The neighbor women said, “A son has been born to Naomi,” and they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.

And Obed fathered Jesse,
who fathered David.

So Samuel took the horn of oil, anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and the Spirit of the Lord took control of David from that day forward. Then Samuel set out and went to Ramah.

Then Saul dispatched messengers to Jesse and said, “Send me your son David, who is with the sheep.”

So Jesse took a donkey loaded with bread, a skin of wine, and one young goat and sent them by his son David to Saul.

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

Then Saul sent word to Jesse: “Let David remain in my service, for I am pleased with him.”

Whenever the spirit from God troubled Saul, David would pick up his lyre and play, and Saul would then be relieved, feel better, and the evil spirit would leave him.

Now David was the son of the Ephrathite from Bethlehem of Judah named Jesse. Jesse had eight sons and during Saul’s reign was already an old man.

and David was the youngest. The three oldest had followed Saul,

but David kept going back and forth from Saul to tend his father’s flock in Bethlehem.

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.

David left his supplies in the care of the quartermaster and ran to the battle line. When he arrived, he asked his brothers how they were.

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 spoke to the men who were standing with him: “What will be done for the man who kills that Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Just who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?”

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!”

“What have I done now?” protested David. “It was just a question.”

What David said was overheard and reported to Saul, so he had David brought to him.

David said to Saul, “Don’t let anyone be discouraged by him; your servant will go and fight this Philistine!”

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,

Then David said, “The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”

Saul said to David, “Go, and may the Lord be with you.”

Then Saul had his own military clothes put on David. He put a bronze helmet on David’s head and had him put on armor.

David strapped his sword on over the military clothes and tried to walk, but he was not used to them. “I can’t walk in these,” David said to Saul, “I’m not used to them.” So David took them off.

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

When the Philistine looked and saw David, he despised him because he was just a youth, healthy and handsome.

He said to David, “Am I a dog that you come against me with sticks?” Then he cursed David by his gods.

“Come here,” the Philistine called to David, “and I’ll give your flesh to the birds of the sky and the wild beasts!”

David said to the Philistine: “You come against me with a dagger, spear, and sword, but I come against you in the name of Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel’s armies—you have defied Him.

When the Philistine started forward to attack him, David ran quickly to the battle line to meet the Philistine.

David put his hand in the bag, took out a stone, slung it, and hit the Philistine on his forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the ground.

David defeated the Philistine with a sling and a stone. Even though David had no sword, he struck down the Philistine and killed him.

David ran and stood over him. He grabbed the Philistine’s sword, pulled it from its sheath, and used it to kill him. Then he cut off his head. When the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they ran.

David took Goliath’s head and brought it to Jerusalem, but he put Goliath’s weapons in his own tent.

When Saul had seen David going out to confront the Philistine, he asked Abner the commander of the army, “Whose son is this youth, Abner?”

“My king, as surely as you live, I don’t know,” Abner replied.

When David returned from killing the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul with the Philistine’s head still in his hand.

Saul said to him, “Whose son are you, young man?”

“The son of your servant Jesse of Bethlehem,” David answered.

When David had finished speaking with Saul, Jonathan committed himself to David, and loved him as much as he loved himself.

Saul kept David with him from that day on and did not let him return to his father’s house.

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

Then Jonathan removed the robe he was wearing and gave it to David, along with his military tunic, his sword, his bow, and his belt.

David marched out with the army and was successful in everything Saul sent him to do. Saul put him in command of the soldiers, which pleased all the people and Saul’s servants as well.

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.

As they celebrated, the women sang:

Saul has killed his thousands,
but David his tens of thousands.

Saul was furious and resented this song. “They credited tens of thousands to David,” he complained, “but they only credited me with thousands. What more can he have but the kingdom?”

So Saul watched David jealously from that day forward.

The next day an evil spirit sent from God took control of Saul, and he began to rave inside the palace. David was playing the lyre as usual, but Saul was holding a spear,

and he threw it, thinking, “I’ll pin David to the wall.” But David got away from him twice.

Saul was afraid of David, because the Lord was with David but had left Saul.

Therefore, Saul reassigned David and made him commander over 1,000 men. David led the troops

When Saul observed that David was very successful, he dreaded him.

But all Israel and Judah loved David because he was leading their troops.

Saul told David, “Here is my oldest daughter Merab. I’ll give her to you as a wife, if you will be a warrior for me and fight the Lord’s battles.” But Saul was thinking, “My hand doesn’t need to be against him; let the hand of the Philistines be against him.”

Then David responded, “Who am I, and what is my family or my father’s clan in Israel that I should become the king’s son-in-law?”

