The Daily Audio Bible

The Philistines Reject David

29 The Philistines assembled their whole army at Aphek, and Israel camped at the spring in Jezreel. ² The Philistine leaders were marching by with their companies and regiments. David and his men were marching in the rear with Achish.

³ The Philistine officers asked, “What are these Hebrews doing here?”

Achish asked the Philistine officers, “Isn’t this David, the servant of King Saul of Israel, who has been with me now for a year or two? I’ve found nothing wrong with him from the day he defected until now.”

⁴ But the Philistine officers were angry with Achish. “Send the man back,” the Philistine officers told him. “Return him to the place you assigned him. He shouldn’t go with us into battle. He shouldn’t be allowed to become our enemy during the battle. Is this man going to try to regain his master’s favor? He’ll do it with the lives of our men! ⁵ Isn’t this David of whom people sing in dances:

⁶ Then Achish called David and told him, “I solemnly swear, as Yahweh lives, you are a dependable man. I consider your campaigning with me a good thing, because I’ve never found anything wrong with you from the day you came to me until now. But the rulers don’t approve of you. ⁷ So leave peacefully without doing anything to displease the Philistine rulers.”

⁸ “What have I done?” David asked Achish. “What have you learned about me from the time I came to you until now? Why shouldn’t I fight your enemies, Your Majesty?”

⁹ Achish answered David, “I admit that in my judgment you’re as good as Elohim’s Messenger. However, the Philistine officers said, ‘He shouldn’t go into battle with us.’ ¹⁰ Get up early in the morning with Saul’s servants who came with you, and go to the place I have assigned to you. Don’t worry about the unkind words, because I still approve of you.^[a] Get up in the morning, and leave when it’s light.”

¹¹ Early the next morning David and his men returned to Philistine territory, while the Philistines went to Jezreel.

David Defeats the Amalekites

30 Two days later, when David and his men came to Ziklag, the Amalekites had raided the Negev, including Ziklag. They had attacked Ziklag and burned it. ² Although they captured the young and old women who were there, they killed no one. Instead, they had taken the women and other prisoners and gone away. ³ By the time David and his men came to the town, it had been burned down, and their wives, sons, and daughters had been taken captive. ⁴ Then David and his men cried loudly until they didn’t have the strength to cry anymore. ⁵ The Amalekites also captured David’s two wives, Ahinoam from Jezreel and Abigail (who had been Nabal’s wife) from Carmel. ⁶ David was in great distress because the people in their bitterness said he should be stoned. (They were thinking of their sons and daughters. But David found strength in Yahweh his Elohim.)

⁷ David told the priest Abiathar, Ahimelech’s son, “Please bring me the priestly ephod.”^[b] So Abiathar brought David the ephod.

⁸ Then David asked Yahweh, “Should I pursue these troops? Will I catch up with them?”

“Pursue them,” Yahweh told him. “You will certainly catch up with them and rescue the captives.”

⁹ So David and his 600 men went to the Besor Valley, where some were left behind. ¹⁰ David and 400 men went in pursuit, while 200 men who were too exhausted to cross the Besor Valley stayed behind.

¹¹ David’s men found an Egyptian in the open country and took him to David. They gave him food to eat and water to drink. ¹² They gave him a slice of fig cake and two bunches of raisins. After he had eaten, he revived. (He hadn’t eaten any food or drunk any water for three whole days.) ¹³ David asked him, “To whom do you belong? Where do you come from?”

“I’m an Egyptian, the slave of an Amalekite,” the young man answered. “My master left me behind because I got sick three days ago. ¹⁴ We raided the portion of the Negev where the Cherethites live, the territory of Judah, the portion of the Negev where Caleb settled, and we burned down Ziklag.”

¹⁵ “Will you lead me to these troops?” David asked him.

He answered, “Take an oath in front of Elohim that you won’t kill me or hand me over to my master, and I’ll lead you to these troops.”

¹⁶ The Egyptian led him to them. They were spread out all over the land, eating, and drinking. They were celebrating because they had taken so much loot from Philistine territory and from the land of Judah. ¹⁷ From dawn until evening the next day, David attacked them. No one escaped except 400 young men who rode away on camels. ¹⁸ David rescued everything the Amalekites had taken, including his two wives. ¹⁹ Nothing was missing—young or old, sons or daughters, the loot or anything else they had taken with them. David brought back everything. ²⁰ He took all the sheep and the cattle. His men drove the animals ahead of him and said, “This is David’s loot.”

²¹ David came to the 200 men who had been too exhausted to go with him and had stayed in the Besor Valley. They came to meet David and the people with him. As David approached the men, he greeted them. ²² Then every wicked and worthless man who had gone with David said, “Since they didn’t go with us, they shouldn’t be given any of the loot we recovered. Each of them should take only his wife and children and leave.”

