1 Samuel 29–31

Chapter 29

The Philistines Mistrust David

¹Now ^athe Philistines gathered together all their armies to ^bAphek, while the Israelites were camping by the spring which is in ^cJezreel.

²And the lords of the Philistines were proceeding on by hundreds and by thousands, and ^aDavid and his men were proceeding on in the rear with Achish.

³Then the commanders of the Philistines said, “What are these Hebrews doing here?” And Achish said to the commanders of the Philistines, “Is this not David, the servant of Saul the king of Israel, ^awho has been with me these days, or rather these years, and ^bI have found no fault in him from the day he ¹deserted to me to this day?”

⁴But the commanders of the Philistines were angry with him, and the commanders of the Philistines said to him, “Make the man go back, that he may return ^ato his place where you have assigned him, and do not let him go down to battle with us, ^bor in the battle he may become an adversary to us. For with what could this man make himself acceptable to his lord? Would it not be with the heads of ¹these men?

⁵“Is this not David, ^aof whom they sing in the dances, saying,

‘Saul has slain his thousands,

And David his ten thousands’?”

⁶Then Achish called David and said to him, “As the Lord lives, you have been upright, and ^ayour going out and your coming in with me in the army are pleasing in my sight; ^bfor I have not found evil in you from the day of your coming to me to this day. Nevertheless, you are not pleasing in the sight of the lords.

⁷“Now therefore return and go in peace, that you may not displease the lords of the Philistines.”

⁸David said to Achish, “^aBut what have I done? And what have you found in your servant from the day when I came before you to this day, that I may not go and fight against the enemies of my lord the king?”

⁹But Achish replied to David, “I know that you are pleasing in my sight, ^alike an angel of God; nevertheless ^bthe commanders of the Philistines have said, ‘He must not go up with us to the battle.’

¹⁰“Now then arise early in the morning ^awith the servants of your lord who have come with you, and as soon as you have arisen early in the morning and have light, depart.”

¹¹So David arose early, he and his men, to depart in the morning to return to the land of the Philistines. And the Philistines went up to Jezreel.

Chapter 30

David’s Victory over the Amalekites

¹Then it happened when David and his men came to ^aZiklag on the third day, that ^bthe Amalekites had made a raid on the ¹Negev and on ^cZiklag, and had ²overthrown Ziklag and burned it with fire;

²and they took captive the women and all who were in it, both small and great, ^1awithout killing anyone, and carried them off and went their way.

³When David and his men came to the city, behold, it was burned with fire, and their wives and their sons and their daughters had been taken captive.

⁴Then David and the people who were with him ^alifted their voices and wept until there was no strength in them to weep.

⁵Now ^aDavid’s two wives had been taken captive, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess and Abigail the ¹widow of Nabal the Carmelite.

⁶Moreover David was greatly distressed because ^athe people spoke of stoning him, for all the people were ¹embittered, each one because of his sons and his daughters. But ^bDavid strengthened himself in the Lord his God.

⁷Then ^aDavid said to ^bAbiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelech, “Please bring me the ephod.” So Abiathar brought the ephod to David.

^8aDavid inquired of the Lord, saying, “^bShall I pursue this band? Shall I overtake them?” And He said to him, “Pursue, for you will surely overtake them, ^cand you will surely rescue all.”

⁹So David went, ^ahe and the six hundred men who were with him, and came to the brook Besor, where those left behind remained.

¹⁰But David pursued, he and four hundred men, for ^atwo hundred who were too exhausted to cross the brook Besor remained behind.

¹¹Now they found an Egyptian in the field and brought him to David, and gave him bread and he ate, and they provided him water to drink.

¹²They gave him a piece of fig cake and two clusters of raisins, and he ate; ^athen his spirit ¹revived. For he had not eaten bread or drunk water for three days and three nights.

¹³David said to him, “To whom do you belong? And where are you from?” And he said, “I am a young man of Egypt, a servant of an Amalekite; and my master left me behind when I fell sick three days ago.

¹⁴“We made a raid on ^athe ¹Negev of the Cherethites, and on that which belongs to Judah, and on ^bthe Negev of Caleb, and ^cwe burned Ziklag with fire.”

