2 Samuel 1:2-10

New International Version

² On the third day a man^(A) arrived from Saul’s camp with his clothes torn and dust on his head.^(B) When he came to David, he fell^(C) to the ground to pay him honor.^(D)

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,^(E)” 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,^(F)’ I answered.

⁹ “Then he said to me, ‘Stand here by me and kill me!^(G) 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^(H) that was on his head and the band on his arm and have brought them here to my lord.”