The Tetragrammaton  =  hwhy = YaHuWaH

The First Book of Shemu'al

1:1 Now there was a certain man of Ramathayim Tsowphiym, of the hill country of Ephrayim, and his name was Elqanah, the son of Yerocham, the son of Aliyhuw, the son of Tochuw, the son of Tsuwph, an Ephrayim: 1:2 and he had two wives; the name of the one was Channah, and the name of other Peninnah: and Peninnah had children, but Channah had no children. 1:3 This man went up out of his city from year to year to worship and to slaughter to YaHuWaH Master of Armies in Shiyloh. The two sons of Eliy, Chophniy and Piynechas, priests to YaHuWaH, were there. 1:4 When the day came that Elqanah slaughtered, he gave to Peninnah his wife, and to all her sons and her daughters, portions: 1:5 but to Channah he gave a double portion; for he loved Channah, but YaHuWaH had shut up her womb. 1:6 Her rival provoked her sore, to make her fret, because YaHuWaH had shut up her womb. 1:7 as he did so year by year, when she went up to the house of YaHuWaH, so she provoked her; therefore she wept, and did not eat. 1:8 Elqanah her husband said to her, “Channah, why do you weep? Why don’t you eat? Why is your heart grieved? Am I not better to you than ten sons?”

1:9 So Channah rose up after they had eaten in Shiyloh, and after they had drunk. Now Eliy the priest was sitting on his seat by the doorpost of the temple of YaHuWaH. She was in bitterness of soul, and prayed to YaHuWaH, and wept sore. 1:11 She vowed a vow, and said, “ YaHuWaH Master of Armies, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your handmaid, and remember me, and not forget your handmaid, but will give to your handmaid a boy, then I will give him to YaHuWaH all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come on his head.”

1:12 It happened, as she continued praying before YaHuWaH, that Eliy saw her mouth. 1:13 Now Channah spoke in her heart. Only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard. Therefore Eliy thought she had been drunken. 1:14 Eliy said to her, “How long will you be drunken? Put away your wine from you.”

1:15 Channah answered, “No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I poured out my soul before YaHuWaH. Don’t count your handmaid for a wicked woman; for I have been speaking out of the abundance of my complaint and my provocation.”

1:17 Then Eliy answered, “Go in peace; and may the Aluahiym of Ysra'al grant your petition that you have asked of Him.”

1:18 She said, “Let your handmaid find favor in your sight.” So the woman went her way, and ate; and her facial expression wasn’t sad any more. 1:19 They rose up in the morning early, and worshiped before  YaHuWaH, and returned, and came to their house to Ramah: and Elqanah knew Channah his wife; and YaHuWaH remembered her.

1:20 It happened, when the time had come, that Channah conceived, and bore a son; and she named him Shemu'al, saying, “Because I have asked him of YaHuWaH.”

1:21 The man Elqanah, and all his house, went up to offer to YaHuWaH the yearly slaughter, and his vow. 1:22 But Channah didn’t go up; for she said to her husband, “Not until the child is weaned; then I will bring him, that he may appear before YaHuWaH, and stay there forever.”  

1:23 Elqanah her husband said to her, “Do what seems good to you. Wait until you have weaned him; only may YaHuWaH establish his word.”

So the woman waited and nursed her son, until she weaned him. 1:24 When she had weaned him, she took him up with her, with three bulls, and one efah of meal, and a bottle of wine, and brought him to YaHuWaH's house in Shiyloh. The child was young. 1:25 They killed the bull, and brought the child to Eliy. 1:26 She said, “Oh, my lord, as your soul lives, my lord, I am the woman who stood by you here, praying to YaHuWaH. 1:27 For this child I prayed; and YaHuWaH has given me my petition which I asked of him.  1:28 Therefore also I have granted him to YaHuWaH. As long as he lives he is granted to YaHuWaH.” So they worshiped YaHuWaH there.

2:1 Channah prayed, and said:

“My heart exults in YaHuWaH!

My horn is exalted in YaHuWaH.

I smile at my enemies,

because I rejoice in Your deliverance.

2:2 There is no one as Qadosh as YaHuWaH,

For there is no one besides You,

nor is there any Rock like our Aluahiym.

2:3 “Talk no more so exceeding proudly.

Don’t let arrogance come out of your mouth,

For YaHuWaH is an Aluahiym of knowledge.

By Him actions are weighed.

2:4 “The bows of the mighty men are broken.

Those who stumbled are girded with strength.

2:5 Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread.

Those who were hungry have ceased to hunger.

Yes, the barren has borne seven.

She who has many children languishes.

2:6 “ YaHuWaH kills, and makes alive.

He brings down to Sheol, and brings up.

2:7 YaHuWaH makes poor, and makes rich.

He brings low, He also lifts up.

2:8 He raises up the poor out of the dust.

He lifts up the needy from the dunghill,

To make them sit with princes,

and inherit the throne of esteem.

For the pillars of the earth are YaHuWaH’s.

He has set the world on them.

2:9 He will keep the feet of His qodesh ones,

but the wicked shall be put to silence in darkness;

for no man shall prevail by strength.

2:10 Those who strive with YaHuWaH  shall be broken to pieces.

He will thunder against them in the sky.

“ YaHuWaH will judge the ends of the earth.

He will give strength to His king,

and exalt the horn of His Mashiyach.”

2:11 Elqanah went to Ramah to his house. The child did minister to YaHuWaH before Eliy the priest.  2:12 Now the sons of Eliy were base men; they didn’t know YaHuWaH. 2:13 The custom of the priests with the people was that when any man offered a slaughtering, the priest’s servant came, while the flesh was boiling, with a fork of three teeth in his hand;  2:14 and he struck it into the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot; all that the fork brought up the priest took therewith. So they did in Shiyloh to all of Ysra'al who came there. 2:15 Yes, before they burnt the fat, the priest’s servant came, and said to the man who slaughtered, “Give meat to roast for the priest; for he will not accept boiled meat from you, but raw.”

2:16 If the man said to him, “Let the fat be burned first, and then take as much as your soul desires;” then he would say, “No, but you shall give it to me now; and if not, I will take it by force.” 2:17 The sin of the young men was very great before YaHuWaH; for the men despised the offering of YaHuWaH.  2:18 But Shemu'al ministered before YaHuWaH, being a child, girded with a linen ephod. 2:19 Moreover his mother made him a little robe, and brought it to him from year to year, when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly slaughtering. 2:20 Eliy blessed Elqanah and his wife, and said, “YaHuWaH give you seed of this woman for the petition which was asked of YaHuWaH.” They went to their own home. 2:21 YaHuWaH visited Channah, and she conceived, and bore three sons and two daughters. The child Shemu'al grew before YaHuWaH. 2:22 Now Eliy was very old; and he heard all that his sons did to all Ysra'al, and how that they lay with the women who served at the door of the Tent of Meeting. 2:23 He said to them, “Why do you do such things? for I hear of your evil dealings from all this people. 2:24 No, my sons; for it is no good report that I hear: you make YaHuWaH’s people disobey. 2:25 If one man sin against another, Aluahiym shall judge him; but if a man sin against YaHuWaH, who shall entreat for him?” Notwithstanding, they didn’t listen to the voice of their father, because YaHuWaH was minded to kill them. 2:26 The child Shemu'al grew on, and increased in favor both with YaHuWaH, and also with men. 2:27 A man of Aluahiym came to Eliy, and said to him, “Thus says YaHuWaH, ‘Did I not clearly reveal Myself to the house of your father, when they were in Mitsrayim in bondage to Pharaoh’s house? 2:28 Did I not choose him out of all the tribes of Ysra'al to be My priest, to go up to My altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before Me? Did I not give to the house of your father all the offerings of the children of Ysra'al made by fire? 2:29 Why do you kick at My slaughterings and at My offering, which I have commanded in My habitation, and esteem your sons above Me, to make yourselves fat with the best of all the offerings of Ysra'al My people?’

2:30 “Therefore YaHuWaH, the Aluahiym of Ysra'al, says, ‘I said indeed that your house, and the house of your father, should walk before Me forever.’ But now YaHuWaH says, ‘Be it far from Me; for those who esteem Me I will esteem, and those who despise Me shall be lightly esteemed. 2:31 Behold, the days come, that I will cut off your arm, and the arm of your father’s house, that there shall not be an old man in your house. 2:32 You shall see an enemy in My Dwelling Place, in spite of all the good which Aluahiym shall give Ysra'al; and there shall not be an old man in your house forever. 2:33 The man of yours, whom I shall not cut off from My altar, shall be to consume your eyes, and to grieve your heart; and all the increase of your house shall die in the flower of their age.

2:34 “‘This shall be the sign to you, that shall come on your two sons, on Chophniy and Piynechas: in one day they shall both die. 2:35 I will raise Me up a faithful priest, that shall do according to that which is in My heart and in My mind. I will build him a sure house; and he shall walk before My anointed forever. 2:36 It shall happen, that everyone who is left in your house shall come and bow down to him for a piece of silver and a loaf of bread, and shall say, “Please put me into one of the priests’ offices, that I may eat a morsel of bread.”’”

3:1 The child Shemu'al ministered to YaHuWaH before Eliy. The Word of YaHuWaH was rare in those days; there was no frequent vision. 3:2 It happened at that time, when Eliy was laid down in his place (now his eyes had begun to grow dim, so that he could not see), 3:3 and the lamp of Aluahiym hadn’t yet gone out, and Shemu'al had laid down to sleep, in the House of YaHuWaH, where the ark of Aluahiym was; 3:4 then  YaHuWaH called Shemu'al; and he said, “Here I am.” 3:5 He ran to Eliy, and said, “Here I am; for you called me.”

He said, “I didn’t call; lie down again.”

He went and lay down. 3:6  YaHuWaH called yet again, “Shemu'al!”

Shemu'al arose and went to Eliy, and said, “Here I am; for you called me.”

He answered, “I didn’t call, my son; lie down again.” 3:7 Now Shemu'al didn’t yet know YaHuWaH, neither was the Word of YaHuWaH yet revealed to him. 3:8 YaHuWaH called Shemu'al again the third time. He arose and went to Eliy, and said, “Here I am; for you called me.”

Eliy perceived that  YaHuWaH had called the child. 3:9 Therefore Eliy said to Shemu'al, “Go, lie down: and it shall be, if He calls you, that you shall say, ‘Speak, YaHuWaH; for your servant hears.’” So Shemu'al went and lay down in his place. 3:10  YaHuWaH came, and stood, and called as at other times, “Shemu'al! Shemu'al!”

Then Shemu'al said, “Speak; for your servant hears.”

3:11 YaHuWaH said to Shemu'al, “Behold, I will do a thing in Ysra'al, at which both the ears of everyone who hears it shall tingle. 3:12 In that day I will perform against Eliy all that I have spoken concerning his house, from the beginning even to the end. 3:13 For I have told him that I will judge his house forever, for the iniquity which he knew, because his sons brought a curse on themselves, and he didn’t restrain them. 3:14 Therefore I have sworn to the house of Eliy, that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be removed with slaughter nor offering forever.”

3:15 Shemu'al lay until the morning, and opened the doors of the House of YaHuWaH. Shemu'al feared to show Eliy the vision. 3:16 Then Eliy called Shemu'al, and said, “Shemu'al, my son!”

He said, “Here I am.”

3:17 He said, “What is the thing that YaHuWaH has spoken to you? Please don’t hide it from me. Aluahiym do so to you, and more also, if you hide anything from me of all the things that He spoke to you.”

3:18 Shemu'al told him every bit, and hid nothing from him.

He said, “It is YaHuWaH. Let Him do what seems good to Him.”

3:19 Shemu'al grew, and YaHuWaH was with him, and let none of His words fall to the ground. 3:20 All Ysra'al from Dan even to Be'er Sheba knew that Shemu'al was established to be a prophet of YaHuWaH.  3:21 YaHuWaH continued to appear in Shiyloh; for YaHuWaH revealed Himself to Shemu'al in Shiyloh by the Word of YaHuWaH.

4:1 The word of Shemu'al came to all Ysra'al. Now Ysra'al went out against the Pelishtiym to battle, and encamped beside Eben haEzer: and the Pelishtiym encamped in Apheq. 4:2 The Pelishtiym put themselves in array against Ysra'al: and when they joined battle, Ysra'al was struck before the Pelishtiym; and they killed of the army in the field about four thousand men. 4:3 When the people were come into the camp, the elders of Ysra'al said, “Why has YaHuWaH struck us today before the Pelishtiym? Let us get the ark of the covenant of YaHuWaH out of Shiyloh to us, that it may come among us, and save us out of the hand of our enemies.”

4:4 So the people sent to Shiyloh; and they brought from there the ark of the covenant of YaHuWaH Master of Armies, Who sits above the keruwbiym: and the two sons of Eliy, Chophniy and Piynechas, were there with the ark of the covenant of Aluahiym. 4:5 When the ark of the covenant of YaHuWaH came into the camp, all Ysra'al shouted with a great shout, so that the earth rang again. 4:6 When the Pelishtiym heard the noise of the shout, they said, “What does the noise of this great shout in the camp of the Ibriym mean?” They understood that the ark of YaHuWaH had come into the camp. 4:7 The Pelishtiym were afraid, for they said, “  Aluahiym has come into the camp.” They said, “Woe to us! For there has not been such a thing before. 4:8 Woe to us! Who shall deliver us out of the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods that struck the Mitsriy with all manner of plagues in the wilderness. 4:9 Be strong, and behave like men, O you Pelishtiym, that you not be servants to the Ibriym, as they have been to you. Strengthen yourselves like men, and fight!” 4:10 The Pelishtiym fought, and Ysra'al was struck, and they fled every man to his tent: and there was a very great slaughter; for there fell of Ysra'al thirty thousand footmen.  4:11 The ark of Aluahiym was taken; and the two sons of Eliy, Chophniy and Piynechas, were slain. 4:12 There ran a man of Binyamin out of the army, and came to Shiyloh the same day, with his clothes torn, and with earth on his head. 4:13 When he came, behold, Eliy was sitting on his seat by the road watching; for his heart trembled for the ark of Aluahiym. When the man came into the city, and told it, all the city cried out. 4:14 When Eliy heard the noise of the crying, he said, “What does the noise of this tumult mean?”

The man hurried, and came and told Eliy. 4:15 Now Eliy was ninety-eight years old; and his eyes were so dim that he could not see. 4:16 The man said to Eliy, “I am he who came out of the army, and I fled today out of the army.”

He said, “How did the matter go, my son?”

4:17 He who brought the news answered, “Ysra'al has fled before the Pelishtiym, and there has been also a great slaughter among the people. Your two sons also, Chophniy and Piynechas, are dead, and the ark of Aluahiym has been captured.”

4:18 It happened, when he made mention of the ark of Aluahiym, that Eliy fell from off his seat backward by the side of the gate; and his neck broke, and he died; for he was an old man, and heavy. He had judged Ysra'al forty years.