²³ But David said, “My brothers, don’t do that with the things which Yahweh has given us. He has protected us and handed the troops that attacked us over to us. ²⁴ Besides, who is going to pay attention to what you have to say in this matter? Certainly, the share of those who go into battle must be like the share of those who stay with the supplies. They will all share alike.” ²⁵ From that time on he made this a rule and a custom in Israel as it is to this day.

²⁶ When David came to Ziklag, he sent part of the loot to his friends, the leaders of Judah. He said, “Here is a gift for you from the loot taken from Yahweh’s enemies.” ²⁷ There were shares for those in Bethel, Ramoth in the Negev, Jattir, ²⁸ Aroer, Siphmoth, Eshtemoa, ²⁹ Racal, the cities belonging to the Jerahmeelites, the cities belonging to the Kenites, ³⁰ Hormah, Borashan, Athach, ³¹ Hebron, and to all the places David and his men visited from time to time.

The Death of Saul^(A)

31 When the Philistines were fighting against Israel, the men of Israel fled from the Philistines and were killed in battle on Mount Gilboa. ² The Philistines caught up to Saul and his sons. They killed Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua, Saul’s sons. ³ The heaviest fighting was against Saul. When the archers got him in their range, he was badly wounded by them.

⁴ Saul told his armorbearer, “Draw your sword! Stab me, or these godless men will come, stab me, and make fun of me.” But his armorbearer refused because he was terrified. So Saul took the sword and fell on it. ⁵ When the armorbearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell on his sword and died with him. ⁶ So Saul, his three sons, his armorbearer, and all his men died together that day.

⁷ When the people of Israel on the other side of the valley and across the Jordan River saw that the men of Israel had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned their cities. So the Philistines came to live in these cities.

⁸ The next day, when the Philistines came to strip the dead, they found Saul and his three sons lying on Mount Gilboa. ⁹ They cut off his head and stripped off his armor. Then they sent men throughout Philistine territory to tell the people this good news in their idols’ temples. ¹⁰ They put his armor in the temple of their goddesses—the Asherahs—and fastened his corpse to the wall of Beth Shan.

¹¹ When the people living in Jabesh Gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, ¹² all the fighting men marched all night and took the dead bodies of Saul and his sons from the wall of Beth Shan. They came back to Jabesh and burned the bodies there. ¹³ They took the bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh. Then they fasted seven days.

⁵⁵ The Jewish Passover was near. Many people came from the countryside to Jerusalem to purify themselves before the Passover. ⁵⁶ As they stood in the temple courtyard, they looked for Yeshua and asked each other, “Do you think that he’ll avoid coming to the festival?” ⁵⁷ (The chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that whoever knew where Yeshua was should tell them so that they could arrest him.)

Mary Prepares Jesus’ Body for the Tomb^(A)

12 Six days before Passover, Yeshua arrived in Bethany. Lazarus, whom Yeshua had brought back to life, lived there. ² Dinner was prepared for Yeshua in Bethany. Martha served the dinner, and Lazarus was one of the people eating with Yeshua.

³ Mary took a bottle of very expensive perfume made from pure nard and poured it on Yeshua’s feet. Then she dried his feet with her hair. The fragrance of the perfume filled the house.

⁴ One of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was going to betray him, asked, ⁵ “Why wasn’t this perfume sold for a high price and the money given to the poor?” ⁶ (Judas didn’t say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief. He was in charge of the moneybag and carried the contributions.) ⁷ Yeshua said to Judas, “Leave her alone! She has done this to prepare me for the day I will be placed in a tomb. ⁸ You will always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me with you.”

⁹ A large crowd of Jews found out that Yeshua was in Bethany. So they went there not only to see Yeshua but also to see Lazarus, whom Yeshua had brought back to life. ¹⁰ The chief priests planned to kill Lazarus too. ¹¹ Lazarus was the reason why many people were leaving the Jews and believing in Yeshua.

The King Comes to Jerusalem^(B)

¹² On the next day the large crowd that had come to the Passover festival heard that Yeshua was coming to Jerusalem. ¹³ So they took palm branches and went to meet him. They were shouting,

¹⁴ Yeshua obtained a donkey and sat on it, as Scripture says:

¹⁶ At first Yeshua’s disciples didn’t know what these prophecies meant. However, when Yeshua was glorified, the disciples remembered that these prophecies had been written about him. The disciples remembered that they had taken part in fulfilling the prophecies.

¹⁷ The people who had been with Yeshua when he called Lazarus from the tomb and brought him back to life reported what they had seen. ¹⁸ Because the crowd heard that Yeshua had performed this miracle, they came to meet him.

¹⁹ The Pharisees said to each other, “This is getting us nowhere. Look! The whole world is following him!”

Psalm 118