Saul said to his armor-bearer, “Draw your sword and run me through, or these uncircumcised fellows will come and abuse me.” But his armor-bearer was terrified and would not do it; so Saul took his own sword and fell on it.

When the armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he too fell on his sword and died.

When all the Israelites in the valley saw that the army had fled and that Saul and his sons had died, they abandoned their towns and fled. And the Philistines came and occupied them.

They stripped him and took his head and his armor, and sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines to proclaim the news among their idols and their people.

They put his armor in the temple of their gods and hung up his head in the temple of Dagon.

Zelek the Ammonite, Naharai the Berothite, the armor-bearer of Joab son of Zeruiah,

they were armed with bows and were able to shoot arrows or to sling stones right-handed or left-handed; they were relatives of Saul from the tribe of Benjamin):

These Gadites were army commanders; the least was a match for a hundred, and the greatest for a thousand.

They helped David against raiding bands, for all of them were brave warriors, and they were commanders in his army.

Day after day men came to help David, until he had a great army, like the army of God.

Others Join David at Hebron

These are the numbers of the men armed for battle who came to David at Hebron to turn Saul’s kingdom over to him, as the Lord had said:

from Judah, carrying shield and spear—6,800 armed for battle;

and from east of the Jordan, from Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh, armed with every type of weapon—120,000.

As soon as you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the poplar trees, move out to battle, because that will mean God has gone out in front of you to strike the Philistine army.”

So David did as God commanded him, and they struck down the Philistine army, all the way from Gibeon to Gezer.

When Tou king of Hamath heard that David had defeated the entire army of Hadadezer king of Zobah,

Joab son of Zeruiah was over the army; Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud was recorder;

On hearing this, David sent Joab out with the entire army of fighting men.

After the Arameans saw that they had been routed by Israel, they sent messengers and had Arameans brought from beyond the Euphrates River, with Shophak the commander of Hadadezer’s army leading them.

But they fled before Israel, and David killed seven thousand of their charioteers and forty thousand of their foot soldiers. He also killed Shophak the commander of their army.

The Capture of Rabbah

In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, Joab led out the armed forces. He laid waste the land of the Ammonites and went to Rabbah and besieged it, but David remained in Jerusalem. Joab attacked Rabbah and left it in ruins.

and brought out the people who were there, consigning them to labor with saws and with iron picks and axes. David did this to all the Ammonite towns. Then David and his entire army returned to Jerusalem.

The Musicians

David, together with the commanders of the army, set apart some of the sons of Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun for the ministry of prophesying, accompanied by harps, lyres and cymbals. Here is the list of the men who performed this service:

Shelomith and his relatives were in charge of all the treasuries for the things dedicated by King David, by the heads of families who were the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds, and by the other army commanders.

Army Divisions

This is the list of the Israelites—heads of families, commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds, and their officers, who served the king in all that concerned the army divisions that were on duty month by month throughout the year. Each division consisted of 24,000 men.