4:19 His daughter-in-law, Piynechas’ wife, was with child, near to be delivered. When she heard the news that the ark of Aluahiym was taken, and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she bowed herself and brought forth; for her pains came on her. 4:20 About the time of her death the women who stood by her said to her, “Don’t be afraid; for you have brought forth a son.” But she didn’t answer, neither did she regard it. 4:21 She named the child Iy'kabowd, saying, “The esteem has departed from Ysra'al;” because the ark of Aluahiym was taken, and because of her father-in-law and her husband. 4:22 She said, “The esteem has departed from Ysra'al; for the ark of Aluahiym is taken.”

5:1 Now the Pelishtiym had taken the ark of Aluahiym, and they brought it from Eben haEzer to Ashdowd. 5:2 The Pelishtiym took the ark of Aluahiym, and brought it into the house of Dagown, and set it by Dagown. 5:3 When they of Ashdowd arose early on the next day, behold, Dagown was fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of YaHuWaH. They took Dagown, and set him in his place again.  5:4 When they arose early on the next day morning, behold, Dagown was fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of YaHuWaH; and the head of Dagown and both the palms of his hands lay cut off on the threshold; only the stump of Dagown was left to him. 5:5 Therefore neither the priests of Dagown, nor any who come into Dagown’s house, tread on the threshold of Dagown in Ashdowd, to this day. 5:6 But the hand of YaHuWaH was heavy on them of Ashdowd, and He destroyed them, and struck them with tumors, even Ashdowd and its borders.

5:7 When the men of Ashdowd saw that it was so, they said, “The ark of the Aluahiym of Ysra'al shall not abide with us; for His hand is severe on us, and on Dagown our god.”  5:8 They sent therefore and gathered all the lords of the Pelishtiym to them, and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the Aluahiym of Ysra'al?”

They answered, “Let the ark of the Aluahiym of Ysra'al be carried over to Gath.” They carried the ark of the Aluahiym of Ysra'al there. 5:9 It was so, that after they had carried it about, the hand of YaHuWaH was against the city with a very great destruction: and He struck the men of the city, both small and great; and they had plague boils in their secret parts. 5:10 So they sent the ark of Aluahiym to Eqrown.

It happened, as the ark of Aluahiym came to Eqrown, that the Eqrowniy cried out, saying, “They have brought about the ark of the Aluahiym of Ysra'al to us, to kill us and our people.” 5:11 They sent therefore and gathered together all the lords of the Pelishtiym, and they said, “Send away the ark of the Aluahiym of Ysra'al, and let it go again to its own place, that it not kill us and our people.” For there was a deadly confusion throughout all the city; the Hand of Aluahiym was very heavy there. 5:12 The men who didn’t die were struck with the boils; and the cry of the city went up to heaven.

6:1 The ark of YaHuWaH was in the country of the Pelishtiym seven months. 6:2 The Pelishtiym called for the priests and the diviners, saying, “What shall we do with the ark of YaHuWaH? Show us with which we shall send it to its place.”

6:3 They said, “If you send away the ark of the Aluahiym of Ysra'al, don’t send it empty; but by all means return Him a trespass offering: then you shall be healed, and it shall be known to you why His Hand is not removed from you.”

6:4 Then they said, “What shall be the trespass offering which we shall return to Him?”

They said, “Five golden tumors, and five golden rats, according to the number of the lords of the Pelishtiym; for one plague was on you all, and on your lords. 6:5 Therefore you shall make images of your tumors, and images of your rats that mar the land; and you shall give esteem to the Aluahiym of Ysra'al: perhaps He will lighten His hand from off you, and from off your gods, and from off your land. 6:6 Why then do you harden your hearts, as the Mitsriy and Par'oh hardened their hearts? When He had worked wonderfully among them, didn’t they let the people go, and they departed?

6:7 “Now therefore take and prepare yourselves a new cart, and two milk cows, on which there has come no yoke; and tie the cows to the cart, and bring their calves home from them; 6:8 and take the ark of YaHuWaH, and lay it on the cart; and put the jewels of gold, which you return Him for a trespass offering, in a coffer by its side; and send it away, that it may go. 6:9 Behold; if it goes up by the way of its own border to Bayith Shemesh, then He has done us this great evil: but if not, then we shall know that it is not His hand that struck us; it was a chance that happened to us.”

6:10 The men did so, and took two milk cows, and tied them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home; 6:11 and they put the ark of YaHuWaH on the cart, and the coffer with the rats of gold and the images of their tumors. 6:12 The cows took the straight way by the way to Bayith Shemesh; they went along the highway, lowing as they went, and didn’t turn aside to the right hand or to the left; and the lords of the Pelishtiym went after them to the border of Bayith Shemesh. 6:13 They of Bayith Shemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley; and they lifted up their eyes, and saw the ark, and rejoiced to see it. 6:14 The cart came into the field of Yoshua of Bayith Shemesh, and stood there, where there was a great stone: and they split the wood of the cart, and offered up the cows for a burnt offering to YaHuWaH. 6:15 The Lewiym took down the ark of YaHuWaH, and the coffer that was with it, in which the jewels of gold were, and put them on the great stone: and the men of Bayith Shemesh offered burnt offerings and slaughterings  the same day to YaHuWaH. 6:16 When the five lords of the Pelishtiym had seen it, they returned to Eqrown the same day. 6:17 These are the golden tumors which the Pelishtiym returned for a trespass offering to YaHuWaH : for Ashdowd one, for Azzah one, for Ashqelown one, for Gath one, for Eqrown one; 6:18 and the golden rats, according to the number of all the cities of the Pelishtiym belonging to the five lords, both of fortified cities and of country villages, even to the great stone, whereon they set down the ark of YaHuWaH, which stone remains to this day in the field of Yoshua of Bayith Shemesh. 6:19 He struck of the men of Bayith Shemesh, because they had looked into the ark of YaHuWaH, He struck of the people fifty thousand seventy men; and the people mourned, because YaHuWaH had struck the people with a great slaughter. 6:20 The men of Bayith Shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before YaHuWaH, this Qadosh Aluahiym? To whom shall He go up from us?”

6:21 They sent messengers to the inhabitants of Qiryath Ye'ariym, saying, “The Pelishtiym have brought back the ark of YaHuWaH; come down, and bring it up to yourselves.”

7:1 The men of Qiryath Ye'ariym came, and fetched up the ark of YaHuWaH, and brought it into the house of Abiynadab in the hill, and sanctified El'azar his son to keep the ark of YaHuWaH. 7:2 It happened, from the day that the ark abode in Qiryath Ye'ariym, that the time was long; for it was twenty years: and all the house of Ysra'al lamented after YaHuWaH. 7:3 Shemu'al spoke to all the house of Ysra'al, saying, “If you do return to YaHuWaH with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtarowth from among you, and direct your hearts to YaHuWaH, and serve Him only; and He will deliver you out of the hand of the Pelishtiym.” 7:4 Then the children of Ysra'al did put away the ba'aliym and the Ashtarowth, and served YaHuWaH only. 7:5 Shemu'al said, “Gather all Ysra'al to Mitsphah, and I will pray for you to YaHuWaH.” 7:6 They gathered together to Mitsphah, and drew water, and poured it out before YaHuWaH, and fasted on that day, and said there, “We have sinned against YaHuWaH.” Shemu'al judged the children of Ysra'al in Mitsphah. 7:7 When the Pelishtiym heard that the children of Ysra'al were gathered together at Mitsphah, the lords of the Pelishtiym went up against Ysra'al. When the children of Ysra'al heard it, they were afraid of the Pelishtiym. 7:8 The children of Ysra'al said to Shemu'al, “Don’t cease to cry to YaHuWaH our Aluahiym for us, that He will save us out of the hand of the Pelishtiym.” 7:9 Shemu'al took a sucking lamb, and offered it for a whole burnt offering to YaHuWaH: and Shemu'al cried to YaHuWaH for Ysra'al; and YaHuWaH answered him. 7:10 As Shemu'al was offering up the burnt offering, the Pelishtiym drew near to battle against Ysra'al; but YaHuWaH thundered with a great thunder on that day on the Pelishtiym, and confused them; and they were struck down before Ysra'al. 7:11 The men of Ysra'al went out of Mitsphah, and pursued the Pelishtiym, and struck them, until they came under Bayith Kar.

7:12 Then Shemu'al took a stone, and set it between Mitsphah and Shen, and called its name Eben ha-Ezer, saying, “YaHuWaH helped us until now.”  7:13 So the Pelishtiym were subdued, and they came no more within the border of Ysra'al. The hand of YaHuWaH was against the Pelishtiym all the days of Shemu'al.

7:14 The cities which the Pelishtiym had taken from Ysra'al were restored to Ysra'al, from Eqrown even to Gath; and its border did Ysra'al deliver out of the hand of the Pelishtiym. There was peace between Ysra'al and the Emoriy. 7:15 Shemu'al judged Ysra'al all the days of his life. 7:16 He went from year to year in circuit to Bayith'El and Gilgal, and Mitsphah; and he judged Ysra'al in all those places. 7:17 His return was to Ramah, for there was his house; and there he judged Ysra'al: and he built there an altar to YaHuWaH.

8:1 It happened, when Shemu'al was old, that he made his sons judges over Ysra'al. 8:2 Now the name of his firstborn was Yo'el; and the name of his second, AbiYahuw: they were judges in Beersheba.  8:3 His sons didn’t walk in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted justice. 8:4 Then all the elders of Ysra'al gathered themselves together, and came to Shemu'al to Ramah; 8:5 and they said to him, “Behold, you are old, and your sons don’t walk in your ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.” 8:6 But the thing displeased Shemu'al, when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.”

Shemu'al prayed to YaHuWaH. 8:7 YaHuWaH said to Shemu'al, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they tell you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not be king over them. 8:8 According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Mitsrayim even to this day, in that they have forsaken Me, and served other gods, so do they also to you. 8:9 Now therefore listen to their voice: however you shall protest solemnly to them, and shall show them the manner of the king who shall reign over them.”

8:10 Shemu'al told all the words of YaHuWaH to the people who asked of him a king. 8:11 He said, “This will be the manner of the king who shall reign over you: he will take your sons, and appoint them to him, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and they shall run before his chariots; 8:12 and he will appoint them to him for captains of thousands, and captains of fifties; and he will set some to plow his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and the instruments of his chariots. 8:13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers, and to be cooks, and to be bakers. 8:14 He will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your olive groves, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. 8:15 He will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants. 8:16 He will take your male servants, and your female servants, and your best young men, and your donkeys, and put them to his work. 8:17 He will take the tenth of your flocks: and you shall be his servants. 8:18 You shall cry out in that day because of your king whom you shall have chosen you; and YaHuWaH will not answer you in that day.”

8:19 But the people refused to listen to the voice of Shemu'al; and they said, “No; but we will have a king over us, 8:20 that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.”

8:21 Shemu'al heard all the words of the people, and he rehearsed them in the ears of YaHuWaH.  8:22  YaHuWaH said to Shemu'al, “Listen to their voice, and make them a king.”

Shemu'al said to the men of Ysra'al, “Every man go to his city.”

9:1 Now there was a man of Binyamin, whose name was Qiysh, the son of Abiy'el, the son of Tserowr, the son of Bekowrath, the son of Aphiyach, the son of a Binyemeniy, a mighty man of valor. 9:2 He had a son, whose name was Sha'uwl, an impressive young man; and there was not among the children of Ysra'al a better person than he. From his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people.

9:3 The donkeys of Qiysh, Sha'uwl’s father, were lost. Qiysh said to Sha'uwl his son, “Take now one of the servants with you, and arise, go seek the donkeys.” 9:4 He passed through the hill country of Ephrayim, and passed through the land of Shalishah, but they didn’t find them: then they passed through the land of Sha'albiym, and there they weren’t there: and he passed through the land of the Binyemiyniy, but they didn’t find them.

9:5 When they had come to the land of Tsuwph, Sha'uwl said to his servant who was with him, “Come, and let us return, lest my father stop caring about the donkeys, and be anxious for us.”

9:6 He said to him, “See now, there is in this city a man of Aluahiym, and he is a man who is held in esteem. All that he says comes surely to pass. Now let us go there. Perhaps he can tell us concerning our journey whereon we go.”

9:7 Then said Sha'uwl to his servant, “But, behold, if we go, what shall we bring the man? For the bread is spent in our vessels, and there is not a present to bring to the man of Aluahiym. What do we have?”

9:8 The servant answered Sha'uwl again, and said, “Behold, I have in my hand the fourth part of a shekel of silver. I will give that to the man of Aluahiym, to tell us our way.” 9:9 (In earlier times in Ysra'al, when a man went to inquire of Aluahiym, thus he said, “Come, and let us go to the seer;” for he who is now called a prophet was before called a Seer.)

9:10 Then said Sha'uwl to his servant, “Well said. Come, let us go.” So they went to the city where the man of Aluahiym was. 9:11 As they went up the ascent to the city, they found young maidens going out to draw water, and said to them, “Is the seer here?”

9:12 They answered them, and said, “He is. Behold, he is before you. Hurry now, for he has come today into the city; for the people have a slaughtering today in the high place. 9:13 As soon as you have come into the city, you shall immediately find him, before he goes up to the high place to eat; for the people will not eat until he come, because he blesses the slaughterings. Afterwards those who are invited eat. Now therefore go up; for at this time you shall find him.”

9:14 They went up to the city; and as they came within the city, behold, Shemu'al came out toward them, to go up to the high place.

9:15 Now YaHuWaH had revealed to Shemu'al a day before Sha'uwl came, saying, 9:16 “Tomorrow about this time I will send you a man out of the land of Binyamin, and you shall anoint him to be prince over My people Ysra'al; and he shall save My people out of the hand of the Pelishtiym: for I have looked on My people, because their cry has come to Me.”

9:17 When Shemu'al saw Sha'uwl, YaHuWaH said to him, “Behold, the man of whom I spoke to you! this same shall have authority over My people.”

9:18 Then Sha'uwl drew near to Shemu'al in the gate, and said, “Tell me, please, where the seer’s house is.”

9:19 Shemu'al answered Sha'uwl, and said, “I am the seer. Go up before me to the high place, for you shall eat with me today. In the morning I will let you go, and will tell you all that is in your heart. 9:20 As for your donkeys who were lost three days ago, don’t set your mind on them; for they are found. For whom is all that is desirable in Ysra'al? Is it not for you, and for all your father’s house?”

9:21 Sha'uwl answered, “Am I not a Bin-yemiyniy, of the smallest of the tribes of Ysra'al? And my family the least of all the families of the tribe of Binyamin? Why then do you speak to me like this?”

9:22 Shemu'al took Sha'uwl and his servant, and brought them into the guest room, and made them sit in the best place among those who were invited, who were about thirty persons. 9:23 Shemu'al said to the cook, “Bring the portion which I gave you, of which I said to you, ‘Set it aside.’” 9:24 The cook took up the thigh, and that which was on it, and set it before Sha'uwl. Shemu'al said, “Behold, that which has been reserved! Set it before yourself and eat; because for the appointed time has it been kept for you, for I said, ‘I have invited the people.’” So Sha'uwl ate with Shemu'al that day.

