Now the boy Samuel was growing up and finding favor both with the Lord and with people.

The people who did not die were struck with sores; the city’s cry for help went all the way up to heaven.

Then the spirit of the Lord will rush upon you and you will prophesy with them. You will be changed into a different person.

When Saul counted them at Bezek, the Israelites were 300,000 strong and the men of Judah numbered 30,000.

Then the people said to Samuel, “Who were the ones asking, ‘Will Saul reign over us?’ Hand over those men so we may execute them!”

They replied, “You have not wronged us or oppressed us. You have not taken anything from the hand of anyone.”

So Saul said to his servants, “Find me a man who plays well and bring him to me.”

Saul and the Israelite army assembled and camped in the valley of Elah, where they arranged their battle lines to fight against the Philistines.

Then a champion came out from the camp of the Philistines. His name was Goliath; he was from Gath. He was close to seven feet tall.

The soldiers told him what had been promised, saying, “This is what will be done for the man who can strike him down.”

The Philistine kept coming closer to David, with his shield bearer walking in front of him.

and said to her servants, “Go on ahead of me. I will come after you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal.

When the leaders of the Philistines were passing in review at the head of their units of hundreds and thousands, David and his men were passing in review in the rear with Achish.

When David and his men came to the city, they found it burned. Their wives, sons, and daughters had been taken captive.

and Hebron; and for those in whatever other places David and his men had traveled.

Now the Philistines were fighting against Israel. The men of Israel fled from the Philistines and many of them fell dead on Mount Gilboa.

So Saul, his three sons, his armor bearer, and all his men died together that day.

But the Lord struck down some of the people of Beth Shemesh because they had looked into the ark of the Lord; he struck down 50,070 of the men. The people grieved because the Lord had struck the people with a hard blow.

There was a Benjaminite man named Kish son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Becorath, the son of Aphiah of Benjamin. He was a prominent person.

But the servant said to him, “Look, there is a man of God in this town. He is highly respected. Everything that he says really happens. Now let’s go there. Perhaps he will tell us where we should go from here.”