Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

This song is for the music leader.

The Lord's servant, David, wrote it.

David sang these words to the Lord when the Lord saved him from the power of his enemies. This was at the time when Saul was king.

Thank you, Lord!^[a]

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.^[a]

¹¹ The Israelites who lived in Jabesh Gilead heard about what the Philistines had done to Saul's body.^{[b] 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.

9 I do not need to write to you about the money that you want to send to God's people in Jerusalem. ² I know that you want to help very much. I have told the believers in Macedonia how good you are. I tell them that you believers in Achaia have been ready to give your money since last year. Because you are so ready to help, most of them now also want to help. ³ But I do not want the way that I have praised you not to be true. So I am sending these men, our Christian friends, to come to you. I want to be sure that you will be ready to give your money. That is what I have told people about you.

⁴ Perhaps some believers from Macedonia might come with me. If you are not ready when we come, we would be ashamed. We would be ashamed because we trusted you. And I think that you would be ashamed as well! ⁵ So I decided to tell these men to visit you before I come myself. They will help you to prepare the gift that you promised. Then it will be ready when I arrive. Everyone will know that you really wanted to give this gift. Nobody has made you give it.