9:25 When they had come down from the high place into the city, he talked with Sha'uwl on the housetop. 9:26 They arose early: and it happened about the spring of the day, that Shemu'al called to Sha'uwl on the housetop, saying, “Get up, that I may send you away.” Sha'uwl arose, and they went out both of them, he and Shemu'al, abroad. 9:27 As they were going down at the end of the city, Shemu'al said to Sha'uwl, “Tell the servant pass on before us” (and he passed on), “but stand still first, that I may cause you to hear the word of Aluahiym.”

10:1 Then Shemu'al took the vial of oil, and poured it on his head, and kissed him, and said, “Isn’t it that YaHuWaH has anointed you to be prince over His inheritance? 10:2 When you have departed from me today, then you shall find two men by Rachel’s tomb, in the border of Binyamin at Tseltach; and they will tell you, ‘The donkeys which you went to seek have been found; and behold, your father has stopped caring about the donkeys, and is anxious for you, saying, “What shall I do for my son?”’

10:3 “Then you shall go on forward from there, and you shall come to the oak of Tabowr; and three men shall meet you there going up to Aluahiym to Bayith'El, one carrying three young goats, and another carrying three loaves of bread, and another carrying a bottle of wine: 10:4 and they will greet you, and give you two loaves of bread, which you shall receive of their hand.

10:5 “After that you shall come to the hill of Aluahiym, where is the garrison of the Pelishtiym: and it shall happen, when you have come there to the city, that you shall meet a band of prophets coming down from the high place with a psaltery, and a tambourine, and a pipe, and a harp, before them; and they will be prophesying: 10:6 and the Ruwach of YaHuWaH will come mightily on you, and you shall prophesy with them, and shall be turned into another man. 10:7 Let it be, when these signs have come to you, that you do as occasion shall serve you; for Aluahiym is with you.

10:8 “You shall go down before me to Gilgal; and behold, I will come down to you, to offer burnt offerings, and to slaughterings of peace offerings: you shall wait seven days, until I come to you, and show you what you shall do.”  10:9 It was so, that when he had turned his back to go from Shemu'al, Aluahiym gave him another heart: and all those signs happened that day. 10:10 When they came there to the hill, behold, a band of prophets met him; and the Ruwach of Aluahiym came mightily on him, and he prophesied among them. 10:11 It happened, when all who knew him before saw that, behold, he prophesied with the prophets, then the people said one to another, “What is this that is come to the son of Qiysh? Is Sha'uwl also among the prophets?”

10:12 One of the same place answered, “Who is their father?” Therefore it became a proverb, “Is Sha'uwl also among the prophets?” 10:13 When he had made an end of prophesying, he came to the high place.

10:14 Sha'uwl’s uncle said to him and to his servant, “Where did you go?”

He said, “To seek the donkeys. When we saw that they were not found, we came to Shemu'al.”

10:15 Sha'uwl’s uncle said, “Tell me, please, what Shemu'al said to you.”

10:16 Sha'uwl said to his uncle, “He told us plainly that the donkeys were found.” But concerning the matter of the kingdom, of which Shemu'al spoke, he didn’t tell him.

10:17 Shemu'al called the people together to YaHuWaH to Mitsphah; 10:18 and he said to the children of Ysra'al, “Thus says YaHuWaH, the Aluahiym of Ysra'al, ‘I brought up Ysra'al out of Mitsrayim, and I delivered you out of the hand of the Mitsriy, and out of the hand of all the kingdoms that oppressed you:’ 10:19 but you have this day rejected your Aluahiym, Who Himself saves you out of all your calamities and your distresses; and you have said to Him, ‘No, but set a king over us.’ Now therefore present yourselves before YaHuWaH by your tribes, and by your thousands.”

10:20 So Shemu'al brought all the tribes of Ysra'al near, and the tribe of Binyamin was taken. 10:21 He brought the tribe of Binyamin near by their families; and the family of the Matriy was taken; and Sha'uwl the son of Qiysh was taken: but when they sought him, he could not be found. 10:22 Therefore they asked of YaHuWaH further, “Is there yet a man to come here?”

YaHuWaH answered, “Behold, he has hid himself among the baggage.”

10:23 They ran and fetched him there; and when he stood among the people, he was higher than any of the people from his shoulders and upward. 10:24 Shemu'al said to all the people, “You see him whom  YaHuWaH has chosen, that there is none like him among all the people?”

All the people shouted, and said, “Long live the king!”

10:25 Then Shemu'al told the people the regulations of the kingdom, and wrote it in a book, and laid it up before YaHuWaH. Shemu'al sent all the people away, every man to his house. 10:26 Sha'uwl also went to his house to Gib'ah; and there went with him the army, whose hearts Aluahiym had touched. 10:27 But certain worthless fellows said, “How shall this man save us?” They despised him, and brought him no present. But he held his peace.

11:1 Then Nachash the Ammowniy came up, and encamped against Yabesh Gile'ad: and all the men of Yabesh said to Nachash, “Make a covenant with us, and we will serve you.” 11:2 Nachash the Ammowniy said to them, “On this condition I will make it with you, that all your right eyes be put out; and I will lay it for a reproach on all Ysra'al.”

11:3 The elders of Yabesh said to him, “Give us seven day, that we may send messengers to all the borders of Ysra'al; and then, if there is no one to save us, we will come out to you.” 11:4 Then the messengers came to Gib'ah of Sha'uwl, and spoke these words in the ears of the people: and all the people lifted up their voice, and wept.

11:5 Behold, Sha'uwl came following the oxen out of the field; and Sha'uwl said, “What ails the people that they weep?” They told him the words of the men of Yabesh.  11:6 The Ruwach of Aluahiym came mightily on Sha'uwl when he heard those words, and his anger was kindled greatly. 11:7 He took a yoke of oxen, and cut them in pieces, and sent them throughout all the borders of Ysra'al by the hand of messengers, saying, “Whoever doesn’t come forth after Sha'uwl and after Shemu'al, so shall it be done to his oxen.” The dread of YaHuWaH fell on the people, and they came out as one man.  11:8 He numbered them in Bezeq; and the children of Ysra'al were three hundred thousand, and the men of Yahuwdah thirty thousand. 11:9 They said to the messengers who came, “Thus you shall tell the men of Yabesh Gile'ad, ‘Tomorrow, by the time the sun is hot, you shall have deliverance.’” The messengers came and told the men of Yabesh; and they were glad. 11:10 Therefore the men of Yabesh said, “Tomorrow we will come out to you, and you shall do with us all that seems good to you.” 11:11 It was so on the next day, that Sha'uwl put the people in three companies; and they came into the midst of the camp in the morning watch, and struck the Ammowniy until the heat of the day: and it happened, that those who remained were scattered, so that no two of them were left together. 11:12 The people said to Shemu'al, “Who is he who said, ‘Shall Sha'uwl reign over us?’ Bring those men, that we may put them to death!”

11:13 Sha'uwl said, “There shall not a man be put to death this day; for today YaHuWaH has worked deliverance in Ysra'al.” 11:14 Then said Shemu'al to the people, “Come, and let us go to Gilgal, and renew the kingdom there.” 11:15 All the people went to Gilgal; and there they made Sha'uwl king before YaHuWaH in Gilgal; and there they offered slaughterings of peace offerings before YaHuWaH; and there Sha'uwl and all the men of Ysra'al rejoiced greatly.

12:1 Shemu'al said to all Ysra'al, “Behold, I have listened to your voice in all that you said to me, and have made a king over you. 12:2 Now, behold, the king walks before you; and I am old and gray-headed; and behold, my sons are with you: and I have walked before you from my youth to this day. 12:3 Here I am. Witness against me before YaHuWaH, and before His anointed. Whose ox have I taken? Whose donkey have I taken? Whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed? Of whose hand have I taken a ransom to blind my eyes therewith? I will restore it to you.”

12:4 They said, “You have not defrauded us, nor oppressed us, neither have you taken anything of any man’s hand.”

12:5 He said to them, “YaHuWaH is witness against you, and His anointed is witness this day, that you have not found anything in my hand.”

They said, “He is witness.” 12:6 Shemu'al said to the people, “It is YaHuWaH Who appointed Moshah and Aharown, and that brought your fathers up out of the land of Mitsrayim. 12:7 Now therefore stand still, that I may plead with you before YaHuWaH concerning all the righteous acts of YaHuWaH, which He did to you and to your fathers.

12:8 “When Ya'acob was come into Mitsrayim, and your fathers cried to YaHuWaH, then YaHuWaH sent Moshah and Aharown, who brought forth your fathers out of Mitsrayim, and made them to dwell in this place.

12:9 “But they forgot YaHuWaH their Aluahiym; and He sold them into the hand of Siysera, captain of the army of Chatsowr, and into the hand of the Pelishtiym, and into the hand of the king of Mow'ab; and they fought against them. 12:10 They cried to YaHuWaH, and said, ‘We have sinned, because we have forsaken YaHuWaH, and have served the ba'aliym and the Ashtarowth: but now deliver us out of the hand of our enemies, and we will serve you.’ 12:11 YaHuWaH sent Yerubba'al, and Bedan, and Yiphtach, and Shemu'al, and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side; and you lived in safety.

12:12 “When you saw that Nachash the king of the children of Am'mown came against you, you said to me, ‘No, but a king shall reign over us;’ when YaHuWaH your Aluahiym was your king. 12:13 Now therefore see the king whom you have chosen, and whom you have asked for: and behold, YaHuWaH has set a king over you. 12:14 If you will fear YaHuWaH, and serve Him, and listen to His Voice, and not rebel against the Commandment of YaHuWaH, and both you and also the king who reigns over you are followers of YaHuWaH your Aluahiym, well: 12:15 but if you will not listen to the Voice of YaHuWaH, but rebel against the Commandment of YaHuWaH, then will the Hand of YaHuWaH be against you, as it was against your fathers.

12:16 “Now therefore stand still and see this great thing, which YaHuWaH will do before your eyes. 12:17 Isn’t it wheat harvest today? I will call to YaHuWaH, that He may send thunder and rain; and you shall know and see that your wickedness is great, which you have done in the sight of YaHuWaH, in asking for a king.”

12:18 So Shemu'al called to YaHuWaH; and YaHuWaH sent thunder and rain that day: and all the people greatly feared YaHuWaH and Shemu'al.

12:19 All the people said to Shemu'al, “Pray for your servants to YaHuWaH your Aluahiym, that we not die; for we have added to all our sins this evil, to ask us a king.”

12:20 Shemu'al said to the people, “Don’t be afraid. You have indeed done all this evil; yet don’t turn aside from following YaHuWaH, but serve YaHuWaH with all your heart. 12:21 Don’t turn aside; for then you would go after vain things which can’t profit nor deliver, for they are vain.  12:22 For YaHuWaH will not forsake His people for His Great Name’s sake, because it has pleased YaHuWaH to make you a people to Himself.  12:23 Moreover as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against YaHuWaH in ceasing to pray for you: but I will instruct you in the good and the right way. 12:24 Only fear YaHuWaH, and serve Him in truth with all your heart; for consider how great things He has done for you.  12:25 But if you shall still do wickedly, you shall be consumed, both you and your king.”

13:1 Sha'uwl was forty years old when he began to reign; and when he had reigned two years over Ysra'al, 13:2 Sha'uwl chose him three thousand men of Ysra'al, of which two thousand were with Sha'uwl in Mikmas and in the Mount of Bayith'El, and one thousand were with Yahuwnathan in Gib'ah of Binyamin: and the rest of the people he sent every man to his tent. 13:3 Yahuwnathan struck the garrison of the Pelishtiym that was in Geba: and the Pelishtiym heard of it. Sha'uwl blew the shofar throughout all the land, saying, “Let the Ibriym hear!” 13:4 All Ysra'al heard that Sha'uwl had struck the garrison of the Pelishtiym, and also that Ysra'al had also become an abomination to the Pelishtiym. The people were gathered together after Sha'uwl to Gilgal. 13:5 The Pelishtiym assembled themselves together to fight with Ysra'al, thirty thousand chariots, and six thousand horsemen, and people as the sand which is on the seashore in multitude: and they came up, and encamped in Mikmas, eastward of Bayith'Awen. 13:6 When the men of Ysra'al saw that they were in a strait (for the people were distressed), then the people did hide themselves in caves, and in thickets, and in rocks, and in coverts, and in pits. 13:7 Now some of the Ibriym had gone over the Yarden to the land of Gawd and Gile'ad; but as for Sha'uwl, he was yet in Gilgal, and all the people followed him trembling. 13:8 He stayed seven days, according to the set time that Shemu'al had appointed: but Shemu'al didn’t come to Gilgal; and the people were scattered from him. 13:9 Sha'uwl said, “Bring here the burnt offering to me, and the peace offerings.” He offered the burnt offering.

13:10 It came to pass that as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt offering, behold, Shemu'al came; and Sha'uwl went out to meet him, that he might greet him.  13:11 Shemu'al said, “What have you done?”

Sha'uwl said, “Because I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that you didn’t come within the days appointed, and that the Pelishtiym assembled themselves together at Mikmas; 13:12 therefore I said, ‘Now the Pelishtiym will come down on me to Gilgal, and I haven’t entreated the favor of YaHuWaH.’ I felt compelled and offered the burnt offering.”

13:13 Shemu'al said to Sha'uwl, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the Commandment of YaHuWaH your Aluahiym, which He commanded you; for now YaHuWaH would have established your kingdom on Ysra'al forever. 13:14 But now your kingdom shall not continue. YaHuWaH has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, and YaHuWaH has appointed him to be prince over his people, because you have not kept that which YaHuWaH commanded you.”

13:15 Shemu'al arose, and went from Gilgal to Gib'ah of Binyamin. Sha'uwl numbered the people who were present with him, about six hundred men. 13:16 Sha'uwl, and Yahuwnathan his son, and the people who were present with them, abode in Geba of Binyamin: but the Pelishtiym encamped in Mikmas. 13:17 The spoilers came out of the camp of the Pelishtiym in three companies: one company turned to the way that leads to Ophrah, to the land of Shual; 13:18 and another company turned the way to Bayith Choron; and another company turned the way of the border that looks down on the valley of Tsebo'iym toward the wilderness. 13:19 Now there was no smith found throughout all Eretz-Ysra'al; for the Pelishtiym said, “Lest the Ibriym make them swords or spears;” 13:20 but all the Ysra'alites went down to the Pelishtiym, to sharpen every man his plowshare, mattock, axe, and sickle; 13:21 yet they had a file for the mattocks, and for the plowshares, and for the forks, and for the axes, and to set the goads. 13:22 So it came to pass in the day of battle, that there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people who were with Sha'uwl and Yahuwnathan: but with Sha'uwl and with Yahuwnathan his son was there found. 13:23 The garrison of the Pelishtiym went out to the pass of Mikmas.

