Terror spread through the Philistine camp and the open fields to all the troops. Even the garrison and the raiding parties were terrified. The earth shook, and terror spread from God.

While Saul spoke to the priest, the panic in the Philistine camp increased in intensity. So Saul said to the priest, “Stop what you’re doing.”

There were Hebrews from the area who had gone earlier into the camp to join the Philistines, but even they joined the Israelites who were with Saul and Jonathan.

Saul came to the city of Amalek and set up an ambush in the wadi.

He warned the Kenites, “Since you showed kindness to all the Israelites when they came out of Egypt, go on and leave! Get away from the Amalekites, or I’ll sweep you away with them.” So the Kenites withdrew from the Amalekites.

Then the word of the Lord came to Samuel,

When Samuel came to him, Saul said, “May the Lord bless you. I have carried out the Lord’s instructions.”

Samuel said, “Bring me Agag king of Amalek.”

Agag came to him trembling, for he thought, “Certainly the bitterness of death has come.”

When David came to Saul and entered his service, Saul admired him greatly, and David became his armor-bearer.

Then a champion named Goliath, from Gath, came out from the Philistine camp. He was nine feet, nine inches tall

Every morning and evening for 40 days the Philistine came forward and took his stand.

One day Jesse had told his son David: “Take this half-bushel of roasted grain along with these 10 loaves of bread for your brothers and hurry to their camp.

So David got up early in the morning, left the flock with someone to keep it, loaded up, and set out as Jesse had instructed him.

He arrived at the perimeter of the camp as the army was marching out to its battle formation shouting their battle cry.

While he was speaking with them, suddenly the champion named Goliath, the Philistine from Gath, came forward from the Philistine battle line and shouted his usual words, which David heard.

David’s oldest brother Eliab listened as he spoke to the men, and became angry with him. “Why did you come down here?” he asked. “Who did you leave those few sheep with in the wilderness? I know your arrogance and your evil heart—you came down to see the battle!”

David answered Saul: “Your servant has been tending his father’s sheep. Whenever a lion or a bear came and carried off a lamb from the flock,

The Philistine came closer and closer to David, with the shield-bearer in front of him.

Today, the Lord will hand you over to me. Today, I’ll strike you down, cut your head off, and give the corpses of the Philistine camp to the birds of the sky and the creatures of the earth. Then all the world will know that Israel has a God,

As the troops were coming back, when David was returning from killing the Philistine, the women came out from all the cities of Israel to meet King Saul, singing and dancing with tambourines, with shouts of joy, and with three-stringed instruments.

Every time the Philistine commanders came out to fight, David was more successful than all of Saul’s officers. So his name became well known.

Now an evil spirit sent from the Lord came on Saul as he was sitting in his palace holding a spear. David was playing the lyre,

he sent agents to seize David. However, when they saw the group of prophets prophesying with Samuel leading them, the Spirit of God came on Saul’s agents, and they also started prophesying.

Then Saul himself went to Ramah. He came to the large cistern at Secu, looked around, and asked, “Where are Samuel and David?”

“At Naioth in Ramah,” someone said.

So he went to Naioth in Ramah. The Spirit of God also came on him, and as he walked along, he prophesied until he entered Naioth in Ramah.

David fled from Naioth in Ramah and came to Jonathan and asked, “What have I done? What did I do wrong? How have I sinned against your father so that he wants to take my life?”

He came to the location of the arrow that Jonathan had shot, but Jonathan called to him and said, “The arrow is beyond you, isn’t it?”

The king sent messengers to summon Ahimelech the priest, son of Ahitub, and his father’s whole family, who were priests in Nob. All of them came to the king.

Then Saul’s son Jonathan came to David in Horesh and encouraged him in his faith in God,

Some Ziphites came up to Saul at Gibeah and said, “David is hiding among us in the strongholds in Horesh on the hill of Hachilah south of Jeshimon.

Then a messenger came to Saul saying, “Come quickly, because the Philistines have raided the land!”

When Saul came to the sheep pens along the road, a cave was there, and he went in to relieve himself. David and his men were staying in the back of the cave,

When David’s servants came to Abigail at Carmel, they said to her, “David sent us to bring you to him as a wife.”

Then the Ziphites came to Saul at Gibeah saying, “David is hiding on the hill of Hachilah opposite Jeshimon.”