¹⁵Then David said to him, “Will you bring me down to this band?” And he said, “Swear to me by God that you will not kill me or deliver me into the hands of my master, and I will bring you down to this band.”

¹⁶When he had brought him down, behold, they were ¹spread over all the land, ^aeating and drinking and ²dancing because of ^ball the great spoil that they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah.

¹⁷David ¹slaughtered them ^afrom the twilight ²until the evening of ³the next day; and not a man of them escaped, except four hundred young men who rode on ^bcamels and fled.

¹⁸So David ^arecovered all that the Amalekites had taken, and ¹rescued his two wives.

¹⁹But nothing of theirs was missing, whether small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything that they had taken for themselves; ^aDavid brought it all back.

²⁰So David had ¹captured all the sheep and the cattle which the people drove ahead of ²the other livestock, and they said, “^aThis is David’s spoil.”

The Spoils Are Divided

²¹When ^aDavid came to the two hundred men who were too exhausted to follow David, who had also been left at the brook Besor, and they went out to meet David and to meet the people who were with him, then David approached the people and greeted them.

²²Then all the wicked and worthless men among those who went with David said, “Because they did not go with ¹us, we will not give them any of the spoil that we have recovered, except to every man his wife and his children, that they may lead them away and depart.”

²³Then David said, “You must not do so, my brothers, with what the Lord has given us, who has kept us and delivered into our hand the band that came against us.

²⁴“And who will listen to you in this matter? For ^aas his share is who goes down to the battle, so shall his share be who stays by the baggage; they shall share alike.”

²⁵So it has been from that day forward, that he made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel to this day.

²⁶Now when David came to Ziklag, he sent some of the spoil to the elders of Judah, to his friends, saying, “Behold, ^aa ¹gift for you from the spoil of ^bthe enemies of the Lord:

²⁷to those who were in ^aBethel, and to those who were in ^bRamoth of the ¹Negev, and to those who were in ^cJattir,

²⁸and to those who were in ^aAroer, and to those who were in Siphmoth, and to those who were in ^bEshtemoa,

²⁹and to those who were in Racal, and to those who were in the cities of ^athe Jerahmeelites, and to those who were in the cities of ^bthe Kenites,

³⁰and to those who were in ^aHormah, and to those who were in ^bBor-ashan, and to those who were in Athach,

³¹and to those who were in ^aHebron, and to all the places where David himself and his men were accustomed to ^bgo.”

Chapter 31

Saul and His Sons Slain

^1aNow the Philistines were fighting against Israel, and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines and fell slain ^bon Mount Gilboa.

²The Philistines overtook Saul and his sons; and the Philistines ¹killed ^aJonathan and Abinadab and Malchi-shua the sons of Saul.

^3aThe battle went heavily against Saul, and the archers ¹hit him; and he was badly wounded by the archers.

^4aThen Saul said to his armor bearer, “Draw your sword and pierce me through with it, otherwise ^bthese uncircumcised will come and pierce me through and make sport of me.” But his armor bearer would not, for he was greatly afraid. ^cSo Saul took his sword and fell on it.

⁵When his armor bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell on his sword and died with him.

⁶Thus Saul died with his three sons, his armor bearer, and all his men on that day together.

⁷When the men of Israel who were on the other side of the valley, with those who were beyond the Jordan, saw that the men of Israel had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned the cities and fled; then the Philistines came and lived in them.

⁸It came about on the ¹next day when the Philistines came to strip the slain, that they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa.

⁹They cut off his head and stripped off his weapons, and sent them ¹throughout the land of the Philistines, ^ato carry the good news ^bto the house of their idols and to the people.

¹⁰They put his weapons in the ¹temple of ^aAshtaroth, and ^bthey fastened his body to the wall of ^cBeth-shan.

¹¹Now when ^athe inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead heard ¹what the Philistines had done to Saul,

^12aall the valiant men rose and walked all night, and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth-shan, and they came to Jabesh and ^bburned them there.

¹³They took their bones and ^aburied them under ^bthe tamarisk tree at Jabesh, and ^cfasted seven days.