14:1 Now it fell on a day, that Yahuwnathan the son of Sha'uwl said to the young man who bore his armor, “Come, and let us go over to the Pelishtiym’ garrison, that is on the other side.” But he didn’t tell his father. 14:2 Sha'uwl abode in the uttermost part of Gib'ah under the pomegranate tree which is in Migrown: and the people who were with him were about six hundred men; 14:3 and AchiYahuw, the son of Achiytuwb, Iy'kabowd’s brother, the son of Piynechas, the son of Eliy, the priest of YaHuWaH in Shiyloh, wearing an ephod. The people didn’t know that Yahuwnathan was gone. 14:4 Between the passes, by which Yahuwnathan sought to go over to the Pelishtiym’ garrison, there was a rocky crag on the one side, and a rocky crag on the other side: and the name of the one was Bowtsets, and the name of the other Seneh. 14:5 The one crag rose up on the north in front of Mikmas, and the other on the south in front of Geba. 14:6 Yahuwnathan said to the young man who bore his armor, “Come, and let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised. It may be that YaHuWaH will work for us; for there is no restraint on YaHuWaH to save by many or by few.” 14:7 His armor bearer said to him, “Do all that is in your heart. Turn and, behold, I am with you according to your heart.” 14:8 Then Yahuwnathan said, “Behold, we will pass over to the men, and we will reveal ourselves to them. 14:9 If they say thus to us, ‘Wait until we come to you!’ then we will stand still in our place, and will not go up to them. 14:10 But if they say this, ‘Come up to us!’ then we will go up; for  YaHuWaH has delivered them into our hand. This shall be the sign to us.”

14:11 Both of them revealed themselves to the garrison of the Pelishtiym: and the Pelishtiym said, “Behold, the Ibriym are coming out of the holes where they had hidden themselves!” 14:12 The men of the garrison answered Yahuwnathan and his armor bearer, and said, “Come up to us, and we will show you something!”

Yahuwnathan said to his armor bearer, “Come up after me; for YaHuWaH has delivered them into the hand of Ysra'al.” 14:13 Yahuwnathan climbed up on his hands and on his feet, and his armor bearer after him: and they fell before Yahuwnathan; and his armor bearer killed them after him. 14:14 That first slaughter, which Yahuwnathan and his armor bearer made, was about twenty men, within as it were half a furrow’s length in an acre of land.  14:15 There was a trembling in the camp, in the field, and among all the people; the garrison, and the spoilers, they also trembled; and the earth quaked: so there was an exceeding great trembling. 14:16 The watchmen of Sha'uwl in Gib'ah of Binyamin looked; and behold, the multitude melted away, and they went here and there. 14:17 Then said Sha'uwl to the people who were with him, “Count now, and see who is missing from us.” When they had counted, behold, Yahuwnathan and his armor bearer were not there.

14:18 Sha'uwl said to AchiYahuw, “Bring the ark of Aluahiym here.” For the ark of Aluahiym was there at that time with the children of Ysra'al. 14:19 It happened, while Sha'uwl talked to the priest, that the tumult that was in the camp of the Pelishtiym went on and increased: and Sha'uwl said to the priest, “Withdraw your hand!”

14:20 Sha'uwl and all the people who were with him were gathered together, and came to the battle: and behold, every man’s sword was against his fellow, and there was a very great confusion. 14:21 Now the Ibriym who were with the Pelishtiym as before, and who went up with them into the camp, from the country all around, even they also turned to be with the Ysra'alites who were with Sha'uwl and Yahuwnathan. 14:22 Likewise all the men of Ysra'al who had hid themselves in the hill country of Ephrayim, when they heard that the Pelishtiym fled, even they also followed hard after them in the battle. 14:23 So YaHuWaH saved Ysra'al that day: and the battle passed over by Bayith'Awen.

14:24 The men of Ysra'al were distressed that day; for Sha'uwl had adjured the people, saying, “Cursed is the man who eats any food until it is evening, and I am avenged of my enemies.” So none of the people tasted food.

14:25 All the people came into the forest; and there was honey on the ground. 14:26 When the people were come to the forest, behold, the honey dropped: but no man put his hand to his mouth; for the people feared the oath. 14:27 But Yahuwnathan didn’t hear when his father commanded the people with the oath: therefore he put forth the end of the rod who was in his hand, and dipped it in the honeycomb, and put his hand to his mouth; and his eyes were enlightened. 14:28 Then one of the people answered, and said, “Your father directly commanded the people with an oath, saying, ‘Cursed is the man who eats food this day.’” The people were faint. 14:29 Then Yahuwnathan said, “My father has troubled the land. Please look how my eyes have been enlightened, because I tasted a little of this honey. 14:30 How much more, if perhaps the people had eaten freely today of the spoil of their enemies which they found? For now has there been no great slaughter among the Pelishtiym.”  14:31 They struck of the Pelishtiym that day from Mikmas to Ayalown. The people were very faint;  14:32 and the people flew on the spoil, and took sheep, and cattle, and calves, and killed them on the ground; and the people ate them with the blood. 14:33 Then they told Sha'uwl, saying, “Behold, the people are sinning against YaHuWaH, in that they eat meat with the blood.”

He said, “You have dealt treacherously. Roll a large stone to me this day!” 14:34 Sha'uwl said, “Disperse yourselves among the people, and tell them, ‘Bring me here every man his ox, and every man his sheep, and kill them here, and eat; and don’t sin against YaHuWaH in eating meat with the blood.’” All the people brought every man his ox with him that night, and killed them there.

14:35 Sha'uwl built an altar to YaHuWaH. This was the first altar that he built to YaHuWaH. 14:36 Sha'uwl said, “Let us go down after the Pelishtiym by night, and take spoil among them until the morning light, and let us not leave a man of them.”

They said, “Do whatever seems good to you.”

Then the priest said, “Let us draw near here to Aluahiym.”

14:37 Sha'uwl asked counsel of Aluahiym, “Shall I go down after the Pelishtiym? Will you deliver them into the hand of Ysra'al?” But he didn’t answer him that day. 14:38 Sha'uwl said, “Draw near here, all you chiefs of the people; and know and see in which this sin has been this day. 14:39 For, as YaHuWaH lives, Who saves Ysra'al, though it is in Yahuwnathan my son, he shall surely die.” But there was not a man among all the people who answered him. 14:40 Then said he to all Ysra'al, “You be on one side, and I and Yahuwnathan my son will be on the other side.”

The people said to Sha'uwl, “Do what seems good to you.”

14:41 Therefore Sha'uwl said to YaHuWaH, the Aluahiym of Ysra'al, “Show the right.”

Yahuwnathan and Sha'uwl were chosen; but the people escaped.

14:42 Sha'uwl said, “Cast lots between me and Yahuwnathan my son.”

Yahuwnathan was selected.

14:43 Then Sha'uwl said to Yahuwnathan, “Tell me what you have done!”

Yahuwnathan told him, and said, “I certainly did taste a little honey with the end of the rod that was in my hand; and behold, I must die.”

14:44 Sha'uwl said, “Aluahiym do so and more also; for you shall surely die, Yahuwnathan.”

14:45 The people said to Sha'uwl, “Shall Yahuwnathan die, who has worked this great deliverance in Ysra'al? Far from it! As YaHuWaH lives, there shall not one hair of his head fall to the ground; for he has worked with Aluahiym this day!” So the people rescued Yahuwnathan, that he didn’t die.

14:46 Then Sha'uwl went up from following the Pelishtiym; and the Pelishtiym went to their own place. 14:47 Now when Sha'uwl had taken the kingdom over Ysra'al, he fought against all his enemies on every side, against Mow'ab, and against the children of Am'mown, and against Edom, and against the kings of Tsowba, and against the Pelishtiym: and wherever he turned himself, he put them to the worse. 14:48 He did valiantly, and struck the Amaleqiy, and delivered Ysra'al out of the hands of those who despoiled them. 14:49 Now the sons of Sha'uwl were Yahuwnathan, and Yishwiy, and Malkiyshuwa; and the names of his two daughters were these: the name of the firstborn Merab, and the name of the younger Miykal: 14:50 and the name of Sha'uwl’s wife was Achiyo'am the daughter of Achiyma'ats. The name of the captain of his army was Abner the son of Ner, Sha'uwl’s uncle. 14:51 Qiysh was the father of Sha'uwl; and Ner the father of Abner was the son of Abiy'el. 14:52 There was sore war against the Pelishtiym all the days of Sha'uwl: and when Sha'uwl saw any mighty man, or any valiant man, he took him to him.

15:1 Shemu'al said to Sha'uwl, “ YaHuWaH sent me to anoint you to be king over his people, over Ysra'al. Now therefore listen to the voice of the words of YaHuWaH. 15:2 Thus says YaHuWaH Master of Armies, ‘I have marked that which Amaleq did to Ysra'al, how he set himself against him in the way, when he came up out of Mitsrayim. 15:3 Now go and strike Amaleq, and utterly destroy all that they have, and don’t spare them; but kill both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’”

15:4 Sha'uwl summoned the people, and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand footmen, and ten thousand men of Yahuwdah. 15:5 Sha'uwl came to the city of Amaleq, and laid wait in the valley. 15:6 Sha'uwl said to the Qeyniy, “Go, depart, go down from among the Amaleqiy, lest I destroy you with them; for you showed kindness to all the children of Ysra'al, when they came up out of Mitsrayim.” So the Qeyniy departed from among the Amaleqiy.

15:7 Sha'uwl struck the Amaleqiy, from Chawiylah as you go to Shuwr, that is before Mitsrayim. 15:8 He took Agag the king of the Amaleqiy alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. 15:9 But Sha'uwl 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. 15:10 Then the word of YaHuWaH came to Shemu'al, saying, 15:11 “It grieves me that I have set up Sha'uwl to be king; for he is turned back from following me, and has not performed my commandments.” Shemu'al was angry; and he cried to YaHuWaH all night.

15:12 Shemu'al rose early to meet Sha'uwl in the morning; and it was told Shemu'al, saying, “Sha'uwl came to Karmel, and behold, he set up a monument for himself, and turned, and passed on, and went down to Gilgal.”

15:13 Shemu'al came to Sha'uwl; and Sha'uwl said to him, “You are blessed by YaHuWaH! I have performed the commandment of YaHuWaH.”

15:14 Shemu'al said, “Then what does this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the cattle which I hear mean?”

15:15 Sha'uwl said, “They have brought them from the Amaleqiy; for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the cattle, to slaughter to YaHuWaH your Aluahiym. We have utterly destroyed the rest.”

15:16 Then Shemu'al said to Sha'uwl, “Stay, and I will tell you what YaHuWaH has said to me last night.”

He said to him, “Say on.”

15:17 Shemu'al said, “Though you were little in your own sight, weren’t you made the head of the tribes of Ysra'al?  YaHuWaH anointed you king over Ysra'al; 15:18 and YaHuWaH sent you on a journey, and said, ‘Go, and utterly destroy the sinners the Amaleqiy, and fight against them until they are consumed.’ 15:19 Why then didn’t you obey the voice of YaHuWaH, but took the spoils, and did that which was evil in the sight of YaHuWaH?”

15:20 Sha'uwl said to Shemu'al, “But I have obeyed the voice of YaHuWaH, and have gone the way which YaHuWaH sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amaleq, and have utterly destroyed the Amaleqiy. 15:21 But the people took of the spoil, sheep and cattle, the chief of the devoted things, to slaughter to YaHuWaH your Aluahiym in Gilgal.”

15:22 Shemu'al said, “Has YaHuWaH as great delight in burnt offerings and slaughters, as in obeying the Voice of  YaHuWaH ? Behold, to obey is better than slaughter, and to heed than the fat of rams. 15:23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the Word of  YaHuWaH, He has also rejected you from being king.”

15:24 Sha'uwl said to Shemu'al, “I have sinned; for I have transgressed the commandment of YaHuWaH, and your words, because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice. 15:25 Now therefore, please pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship YaHuWaH.”

15:26 Shemu'al said to Sha'uwl, “I will not return with you; for you have rejected the Word of YaHuWaH, and YaHuWaH has rejected you from being king over Ysra'al.” 15:27 As Shemu'al turned about to go away, Sha'uwl grabbed the skirt of his robe, and it tore. 15:28 Shemu'al said to him, “ YaHuWaH has torn the kingdom of Ysra'al from you this day, and has given it to a neighbor of yours who is better than you. 15:29 Also the Strength of Ysra'al will not lie nor repent; for He is not a man, that He should repent.”

15:30 Then he said, “I have sinned: yet esteem me now, please, before the elders of my people, and before Ysra'al, and come back with me, that I may worship YaHuWaH your   Aluahiym.”

15:31 So Shemu'al went back with Sha'uwl; and Sha'uwl worshiped YaHuWaH. 15:32 Then said Shemu'al, “Bring here to me Agag the king of the Amaleqiy!”

Agag came to him cheerfully. Agag said, “Surely the bitterness of death is past.”

15:33 Shemu'al said, “As your sword has made women childless, so your mother will be childless among women!” Shemu'al cut Agag in pieces before YaHuWaH in Gilgal.

15:34 Then Shemu'al went to Ramah; and Sha'uwl went up to his house to Gib'ah of Sha'uwl. 15:35 Shemu'al came no more to see Sha'uwl until the day of his death; for Shemu'al mourned for Sha'uwl: and YaHuWaH grieved that He had made Sha'uwl king over Ysra'al.

16:1 YaHuWaH said to Shemu'al, “How long will you mourn for Sha'uwl, seeing I have rejected him from being king over Ysra'al? Fill your horn with oil, and go. I will send you to Yishay the Bayith haLachmiy; for I have provided a king for Myself among his sons.”

16:2 Shemu'al said, “How can I go? If Sha'uwl hears it, he will kill me.”

YaHuWaH said, “Take a heifer with you, and say, I have come to slaughter to YaHuWaH. 16:3 Call Yishay to the slaughter, and I will show you what you shall do. You shall anoint to Me him whom I name to you.”

16:4 Shemu'al did that which YaHuWaH spoke, and came to Bayith Lechem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling, and said, “Do you come peaceably?”

16:5 He said, “Peaceably; I have come to slaughter to YaHuWaH. Set-apart yourselves, and come with me to the slaughter.” He set-apart Yishay and his sons, and called them to the slaughter. 16:6 It happened, when they had come, that he looked at Eliy'ab, and said, “Surely YaHuWaH’s anointed is before him.”

16:7 But YaHuWaH said to Shemu'al, “Don’t look on his face, or on the height of his stature; because I have rejected him: for YaHuWaH sees not as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but YaHuWaH looks at the heart.”  16:8 Then Yishay called Abiynadab, and made him pass before Shemu'al. He said, “Neither has YaHuWaH chosen this one.” 16:9 Then Yishay made Shammah to pass by. He said, “Neither has YaHuWaH chosen this one.” 16:10 Yishay made seven of his sons to pass before Shemu'al. Shemu'al said to Yishay, “YaHuWaH has not chosen these.”  16:11 Shemu'al said to Yishay, “Are all your children here?”

He said, “There remains yet the youngest, and behold, he is keeping the sheep.”

Shemu'al said to Yishay, “Send and get him; for we will not sit down until he comes here.”

16:12 He sent, and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and with bright eyes, and good looking. YaHuWaH said, “Arise, anoint him; for this is he.”

16:13 Then Shemu'al took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brothers: and the Ruwach of YaHuWaH came mightily on Dawiyd from that day forward. So Shemu'al rose up, and went to Ramah. 16:14 Now the Ruwach of YaHuWaH departed from Sha'uwl, and an evil spirit from YaHuWaH troubled him. 16:15 Sha'uwl’s servants said to him, “See now, an evil spirit from Aluahiym troubles you. 16:16 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 Aluahiym is on you, that he shall play with his hand, and you shall be well.”

