, saying,‘Saul has slain his thousands,
And David his ten thousands’?”

Then Achish said to his servants, “Look, you see that the man is insane. Why have you brought him to me?

So David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam; and when his brothers and all his father’s house heard about it, they went down there to him.

Everyone who was suffering hardship, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to him; and he became captain over them. There were about four hundred men with him.

Then he left them with the king of Moab; and they stayed with him all the time that David was in the stronghold.

But Saul heard that David and the men who were with him had been discovered. Now Saul was in Gibeah, sitting under the tamarisk tree on the high place with his spear in his hand, and all his servants were standing around him.

Saul said to his servants who were standing around him, “Listen now, you Benjamites! Will the son of Jesse also give every one of you fields and vineyards? Will he make you all commanders of thousands and hundreds?

Ahimelech inquired of the Lord for him, and gave him provisions and the sword of Goliath the Philistine.”

Saul said to him, “Why have you and the son of Jesse conspired against me, in that you have given him bread and a sword and have inquired of God for him, so he would rebel against me by lying in ambush, as he does this day?”