Now the sons of Saul were Jonathan, and Ishvi, and Malchishua; and the names of his two daughters were these: the name of the firstborn Merab, and the name of the younger Michal:

There was severe war against the Philistines all the days of Saul: and when Saul saw any mighty man, or any valiant man, he took him to him.

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

Thus says Yahweh of Armies, '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.

Now go and strike Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and don't spare them; but kill both man and woman, infant and nursing baby, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.'"

Saul summoned the people, and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand footmen, and ten thousand men of Judah.

Saul came to the city of Amalek, and laid wait in the valley.

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.

Saul struck the Amalekites, from Havilah as you go to Shur, that is before Egypt.

But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the cattle, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and wouldn't utterly destroy them: but everything that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly.

Then the word of Yahweh came to Samuel, saying,

"It grieves me that I have set up Saul to be king; for he is turned back from following me, and has not performed my commandments." Samuel was angry; and he cried to Yahweh all night.

Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning; and it was told Samuel, saying, "Saul came to Carmel, and behold, he set up a monument for himself, and turned, and passed on, and went down to Gilgal."

Samuel came to Saul; and Saul said to him, "You are blessed by Yahweh! I have performed the commandment of Yahweh."

Saul said, "They have brought them from the Amalekites; for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the cattle, to sacrifice to Yahweh your God. We have utterly destroyed the rest."

Then Samuel said to Saul, "Stay, and I will tell you what Yahweh has said to me last night." He said to him, "Say on."

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

Why then didn't you obey the voice of Yahweh, but took the spoils, and did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh?"

Saul said to Samuel, "But I have obeyed the voice of Yahweh, and have gone the way which Yahweh sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.

But the people took of the spoil, sheep and cattle, the chief of the devoted things, to sacrifice to Yahweh your God in Gilgal."

Samuel said, "Has Yahweh as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of Yahweh? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.

Saul said to Samuel, "I have sinned; for I have transgressed the commandment of Yahweh, and your words, because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice.

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

As Samuel turned about to go away, Saul grabbed the skirt of his robe, and it tore.

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

Then Samuel said, "Bring here to me Agag the king of the Amalekites!" Agag came to him cheerfully. Agag said, "Surely the bitterness of death is past."

Then Samuel went to Ramah; and Saul went up to his house to Gibeah of Saul.

Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death; for Samuel mourned for Saul: and Yahweh grieved that he had made Saul king over Israel.

Yahweh 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."

Samuel said, "How can I go? If Saul hears it, he will kill me." Yahweh said, "Take a heifer with you, and say, I have come to sacrifice to Yahweh.

Call Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do. You shall anoint to me him whom I name to you."

Samuel did that which Yahweh spoke, and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling, and said, "Do you come peaceably?"

He said, "Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to Yahweh. Sanctify yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice." He sanctified Jesse and his sons, and called them to the sacrifice.

But Yahweh said to Samuel, "Don't look on his face, or on the height of his stature; because I have rejected him: for [Yahweh sees] not as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but Yahweh looks at the heart."

Then Jesse made Shammah to pass by. He said, "Neither has Yahweh chosen this one."

Jesse made seven of his sons to pass before Samuel. Samuel said to Jesse, "Yahweh has not chosen these."

Samuel said to Jesse, "Are all your children here?" He said, "There remains yet the youngest, and behold, he is keeping the sheep." Samuel said to Jesse, "Send and get him; for we will not sit down until he comes here."

He sent, and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and withal of a beautiful face, and goodly to look on. Yahweh said, "Arise, anoint him; for this is he."

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.

Saul's servants said to him, "See now, an evil spirit from God troubles you.

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."

Saul said to his servants, "Provide me now a man who can play well, and bring him to me."

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."

Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle; and they were gathered together at Socoh, which belongs to Judah, and encamped between Socoh and Azekah, in Ephesdammim.

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.

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

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

The three eldest sons of Jesse had gone after Saul to the battle: and the names of his three sons who went to the battle were Eliab the firstborn, and next to him Abinadab, and the third Shammah.

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;

and bring these ten cheeses to the captain of their thousand, and see how your brothers are doing, and bring back news."

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.

The men of Israel said, "Have you seen this man who is 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 free 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?"

The people answered him in this way, saying, "So shall it be done to the man who kills him."

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 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."

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.

He took his staff in his hand, and chose for himself five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in the shepherd's bag which he had, even in his wallet. His sling was in his hand; and he drew near to the Philistine.

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

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.

Today, Yahweh 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 Yahweh doesn't save with sword and spear: for the battle is Yahweh'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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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 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.

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'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?"

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 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?"