The First Book of Samuel, starting at chapter 28
{28:1} It happened in those days, that the Philistines gathered
their armies together for warfare, to fight with Israel. Achish said
to David, "Know assuredly that you shall go out with me in the army,
you and your men."
{28:2} David said to Achish, "Therefore you shall know what your
servant will do."
Achish said to David, "Therefore will I make you my bodyguard for
ever."
{28:3} Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had lamented him, and
buried him in Ramah, even in his own city. Saul had put away those who
had familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land. {28:4} The
Philistines gathered themselves together, and came and encamped in
Shunem: and Saul gathered all Israel together, and they encamped in
Gilboa. {28:5} When Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was
afraid, and his heart trembled greatly. {28:6} When Saul inquired of
the LORD, the LORD didn't answer him, neither by dreams, nor by Urim,
nor by prophets. {28:7} Then Saul said to his servants, "Seek me a
woman who has a familiar spirit, that I may go to her, and inquire of
her."
His servants said to him, "Behold, there is a woman who has a
familiar spirit at Endor."
{28:8} Saul disguised himself, and put on other clothing, and went,
he and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night: and he
said, "Please divine to me by the familiar spirit, and bring me up
whomever I shall name to you."
{28:9} The woman said to him, "Behold, you know what Saul has done,
how he has cut off those who have familiar spirits, and the wizards,
out of the land. Why then do you lay a snare for my life, to cause me
to die?"
{28:10} Saul swore to her by the LORD, saying, "As the LORD lives,
no punishment shall happen to you for this thing."
{28:11} Then the woman said, "Whom shall I bring up to you?"
He said, "Bring Samuel up for me."
{28:12} When the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice; and
the woman spoke to Saul, saying, "Why have you deceived me? For you
are Saul!"
{28:13} The king said to her, "Don't be afraid. For what do you see?"
The woman said to Saul, "I see a god coming up out of the earth."
{28:14} He said to her, "What does he look like?"
She said, "An old man comes up. He is covered with a robe." Saul
perceived that it was Samuel, and he bowed with his face to the
ground, and showed respect.
{28:15} Samuel said to Saul, "Why have you disturbed me, to bring me
up?"
Saul answered, "I am very distressed; for the Philistines make war
against me, and God has departed from me, and answers me no more,
neither by prophets, nor by dreams. Therefore I have called you, that
you may make known to me what I shall do."
{28:16} Samuel said, "Why then do you ask of me, since the LORD has
departed from you and has become your adversary? {28:17} The LORD has
done to you as he spoke by me. The LORD has torn the kingdom out of
your hand, and given it to your neighbor, even to David. {28:18}
Because you didn't obey the voice of the LORD, and didn't execute his
fierce wrath on Amalek, therefore the LORD has done this thing to you
this day. {28:19} Moreover the LORD will deliver Israel also with you
into the hand of the Philistines; and tomorrow you and your sons will
be with me. The LORD will deliver the army of Israel also into the
hand of the Philistines."
{28:20} Then Saul fell immediately his full length on the earth, and
was terrified, because of the words of Samuel. There was no strength
in him; for he had eaten no bread all the day, nor all the night.
{28:21} The woman came to Saul, and saw that he was very troubled, and
said to him, "Behold, your handmaid has listened to your voice, and I
have put my life in my hand, and have listened to your words which you
spoke to me. {28:22} Now therefore, please listen also to the voice of
your handmaid, and let me set a morsel of bread before you; and eat,
that you may have strength, when you go on your way."
{28:23} But he refused, and said, I will not eat. But his servants,
together with the woman, constrained him; and he listened to their
voice. So he arose from the earth, and sat on the bed. {28:24} The
woman had a fattened calf in the house. She hurried and killed it; and
she took flour, and kneaded it, and baked unleavened bread of it.
{28:25} She brought it before Saul, and before his servants; and they
ate. Then they rose up, and went away that night.
{29:1} Now the Philistines gathered together all their armies to
Aphek: and the Israelites encamped by the spring which is in Jezreel.
{29:2} The lords of the Philistines passed on by hundreds, and by
thousands; and David and his men passed on in the rear with Achish.
{29:3} Then the princes of the Philistines said, "What about these
Hebrews?"
Achish said to the princes of the Philistines, "Isn't this David,
the servant of Saul the king of Israel, who has been with me these
days, or rather these years, and I have found no fault in him since he
fell away to this day?"
{29:4} But the princes of the Philistines were angry with him; and
the princes of the Philistines said to him, "Make the man return, that
he may go back to his place where you have appointed him, and let him
not go down with us to battle, lest in the battle he become an
adversary to us. For with what should this fellow reconcile himself to
his lord? Should it not be with the heads of these men? {29:5} Is not
this David, of whom they sang one to another in dances, saying, 'Saul
has slain his thousands, David his ten thousands?'"
