David Hears of Saul’s Death^(A)

1 After the death^(B) of Saul, David returned from striking down^(C) the Amalekites^(D) and stayed in Ziklag two days. ² On the third day a man^(E) arrived from Saul’s camp with his clothes torn and dust on his head.^(F) When he came to David, he fell^(G) to the ground to pay him honor.^(H)

³ “Where have you come from?” David asked him.

He answered, “I have escaped from the Israelite camp.”

⁴ “What happened?” David asked. “Tell me.”

“The men fled from the battle,” he replied. “Many of them fell and died. And Saul and his son Jonathan are dead.”

⁵ Then David said to the young man who brought him the report, “How do you know that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead?”

⁶ “I happened to be on Mount Gilboa,^(I)” the young man said, “and there was Saul, leaning on his spear, with the chariots and their drivers in hot pursuit. ⁷ When he turned around and saw me, he called out to me, and I said, ‘What can I do?’

⁸ “He asked me, ‘Who are you?’

“‘An Amalekite,^(J)’ I answered.

⁹ “Then he said to me, ‘Stand here by me and kill me!^(K) I’m in the throes of death, but I’m still alive.’

¹⁰ “So I stood beside him and killed him, because I knew that after he had fallen he could not survive. And I took the crown^(L) that was on his head and the band on his arm and have brought them here to my lord.”

¹¹ Then David and all the men with him took hold of their clothes and tore^(M) them. ¹² They mourned and wept and fasted till evening for Saul and his son Jonathan, and for the army of the Lord and for the nation of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.

¹³ David said to the young man who brought him the report, “Where are you from?”

“I am the son of a foreigner, an Amalekite,^(N)” he answered.

¹⁴ David asked him, “Why weren’t you afraid to lift your hand to destroy the Lord’s anointed?^(O)”

¹⁵ Then David called one of his men and said, “Go, strike him down!”^(P) So he struck him down, and he died.^{(Q) 16} For David had said to him, “Your blood be on your own head.^(R) Your own mouth testified against you when you said, ‘I killed the Lord’s anointed.’”

The Work of the Holy Spirit

²⁶ “When the Advocate^(A) comes, whom I will send to you from the Father^(B)—the Spirit of truth^(C) who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me.^{(D) 27} And you also must testify,^(E) for you have been with me from the beginning.^(F)

16 “All this^(G) I have told you so that you will not fall away.^{(H) 2} They will put you out of the synagogue;^(I) in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God.^{(J) 3} They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me.^{(K) 4} I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember^(L) that I warned you about them. I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you,^{(M) 5} but now I am going to him who sent me.^(N) None of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’^{(O) 6} Rather, you are filled with grief^(P) because I have said these things. ⁷ But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate^(Q) will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.^{(R) 8} When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: ⁹ about sin,^(S) because people do not believe in me; ¹⁰ about righteousness,^(T) because I am going to the Father,^(U) where you can see me no longer; ¹¹ and about judgment, because the prince of this world^(V) now stands condemned.

¹² “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.^{(W) 13} But when he, the Spirit of truth,^(X) comes, he will guide you into all the truth.^(Y) He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. ¹⁴ He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. ¹⁵ All that belongs to the Father is mine.^(Z) That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”