Beginning
28 At that time, the Philistine army joined together to fight against the Israelites. King Achish said to David, ‘I hope you know that you and your men must fight with me in the battle.’
2 David said, ‘Yes, sir. Then you will see how well I can fight!’
Achish replied, ‘Good. Then you will always be my guard to keep me safe.’
King Saul visits a woman who uses magic
3 Samuel had died before this. All the Israelites had been very sad at his death. They had buried him in Ramah, the town where he had lived. When Samuel had been alive, Saul had removed magicians from Israel. Saul removed everyone who used magic to speak to the spirits of dead people.
4 The Philistine army came together and they put up their tents at Shunem. Saul called together the whole Israelite army. They put up their tents at Gilboa. 5 Saul saw the camp of the Philistine army. He became very afraid. 6 Saul asked the Lord what he should do. But the Lord did not answer him in any way. He did not give Saul a dream. He did not use the Urim. He did not give a message to the prophets. 7 So Saul said to his servants, ‘Look for a woman who can talk to dead people. Then I will go and ask her what will happen.’
His servants replied, ‘There is a woman at Endor who can do that.’
8 Saul changed his clothes so that no one would recognize him. At night, Saul and two of his men went to see the woman. Saul said to her, ‘Use your magic to bring up the spirit of a certain dead man. I will tell you his name.’
9 But the woman said to him, ‘You know what King Saul has done. He has removed all the magicians from Israel. Are you using a trap to catch me? Do you want me to die?’
10 Then Saul promised the woman very strongly. He said, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, nobody will punish you if you do this.’[a]
11 The woman said, ‘Who is it that you want me to bring for you?’ Saul replied, ‘Bring Samuel to me.’
12 The woman screamed when she saw Samuel. She said to Saul, ‘You have deceived me! You are King Saul!’
13 The king said to her, ‘Do not be afraid. Tell me what you can see.’
She replied, ‘I can see a spirit that is coming up from the ground.’
14 Saul asked, ‘What does he look like?’ She said, ‘I see an old man who is wearing a long coat.’
Saul realized that this was Samuel. He bent down low on his knees with his face towards the ground.
15 Samuel said to Saul, ‘Why have you caused this trouble for me? Why have you brought me back?’
Saul said, ‘I have a lot of trouble. The Philistines are fighting against me. God has turned away from me. He will not use the prophets or give me dreams to answer my questions. So I have called you to come here. Please tell me what I should do.’
16 Samuel said, ‘The Lord has turned away from you and he has become your enemy. So do not ask me what you should do. 17 I told you what the Lord would do. Now he has done it! The Lord has taken the kingdom away from you. He has given it to another Israelite, David. 18 The Lord has punished you today because you did not obey him. The Lord was very angry with the Amalekites. He told you to destroy them all. But you refused to do that. 19 The Lord will put you and the Israelites under the power of the Philistines. Tomorrow you and your sons will be with me in the place for dead people. The Lord will also let the Philistines win against Israel's army.’
20 Saul immediately fell down on the ground and he lay there. He was very afraid because of what Samuel had said. Saul was also very weak because he had eaten nothing all that day and night.
21 Then the woman came to Saul. She saw that he was very afraid. She said, ‘I have obeyed you, sir. I did what you asked me to do. I might have died because I did that. 22 Please listen to me now. I will give you some food to eat. Then you will be strong enough to travel back.’
23 Saul refused and he said, ‘I will not eat.’ But the woman and Saul's servants continued to say that he must eat some food. So Saul agreed. He got up from the ground and he sat down on a bed.
24 The woman had a fat calf at her home. She went quickly and she killed it. Then she took some flour and she cooked some flat bread without yeast. 25 She gave the food to Saul and to his men and they ate it. Then they left her house that night.
The Philistine leaders will not have David in their army
29 The Philistine army put up their tents at Aphek. The Israelites made their camp near the spring of water at Jezreel. 2 The Philistine rulers marched out with their groups of soldiers. They were in groups of 100 soldiers and 1,000 soldiers. David and his men were marching with King Achish at the back of the army. 3 The Philistine leaders asked, ‘Why are these Hebrew people here?’