Immediately, David went to the place where Saul had camped. He saw the place where Saul and Abner son of Ner, the general of his army, were lying down. Saul was lying inside the inner circle of the camp with the troops camped around him.

Then David asked Ahimelech the Hittite and Joab’s brother Abishai son of Zeruiah, “Who will go with me into the camp to Saul?”

“I’ll go with you,” answered Abishai.

That night, David and Abishai came to the troops, and Saul was lying there asleep in the inner circle of the camp with his spear stuck in the ground by his head. Abner and the troops were lying around him.

So David took the spear and the water jug by Saul’s head, and they went their way. No one saw them, no one knew, and no one woke up; they all remained asleep because a deep sleep from the Lord came over them.

David called to Abner, “You’re a man, aren’t you? Who in Israel is your equal? So why didn’t you protect your lord the king when one of the people came to destroy him?

Whenever David attacked the land, he did not leave a single person alive, either man or woman, but he took flocks, herds, donkeys, camels, and clothing. Then he came back to Achish,

The Philistines came together and camped at Shunem. So Saul gathered all Israel, and they camped at Gilboa.

When Saul saw the Philistine camp, he was afraid and trembled violently.

Saul disguised himself by putting on different clothes and set out with two of his men. They came to the woman at night, and Saul said, “Consult a spirit for me. Bring up for me the one I tell you.”

The woman came over to Saul, and she saw that he was terrified and said to him, “Look, your servant has obeyed you. I took my life in my hands and did what you told me to do.

So Achish summoned David and told him, “As the Lord lives, you are an honorable man. I think it is good to have you working with me in the camp, because I have found no fault in you from the day you came to me until today. But the leaders don’t think you are reliable.

So get up early in the morning, you and your masters’ servants who came with you. When you’ve all gotten up early, go as soon as it’s light.”

When David came to the 200 men who had been too exhausted to go with him and had been left at the Wadi Besor, they came out to meet him and to meet the troops with him. When David approached the men, he greeted them,

But David said, “My brothers, you must not do this with what the Lord has given us. He protected us and handed over to us the raiders who came against us.

When David came to Ziklag, he sent some of the plunder to his friends, the elders of Judah, saying, “Here is a gift for you from the plunder of the Lord’s enemies.”

When the men of Israel on the other side of the valley and on the other side of the Jordan saw that Israel’s men had run away and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned the cities and fled. So the Philistines came and settled in them.

The next day when the Philistines came to strip the dead, they found Saul and his three sons dead on Mount Gilboa.

On the third day a man with torn clothes and dust on his head came from Saul’s camp. When he came to David, he fell to the ground and paid homage.

David asked him, “Where have you come from?”

He replied to him, “I’ve escaped from the Israelite camp.”

Then the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah. They told David: “It was the men of Jabesh-gilead who buried Saul.”

But Asahel refused to turn away, so Abner hit him in the stomach with the end of his spear. The spear went through his body, and he fell and died right there. When all who came to the place where Asahel had fallen and died, they stopped,

When Abner and 20 men came to David at Hebron, David held a banquet for him and his men.

When Joab and all his army arrived, Joab was informed, “Abner son of Ner came to see the king, the king dismissed him, and he went in peace.”

Joab went to the king and said, “What have you done? Look here, Abner came to you. Why did you dismiss him? Now he’s getting away.

You know that Abner son of Ner came to deceive you and to find out about your activities and everything you’re doing.”

Then they came to urge David to eat bread while it was still day, but David took an oath: “May God punish me and do so severely if I taste bread or anything else before sunset!”

Saul’s son Jonathan had a son whose feet were crippled. He was five years old when the report about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel. The one who had nursed him picked him up and fled, but as she was hurrying to flee, he fell and became lame. His name was Mephibosheth.

All the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and said, “Here we are, your own flesh and blood.

So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron. King David made a covenant with them at Hebron in the Lord’s presence, and they anointed David king over Israel.

So the Philistines came and spread out in the Valley of Rephaim.

The Philistines came up again and spread out in the Valley of Rephaim.

When you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, act decisively, for then the Lord will have marched out ahead of you to attack the camp of the Philistines.”

When they came to Nacon’s threshing floor, Uzzah reached out to the ark of God and took hold of it because the oxen had stumbled.