{29:6} Then Achish called David, and said to him, "As the LORD
lives, you have been upright, and your going out and your coming in
with me in the army is good in my sight; for I have not found evil in
you since the day of your coming to me to this day. Nevertheless, the
lords don't favor you. {29:7} Therefore now return, and go in peace,
that you not displease the lords of the Philistines."
{29:8} David said to Achish, "But what have I done? What have you
found in your servant so long as I have been before you to this day,
that I may not go and fight against the enemies of my lord the king?"
{29:9} Achish answered David, "I know that you are good in my sight,
as an angel of God. Notwithstanding the princes of the Philistines
have said, 'He shall not go up with us to the battle.' {29:10}
Therefore now rise up early in the morning with the servants of your
lord who have come with you; and as soon as you are up early in the
morning, and have light, depart."
{29:11} So David rose up early, he and his men, to depart in the
morning, to return into the land of the Philistines. The Philistines
went up to Jezreel.
{30:1} It happened, when David and his men had come to Ziklag on the
third day, that the Amalekites had made a raid on the South, and on
Ziklag, and had struck Ziklag, and burned it with fire, {30:2} and had
taken captive the women and all who were therein, both small and
great. They didn't kill any, but carried them off, and went their way.
{30:3} When David and his men came to the city, behold, it was burned
with fire; and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, were
taken captive. {30:4} Then David and the people who were with him
lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep.
{30:5} David's two wives were taken captive, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess,
and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite. {30:6} David was greatly
distressed; for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of
all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his
daughters: but David strengthened himself in the LORD his God. {30:7}
David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelech, "Please bring
me here the ephod."
Abiathar brought the ephod to David. {30:8} David inquired of the
LORD, saying, "If I pursue after this troop, shall I overtake them?"
He answered him, "Pursue; for you shall surely overtake them, and
shall without fail recover all."
{30:9} So David went, he and the six hundred men who were with him,
and came to the brook Besor, where those who were left behind stayed.
{30:10} But David pursued, he and four hundred men; for two hundred
stayed behind, who were so faint that they couldn't go over the brook
Besor. {30:11} They found an Egyptian in the field, and brought him to
David, and gave him bread, and he ate; and they gave him water to
drink. {30:12} They gave him a piece of a cake of figs, and two
clusters of raisins. when he had eaten, his spirit came again to him;
for he had eaten no bread, nor drunk any water, three days and three
nights. {30:13} David asked him, "To whom do you belong? Where are you
from?"
He said, "I am a young man of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite; and my
master left me, because three days ago I fell sick. {30:14} We made a
raid on the South of the Cherethites, and on that which belongs to
Judah, and on the South of Caleb; and we burned Ziklag with fire."
{30:15} David said to him, "Will you bring me down to this troop?"
He said, "Swear to me by God that you will neither kill me, nor
deliver me up into the hands of my master, and I will bring you down
to this troop."
{30:16} When he had brought him down, behold, they were spread
around over all the ground, eating, drinking, and dancing, because of
all the great spoil that they had taken out of the land of the
Philistines, and out of the land of Judah. {30:17} David struck them
from the twilight even to the evening of the next day. Not a man of
them escaped from there, except four hundred young men, who rode on
camels and fled. {30:18} David recovered all that the Amalekites had
taken; and David rescued his two wives. {30:19} There was nothing
lacking to them, neither small nor great, neither sons nor daughters,
neither spoil, nor anything that they had taken to them. David brought
back all. {30:20} David took all the flocks and the herds, which they
drove before those other livestock, and said, "This is David's spoil."
{30:21} David came to the two hundred men, who were so faint that
they could not follow David, whom also they had made to stay at the
brook Besor; and they went forth to meet David, and to meet the people
who were with him. When David came near to the people, he greeted
them. {30:22} Then all the wicked men and base fellows, of those who
went with David, answered and said, "Because they didn't go with us,
we will not give them anything of the spoil that we have recovered,
except to every man his wife and his children, that he may lead them
away, and depart."
{30:23} Then David said, "You shall not do so, my brothers, with
that which the LORD has given to us, who has preserved us, and
delivered the troop that came against us into our hand. {30:24} Who
will listen to you in this matter? For as his share is who goes down
to the battle, so shall his share be who tarries by the baggage: they
shall share alike." {30:25} It was so from that day forward, that he
made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel to this day. {30:26}
When David came to Ziklag, he sent of the spoil to the elders of
Judah, even to his friends, saying, "Behold, a present for you of the
spoil of the enemies of the LORD." {30:27} He sent it to those who
were in Bethel, and to those who were in Ramoth of the South, and to
those who were in Jattir, {30:28} and to those who were in Aroer, and
to those who were in Siphmoth, and to those who were in Eshtemoa,
{30:29} and to those who were in Racal, and to those who were in the
cities of the Jerahmeelites, and to those who were in the cities of
the Kenites, {30:30} and to those who were in Hormah, and to those who
were in Borashan, and to those who were in Athach, {30:31} and to
those who were in Hebron, and to all the places where David himself
and his men used to stay.
________________________________________________________________________
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