It happened, when they had come, that he looked at Eliab, and said, "Surely the LORD's anointed is before him."

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

Let our lord now command your servants who are before you, to seek out a man who is a skillful player on the harp. It shall happen, when the evil spirit from God is on you, that he shall play with his hand, and you shall be well."

It happened, when the 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.

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

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

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?"

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."

He turned away from him toward another, and spoke like that again; and the people answered him again the same way.

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

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,

and that all this assembly may know that the LORD doesn't save with sword and spear: for the battle is the LORD's, and he will give you into our hand."

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.

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.

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.

Saul took him that day, and would let him go no more home to his father's house.

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.

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.

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;

When Saul saw that he behaved himself very wisely, he stood in awe of 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.

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."

and David arose and went, he and his men, and killed of the Philistines one 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 the LORD was with David; and Michal, Saul's daughter, loved him.

Then the leaders 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.

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

Saul said to Michal, "Why have you deceived me thus, and let my enemy go, so that he is escaped?" Michal answered Saul, "He said to me, 'Let me go. Why should I kill you?'"

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.

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."

He also stripped off his clothes, and he also prophesied before Samuel, and lay down naked all that day and all that night. Therefore they say, "Is Saul also among the prophets?"

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?"

He said to him, "Far from it; you shall not die. Behold, my father does nothing either great or small, but that he discloses it to me; and why should my father hide this thing from me? It is not so."

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

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.'

If he says, 'It is well;' your servant shall have peace: but if he be angry, then know that evil is determined by him.

Jonathan said, "Far be it from you; for if I should at all know that evil were determined by my father to come on you, then wouldn't I tell you that?"

The LORD do so to Jonathan, and more also, should it please my father to do you evil, if I do not disclose it to you, and send you away, that you may go in peace: and the LORD be with you, as he has been with my father.

You shall not only while yet I live show me the loving kindness of the LORD, that I not die;

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

Nevertheless Saul did not say anything that day: for he thought, "Something has happened to him. He is not clean. Surely he is not clean."

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?"

Then Saul's anger was kindled against Jonathan, and he said to him, "You son of a perverse rebellious woman, do I not know that you have chosen the son of Jesse to your own shame, and to the shame of your mother's nakedness?

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

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

So the priest gave him holy bread; for there was no bread there but the show bread, that was taken from before the LORD, to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away.

Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the LORD; and his name was Doeg the Edomite, the best of the herdsmen who belonged to Saul.

The priest said, "The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you will take that, take it; for there is no other except that here." David said, "There is none like that. Give it to me."

David arose, and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath.

Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?"

He brought them before the king of Moab; and they lived with him all the while that David was in the stronghold.

Saul heard that David was discovered, and the men who were with him. Now Saul was sitting in Gibeah, under the tamarisk tree in Ramah, with his spear in his hand, and all his servants were standing about him.

that all of you have conspired against me, and there is none who discloses to me when my son makes a treaty with the son of Jesse, and there is none of you who is sorry for me, or discloses to me that my son has stirred up my servant against me, to lie in wait, as at this day?"

Saul said to him, "Why have you conspired against me, you and the son of Jesse, in that you have given him bread, and a sword, and have inquired of God for him, that he should rise against me, to lie in wait, as at this day?"

The king said to the guard who stood about him, "Turn, and kill the priests of the LORD; because their hand also is with David, and because they knew that he fled, and did not disclose it to me." But the servants of the king wouldn't put forth their hand to fall on the priests of the LORD.

The king said to Doeg, "Turn and attack the priests." Doeg the Edomite turned, and he attacked the priests, and he killed on that day eighty-five people who wore a linen ephod.

Abiathar told David that Saul had slain the LORD's priests.

David said to Abiathar, "I knew on that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul. I am responsible for the death of all the persons of your father's house.

It happened, when Abiathar the son of Ahimelech fled to David to Keilah, that he came down with an ephod in his hand.