16:17 Sha'uwl said to his servants, “Provide me now a man who can play well, and bring him to me.”

16:18 Then one of the young men answered, and said, “Behold, I have seen a son of Yishay the Bayith ha-Lachmiy, who is skillful in playing, a mighty man of valor, a man of war, prudent in speech, and a comely person; and YaHuWaH is with him.”

16:19 Therefore Sha'uwl sent messengers to Yishay, and said, “Send me Dawiyd your son, who is with the sheep.”

16:20 Yishay took a donkey loaded with bread, and a bottle of wine, and a young goat, and sent them by Dawiyd his son to Sha'uwl. 16:21 Dawiyd came to Sha'uwl, and stood before him. He loved him greatly; and he became his armor bearer. 16:22 Sha'uwl sent to Yishay, saying, “Please let Dawiyd stand before me; for he has found favor in my sight.” 16:23 It happened, when the evil spirit from Aluahiym was on Sha'uwl, that Dawiyd took the harp, and played with his hand: so Sha'uwl was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him.

17:1 Now the Pelishtiym gathered together their armies to battle; and they were gathered together at Sowkoh, which belongs to Yahuwdah, and encamped between Sowkoh and Azeqah, in Ephes Dammiym. 17:2 Sha'uwl and the men of Ysra'al were gathered together, and encamped in the valley of Elah, and set the battle in array against the Pelishtiym. 17:3 The Pelishtiym stood on the mountain on the one side, and Ysra'al stood on the mountain on the other side: and there was a valley between them. 17:4 There went out a champion out of the camp of the Pelishtiym, named Golyath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. 17:5 He had a helmet of brass on his head, and he was clad with a coat of mail; and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of brass. 17:6 He had brass shin armor on his legs, and a javelin of brass between his shoulders. 17:7 The staff of his spear was like a weaver’s beam; and his spear’s head weighed six hundred shekels of iron: and his shield bearer went before him. 17:8 He stood and cried to the armies of Ysra'al, and said to them, “Why have you come out to set your battle in array? Am I not a Pelishtiy, and you servants to Sha'uwl? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me. 17:9 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.” 17:10 The Pelishtiy said, “I defy the armies of Ysra'al this day! Give me a man, that we may fight together!”

17:11 When Sha'uwl and all Ysra'al heard those words of the Pelishtiy, they were dismayed, and greatly afraid. 17:12 Now Dawiyd was the son of that Ephrathiy of Bayith Lachmiy Yahuwdah, whose name was Yishay; and he had eight sons: and the man was an old man in the days of Sha'uwl, stricken in years among men. 17:13 The three eldest sons of Yishay had gone after Sha'uwl to the battle: and the names of his three sons who went to the battle were Eliy'ab the firstborn, and next to him Abiynadab, and the third Shammah. 17:14 Dawiyd was the youngest; and the three eldest followed Sha'uwl.  17:15 Now Dawiyd went back and forth from Sha'uwl to feed his father’s sheep at Bayith Lachmiy. 17:16 The Pelishtiy drew near morning and evening, and presented himself forty days. 17:17 Yishay said to Dawiyd his son, “Now take for your brothers an efah of this parched grain, and these ten loaves, and carry them quickly to the camp to your brothers; 17:18 and bring these ten cheeses to the captain of their thousand, and see how your brothers are doing, and bring back news.” 17:19 Now Sha'uwl, and they, and all the men of Ysra'al, were in the valley of Elah, fighting with the Pelishtiym.  17:20 Dawiyd rose up early in the morning, and left the sheep with a keeper, and took, and went, as Yishay 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. 17:21 Ysra'al and the Pelishtiym put the battle in array, army against army. 17:22 Dawiyd left his baggage in the hand of the keeper of the baggage, and ran to the army, and came and greeted his brothers. 17:23 As he talked with them, behold, there came up the champion, the Pelishtiy of Gath, Golyath by name, out of the ranks of the Pelishtiym, and spoke according to the same words: and Dawiyd heard them. 17:24 All the men of Ysra'al, when they saw the man, fled from him, and were terrified. 17:25 The men of Ysra'al said, “Have you seen this man who is come up? He has surely come up to defy Ysra'al. 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 Ysra'al.”

17:26 Dawiyd spoke to the men who stood by him, saying, “What shall be done to the man who kills this Pelishtiy, and takes away the reproach from Ysra'al? For who is this uncircumcised Pelishtiy, that he should defy the armies of the living Aluahiym?”

17:27 The people answered him after this manner, saying, “So shall it be done to the man who kills him.”

17:28 Eliy'ab his eldest brother heard when he spoke to the men; and Eliy'ab’s anger was kindled against Dawiyd, 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.”

17:29 Dawiyd said, “What have I now done? Is there not a cause?” 17:30 He turned away from him toward another, and spoke like that again; and the people answered him again the same way. 17:31 When the words were heard which Dawiyd spoke, they rehearsed them before Sha'uwl; and he sent for him. 17:32 Dawiyd said to Sha'uwl, “Let no man’s heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Pelishtiy.”

17:33 Sha'uwl said to Dawiyd, “You are not able to go against this Pelishtiy to fight with him; for you are but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.”

17:34 Dawiyd said to Sha'uwl, “Your servant was keeping his father’s sheep; and when a lion or a bear came, and took a lamb out of the flock, 17:35 I went out after him, and struck him, and rescued it out of his mouth. When he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and struck him, and killed him. 17:36 Your servant struck both the lion and the bear. This uncircumcised Pelishtiy shall be as one of them, since he has defied the armies of the living Aluahiym.” 17:37 Dawiyd said, “YaHuWaH 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 Pelishtiy.”

Sha'uwl said to Dawiyd, “Go; and YaHuWaH shall be with you.” 17:38 Sha'uwl dressed Dawiyd with his clothing. He put a helmet of brass on his head, and he clad him with a coat of mail. 17:39 Dawiyd strapped his sword on his clothing, and he tried to move; for he had not tested it. Dawiyd said to Sha'uwl, “I can’t go with these; for I have not tested them.” Dawiyd took them off.

17:40 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 Pelishtiy. 17:41 The Pelishtiy came on and drew near to Dawiyd; and the man who bore the shield went before him. 17:42 When the Pelishtiy looked about, and saw Dawiyd, he disdained him; for he was but a youth, and ruddy, and withal of a fair face. 17:43 The Pelishtiy said to Dawiyd, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” The Pelishtiy cursed Dawiyd by his gods. 17:44 The Pelishtiy said to Dawiyd, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the sky, and to the animals of the field.”

17:45 Then said Dawiyd to the Pelishtiy, “You come to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a javelin: but I come to you in the name of YaHuWaH Master of Armies, the Aluahiym of the armies of Ysra'al, whom you have defied. 17:46 Today, YaHuWaH 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 Pelishtiym 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 an Aluahiym in Ysra'al, 17:47 and that all this assembly may know that YaHuWaH doesn’t save with sword and spear: for the battle is YaHuWaH’s, and He will give you into our hand.”

17:48 It happened, when the Pelishtiy arose, and came and drew near to meet Dawiyd, that Dawiyd hurried, and ran toward the army to meet the Pelishtiy. 17:49 Dawiyd put his hand in his bag, took a stone, and slung it, and struck the Pelishtiy in his forehead; and the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the earth.  17:50 So Dawiyd prevailed over the Pelishtiy with a sling and with a stone, and struck the Pelishtiy, and killed him; but there was no sword in the hand of Dawiyd. 17:51 Then Dawiyd ran, and stood over the Pelishtiy, and took his sword, and drew it out of its sheath, and killed him, and cut off his head therewith. When the Pelishtiym saw that their champion was dead, they fled. 17:52 The men of Ysra'al and of Yahuwdah arose, and shouted, and pursued the Pelishtiym, until you come to Gai, and to the gates of Eqrown. The wounded of the Pelishtiym fell down by the way to Sha'arayim, even to Gath, and to Eqrown. 17:53 The children of Ysra'al returned from chasing after the Pelishtiym, and they plundered their camp. 17:54 Dawiyd took the head of the Pelishtiy, and brought it to Yerushalayim; but he put his armor in his tent.  17:55 When Sha'uwl saw Dawiyd go forth against the Pelishtiy, 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.”

17:56 The king said, “Inquire whose son the young man is!”

17:57 As Dawiyd returned from the slaughter of the Pelishtiy, Abner took him, and brought him before Sha'uwl with the head of the Pelishtiy in his hand. 17:58 Sha'uwl said to him, “Whose son are you, you young man?”

Dawiyd answered, “I am the son of your servant Yishay the Bayith haLachmiy.”

18:1 It happened, when he had made an end of speaking to Sha'uwl, that the soul of Yahuwnathan was knit with the soul of Dawiyd, and Yahuwnathan loved him as his own soul. 18:2 Sha'uwl took him that day, and would let him go no more home to his father’s house. 18:3 Then Yahuwnathan and Dawiyd made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul. 18:4 Yahuwnathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him, and gave it to Dawiyd, and his clothing, even to his sword, and to his bow, and to his sash. 18:5 Dawiyd went out wherever Sha'uwl sent him, and behaved himself wisely: and Sha'uwl set him over the men of war, and it was good in the sight of all the people, and also in the sight of Sha'uwl’s servants. 18:6 It happened as they came, when Dawiyd returned from the slaughter of the Pelishtiy, that the women came out of all the cities of Ysra'al, singing and dancing, to meet king Sha'uwl, with tambourines, with joy, and with instruments of music. 18:7 The women sang one to another as they played, and said,

“Sha'uwl has slain his thousands,

Dawiyd his ten thousands.”

18:8 Sha'uwl was very angry, and this saying displeased him; and he said, “They have ascribed to Dawiyd ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed but thousands. What can he have more but the kingdom?” 18:9 Sha'uwl eyed Dawiyd from that day and forward. 18:10 It happened on the next day, that an evil spirit from Aluahiym came mightily on Sha'uwl, and he prophesied in the midst of the house. Dawiyd played with his hand, as he did day by day. Sha'uwl had his spear in his hand; 18:11 and Sha'uwl threw the spear; for he said, “I will pin Dawiyd even to the wall!” Dawiyd escaped from his presence twice. 18:12 Sha'uwl was afraid of Dawiyd, because YaHuWaH was with him, and was departed from Sha'uwl. 18:13 Therefore Sha'uwl removed him from him, and made him his captain over a thousand; and he went out and came in before the people.

18:14 Dawiyd behaved himself wisely in all his ways; and YaHuWaH was with him. 18:15 When Sha'uwl saw that he behaved himself very wisely, he stood in awe of him. 18:16 But all Ysra'al and Yahuwdah loved Dawiyd; for he went out and came in before them. 18:17 Sha'uwl said to Dawiyd, “Behold, my elder daughter Merab, I will give her to you as wife. Only be valiant for me, and fight YaHuWaH’s battles.” For Sha'uwl said, “Don’t let my hand be on him, but let the hand of the Pelishtiym be on him.”  18:18 Dawiyd said to Sha'uwl, “Who am I, and what is my life, or my father’s family in Ysra'al, that I should be son-in-law to the king?”

18:19 But it happened at the time when Merab, Sha'uwl’s daughter, should have been given to Dawiyd, that she was given to Adriy'el the Meholathy as wife. 18:20 Miykal, Sha'uwl’s daughter, loved Dawiyd; and they told Sha'uwl, and the thing pleased him. 18:21 Sha'uwl said, I will give her to him, that she may be a snare to him, and that the hand of the Pelishtiym may be against him. Therefore Sha'uwl said to Dawiyd, “You shall this day be my son-in-law a second time.” 18:22 Sha'uwl commanded his servants, “Talk with Dawiyd secretly, and say, ‘Behold, the king has delight in you, and all his servants love you: now therefore be the king’s son-in-law.’”

18:23 Sha'uwl’s servants spoke those words in the ears of Dawiyd. Dawiyd said, “Does it seems to you a light thing to be the king’s son-in-law, seeing that I am a poor man, and lightly esteemed?”

18:24 The servants of Sha'uwl told him, saying, “Dawiyd spoke like this.”

18:25 Sha'uwl said, “You shall tell Dawiyd, ‘The king desires no dowry except one hundred foreskins of the Pelishtiym, to be avenged of the king’s enemies.’” Now Sha'uwl thought to make Dawiyd fall by the hand of the Pelishtiym.  18:26 When his servants told Dawiyd these words, it pleased Dawiyd well to be the king’s son-in-law. The days were not expired; 18:27 and Dawiyd arose and went, he and his men, and killed of the Pelishtiym two hundred men; and Dawiyd brought their foreskins, and they gave them in full number to the king, that he might be the king’s son-in-law. Sha'uwl gave him Miykal his daughter as wife. 18:28 Sha'uwl saw and knew that YaHuWaH was with Dawiyd; and Miykal, Sha'uwl’s daughter, loved him.  18:29 Sha'uwl was yet the more afraid of Dawiyd; and Sha'uwl was Dawiyd’s enemy continually. 18:30 Then the princes of the Pelishtiym went forth: and it happened, as often as they went forth, that Dawiyd behaved himself more wisely than all the servants of Sha'uwl; so that his name was highly esteemed.

19:1 Sha'uwl spoke to Yahuwnathan his son, and to all his servants, that they should kill Dawiyd. But Yahuwnathan, Sha'uwl’s son, delighted much in Dawiyd. 19:2 Yahuwnathan told Dawiyd, saying, “Sha'uwl 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.  19:3 I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are, and I will talk with my father about you; and if I see anything, I will tell you.”

19:4 Yahuwnathan spoke good of Dawiyd to Sha'uwl his father, and said to him, “Don’t let the king sin against his servant, against Dawiyd; because he has not sinned against you, and because his works have been very good toward you; 19:5 for he put his life in his hand, and struck the Pelishtiy, and YaHuWaH worked a great victory for all Ysra'al. You saw it, and rejoiced. Why then will you sin against innocent blood, to kill Dawiyd without a cause?”

19:6 Sha'uwl listened to the voice of Yahuwnathan: and Sha'uwl swore, “As YaHuWaH lives, he shall not be put to death.”

19:7 Yahuwnathan called Dawiyd, and Yahuwnathan showed him all those things. Yahuwnathan brought Dawiyd to Sha'uwl, and he was in his presence, as before.  19:8 There was war again. Dawiyd went out, and fought with the Pelishtiym, and killed them with a great slaughter; and they fled before him.

19:9 An evil spirit from YaHuWaH was on Sha'uwl, as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand; and Dawiyd was playing with his hand. 19:10 Sha'uwl sought to pin Dawiyd even to the wall with the spear; but he slipped away out of Sha'uwl’s presence, and he stuck the spear into the wall. Dawiyd fled, and escaped that night.  19:11 Sha'uwl sent messengers to Dawiyd’s house, to watch him, and to kill him in the morning. Miykal, Dawiyd’s wife, told him, saying, “If you don’t save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed.” 19:12 So Miykal let Dawiyd down through the window. He went, fled, and escaped. 19:13 Miykal took an image, and laid it in the bed, and put a pillow of goats’ hair at its head, and covered it with the clothes. 19:14 When Sha'uwl sent messengers to take Dawiyd, she said, “He is sick.”

