Eli said to them, “I have been hearing reports from all the people about the wicked things you are doing. Why do you keep sinning?

“Send the Ark of the God of Israel back with a gift,” they were told. “Send a guilt offering so the plague will stop. Then, if you are healed, you will know it was his hand that caused the plague.”

Put the Ark of the Lord on the cart, and beside it place a chest containing the gold rats and gold tumors you are sending as a guilt offering. Then let the cows go wherever they want.

“Look,” they told him, “you are now old, and your sons are not like you. Give us a king to judge us like all the other nations have.”

When that day comes, you will beg for relief from this king you are demanding, but then the Lord will not help you.”

They will greet you and offer you two of the loaves, which you are to accept.

If they say to us, ‘Stay where you are or we’ll kill you,’ then we will stop and not go up to them.

Goliath stood and shouted a taunt across to the Israelites. “Why are you all coming out to fight?” he called. “I am the Philistine champion, but you are only the servants of Saul. Choose one man to come down here and fight me!

“Don’t be afraid,” Jonathan reassured him. “My father will never find you! You are going to be the king of Israel, and I will be next to you, as my father, Saul, is well aware.”

Discover his hiding places, and come back when you are sure. Then I’ll go with you. And if he is in the area at all, I’ll track him down, even if I have to search every hiding place in Judah!”

“May the Lord judge between us. Perhaps the Lord will punish you for what you are trying to do to me, but I will never harm you.

And he said to David, “You are a better man than I am, for you have repaid me good for evil.

And now I realize that you are surely going to be king, and that the kingdom of Israel will flourish under your rule.

Please forgive me if I have offended you in any way. The Lord will surely reward you with a lasting dynasty, for you are fighting the Lord’s battles. And you have not done wrong throughout your entire life.

“Even when you are chased by those who seek to kill you, your life is safe in the care of the Lord your God, secure in his treasure pouch! But the lives of your enemies will disappear like stones shot from a sling!

The Lord gives his own reward for doing good and for being loyal, and I refused to kill you even when the Lord placed you in my power, for you are the Lord’s anointed one.

When the woman saw Samuel, she screamed, “You’ve deceived me! You are Saul!”