Do not regard your servant as a worthless woman, for I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation all this time.”

In due time Hannah conceived and bore a son. She named him Samuel, for she said, “I have asked him of the Lord.”

But Hannah did not go up, for she said to her husband, “As soon as the child is weaned, I will bring him, that he may appear in the presence of the Lord and remain there forever; I will offer him as a nazirite for all time.”

See, a time is coming when I will cut off your strength and the strength of your ancestor’s family.

At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his room;

The Lord called Samuel again, a third time. And he got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy.

From the day that the ark was lodged at Kiriath-jearim, a long time passed, some twenty years, and all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord.

“Tomorrow about this time I will send to you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him to be ruler over my people Israel. He shall save my people from the hand of the Philistines, for I have seen the suffering of my people, because their outcry has come to me.”

The cook took up the upper thigh and set it before Saul. Samuel said, “See, what was reserved is set before you. Eat, for it was kept for you for this appointed time, so that you might eat with the guests.” So Saul ate with Samuel that day.

They said to the messengers who had come, “Thus shall you say to the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead: Tomorrow, by the time the sun is hot, you shall have deliverance.” When the messengers came and told the inhabitants of Jabesh, they rejoiced.

He waited seven days, the time appointed by Samuel, but Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the people began to slip away from Saul.

Saul said to Ahijah, “Bring the ark of God here.” For at that time the ark of God went with the Israelites.

But at the time when Saul’s daughter Merab should have been given to David, she was given to Adriel the Meholathite as a wife.

Saul thought, “Let me give her to him that she may be a snare for him and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him.” Therefore Saul said to David a second time, “You shall now be my son-in-law.”

When his servants told David these words, David was well pleased to be the king’s son-in-law. Before the time had expired,

Saul was still more afraid of David. So Saul was David’s enemy from that time forward.

When Saul was told, he sent other messengers, and they also fell into a frenzy. Saul sent messengers again the third time, and they also fell into a frenzy.

Jonathan said to David, “By the Lord, the God of Israel! When I have sounded out my father, about this time tomorrow or on the third day, if he is well disposed toward David, shall I not then send and disclose it to you?

The king sat upon his seat, as at other times, upon the seat by the wall. Jonathan stood, while Abner sat by Saul’s side, but David’s place was empty.

As soon as the boy had gone, David rose from beside the stone heap and prostrated himself with his face to the ground. He bowed three times, and they kissed each other and wept with each other; David wept the more.

He left them with the king of Moab, and they stayed with him all the time that David was in the stronghold.

Is today the first time that I have inquired of God for him? By no means! Do not let the king impute anything to his servant or to any member of my father’s house, for your servant has known nothing of all this, much or little.”

I hear that you have shearers; now your shepherds have been with us, and we did them no harm, and they missed nothing all the time they were in Carmel.

David Spares Saul’s Life a Second Time

Then the Ziphites came to Saul at Gibeah, saying, “David is in hiding on the hill of Hachilah, which is opposite Jeshimon.”

The length of time that David lived in the country of the Philistines was one year and four months.