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

David knew that Saul was devising mischief against him; and he said to Abiathar the priest, "Bring the ephod here."

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.

Then David and his men, who were about six hundred, arose and departed out of Keilah, and went wherever they could go. It was told Saul that David was escaped from Keilah; and he gave up going there.

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

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."

Please go make yet more sure, and know and see his place where his haunt is, and who has seen him there; for it is told me that he deals very subtly.

See therefore, and take knowledge of all the lurking places where he hides himself, and come again to me with certainty, and I will go with you: and it shall happen, if he is in the land, that I will search him out among all the thousands of Judah."

Saul and his men went to seek him. When David was told, he went down to the rock, and stayed in the wilderness of Maon. When Saul heard that, he pursued David in the wilderness of Maon.

Saul went on this side of the mountain, and David and his men on that side of the mountain: and David made haste to get away for fear of Saul; for Saul and his men surrounded David and his men to take them.

So Saul returned from pursuing after David, and went against the Philistines: therefore they called that place Sela Hammahlekoth.

It happened, when Saul was returned from following the Philistines, that it was told him, saying, "Behold, David is in the wilderness of En Gedi."

It happened afterward, that David's heart struck him, because he had cut off Saul's skirt.

He said to his men, "The LORD forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the LORD's anointed, to put forth my hand against him, since he is the LORD's anointed."

Behold, this day your eyes have seen how that the LORD had delivered you today into my hand in the cave. Some urged me to kill you; but I spared you; and I said, I will not put forth my hand against my lord; for he is the LORD's anointed.

Moreover, my father, behold, yes, see the skirt of your robe in my hand; for in that I cut off the skirt of your robe, and did not kill you, know and see that there is neither evil nor disobedience in my hand, and I have not sinned against you, though you hunt for my life to take it.

It came to pass, when David had made an end of speaking these words to Saul, that Saul said, "Is this your voice, my son David?" Saul lifted up his voice, and wept.

For if a man finds his enemy, will he let him go away unharmed? Therefore may the LORD reward you good for that which you have done to me this day.

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

Swear now therefore to me by the LORD, that you will not cut off my seed after me, and that you will not destroy my name out of my father's house."

David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep.

You shall tell him, 'Long life to you. Peace be to you, and peace be to your house, and peace be to all that you have.

Now I have heard that you have shearers. Your shepherds have now been with us, and we did not hurt them, neither was there anything missing from them, all the while they were in Carmel.

Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my meat that I have killed for my shearers, and give it to men who I do not know where they come from?"

Now therefore know and consider what you will do; for evil is determined against our master, and against all his house; for he is such a worthless fellow that one can't speak to him."

It was so, as she rode on her donkey, and came down by the covert of the mountain, that behold, David and his men came down toward her; and she met them.

Now David had said, "Surely in vain have I kept all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that pertained to him. He has returned me evil for good.

God do so to the enemies of David, and more also, if I leave of all that belongs to him by the morning light so much as one who urinates on a wall."

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,

that this shall be no grief to you, nor offense of heart to my lord, either that you have shed blood without cause, or that my lord has avenged himself. When the LORD has dealt well with my lord, then remember your handmaid."

Blessed is your discretion, and blessed are you, that have kept me this day from blood guiltiness, and from avenging myself with my own hand.

So David received of her hand that which she had brought him: and he said to her, "Go up in peace to your house. Behold, I have listened to your voice, and have granted your request."

It happened in the morning, when the wine was gone out of Nabal, that his wife told him these things, and his heart died within him, and he became as a stone.

It happened about ten days after, that the LORD struck Nabal, so that he died.

When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, "Blessed is the LORD, who has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and has kept back his servant from evil. The LORD has returned the evildoing of Nabal on his own head." David sent and spoke concerning Abigail, to take her to him as wife.

Saul encamped in the hill of Hachilah, which is before the desert, by the way. But David stayed in the wilderness, and he saw that Saul came after him into the wilderness.