David's Wives Are Captured

30 Now when David and his men came to ^(A)Ziklag on the third day, ^(B)the Amalekites had ^(C)made a raid against the Negeb and against Ziklag. They had overcome Ziklag and burned it with fire ² and taken captive the women and all^[a] who were in it, both small and great. They killed no one, but carried them off and went their way. ³ And when David and his men came to the city, they found it burned with fire, and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. ⁴ Then David and the people who were with him raised their voices and wept until they had no more strength to weep. ⁵ David's ^(D)two wives also had been taken captive, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel. ⁶ And David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke ^(E)of stoning him, because all the people were bitter in soul,^[b] each for his sons and daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.

^7 (F)And David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelech, “Bring me the ephod.” So Abiathar brought the ephod to David. ^8 (G)And David inquired of the Lord, “Shall I pursue after this ^(H)band? Shall I overtake them?” He answered him, “Pursue, for you shall surely overtake ^(I)and shall surely rescue.” ⁹ So David set out, and ^(J)the six hundred men who were with him, and they came to the brook Besor, where those who were left behind stayed. ¹⁰ But David pursued, he and four hundred men. ^(K)Two hundred stayed behind, who were too exhausted to cross the brook Besor.

¹¹ They found an Egyptian in the open country and brought him to David. And they gave him bread and he ate. They gave him water to drink, ¹² and they gave him a piece of a cake of figs and two clusters of raisins. And when he had eaten, ^(L)his spirit revived, for he had not eaten bread or drunk water for three days and three nights. ¹³ And David said to him, “To whom do you belong? And where are you from?” He said, “I am a young man of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite, and my master left me behind because I fell sick three days ago. ^14 (M)We had made a raid against the Negeb of ^(N)the Cherethites and against that which belongs to Judah and against the Negeb of Caleb, and we burned Ziklag with fire.” ¹⁵ And David said to him, “Will you take me down to this band?” And he said, “Swear to me by God that you will not kill me or deliver me into the hands of my master, and I will take you down to this ^(O)band.”

David Defeats the Amalekites

¹⁶ And when he had taken him down, behold, they were spread abroad over all the land, eating and drinking and dancing, because of all the great spoil they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah. ¹⁷ And David struck them down from twilight until the evening of the next day, and not a man of them escaped, except four hundred young men, who mounted camels and fled. ^18 (P)David recovered all that the Amalekites had taken, and David rescued his two wives. ¹⁹ Nothing was missing, whether small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything that had been taken. ^(Q)David brought back all. ²⁰ David also captured all the flocks and herds, and the people drove the livestock before him,^[c] and said, “This is David's spoil.”

²¹ Then David came to ^(R)the two hundred men who had been too exhausted to follow David, and who had been left ^(S)at the brook Besor. And they went out to meet David and to meet the people who were with him. And when David came near to the people he greeted them. ²² Then all the wicked and worthless fellows among the men who had gone with David said, “Because they did not go with us, we will not give them any of the spoil that we have recovered, except that each man may lead away his wife and children, and depart.” ²³ But David said, “You shall not do so, my brothers, with what the Lord has given us. He has preserved us and given into our hand the band that came against us. ²⁴ Who would listen to you in this matter? ^(T)For as his share is who goes down into the battle, so shall his share be who stays by the baggage. They shall share alike.” ²⁵ And he made it a statute and a rule for Israel from that day forward to this day.

²⁶ When David came to Ziklag, he sent part of the spoil to his friends, the elders of Judah, saying, “Here is a present for you from the spoil of the enemies of the Lord.” ²⁷ It was for those in ^(U)Bethel, in Ramoth of the Negeb, in ^(V)Jattir, ²⁸ in ^(W)Aroer, in Siphmoth, in ^(X)Eshtemoa, ²⁹ in Racal, in the cities of ^(Y)the Jerahmeelites, in the cities of ^(Z)the Kenites, ³⁰ in ^(AA)Hormah, in Bor-ashan, in Athach, ³¹ in ^(AB)Hebron, for all the places where David and his men had roamed.