When it was time to give Saul’s daughter Merab to David, she was given to Adriel the Meholathite as a wife.

Now Saul’s daughter Michal loved David, and when it was reported to Saul, it pleased him.

“I’ll give her to him,” Saul thought. “She’ll be a trap for him, and the hand of the Philistines will be against him.” So Saul said to David a second time, “You can now be my son-in-law.”

Saul then ordered his servants, “Speak to David in private and tell him, ‘Look, the king is pleased with you, and all his servants love you. Therefore, you should become the king’s son-in-law.’”

Saul’s servants reported these words directly to David, but he replied, “Is it trivial in your sight to become the king’s son-in-law? I am a poor man who is common.”

The servants reported back to Saul, “These are the words David spoke.”

Then Saul replied, “Say this to David: ‘The king desires no other bride-price except 100 Philistine foreskins, to take revenge on his enemies.’” Actually, Saul intended to cause David’s death at the hands of the Philistines.

When the servants reported these terms to David, he was pleased to become the king’s son-in-law. Before the wedding day arrived,

David and his men went out and killed 200 Philistines. He brought their foreskins and presented them as full payment to the king to become his son-in-law. Then Saul gave his daughter Michal to David as his wife.

Saul realized that the Lord was with David and that his daughter Michal loved him,

and he became even more afraid of David. As a result, Saul was David’s enemy from then on.

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.

Saul ordered his son Jonathan and all his servants to kill David. But Saul’s son Jonathan liked David very much,

Jonathan spoke well of David to his father Saul. He said to him: “The king should not sin against his servant David. He hasn’t sinned against you; in fact, his actions have been a great advantage to you.

He took his life in his hands when he struck down the Philistine, and the Lord brought about a great victory for all Israel. You saw it and rejoiced, so why would you sin against innocent blood by killing David for no reason?”

Saul listened to Jonathan’s advice and swore an oath: “As surely as the Lord lives, David will not be killed.”

So Jonathan summoned David and told him all these words. Then Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he served him as he did before.

When war broke out again, David went out and fought against the Philistines. He defeated them with such a great force that they fled from him.

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,

and Saul tried to pin David to the wall with the spear. As the spear struck the wall, David eluded Saul, ran away, and escaped that night.

Saul sent agents to David’s house to watch for him and kill him in the morning. But his wife Michal warned David, “If you don’t escape tonight, you will be dead tomorrow!”

So she lowered David from the window, and he fled and escaped.

When Saul sent agents to seize David, Michal said, “He’s sick.”

Saul sent the agents back to see David and said, “Bring him on his bed so I can kill him.”

So David fled and escaped and went to Samuel at Ramah and told him everything Saul had done to him. Then he and Samuel left and stayed at Naioth.

When it was reported to Saul that David was at Naioth in Ramah,

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.

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?”

But David said, “Your father certainly knows that you have come to look favorably on me. He has said, ‘Jonathan must not know of this, or else he will be grieved.’” David also swore, “As surely as the Lord lives and as you yourself live, there is but a step between me and death.”

Jonathan said to David, “Whatever you say, I will do for you.”

So David told him, “Look, tomorrow is the New Moon, and I’m supposed to sit down and eat with the king. Instead, let me go, and I’ll hide in the field until the third night.

If your father misses me at all, say, ‘David urgently requested my permission to quickly go to his town Bethlehem for an annual sacrifice there involving the whole clan.’

So David asked Jonathan, “Who will tell me if your father answers you harshly?”

He answered David, “Come on, let’s go out to the field.” So both of them went out to the field.

don’t ever withdraw your faithful love from my household—not even when the Lord cuts off every one of David’s enemies from the face of the earth.”

Then Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, “May the Lord hold David’s enemies accountable.”

Jonathan once again swore to David in his love for him, because he loved him as he loved himself.

So David hid in the field.

At the New Moon, the king sat down to eat the meal.

He sat at his usual place on the seat by the wall. Jonathan sat facing him and Abner took his place beside Saul, but David’s place was empty.

However, the day after the New Moon, the second day, David’s place was still empty, and Saul asked his son Jonathan, “Why didn’t Jesse’s son come to the meal either yesterday or today?”

Jonathan answered, “David asked for my permission to go to Bethlehem.

Then Saul threw his spear at Jonathan to kill him, so he knew that his father was determined to kill David.

He got up from the table in fierce anger and did not eat any food that second day of the New Moon, for he was grieved because of his father’s shameful behavior toward David.

In the morning Jonathan went out to the field for the appointed meeting with David. A small young man was with him.

He did not know anything; only Jonathan and David knew the arrangement.