⁴ Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, ^(A)its blood.

^26 (A)You are not to eat any blood, either of bird or animal, in any of your dwellings.

¹⁰ ‘^(A)And any man from the house of Israel, or from the aliens who sojourn among them, who eats any blood, ^(B)I will set My face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from among his people. ¹¹ For ^(C)the ^[a]life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for ^(D)it is the blood by reason of the ^[b]life that makes atonement.’ ¹² Therefore I said to the sons of Israel, ‘No person among you may eat blood, nor may any alien who sojourns among you eat blood.’

³³ Then they told Saul, saying, “Behold, the people are ^(A)sinning against the Lord by eating with the blood.” And he said, “You have acted treacherously; roll a great stone to me today.” ³⁴ Saul said, “Disperse yourselves among the people and say to them, ‘Each one of you bring me his ox or his sheep, and slaughter it here and eat; and do not sin against the Lord by eating with the blood.’” So all the people that night brought each one his ox ^[a]with him and slaughtered it there. ³⁵ And ^(B)Saul built an altar to the Lord; it was the first altar that he built to the Lord.

³⁶ Then Saul said, “Let us go down after the Philistines by night and take spoil among them until the morning light, and let us not leave a man of them.” And they said, “Do whatever seems good ^[b]to you.” So ^(C)the priest said, “Let us draw near to God here.” ³⁷ Saul ^(D)inquired of God, “Shall I go down after the Philistines? Will You give them into the hand of Israel?” But ^(E)He did not answer him on that day. ³⁸ Saul said, “^(F)Draw near here, all you ^[c]chiefs of the people, and investigate and see how this sin has happened today. ³⁹ For ^(G)as the Lord lives, who delivers Israel, though it is in Jonathan my son, he shall surely die.” But not one of all the people answered him. ⁴⁰ Then he said to all Israel, “You shall be on one side and I and Jonathan my son will be on the other side.” And the people said to Saul, “Do what seems good ^[d]to you.” ⁴¹ Therefore, Saul said to the Lord, the God of Israel, “^(H)Give a perfect lot.” And Jonathan and Saul were taken, but the people escaped. ⁴² Saul said, “Cast lots between me and Jonathan my son.” And Jonathan was taken.

⁴³ Then Saul said to Jonathan, “^(I)Tell me what you have done.” So Jonathan told him and said, “^(J)I indeed tasted a little honey with the end of the staff that was in my hand. Here I am, I must die!” ⁴⁴ Saul said, “^(K)May God do ^[e]this to me and more also, for ^(L)you shall surely die, Jonathan.” ⁴⁵ But the people said to Saul, “Must Jonathan die, who has ^[f]brought about this great deliverance in Israel? Far from it! As the Lord lives, ^(M)not one hair of his head shall fall to the ground, for ^(N)he has worked with God this day.” So the people ^[g]rescued Jonathan and he did not die. ⁴⁶ Then Saul went up from ^[h]pursuing the Philistines, and the Philistines went to their own place.

Constant Warfare

⁴⁷ Now when Saul had taken the kingdom over Israel, he fought against all his enemies on every side, against Moab, ^(O)the sons of Ammon, Edom, ^(P)the kings of Zobah, and ^(Q)the Philistines; and wherever he turned, he ^[i]inflicted punishment. ⁴⁸ He acted valiantly and ^[j](R)defeated the Amalekites, and delivered Israel from the hands of ^[k]those who plundered them.

⁴⁹ Now ^(S)the sons of Saul were Jonathan and Ishvi and Malchi-shua; and the names of his two daughters were these: the name of the firstborn ^(T)Merab and the name of the younger ^(U)Michal. ⁵⁰ The name of Saul’s wife was Ahinoam the daughter of Ahimaaz. And ^(V)the name of the captain of his army was Abner the son of Ner, Saul’s uncle. ^51 (W)Kish was the father of Saul, and Ner the father of Abner was the son of Abiel.

⁵² Now the war against the Philistines was severe all the days of Saul; and when Saul saw any mighty man or any valiant man, he ^[l](X)attached him to ^[m]his staff.

²⁰ but that we write to them that they abstain from ^[a](A)things contaminated by idols and from ^(B)fornication and from ^(C)what is strangled and from blood.