When David returned home to bless his household, Saul’s daughter Michal came out to meet him. “How the king of Israel honored himself today!” she said. “He exposed himself today in the sight of the slave girls of his subjects like a vulgar person would expose himself.”

But that night the word of the Lord came to Nathan:

And who is like Your people Israel? God came to one nation on earth in order to redeem a people for Himself, to make a name for Himself, and to perform for them great and awesome acts, driving out nations and their gods before Your people You redeemed for Yourself from Egypt.

When the Arameans of Damascus came to assist King Hadadezer of Zobah, David struck down 22,000 Aramean men.

Mephibosheth son of Jonathan son of Saul came to David, bowed down to the ground and paid homage. David said, “Mephibosheth!”

“I am your servant,” he replied.

Hadadezer sent messengers to bring the Arameans who were across the Euphrates River, and they came to Helam with Shobach, commander of Hadadezer’s army, leading them.

David sent messengers to get her, and when she came to him, he slept with her. Now she had just been purifying herself from her uncleanness. Afterward, she returned home.

When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab and the troops were doing and how the war was going.

Then the men of the city came out and attacked Joab, and some of the men from David’s soldiers fell in battle; Uriah the Hittite also died.

The messenger reported to David, “The men gained the advantage over us and came out against us in the field, but we counterattacked right up to the entrance of the gate.

Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man could not bring himself to take one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for his guest.

So Amnon lay down and pretended to be sick. When the king came to see him, Amnon said to him, “Please let my sister Tamar come and make a couple of cakes in my presence so I can eat from her hand.”

When the woman from Tekoa came to the king, she fell with her face to the ground in homage and said, “Help me, my king!”

Then Joab came to Absalom’s house and demanded, “Why did your servants set my field on fire?”

Joab went to the king and told him. So David summoned Absalom, who came to the king and bowed down with his face to the ground before him. Then the king kissed Absalom.

Absalom did this to all the Israelites who came to the king for a settlement. So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.

Then an informer came to David and reported, “The hearts of the men of Israel are with Absalom.”

while all his servants marched past him. Then all the Cherethites, the Pelethites, and the Gittites—600 men who came with him from Gath—marched past the king.

When David came to the summit where he used to worship God, Hushai the Archite was there to meet him with his robe torn and dust on his head.

Now Absalom and all the Israelites came to Jerusalem. Ahithophel was also with him.

When David’s friend Hushai the Archite came to Absalom, Hushai said to Absalom, “Long live the king! Long live the king!”

So Hushai came to Absalom, and Absalom told him: “Ahithophel offered this proposal. Should we carry out his proposal? If not, what do you say?”

However, a young man did see them and informed Absalom. So the two left quickly and came to the house of a man in Bahurim. He had a well in his courtyard, and they climbed down into it.

Absalom’s servants came to the woman at the house and asked, “Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan?”

“They passed by toward the water,” the woman replied to them. The men searched but did not find them, so they returned to Jerusalem.

When David came to Mahanaim, Shobi son of Nahash from Rabbah of the Ammonites, Machir son of Ammiel from Lo-debar, and Barzillai the Gileadite from Rogelim

He called out and told the king.

The king said, “If he’s alone, he bears good news.”

As the first runner came closer,

Just then the Cushite came and said, “May my lord the king hear the good news: today the Lord has delivered you from all those rising up against you!”

So the king got up and sat in the gate, and all the people were told: “Look, the king is sitting in the gate.” Then they all came into the king’s presence.

Meanwhile, each Israelite had fled to his tent.

Then the king returned. When he arrived at the Jordan, Judah came to Gilgal to meet the king and escort him across the Jordan.

When he came from Jerusalem to meet the king, the king asked him, “Mephibosheth, why didn’t you come with me?”

Suddenly, all the men of Israel came to the king. They asked him, “Why did our brothers, the men of Judah, take you away secretly and transport the king and his household across the Jordan, along with all of David’s men?”

When David came to his palace in Jerusalem, he took the 10 concubines he had left to take care of the palace and placed them under guard. He provided for them, but he was not intimate with them. They were confined until the day of their death, living as widows.

Sheba passed through all the tribes of Israel to Abel of Beth-maacah. All the Berites came together and followed him.

Joab’s troops came and besieged Sheba in Abel of Beth-maacah. They built an assault ramp against the outer wall of the city. While all the troops with Joab were battering the wall to make it collapse,