When you enter the town, you can find him before he goes up to the high place to eat. The people won’t eat until he arrives, for he must bless the sacrifice. Once that happens, those who have been invited will eat. Now go on up, for ¹  this is the time when you can find him!”

“Now, my lord, as surely as the Lord lives and as surely as you live, it is the Lord who has kept you from shedding blood and taking matters into your own hands. Now may your enemies and those who seek to harm my lord be like Nabal.

He will appoint for himself leaders of thousands and leaders of fifties, ¹  as well as those who plow his ground, reap his harvest, and make his weapons of war and his chariot equipment.

But all the evil and worthless men among those who had gone with David said, “Since they didn’t go with us, ¹  we won’t give them any of the loot we retrieved! They may take only their wives and children. Let them lead them away and be gone!”

Then David approached the two hundred men who had been too exhausted to go with him, ¹  those whom they had left at the Wadi Besor. They went out to meet David and the people who were with him. When David approached the people, he asked how they were doing.

He fought bravely, striking down the Amalekites and delivering Israel from the hand of its enemies. ¹ 

Year after year he used to travel the circuit of Bethel, ¹  Gilgal, and Mizpah; he used to judge Israel in all of these places.

The people ¹  who did not die were struck with sores; the city’s cry for help went all the way up to heaven.

As Saul ¹  turned ²  to leave Samuel, God changed his inmost person. ³  All these signs happened on that very day.

When Saul and all the Israelites ¹  heard these words of the Philistine, they were upset and very afraid.

The next day Saul placed the people in three groups. They went to the Ammonite camp during the morning watch and struck them ¹  down until the hottest part of the day. The survivors scattered; no two of them remained together.

David took all the flocks and herds and drove them in front of the rest of the animals. People were saying, “This is David’s plunder!”

The Lord shatters ¹  his adversaries; ²  he thunders against them from ³  the heavens. The Lord executes judgment to the ends of the earth. He will strengthen ⁴  his king and exalt the power ⁵  of his anointed one.” ⁶ 

So Saul’s servants spoke these words privately ¹  to David. David replied, “Is becoming the king’s son-in-law something insignificant to you? I’m just a poor and lightly-esteemed man!”

But the woman said to him, “Look, you are aware of what Saul has done; he has removed ¹  the mediums and magicians ²  from the land! Why are you trapping me ³  so you can put me to death?”

The Spirit of God rushed upon Saul when he heard these words, and he became very angry.

When Saul counted them at Bezek, the Israelites were 300,000 ¹  strong and the men of Judah numbered 30,000. ² 

David said to Saul, “Why do you pay attention when men say, ‘David is seeking to do you harm’?

When the men of Israel who were in the valley and across the Jordan saw that the men of Israel had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned the cities and fled. The Philistines came and occupied them.

Then David and his men went up and raided the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites. (They had been living in that land for a long time, from the approach ¹  to Shur as far as the land of Egypt.)