19:15 Sha'uwl sent the messengers to see Dawiyd, saying, “Bring him up to me in the bed, that I may kill him.” 19:16 When the messengers came in, behold, the teraphim was in the bed, with the pillow of goats’ hair at its head.

19:17 Sha'uwl said to Miykal, “Why have you deceived me thus, and let my enemy go, so that he is escaped?”

Miykal answered Sha'uwl, “He said to me, ‘Let me go! Why should I kill you?’”

19:18 Now Dawiyd fled, and escaped, and came to Shemu'al to Ramah, and told him all that Sha'uwl had done to him. He and Shemu'al went and lived in Nawiyth. 19:19 It was told Sha'uwl, saying, “Behold, Dawiyd is at Nawiyth in Ramah.”

19:20 Sha'uwl sent messengers to take Dawiyd: and when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying, and Shemu'al standing as head over them, the Ruwach of Aluahiym came on the messengers of Sha'uwl, and they also prophesied. 19:21 When it was told Sha'uwl, he sent other messengers, and they also prophesied. Sha'uwl sent messengers again the third time, and they also prophesied. 19:22 Then went he also to Ramah, and came to the great well that is in Sekuw: and he asked, “Where are Shemu'al and Dawiyd?”

One said, “Behold, they are at Nawiyth in Ramah.”

19:23 He went there to Nawiyth in Ramah. Then the Ruwach of Aluahiym came on him also, and he went on, and prophesied, until he came to Nawiyth in Ramah. 19:24 He also stripped off his clothes, and he also prophesied before Shemu'al, and lay down naked all that day and all that night. Therefore they say, “Is Sha'uwl also among the prophets?”

20:1 Dawiyd fled from Nawiyth in Ramah, and came and said before Yahuwnathan, “What have I done? What is my iniquity? What is my sin before your father, that he seeks my life?”

20:2 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.”

20:3 Dawiyd swore moreover, and said, “Your father knows well that I have found favor in your eyes; and he says, ‘Don’t let Yahuwnathan know this, lest he be grieved:’ but truly as YaHuWaH lives, and as your soul lives, there is but a step between me and death.”

20:4 Then said Yahuwnathan to Dawiyd, “Whatever your soul desires, I will even do it for you.”

20:5 Dawiyd said to Yahuwnathan, “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. 20:6 If your father miss me at all, then say, ‘Dawiyd earnestly asked leave of me that he might run to Bayith Lachmiy his city; for it is the yearly slaughter there for all the family.’ 20:7 If he says, ‘It is well;’ your servant shall have peace: but if he be angry, then know that evil is determined by him. 20:8 Therefore deal kindly with your servant; for you have brought your servant into a covenant of YaHuWaH with you: but if there be in me iniquity, kill me yourself; for why should you bring me to your father?”

20:9 Yahuwnathan 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?”

20:10 Then said Dawiyd to Yahuwnathan, “Who shall tell me if perchance your father answers you roughly?”

20:11 Yahuwnathan said to Dawiyd, “Come, and let us go out into the field.” They both went out into the field. 20:12 Yahuwnathan said to Dawiyd, “YaHuWaH, the Aluahiym of Ysra'al, be witness: when I have sounded my father about this time tomorrow, or the third day, behold, if there be good toward Dawiyd, shall I not then send to you, and disclose it to you? 20:13  YaHuWaH do so to Yahuwnathan, and more also, should it please my father to do you evil, if I don’t disclose it to you, and send you away, that you may go in peace: and YaHuWaH be with you, as He has been with my father.  20:14 You shall not only while yet I live show me the loving kindness of YaHuWaH, that I not die;  20:15 but also you shall not cut off your kindness from my house forever; no, not when YaHuWaH has cut off the enemies of Dawiyd everyone from the surface of the earth.”  20:16 So Yahuwnathan made a covenant with the house of Dawiyd, saying, “YaHuWaH will require it at the hand of Dawiyd’s enemies.” 20:17 Yahuwnathan caused Dawiyd to swear again, for the love that he had to him; for he loved him as he loved his own soul. 20:18 Then Yahuwnathan said to him, “Tomorrow is the new moon: and you will be missed, because your seat will be empty. 20:19 When you have stayed three days, you shall go down quickly, and come to the place where you did hide yourself when the business was in hand, and shall remain by the stone Ezel. 20:20 I will shoot three arrows on its side, as though I shot at a mark. 20:21 Behold, I will send the boy, saying, ‘Go, find the arrows!’ If I tell the boy, ‘Behold, the arrows are on this side of you. Take them;’ then come; for there is peace to you and no hurt, as YaHuWaH lives. 20:22 But if I say this to the boy, ‘Behold, the arrows are beyond you;’ then go your way; for YaHuWaH has sent you away. 20:23 Concerning the matter which you and I have spoken of, behold, YaHuWaH is between you and me forever.”

20:24 So Dawiyd hid himself in the field: and when the new moon was come, the king sat him down to eat food. 20:25 The king sat on his seat, as at other times, even on the seat by the wall; and Yahuwnathan stood up, and Abner sat by Sha'uwl’s side: but Dawiyd’s place was empty.  20:26 Nevertheless Sha'uwl didn’t say anything that day: for he thought, “Something has happened to him. He is not clean. Surely he is not clean.”

20:27 It happened on the next day after the new moon, the second day, that Dawiyd’s place was empty. Sha'uwl said to Yahuwnathan his son, “Why doesn’t the son of Yishay come to eat, neither yesterday, nor today?”

20:28 Yahuwnathan answered Sha'uwl, “Dawiyd earnestly asked leave of me to go to Bayith Lachmiy. 20:29 He said, ‘Please let me go, for our family has a slaughter in the city. My brother has commanded me to be there. Now, if I have found favor in your eyes, let me get away, please, and see my brothers.’ Therefore he has not come to the king’s table.”

20:30 Then Sha'uwl’s anger was kindled against Yahuwnathan, and he said to him, “You son of a perverse rebellious woman, don’t I know that you have chosen the son of Yishay to your own shame, and to the shame of your mother’s nakedness? 20:31 For as long as the son of Yishay lives on the earth, you shall not be established, nor your kingdom. Therefore now send and bring him to me, for he shall surely die!”

20:32 Yahuwnathan answered Sha'uwl his father, and said to him, “Why should he be put to death? What has he done?”

20:33 Sha'uwl cast his spear at him to strike him. By this Yahuwnathan knew that his father was determined to put Dawiyd to death. 20:34 So Yahuwnathan arose from the table in fierce anger, and ate no food the second day of the month; for he was grieved for Dawiyd, because his father had done him shame. 20:35 It happened in the morning, that Yahuwnathan went out into the field at the time appointed with Dawiyd, and a little boy with him.  20:36 He said to his boy, “Run, find now the arrows which I shoot.” As the boy ran, he shot an arrow beyond him. 20:37 When the boy was come to the place of the arrow which Yahuwnathan had shot, Yahuwnathan cried after the boy, and said, “Isn’t the arrow beyond you?” 20:38 Yahuwnathan cried after the boy, “Go fast! Hurry! Don’t delay!” Yahuwnathan’s boy gathered up the arrows, and came to his master. 20:39 But the boy didn’t know anything. Only Yahuwnathan and Dawiyd knew the matter. 20:40 Yahuwnathan gave his weapons to his boy, and said to him, “Go, carry them to the city.”

20:41 As soon as the boy was gone, Dawiyd arose out of a place toward the South, and fell on his face to the ground, and bowed himself three times. They kissed one another, and wept one with another, and Dawiyd wept the most. 20:42 Yahuwnathan said to Dawiyd, “Go in peace, because we have both sworn in the name of YaHuWaH, saying, ‘YaHuWaH shall be between me and you, and between my seed and your seed, forever.’” He arose and departed; and Yahuwnathan went into the city.

21:1 Then came Dawiyd to Nob to Achiymelek the priest. Achiymelek came to meet Dawiyd trembling, and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no man with you?” 21:2 Dawiyd said to Achiymelek the priest, “The king has commanded me a business, and has said to me, ‘Let no man know anything of the business about which I send you, and what I have commanded you; and I have appointed the young men to such and such a place.’ 21:3 Now therefore what is under your hand? Give me five loaves of bread in my hand, or whatever there is present.”

21:4 The priest answered Dawiyd, and said, “There is no common bread under my hand, but there is qodesh bread; if only the young men have kept themselves from women.”

21:5 Dawiyd answered the priest, and said to him, “Truly, women have been kept from us about these three days. When I came out, the vessels of the young men were qodesh, though it was but a common journey. How much more then today shall their vessels be  qodesh?” 21:6 So the priest gave him qodesh bread; for there was no bread there but the show bread, that was taken from before YaHuWaH, to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away.

21:7 Now a certain man of the servants of Sha'uwl was there that day, detained before YaHuWaH; and his name was Do'eg the Edomiy, the best of the herdsmen who belonged to Sha'uwl.  21:8 Dawiyd said to Achiymelek, “Isn’t there here under your hand spear or sword? For I have neither brought my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king’s business required haste.”

21:9 The priest said, “The sword of Golyath the Pelishtiy, 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.”

Dawiyd said, “There is none like that. Give it to me.”

21:10 Dawiyd arose, and fled that day for fear of Sha'uwl, and went to Akiysh the king of Gath. 21:11 The servants of Akiysh said to him, “Isn’t this Dawiyd the king of the land? Didn’t they sing one to another about him in dances, saying, ‘Sha'uwl has slain his thousands, Dawiyd his ten thousands?’” 21:12 Dawiyd laid up these words in his heart, and was very afraid of Akiysh the king of Gath. 21:13 He changed his behavior before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down on his beard. 21:14 Then said Akiysh to his servants, “Look, you see the man is mad. Why then have you brought him to me? 21:15 Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?”

22:1 Dawiyd therefore departed there, and escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and all his father’s house heard it, they went down there to him. 22:2 Everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented, gathered themselves to him; and he became captain over them: and there were with him about four hundred men. 22:3 Dawiyd went there to Mitspah of Mow'ab, and he said to the king of Mow'ab, “Please let my father and my mother come out with you, until I know what Aluahiym will do for me.” 22:4 He brought them before the king of Mow'ab; and they lived with him all the while that Dawiyd was in the stronghold. 22:5 The prophet Gawd said to Dawiyd, “Don’t stay in the stronghold. Depart, and go into the land of Yahuwdah.”

Then Dawiyd departed, and came into the forest of Chereth. 22:6 Sha'uwl heard that Dawiyd was discovered, and the men who were with him. Now Sha'uwl was sitting in Gib'ah, under the tamarisk tree in Ramah, with his spear in his hand, and all his servants were standing about him. 22:7 Sha'uwl said to his servants who stood about him, “Hear now, you Bin-yemiyniy! Will the son of Yishay give everyone of you fields and vineyards, will he make you all captains of thousands and captains of hundreds, 22:8 that all of you have conspired against me, and there is none who discloses to me when my son makes a league with the son of Yishay, 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?”

22:9 Then Do'eg the Edomiy, who stood by the servants of Sha'uwl, answered and said, “I saw the son of Yishay coming to Nob, to Achiymelek the son of Achiytuwb. 22:10 He inquired of YaHuWaH for him, gave him food, and gave him the sword of Golyath the Pelishtiy.”

22:11 Then the king sent to call Achiymelek the priest, the son of Achiytuwb, and all his father’s house, the priests who were in Nob: and they came all of them to the king.  22:12 Sha'uwl said, “Hear now, you son of Achiytuwb.”

He answered, “Here I am, my lord.”

22:13 Sha'uwl said to him, “Why have you conspired against me, you and the son of Yishay, in that you have given him bread, and a sword, and have inquired of Aluahiym for him, that he should rise against me, to lie in wait, as at this day?”

22:14 Then Achiymelek answered the king, and said, “Who among all your servants is so faithful as Dawiyd, who is the king’s son-in-law, and is taken into your council, and is esteemable in your house? 22:15 Have I today begun to inquire of Aluahiym for him? Be it far from me! Don’t let the king impute anything to his servant, nor to all the house of my father; for your servant knows nothing of all this, less or more.”

22:16 The king said, “You shall surely die, Achiymelek, you, and all your father’s house.”  22:17 The king said to the guard who stood about him, “Turn, and kill the priests of YaHuWaH; because their hand also is with Dawiyd, and because they knew that he fled, and didn’t disclose it to me.” But the servants of the king wouldn’t put forth their hand to fall on the priests of YaHuWaH. 22:18 The king said to Do'eg, “Turn and attack the priests!”

Do'eg the Edomiy turned, and he attacked the priests, and he killed on that day eighty-five people who wore a linen ephod. 22:19 He struck Nob, the city of the priests, with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children and nursing babies, and cattle and donkeys and sheep, with the edge of the sword. 22:20 One of the sons of Achiymelek, the son of Achiytuwb, named Ebyathar, escaped, and fled after Dawiyd. 22:21 Ebyathar told Dawiyd that Sha'uwl had slain YaHuWaH’s priests. 22:22 Dawiyd said to Ebyathar, “I knew on that day, when Do'eg the Edomiy was there, that he would surely tell Sha'uwl. I am responsible for the death of all the persons of your father’s house. 22:23 Stay with me, don’t be afraid; for he who seeks my life seeks your life. For with me you shall be in safeguard.”

23:1 Dawiyd was told, “Behold, the Pelishtiym are fighting against Qe'iylah, and are robbing the threshing floors.”

23:2 Therefore Dawiyd inquired of YaHuWaH, saying, “Shall I go and strike these Pelishtiym?”

YaHuWaH said to Dawiyd, “Go strike the Pelishtiym, and save Qe'iylah.”

23:3 Dawiyd’s men said to him, “Behold, we are afraid here in Yahuwdah: how much more then if we go to Qe'iylah against the armies of the Pelishtiym?”

23:4 Then Dawiyd inquired of YaHuWaH yet again. YaHuWaH answered him, and said, “Arise, go down to Qe'iylah; for I will deliver the Pelishtiym into your hand.”

23:5 Dawiyd and his men went to Qe'iylah, and fought with the Pelishtiym, and brought away their livestock, and killed them with a great slaughter. So Dawiyd saved the inhabitants of Qe'iylah. 23:6 It happened, when Ebyathar the son of Achiymelek fled to Dawiyd to Qe'iylah, that he came down with an ephod in his hand.

23:7 It was told Sha'uwl that Dawiyd had come to Qe'iylah. Sha'uwl said, “Aluahiym has delivered him into my hand; for he is shut in, by entering into a town that has gates and bars.” 23:8 Sha'uwl summoned all the people to war, to go down to Qe'iylah, to besiege Dawiyd and his men.  23:9 Dawiyd knew that Sha'uwl was devising mischief against him; and he said to Ebyathar the priest, “Bring the ephod here.” 23:10 Then Dawiyd said, “O YaHuWaH, the Aluahiym of Ysra'al, your servant has surely heard that Sha'uwl seeks to come to Qe'iylah, to destroy the city for my sake. 23:11 Will the men of Qe'iylah deliver me up into his hand? Will Sha'uwl come down, as your servant has heard? YaHuWaH, the Aluahiym of Ysra'al, I beg you, tell your servant.”