The Death of Saul

31 ^(AC)Now the Philistines were fighting against Israel, and the men of Israel fled before the Philistines and fell slain ^(AD)on Mount Gilboa. ² And the Philistines overtook Saul and his sons, and the Philistines struck down ^(AE)Jonathan and ^(AF)Abinadab and Malchi-shua, the sons of Saul. ^3 (AG)The battle pressed hard against Saul, and the archers found him, and he was badly wounded by the archers. ^4 (AH)Then Saul said to his armor-bearer, “Draw your sword, and thrust me through with it, lest these ^(AI)uncircumcised come and thrust me through, and mistreat me.” But his armor-bearer would not, ^(AJ)for he feared greatly. Therefore Saul took his own sword ^(AK)and fell upon it. ⁵ And when his armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell upon his sword and died with him. ⁶ Thus Saul died, and his three sons, and his armor-bearer, and all his men, on the same day together. ⁷ And when the men of Israel who were on the other side of the valley and those beyond the Jordan saw that the men of Israel had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned their cities and fled. And the Philistines came and lived in them.

⁸ The next day, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa. ⁹ So they cut off his head and stripped off his armor and sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines, ^(AL)to carry the good news ^(AM)to the house of their idols and to the people. ^10 (AN)They put his armor in the temple of ^(AO)Ashtaroth, and they fastened his body to the wall of ^(AP)Beth-shan. ^11 (AQ)But when the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, ^12 (AR)all the valiant men arose and went all night and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth-shan, and they came to Jabesh ^(AS)and burned them there. ¹³ And they took their bones ^(AT)and buried them under ^(AU)the tamarisk tree in Jabesh and ^(AV)fasted seven days.

Saul Ravages the Church

8 And ^(A)Saul ^(B)approved of his execution.

And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and ^(C)they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. ² Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. ³ But ^(D)Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he ^(E)dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.

Philip Proclaims Christ in Samaria

⁴ Now ^(F)those who were scattered went about preaching the word. ^5 (G)Philip went down to the city^[a] of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ. ^6 (H)And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip, when they heard him ^(I)and saw the signs that he did. ⁷ For ^(J)unclean spirits, crying out with a loud voice, came out of many who had them, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. ⁸ So ^(K)there was much joy in that city.

Simon the Magician Believes

⁹ But there was a man named Simon, ^(L)who had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the people of Samaria, ^(M)saying that he himself was somebody great. ¹⁰ They all paid attention to him, from the least to the greatest, saying, ^(N)“This man is the power of God that is called ^(O)Great.” ¹¹ And they paid attention to him because for a long time he had ^(P)amazed them with his magic. ¹² But when ^(Q)they believed Philip as he preached good news ^(R)about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, ^(S)they were baptized, both men and women. ¹³ Even Simon himself believed, and after being baptized he continued with Philip. And ^(T)seeing signs and ^(U)great miracles^[b] performed, ^(V)he was amazed.

¹⁴ Now when ^(W)the apostles at Jerusalem heard that ^(X)Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, ¹⁵ who came down and prayed for them ^(Y)that they might receive the Holy Spirit, ¹⁶ for ^(Z)he had not yet ^(AA)fallen on any of them, but ^(AB)they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. ¹⁷ Then ^(AC)they laid their hands on them and ^(AD)they received the Holy Spirit. ¹⁸ Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money, ¹⁹ saying, “Give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” ²⁰ But Peter said to him, ^(AE)“May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God ^(AF)with money! ²¹ You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for ^(AG)your heart is not right before God. ²² Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, ^(AH)if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. ²³ For I see that you are in ^(AI)the gall^[c] of bitterness and in ^(AJ)the bond of iniquity.” ²⁴ And Simon answered, ^(AK)“Pray for me to the Lord, that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.”

²⁵ Now when they had testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, ^(AL)preaching the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans.

Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch

²⁶ Now ^(AM)an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south^[d] to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place. ²⁷ And he rose and went. And there was an ^(AN)Ethiopian, a ^(AO)eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, ^(AP)who was in charge of all her treasure. ^(AQ)He had come to Jerusalem to worship ²⁸ and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. ²⁹ And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” ³⁰ So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” ³¹ And he said, ^(AR)“How can I, unless someone ^(AS)guides me?” And ^(AT)he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. ³² Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this:

³⁴ And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” ³⁵ Then Philip opened his mouth, and ^(AW)beginning with this Scripture ^(AX)he told him the good news about Jesus. ³⁶ And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! ^(AY)What prevents me from being baptized?”^{[e] 38} And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. ³⁹ And when they came up out of the water, ^(AZ)the Spirit of the Lord ^(BA)carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. ⁴⁰ But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.