The ark of God was taken, and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phineas, were killed.

Then Samuel brought all the tribes of Israel near, and the tribe of Benjamin was chosen by lot.

So David left and crossed over to King Achish son of Maoch of Gath accompanied by his six hundred men.

Then the word of the Lord came to Samuel:

Eli replied, “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant the request that you have asked of him.”

Saul replied, “Am I not a Benjaminite, from the smallest of Israel’s tribes, and is not my family clan the smallest of all the tribes of Benjamin? Why do you speak to me in this way?”

Now Ahijah was carrying ¹  an ephod. He was the son of Ahitub, who was the brother of Ichabod and a son of Phineas, son of Eli, the priest of the Lord in Shiloh. The army was unaware that Jonathan had left.

“As you continue on from there, you will come to the tall tree of Tabor. At that point three men who are going up to God at Bethel ¹  will meet you. One of them will be carrying three young goats, one of them will be carrying three round loaves of bread, and one of them will be carrying a container of wine.

and the lamp of God had not yet been extinguished. Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord as well; the ark of God was also there.

When David came to Ziklag, he sent some of the plunder to the elders of Judah who were his friends, saying, “Here’s a gift ¹  for you from the looting of the Lord’s enemies!”

So they left and went to Ziph ahead of Saul. Now David and his men were in the desert of Maon, in the Arabah to the south of Jeshimon.

A garrison of the Philistines had gone out to the pass at Micmash.

David thought to himself, ¹  “One of these days I’m going to be swept away by the hand of Saul! There is nothing better for me than to escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will despair of searching for me through all the territory of Israel and I will escape from his hand.”

Samuel replied, “If that is the case, ¹  then what is this sound of sheep in my ears and the sound of cattle that I hear?”

They placed Saul’s armor in the temple of the Ashtoreths ¹  and hung his corpse on the city wall of Beth Shan.

The Philistines took the ark of God and brought it into the temple of Dagon, where they positioned it beside Dagon.

They put the ark of the Lord on the cart, along with the chest, the gold mice, and the images of the sores.

So they assembled ¹  all the leaders of the Philistines and said, “Get the ark of the God of Israel out of here! Let it go back to its own place so that it won’t kill us ²  and our ³  people!” The terror ⁴  of death was throughout the entire city; God was attacking them very severely there. ⁵ 

The name of his firstborn son was Joel, and the name of his second son was Abijah. They were judges in Beer Sheba.

He inquired of the Lord for him and gave him provisions. He also gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.”