YaHuWaH said, “He will come down.”

23:12 Then said Dawiyd, “Will the men of Qe'iylah deliver me and my men into the hand of Sha'uwl?”

YaHuWaH said, “They will deliver you up.”

23:13 Then Dawiyd and his men, who were about six hundred, arose and departed out of Qe'iylah, and went wherever they could go. It was told Sha'uwl that Dawiyd was escaped from Qe'iylah; and he gave up going there. 23:14 Dawiyd stayed in the wilderness in the strongholds, and remained in the hill country in the wilderness of Ziyph. Sha'uwl sought him every day, but Aluahiym didn’t deliver him into his hand. 23:15 Dawiyd saw that Sha'uwl had come out to seek his life. Dawiyd was in the wilderness of Ziyph in the wood.

23:16 Yahuwnathan, Sha'uwl’s son, arose, and went to Dawiyd into the woods, and strengthened his hand in Aluahiym. 23:17 He said to him, “Don’t be afraid; for the hand of Sha'uwl my father shall not find you; and you shall be king over Ysra'al, and I shall be next to you; and that also Sha'uwl my father knows.” 23:18 They both made a covenant before YaHuWaH: and Dawiyd stayed in the woods, and Yahuwnathan went to his house.  23:19 Then the Ziyphiy came up to Sha'uwl to Gib'ah, saying, “Doesn’t Dawiyd hide himself with us in the strongholds in the wood, in the hill of Chakiylah, which is on the south of the desert? 23:20 Now therefore, O king, come down, according to all the desire of your soul to come down; and our part shall be to deliver him up into the king’s hand.”

23:21 Sha'uwl said, “You are blessed by YaHuWaH; for you have had compassion on me. 23:22 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. 23:23 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 Yahuwdah.”

23:24 They arose, and went to Ziyph before Sha'uwl: but Dawiyd and his men were in the wilderness of Ma'own, in the Arabah on the south of the desert. 23:25 Sha'uwl and his men went to seek him. When Dawiyd was told, he went down to the rock, and stayed in the wilderness of Ma'own. When Sha'uwl heard that, he pursued after Dawiyd in the wilderness of Ma'own. 23:26 Sha'uwl went on this side of the mountain, and Dawiyd and his men on that side of the mountain: and Dawiyd made haste to get away for fear of Sha'uwl; for Sha'uwl and his men surrounded Dawiyd and his men to take them.  23:27 But a messenger came to Sha'uwl, saying, “Hurry and come; for the Pelishtiym have made a raid on the land!” 23:28 So Sha'uwl returned from pursuing after Dawiyd, and went against the Pelishtiym: therefore they called that place haRock of Escape. 23:29 Dawiyd went up from there, and lived in the strongholds of Eyn Gediy.

24:1 It happened, when Sha'uwl was returned from following the Pelishtiym, that it was told him, saying, “Behold, Dawiyd is in the wilderness of Eyn Gediy.” 24:2 Then Sha'uwl took three thousand chosen men out of all Ysra'al, and went to seek Dawiyd and his men on the rocks of the wild goats. 24:3 He came to the sheep pens by the way, where there was a cave; and Sha'uwl went in to relieve himself. Now Dawiyd and his men were abiding in the innermost parts of the cave. 24:4 The men of Dawiyd said to him, “Behold, the day of which YaHuWaH said to you, ‘Behold, I will deliver your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it shall seem good to you.’” Then Dawiyd arose, and cut off the skirt of Sha'uwl’s robe secretly. 24:5 It happened afterward, that Dawiyd’s heart struck him, because he had cut off Sha'uwl’s skirt. 24:6 He said to his men, “YaHuWaH forbid that I should do this thing to my lord,  YaHuWaH’s anointed, to put forth my hand against him, since he is YaHuWaH’s anointed.”  24:7 So Dawiyd checked his men with these words, and didn’t allow them to rise against Sha'uwl. Sha'uwl rose up out of the cave, and went on his way. 24:8 Dawiyd also arose afterward, and went out of the cave, and cried after Sha'uwl, saying, “My lord the king!”

When Sha'uwl looked behind him, Dawiyd bowed with his face to the earth, and did obeisance. 24:9 Dawiyd said to Sha'uwl, “Why do you listen to men’s words, saying, ‘Behold, Dawiyd seeks your hurt?’ 24:10 Behold, this day your eyes have seen how that YaHuWaH 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 YaHuWaH’s anointed. 24:11 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 didn’t 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. 24:12 May YaHuWaH judge between me and you, and may YaHuWaH avenge me of you; but my hand shall not be on you.  24:13 As the proverb of the ancients says, ‘Out of the wicked comes forth wickedness;’ but my hand shall not be on you. 24:14 Against whom has the king of Ysra'al come out? Whom do you pursue? A dead dog? A flea? 24:15 May YaHuWaH therefore be judge, and give sentence between me and you, and see, and plead my cause, and deliver me out of your hand.”

24:16 It came to pass, when Dawiyd had made an end of speaking these words to Sha'uwl, that Sha'uwl said, “Is this your voice, my son Dawiyd?” Sha'uwl lifted up his voice, and wept. 24:17 He said to Dawiyd, “You are more righteous than I; for you have done good to me, whereas I have done evil to you. 24:18 You have declared this day how you have dealt well with me, because when YaHuWaH had delivered me up into your hand, you didn’t kill me. 24:19 For if a man finds his enemy, will he let him go away unharmed? Therefore may YaHuWaH reward you good for that which you have done to me this day. 24:20 Now, behold, I know that you shall surely be king, and that the kingdom of Ysra'al shall be established in your hand. 24:21 Swear now therefore to me by YaHuWaH, that you will not cut off my seed after me, and that you will not destroy my name out of my father’s house.”

24:22 Dawiyd swore to Sha'uwl. Sha'uwl went home; but Dawiyd and his men went up to the stronghold.

25:1 Shemu'al died; and all Ysra'al gathered themselves together, and lamented him, and buried him in his house at Ramah. Dawiyd arose, and went down to the wilderness of Pa'ran.  25:2 There was a man in Ma'own, whose possessions were in Karmel; and the man was very great, and he had three thousand sheep, and a thousand goats: and he was shearing his sheep in Karmel. 25:3 Now the name of the man was Nabal; and the name of his wife Abiygayil; and the woman was of good understanding, and of a beautiful face: but the man was churlish and evil in his doings; and he was of the house of Caleb. 25:4 Dawiyd heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep. 25:5 Dawiyd sent ten young men, and Dawiyd said to the young men, “Go up to Karmel, and go to Nabal, and greet him in my name. 25:6 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. 25:7 Now I have heard that you have shearers. Your shepherds have now been with us, and we did them no hurt, neither was there anything missing to them, all the while they were in Karmel. 25:8 Ask your young men, and they will tell you. Therefore, let the young men find favor in your eyes; for we come in a good day. Please give whatever comes to your hand, to your servants, and to your son Dawiyd.’”

25:9 When Dawiyd’s young men came, they spoke to Nabal according to all those words in the name of Dawiyd, and ceased.

25:10 Nabal answered Dawiyd’s servants, and said, “Who is Dawiyd? Who is the son of Yishay? There are many servants who break away from their masters these days.  25:11 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 don’t know where they come from?”

25:12 So Dawiyd’s young men turned on their way, and went back, and came and told him according to all these words. 25:13 Dawiyd said to his men, “Every man put on his sword!”

Every man put on his sword. Dawiyd also put on his sword. About four hundred men followed Dawiyd; and two hundred stayed by the baggage.  25:14 But one of the young men told Abiygayil, Nabal’s wife, saying, “Behold, Dawiyd sent messengers out of the wilderness to Greet our master; and he railed at them. 25:15 But the men were very good to us, and we were not hurt, neither missed we anything, as long as we went with them, when we were in the fields. 25:16 They were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep.  25:17 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.”

25:18 Then Abiygayil hurried and took two hundred loaves of bread, two bottles of wine, five sheep ready dressed, five measures of parched grain, one hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on donkeys. 25:19 She said to her young men, “Go on before me. Behold, I come after you.” But she didn’t tell her husband, Nabal. 25:20 It was so, as she rode on her donkey, and came down by the covert of the mountain, that behold, Dawiyd and his men came down toward her; and she met them.

25:21 Now Dawiyd 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. 25:22   Aluahiym do so to the enemies of Dawiyd, 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.”

25:23 When Abiygayil saw Dawiyd, she hurried, and alighted from her donkey, and fell before Dawiyd on her face, and bowed herself to the ground.  25:24 She fell at his feet, and said, “On me, my lord, on me be the iniquity; and please let your handmaid speak in your ears. Hear the words of your handmaid. 25:25 Please don’t let my lord regard this worthless fellow, even Nabal; for as his name is, so is he. Nabal is his name, and folly is with him; but I, your handmaid, didn’t see the young men of my lord, whom you sent. 25:26 Now therefore, my lord, as YaHuWaH lives, and as your soul lives, since YaHuWaH has withheld you from blood guiltiness, and from avenging yourself with your own hand, now therefore let your enemies, and those who seek evil to my lord, be as Nabal. 25:27 Now this present which your servant has brought to my lord, let it be given to the young men who follow my lord. 25:28 Please forgive the trespass of your handmaid. For YaHuWaH will certainly make my lord a sure house, because my lord fights the battles of YaHuWaH; and evil shall not be found in you all your days. 25:29 Though men may rise up to pursue you, and to seek your soul, yet the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with YaHuWaH your Aluahiym. He will sling out the souls of your enemies, as from the hollow of a sling. 25:30 It shall come to pass, when YaHuWaH has done to my lord according to all the good that he has spoken concerning you, and shall have appointed you prince over Ysra'al, 25:31 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 YaHuWaH has dealt well with my lord, then remember your handmaid.”

25:32 Dawiyd said to Abiygayil, “Blessed is YaHuWaH, the Aluahiym of Ysra'al, who sent you this day to meet me! 25:33 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. 25:34 For indeed, as YaHuWaH, the Aluahiym of Ysra'al, lives, who has withheld me from hurting you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, surely there wouldn’t have been left to Nabal by the morning light so much as one who urinates on a wall.”

25:35 So Dawiyd 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.”

25:36 Abiygayil came to Nabal; and behold, he held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunken. Therefore she told him nothing, less or more, until the morning light. 25:37 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. 25:38 It happened about ten days after, that YaHuWaH struck Nabal, so that he died. 25:39 When Dawiyd heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Blessed is YaHuWaH, who has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and has kept back his servant from evil. YaHuWaH has returned the evildoing of Nabal on his own head.” Dawiyd sent and spoke concerning Abiygayil, to take her to him as wife. 25:40 When the servants of Dawiyd had come to Abiygayil to Karmel, they spoke to her, saying, “Dawiyd has sent us to you, to take you to him as wife.”

25:41 She arose, and bowed herself with her face to the earth, and said, “Behold, your handmaid is a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.” 25:42 Abiygayil hurried, and arose, and rode on a donkey, with five ladies of hers who followed her; and she went after the messengers of Dawiyd, and became his wife. 25:43 Dawiyd also took Achiyno'am of Yizre'el; and they both became his wives. 25:44 Now Sha'uwl had given Miykal his daughter, Dawiyd’s wife, to Paltiy the son of Layish, who was of Galliym.

26:1 The Ziyphiy came to Sha'uwl to Gib'ah, saying, “Doesn’t Dawiyd hide himself in the hill of Chakiylah, which is before the desert?” 26:2 Then Sha'uwl arose, and went down to the wilderness of Ziyph, having three thousand chosen men of Ysra'al with him, to seek Dawiyd in the wilderness of Ziyph. 26:3 Sha'uwl encamped in the hill of Chakiylah, which is before the desert, by the way. But Dawiyd stayed in the wilderness, and he saw that Sha'uwl came after him into the wilderness.  26:4 Dawiyd therefore sent out spies, and understood that Sha'uwl had certainly come. 26:5 Dawiyd arose, and came to the place where Sha'uwl had encamped; and Dawiyd saw the place where Sha'uwl lay, and Abner the son of Ner, the captain of his army: and Sha'uwl lay within the place of the wagons, and the people were encamped around him. 26:6 Then answered Dawiyd and said to Achiymelek the Chittiy, and to Abiyshay the son of TseruwYahuw, brother to Yow'ab, saying, “Who will go down with me to Sha'uwl to the camp?”

Abiyshay said, “I will go down with you.” 26:7 So Dawiyd and Abiyshay came to the people by night: and, behold, Sha'uwl lay sleeping within the place of the wagons, with his spear stuck in the ground at his head; and Abner and the people lay around him. 26:8 Then said Abiyshay to Dawiyd, “Aluahiym has delivered up your enemy into your hand this day. Now therefore please let me strike him with the spear to the earth at one stroke, and I will not strike him the second time.”

26:9 Dawiyd said to Abiyshay, “Don’t destroy him; for who can put forth his hand against YaHuWaH’s anointed, and be guiltless?” 26:10 Dawiyd said, “As YaHuWaH lives, YaHuWaH will strike him; or his day shall come to die; or he shall go down into battle and perish. 26:11 YaHuWaH forbid that I should put forth my hand against YaHuWaH’s anointed; but now please take the spear that is at his head, and the jar of water, and let us go.”

26:12 So Dawiyd took the spear and the jar of water from Sha'uwl’s head; and they went away: and no man saw it, nor knew it, neither did any awake; for they were all asleep, because a deep sleep from YaHuWaH was fallen on them. 26:13 Then Dawiyd went over to the other side, and stood on the top of the mountain afar off; a great space being between them; 26:14 and Dawiyd cried to the people, and to Abner the son of Ner, saying, “Don’t you answer, Abner?”

Then Abner answered, “Who are you who cries to the king?”

26:15 Dawiyd said to Abner, “Aren’t you a man? Who is like you in Ysra'al? Why then have you not kept watch over your lord, the king? For one of the people came in to destroy the king your lord. 26:16 This thing isn’t good that you have done. As YaHuWaH lives, you are worthy to die, because you have not kept watch over your lord, YaHuWaH’s anointed. Now see where the king’s spear is, and the jar of water that was at his head.”

26:17 Sha'uwl knew Dawiyd’s voice, and said, “Is this your voice, my son Dawiyd?”

Dawiyd said, “It is my voice, my lord, O king.” 26:18 He said, “Why does my lord pursue after his servant? For what have I done? Or what evil is in my hand? 26:19 Now therefore, please let my lord the king hear the words of his servant. If it is so that YaHuWaH has stirred you up against me, let him accept an offering. But if it is the children of men, they are cursed before YaHuWaH; for they have driven me out this day that I shouldn’t cling to YaHuWaH’s inheritance, saying, ‘Go, serve other gods!’ 26:20 Now therefore, don’t let my blood fall to the earth away from the presence of YaHuWaH; for the king of Ysra'al has come out to seek a flea, as when one hunts a partridge in the mountains.”

26:21 Then said Sha'uwl, “I have sinned. Return, my son Dawiyd; for I will no more do you harm, because my life was precious in your eyes this day. Behold, I have played the fool, and have erred exceedingly.”