Achish said to them, ‘This is David. He was the servant of Israel's King Saul. But he came to me more than a year ago. Since he turned against King Saul and came to me, he has always been faithful to me.’
4 But the Philistine leaders were angry with Achish. They said to him, ‘Send David back to the town that you gave to him. He must not go with us to fight the battle. He might turn against us and become our enemy. Then he would start to kill our own soldiers. That would make his master, Saul, very happy! 5 Remember who this man David is! The Israelites sing this about him when they dance:
“Saul has killed thousands of his enemies.
And David has killed tens of thousands of his enemies.” ’
6 So Achish called David to come to him. He said, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, I know that I can trust you. I would like you to go with me to fight the battle. Since the first day that you came to me, I have never found anything wrong with you. But the other leaders do not trust you. 7 So return to your home and have peace in your mind. Do not do anything that will make the other Philistine leaders angry.’
8 David said to King Achish, ‘What have I done that is wrong? You say that you have found nothing wrong with me all the time that I have been with you. You are my master and king. So why should I not go with you to fight your enemies?’
9 Achish replied, ‘I believe that you are as good as an angel from God. But the Philistine leaders have said, “David must not go with us to fight the battle.” 10 So you must all get up early tomorrow morning. As soon as there is light at dawn, you must leave with the men who came with you.’
11 So David and his men got up early in the morning. They returned along the road back to Ziklag. The Philistine army went to Jezreel.
David fights against the Amalekites
30 David and his men arrived at Ziklag three days after they left King Achish. They found that the Amalekites had attacked Ziklag and towns in the south of Judah. The Amalekites had destroyed Ziklag with fire. 2 They had caught the women and the other people who were in the town, both young people and old people. They did not kill any of them, but they took them away as prisoners.[b]
3 So when David and his men arrived at Ziklag, they saw that the Amalekites had destroyed the city. The Amalekites had taken away their wives, their sons and their daughters as prisoners. 4 David and his men wept loudly. They continued to weep until they had no strength to weep any more. 5 The Amalekites had taken both of David's wives: Ahinoam from Jezreel and Abigail from Carmel, who was Nabal's widow. 6 David was very upset because his men were complaining. They wanted to kill him with stones. His men were very upset because they had lost their sons and their daughters. But David trusted the Lord his God to make him strong.
7 Then David spoke to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech's son. David said to him, ‘Bring the priests' ephod to me.’ So Abiathar took the ephod to David. 8 David asked the Lord, ‘Should I chase after the men who attacked our town? Will I catch them?’
The Lord answered, ‘Yes, chase after them and you will certainly catch them. You will rescue your families.’[c]
9-10 So David and his 600 men left Ziklag. They arrived at Besor stream. Some of the men were too tired to go across the valley. So 200 men remained there.[d] David and the other 400 men continued to chase after the Amalekites.
11 David's men found an Egyptian man in a field. They took him to David. They gave the man some water to drink and food to eat. 12 They gave him some dried figs and some raisins. Then he became stronger, because he had not eaten any food or drunk any water for three days.
13 David asked the man, ‘Who is your master? Where do you come from?’
The young man answered, ‘I am an Egyptian, the slave of an Amalekite man. My master left me here three days ago because I was ill. 14 We had attacked the south part of Judah, where the Kerethites live.[e] We also attacked the land where the people of Caleb's clan live. We destroyed Ziklag with fire too.’
15 David said to him, ‘Can you take me to find these men?’
The man said, ‘Please promise me in God's name that you will not kill me. Promise me that you will not take me back to my master. If you do that, I will lead you to find them.’
16 So the Egyptian man took David to find the Amalekites. The men were sitting everywhere, all over the ground. They were having a party, eating and drinking. They were happy because they had taken so many things from the towns of the Philistines and from the people in Judah.
