So Saul said to his servant, &#8220;All right,<n id="1" /> we can go. But what can we bring the man, since the food in our bags is used up? We have no gift to take to the man of God. What do we have?&#8221;

<p class="bodytext">They said to the messengers who had come, &#8220;Here&#8217;s what you should say to the men of Jabesh Gilead: &#8216;Tomorrow deliverance will come to you when the sun is fully up.&#8217;&#8221; When the messengers went and told the men of Jabesh Gilead, they were happy.

<t /><p class="bodytext">Now the men of Israel were hard pressed that day, for Saul had made the army agree to this oath: &#8220;Cursed be the man who eats food before evening! I will get my vengeance on my enemies!&#8221; So no one in the army ate anything.p>

One of his attendants replied,<n id="1" /> &#8220;I have seen a son of Jesse in Bethlehem<n id="2" /> who knows how to play the lyre. He is a brave warrior<n id="3" /> and is articulate<n id="4" /> and handsome,<n id="5" /> for the <sc>Lordsc> is with him.&#8221;p>

when David, along with his men, went out<n id="1" /> and struck down two hundred Philistine men. David brought their foreskins and presented all of them to the king so he could become the king&#8217;s son-in-law. Saul then gave him his daughter Michal in marriage.p>

<p class="bodytext">When the servant had left, David got up from beside the mound,<n id="1" /> knelt<n id="2" /> with his face to the ground, and bowed three times. Then they kissed each other and they both wept, especially David.

<p class="bodytext">So David and his men, who numbered about six hundred, set out and left Keilah; they moved around from one place to another.<n id="1" /> When told that David had escaped from Keilah, Saul called a halt to his expedition.

But David struck them down from twilight until the following evening. None of them escaped, with the exception of four hundred young men who got away on camels.<n id="1" />

<p class="bodytext">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.p>

but Hannah did not go up with them.<n id="1" /> Instead she told her husband, &#8220;Once the boy is weaned, I will bring him and appear before the <sc>Lordsc>, and he will remain there from then on.&#8221;p>

Now the priests would always treat the people in the following way:<n id="1" /> Whenever anyone was making a sacrifice, while the meat was boiling, the priest&#8217;s attendant would come with a three-pronged fork<n id="2" /> in his hand.

His mother used to make him a small robe and bring it up to him at regular intervals when she would go up with her husband to make the annual sacrifice.

The Philistines arranged their forces to fight<n id="1" /> Israel. As the battle spread out,<n id="2" /> Israel was defeated by<n id="3" /> the Philistines, who<n id="4" /> killed about four thousand men in the battle line in the field.p>

<p class="bodytext">So the Philistines fought. Israel was defeated; they all ran home.<n id="1" /> The slaughter was very great; thirty thousand foot soldiers fell in battle.

<t /><p class="bodytext">On that day<n id="1" /> a Benjaminite ran from the battle lines and came to Shiloh. His clothes were torn and dirt was on his head.

<p class="bodytext">When Eli heard the outcry,<n id="1" /> he said, &#8220;What is this commotion?&#8221;<n id="2" /> The man quickly came and told Eli.

<p class="bodytext">The man said to Eli, &#8220;I am the one who came from the battle lines! Just today I fled from the battle lines!&#8221; Eli<n id="1" /> asked, &#8220;How did things go, my son?&#8221;

<p class="bodytext">She named the boy Ichabod,<n id="1" /> saying, &#8220;The glory has departed from Israel,&#8221; referring to the capture of the ark of God and the deaths of her father-in-law and her husband.

<p class="bodytext">So the men did as instructed.<n id="1" /> They took two cows that had calves and harnessed them to a cart; they also removed their calves to their stalls.

The residents of Beth Shemesh asked, &#8220;Who is able to stand before the <sc>Lord,sc> this holy God? To whom will the ark<n id="1" /> go up from here?&#8221;p>