26:22 Dawiyd answered, “Behold the spear, O king! Then let one of the young men come over and get it. 26:23 YaHuWaH will render to every man his righteousness and his faithfulness; because YaHuWaH delivered you into my hand today, and I wouldn’t put forth my hand against YaHuWaH ’s anointed. 26:24 Behold, as your life was respected this day in my eyes, so let my life be respected in the eyes of YaHuWaH, and let Him deliver me out of all oppression.”

26:25 Then Sha'uwl said to Dawiyd, “You are blessed, my son Dawiyd. You shall both do mightily, and shall surely prevail.” So Dawiyd went his way, and Sha'uwl returned to his place.

27:1 Dawiyd said in his heart, “I shall now perish one day by the hand of Sha'uwl. There is nothing better for me than that I should escape into the land of the Pelishtiym; and Sha'uwl will despair of me, to seek me any more in all the borders of Ysra'al. So shall I escape out of his hand.” 27:2 Dawiyd arose, and passed over, he and the six hundred men who were with him, to Akiysh the son of Ma'owch, king of Gath. 27:3 Dawiyd lived with Akiysh at Gath, he and his men, every man with his household, even Dawiyd with his two wives, Achiyno'am the Yizre'eliyth, and Abiygayil the Karmeliyth, Nabal’s wife. 27:4 It was told Sha'uwl that Dawiyd was fled to Gath: and he sought no more again for him. 27:5 Dawiyd said to Akiysh, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, let them give me a place in one of the cities in the country, that I may dwell there. For why should your servant dwell in the royal city with you?” 27:6 Then Akiysh gave him Tsiqlag that day: why Tsiqlag pertains to the kings of Yahuwdah to this day. 27:7 The number of the days that Dawiyd lived in the country of the Pelishtiym was a full year and four months.  27:8 Dawiyd and his men went up, and made a raid on the Geshuwriy, and the Girziy, and the Amaleqiy; for those nations were the inhabitants of the land, who were of old, as you go to Shuwr, even to the land of Mitsrayim. 27:9 Dawiyd struck the land, and saved neither man nor woman alive, and took away the sheep, and the cattle, and the donkeys, and the camels, and the clothing; and he returned, and came to Akiysh. 27:10 Akiysh said, “Against whom have you made a raid today?”

Dawiyd said, “Against the South of Yahuwdah, against the South of the Yerachme'eliy, and against the South of the Qeyniy.” 27:11 Dawiyd saved neither man nor woman alive, to bring them to Gath, saying, “Lest they should tell of us, saying, ‘So did Dawiyd, and so has been his manner all the while he has lived in the country of the Pelishtiym.’”

27:12 Akiysh believed Dawiyd, saying, “He has made his people Ysra'al utterly to abhor him. Therefore he shall be my servant forever.”

28:1 It happened in those days, that the Pelishtiym gathered their armies together for warfare, to fight with Ysra'al. Akiysh said to Dawiyd, “Know assuredly that you shall go out with me in the army, you and your men.”

28:2 Dawiyd said to Akiysh, “Therefore you shall know what your servant will do.”

Akiysh said to Dawiyd, “Therefore will I make you my bodyguard for ever.”

28:3 Now Shemu'al was dead, and all Ysra'al had lamented him, and buried him in Ramah, even in his own city. Sha'uwl had put away those who had familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land. 28:4 The Pelishtiym gathered themselves together, and came and encamped in Shuwnem: and Sha'uwl gathered all Ysra'al together, and they encamped in Gilboa.  28:5 When Sha'uwl saw the army of the Pelishtiym, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly. 28:6 When Sha'uwl inquired of YaHuWaH, YaHuWaH didn’t answer him, neither by dreams, nor by Uwriym, nor by prophets. 28:7 Then said Sha'uwl to his servants, “Seek me a woman who has a familiar spirit, that I may go to her, and inquire of her.”

His servants said to him, “Behold, there is a woman who has a familiar spirit at Eyn Do'r.”

28:8 Sha'uwl disguised himself, and put on other clothing, and went, he and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night: and he said, “Please divine to me by the familiar spirit, and bring me up whoever I shall name to you.”

28:9 The woman said to him, “Behold, you know what Sha'uwl has done, how he has cut off those who have familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land. Why then do you lay a snare for my life, to cause me to die?”

28:10 Sha'uwl swore to her by YaHuWaH, saying, “As YaHuWaH lives, there shall no punishment happen to you for this thing.”

28:11 Then said the woman, “Whom shall I bring up to you?”

He said, “Bring Shemu'al up for me.”

28:12 When the woman saw Shemu'al, she cried with a loud voice; and the woman spoke to Sha'uwl, saying, “Why have you deceived me? For you are Sha'uwl!”

28:13 The king said to her, “Don’t be afraid. For what do you see?”

The woman said to Sha'uwl, “I see a god coming up out of the earth.”

28:14 He said to her, “What does he look like?”

She said, “An old man comes up. He is covered with a robe.” Sha'uwl perceived that it was Shemu'al, and he bowed with his face to the ground, and did obeisance.

28:15 Shemu'al said to Sha'uwl, “Why have you disturbed me, to bring me up?”

Sha'uwl answered, “I am very distressed; for the Pelishtiym make war against me, and Aluahiym has departed from me, and answers me no more, neither by prophets, nor by dreams. Therefore I have called you, that you may make known to me what I shall do.”

28:16 Shemu'al said, “Why then do you ask of me, since YaHuWaH has departed from you and has become your adversary? 28:17 YaHuWaH has done to you as He spoke by me. YaHuWaH has torn the kingdom out of your hand, and given it to your neighbor, even to Dawiyd. 28:18 Because you didn’t obey the voice of YaHuWaH, and didn’t execute His fierce wrath on Amaleq, therefore YaHuWaH has done this thing to you this day. 28:19 Moreover YaHuWaH will deliver Ysra'al also with you into the hand of the Pelishtiym; and tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. YaHuWaH will deliver the army of Ysra'al also into the hand of the Pelishtiym.”

28:20 Then Sha'uwl fell immediately his full length on the earth, and was terrified, because of the words of Shemu'al. There was no strength in him; for he had eaten no bread all the day, nor all the night. 28:21 The woman came to Sha'uwl, and saw that he was sore troubled, and said to him, “Behold, your handmaid has listened to your voice, and I have put my life in my hand, and have listened to your words which you spoke to me.  28:22 Now therefore, please listen also to the voice of your handmaid, and let me set a morsel of bread before you; and eat, that you may have strength, when you go on your way.”

28:23 But he refused, and said, I will not eat. But his servants, together with the woman, constrained him; and he listened to their voice. So he arose from the earth, and sat on the bed. 28:24 The woman had a fattened calf in the house. She hurried and killed it; and she took flour, and kneaded it, and baked unleavened bread of it. 28:25 She brought it before Sha'uwl, and before his servants; and they ate. Then they rose up, and went away that night.

29:1 Now the Pelishtiym gathered together all their armies to Apheq: and the Ysra'alites encamped by the spring which is in Yizre'el. 29:2 The lords of the Pelishtiym passed on by hundreds, and by thousands; and Dawiyd and his men passed on in the rearward with Akiysh. 29:3 Then said the princes of the Pelishtiym, “What about these Ibriym?”

Akiysh said to the princes of the Pelishtiym, “Isn’t this Dawiyd, the servant of Sha'uwl the king of Ysra'al, who has been with me these days, or rather these years, and I have found no fault in him since he fell away to this day?”

29:4 But the princes of the Pelishtiym were angry with him; and the princes of the Pelishtiym said to him, “Make the man return, that he may go back to his place where you have appointed him, and let him not go down with us to battle, lest in the battle he become an adversary to us. For with what should this fellow reconcile himself to his lord? Should it not be with the heads of these men? 29:5 Is not this Dawiyd, of whom they sang one to another in dances, saying, ‘Sha'uwl has slain his thousands, Dawiyd his ten thousands?’”

29:6 Then Akiysh called Dawiyd, and said to him, “As YaHuWaH lives, you have been upright, and your going out and your coming in with me in the army is good in my sight; for I have not found evil in you since the day of your coming to me to this day. Nevertheless, the lords don’t favor you. 29:7 Therefore now return, and go in peace, that you not displease the lords of the Pelishtiym.”

29:8 Dawiyd said to Akiysh, “But what have I done? What have you found in your servant so long as I have been before you to this day, that I may not go and fight against the enemies of my lord the king?”

29:9 Akiysh answered Dawiyd, “I know that you are good in my sight, as an messenger of Aluahiym. Notwithstanding the princes of the Pelishtiym have said, ‘He shall not go up with us to the battle.’ 29:10 Therefore now rise up early in the morning with the servants of your lord who have come with you; and as soon as you are up early in the morning, and have light, depart.”

29:11 So Dawiyd rose up early, he and his men, to depart in the morning, to return into the land of the Pelishtiym. The Pelishtiym went up to Yizre'el.

30:1 It happened, when Dawiyd and his men were come to Tsiqlag on the third day, that the Amaleqiy had made a raid on the South, and on Tsiqlag, and had struck Tsiqlag, and burned it with fire, 30:2 and had taken captive the women and all who were therein, both small and great. They didn’t kill any, but carried them off, and went their way. 30:3 When Dawiyd and his men came to the city, behold, it was burned with fire; and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, were taken captive. 30:4 Then Dawiyd and the people who were with him lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep. 30:5 Dawiyd’s two wives were taken captive, Ahinoam the Yizre'eliy, and Abiygayil the wife of Nabal the Karmeliy. 30:6 Dawiyd was greatly distressed; for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but Dawiyd strengthened himself in YaHuWaH his Aluahiym. 30:7 Dawiyd said to Ebyathar the priest, the son of Achiymelek, “Please bring me here the ephod.”

Ebyathar brought the ephod to Dawiyd. 30:8 Dawiyd inquired of YaHuWaH, saying, “If I pursue after this troop, shall I overtake them?”

He answered him, “Pursue; for you shall surely overtake them, and shall without fail recover all.”

30:9 So Dawiyd went, he and the six hundred men who were with him, and came to the brook Besowr, where those who were left behind stayed.  30:10 But Dawiyd pursued, he and four hundred men; for two hundred stayed behind, who were so faint that they couldn’t go over the brook Besowr. 30:11 They found an Mitsriy in the field, and brought him to Dawiyd, and gave him bread, and he ate; and they gave him water to drink.  30:12 They gave him a piece of a cake of figs, and two clusters of raisins. when he had eaten, his spirit came again to him; for he had eaten no bread, nor drunk any water, three days and three nights. 30:13 Dawiyd asked him, “To whom do you belong? Where are you from?”

He said, “I am a young man of Mitsrayim, servant to an Amaleqiy; and my master left me, because three days ago I fell sick. 30:14 We made a raid on the South of the Kerethiy, and on that which belongs to Yahuwdah, and on the South of Kaleb; and we burned Tsiqlag with fire.”

30:15 Dawiyd said to him, “Will you bring me down to this troop?”

He said, “Swear to me by Aluahiym that you will neither kill me, nor deliver me up into the hands of my master, and I will bring you down to this troop.”

30:16 When he had brought him down, behold, they were spread around over all the ground, eating, drinking, and dancing, because of all the great spoil that they had taken out of the land of the Pelishtiym, and out of the land of Yahuwdah. 30:17 Dawiyd struck them from the twilight even to the evening of the next day. Not a man of them escaped from there, except four hundred young men, who rode on camels and fled.  30:18 Dawiyd recovered all that the Amaleqiy had taken; and Dawiyd rescued his two wives. 30:19 There was nothing lacking to them, neither small nor great, neither sons nor daughters, neither spoil, nor anything that they had taken to them. Dawiyd brought back all. 30:20 Dawiyd took all the flocks and the herds, which they drove before those other livestock, and said, “This is Dawiyd’s spoil.”

30:21 Dawiyd came to the two hundred men, who were so faint that they could not follow Dawiyd, whom also they had made to stay at the brook Besowr; and they went forth to meet Dawiyd, and to meet the people who were with him. When Dawiyd came near to the people, he greeted them.  30:22 Then all the wicked men and base fellows, of those who went with Dawiyd, answered and said, “Because they didn’t go with us, we will not give them anything of the spoil that we have recovered, except to every man his wife and his children, that he may lead them away, and depart.”

30:23 Then said Dawiyd, “You shall not do so, my brothers, with that which YaHuWaH has given to us, who has preserved us, and delivered the troop that came against us into our hand. 30:24 Who will listen to you in this matter? For as his share is who goes down to the battle, so shall his share be who tarries by the baggage: they shall share alike.” 30:25 It was so from that day forward, that he made it a statute and an ordinance for Ysra'al to this day. 30:26 When Dawiyd came to Tsiqlag, he sent of the spoil to the elders of Yahuwdah, even to his friends, saying, “Behold, a present for you of the spoil of the enemies of YaHuWaH.” 30:27 He sent it to those who were in Bayith'El, and to those who were in Ramoth of the South, and to those who were in Yattiyr, 30:28 and to those who were in Arow'er, and to those who were in Siphmowth, and to those who were in Eshtemoa,  30:29 and to those who were in Rakal, and to those who were in the cities of the Yerachme'eliy  and to those who were in the cities of the Qeyniy, 30:30 and to those who were in Chormah, and to those who were in Kowr'Ashan, and to those who were in Athak,  30:31 and to those who were in Chebrown, and to all the places where Dawiyd himself and his men used to stay.

31:1 Now the Pelishtiym fought against Ysra'al: and the men of Ysra'al fled from before the Pelishtiym, and fell down slain on Mount Gilboa. 31:2 The Pelishtiym followed hard on Sha'uwl and on his sons; and the Pelishtiym killed Yahuwnathan, and Abiynadab, and Malkiyshuwa, the sons of Sha'uwl. 31:3 The battle went sore against Sha'uwl, and the archers overtook him; and he was greatly distressed by reason of the archers. 31:4 Then said Sha'uwl to his armor bearer, “Draw your sword, and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through, and abuse me!” But his armor bearer would not; for he was terrified. Therefore Sha'uwl took his sword, and fell on it. 31:5 When his armor bearer saw that Sha'uwl was dead, he likewise fell on his sword, and died with him. 31:6 So Sha'uwl died, and his three sons, and his armor bearer, and all his men, that same day together. 31:7 When the men of Ysra'al who were on the other side of the valley, and those who were beyond the Yarden, saw that the men of Ysra'al fled, and that Sha'uwl and his sons were dead, they forsook the cities, and fled; and the Pelishtiym came and lived in them. 31:8 It happened on the next day, when the Pelishtiym came to strip the slain, that they found Sha'uwl and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa. 31:9 They cut off his head, and stripped off his armor, and sent into the land of the Pelishtiym all around, to carry the news to the house of their idols, and to the people.  31:10 They put his armor in the house of the Ashtarowth; and they fastened his body to the wall of Bayith She'an. 31:11 When the inhabitants of Yabesh Gile'ad heard concerning him that which the Pelishtiym had done to Sha'uwl, 31:12 all the valiant men arose, and went all night, and took the body of Sha'uwl and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Bayith She'an; and they came to Yabesh, and burnt them there.  31:13 They took their bones, and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Yabesh, and fasted seven days.