17 That evening, David attacked the Amalekites. The fight continued until the next evening. David and his men killed all the Amalekites except for 400 young men. Those 400 men rode away on their camels. 18 David got back everything that the Amalekites had taken. And he rescued his two wives. 19 The people had lost nothing. David brought everyone back, the young people and the old people, the sons and the daughters. He brought back all the valuable things and everything that the Amalekites had taken. 20 David took all the sheep, goats and cows from the Amalekites. His men led these animals in front of the other animals. They said, ‘These animals will belong to David!’
21 David returned to the 200 men who had stayed beside the Besor stream. These men had been too tired to go with David. They came to meet David and the men who were with him. When David met them, he happily said ‘hello’ to them. 22 But some of the men who had gone with David were wicked and stupid. They said, ‘These men did not come with us to attack the Amalekites. So we will not give them any of the things that we have brought back. Each man can have only his wife and his children. Then they must take them back home.’
23 David said, ‘No, my brothers. You cannot do that. The Lord has given all these things to us. He has kept us safe. He has helped us to win against the enemies who attacked us. 24 Nobody will agree with what you say. Each person will receive an equal part. The men who stayed here with our things and the men who went to fight will all receive the same amount.’
25 David made this a rule for the Israelites, and they still obey it.
26 David arrived back at Ziklag with all the things that they had taken from the Amalekites. He sent some of the things to the leaders of Judah who were his friends. David sent this message, ‘Here is a gift for you. We took these things from the Lord's enemies.’
27 David sent gifts to the leaders in these towns:
Bethel, Ramoth in the desert in the south, Jattir,
28 Aroer, Siphmoth, Eshtemoa, 29 Racal,
the towns where the clan of Jerahmeel live,
the towns where the Kenites live,
30 Hormah, Bor Ashan, Athach 31 and Hebron.
David also sent gifts to the people in the towns that he and his men had visited.
Saul and his sons die in the battle
31 The Philistines fought against the Israelites. The Israelites ran away, and the Philistines killed many of them on Gilboa mountain. 2 The Philistines chased after Saul and his sons to catch them. They killed Saul's sons, Jonathan, Abinadab and Malki-Shua.
3 The Philistines were fighting the battle all around Saul. Some of their soldiers saw Saul and they shot their arrows at him. The arrows hurt Saul very much and he was nearly dead. 4 He said to the young man who carried his armour, ‘Kill me now with your sword. I do not want these foreign men to be cruel to me as they kill me.’ But the young man would not agree to kill Saul because he was too afraid. So Saul took his own sword and he threw himself onto it so that he died. 5 The young man saw that Saul was dead. So he threw himself onto his own sword and he also died.
6 So Saul died there, with his three sons. The young man who carried Saul's armour and all Saul's men died too.
7 The Israelites who lived in the Jezreel valley and on the other side of the Jordan River saw what happened. They saw that the Israelite army had run away from the Philistines. They saw that Saul and his sons were dead. So they left their towns and they ran away. Then the Philistines came to live in those towns.
8 The day after the battle, the Philistines came to take all the valuable things from the dead soldiers. They found the dead bodies of Saul and his three sons on Gilboa mountain. 9 They cut off Saul's head and they removed his armour. Then they sent men through all the country of the Philistines with the news of Saul's death. These men told the news everywhere that the Philistine people lived and in the temples of their idols. 10 They put Saul's armour in the temple of their god Ashtoreth. Then they hung Saul's dead body on the wall of Beth Shan town.[f]
11 The Israelites who lived in Jabesh Gilead heard about what the Philistines had done to Saul's body.[g] 12 So all their brave soldiers left Jabesh Gilead and they marched all night to Beth Shan. They removed the dead bodies of Saul and his sons from the town's wall. Then they took them to Jabesh Gilead. They burned the dead bodies there. 13 Then they took the bones and they buried them under a tamarisk tree at Jabesh Gilead. The men did not eat any food for seven days because they were so sad.
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