Just as they have done<n id="1" /> from the day that I brought them up from Egypt until this very day, they have rejected me and have served other gods. This is what they are also doing to you.

But the servant said to him, &#8220;Look, there is a man of God in this town. He is highly respected. Everything that he says really happens.<n id="1" /> Now let&#8217;s go there. Perhaps he will tell us where we should go from here.&#8221;<n id="2" />

<p class="bodytext">Samuel replied to Saul, &#8220;I am the seer! Go up in front of me to the high place! Today you will eat with me and in the morning I will send you away. I will tell you everything that you are thinking.<n id="1" />

<p class="bodytext">Saul replied, &#8220;Am I not a Benjaminite, from the smallest of Israel&#8217;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?&#8221;p>

When everyone who had known him previously saw him prophesying with the prophets, the people all asked one another, &#8220;What on earth has happened to the son of Kish? Does even Saul belong with the prophets?&#8221;p>

He said to the Israelites, &#8220;This is what the <sc>Lordsc> God of Israel says, &#8216;I brought Israel up from Egypt and I delivered you from the power<n id="1" /> of the Egyptians and from the power of all the kingdoms that oppressed you.

But today you have rejected your God who saves you from all your trouble and distress. You have said, &#8220;No!<n id="1" /> Appoint a king over us.&#8221; Now take your positions before the <sc>Lordsc> by your tribes and by your clans.&#8217;&#8221;p>

<p class="bodytext">Then Samuel talked to the people about how the kingship would work.<n id="1" /> He wrote it all down on a scroll and set it before the <sc>Lordsc>. Then Samuel sent all the people away to their homes.

<p class="bodytext">The elders of Jabesh said to him, &#8220;Leave us alone for seven days so that we can send messengers throughout the territory of Israel. If there is no one who can deliver us, we will come out voluntarily to you.&#8221;p>

He took a pair<n id="1" /> of oxen and cut them up. Then he sent the pieces throughout the territory of Israel by the hand of messengers, who said, &#8220;Whoever does not go out after Saul and after Samuel should expect this to be done to his oxen!&#8221; Then the terror of the <sc>Lordsc> fell on the people, and they went out as one army.<n id="2" />

So on the day of the battle no sword or spear was to be found in the hand of anyone in the army that was with Saul and Jonathan. No one but Saul and his son Jonathan had them.p>

<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>

Then Saul said, &#8220;Scatter out among the army and say to them, &#8216;Each of you bring to me your ox and sheep and slaughter them in this spot and eat. But don&#8217;t sin against the <sc>Lordsc> by eating the blood.&#8221; So that night each one brought his ox and slaughtered it there.<n id="1" />

Saul said, &#8220;Let&#8217;s go down after the Philistines at night; we will rout<n id="1" /> them until the break of day.<n id="2" /> We won&#8217;t leave any of them alive!&#8221;<n id="3" /> They replied, &#8220;Do whatever seems best to you.&#8221;<n id="4" /> But the priest said, &#8220;Let&#8217;s approach God here.&#8221;

<p class="bodytext">Then he said to all Israel, &#8220;You will be on one side, and I and my son Jonathan will be on the other side.&#8221; The army replied to Saul, &#8220;Do whatever you think is best.&#8221;p>

So go now and strike down the Amalekites. Destroy everything that they have. Don&#8217;t spare<n id="1" /> them. Put them to death &#8211; man, woman, child, infant, ox, sheep, camel, and donkey alike.&#8217;&#8221;p>

Saul said to the Kenites, &#8220;Go on and leave! Go down from among the Amalekites! Otherwise I will sweep you away<n id="1" /> with them! After all, you were kind to all the Israelites when they came up from Egypt.&#8221; So the Kenites withdrew from among the Amalekites.p>

&#8220;I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned away from me and has not done what I told him to do.&#8221; Samuel became angry and he cried out to the <sc>Lordsc> all that night.p>

This very day the <sc>Lordsc> will deliver you into my hand! I will strike you down and cut off your head. This day I will give the corpses of the Philistine army to the birds of the sky and the wild animals of the land. Then all the land will realize that Israel has a God

<p class="bodytext">When the men<n id="1" /> arrived after David returned from striking down the Philistine, the women from all the cities of Israel came out singing and dancing to meet King Saul. They were happy as they played their tambourines and three-stringed instruments.<n id="2" />