The Lord will do for my lord everything that he promised you, ¹  and he will make ²  you a leader over Israel.

So his servants told David these things and David agreed ¹  to become the king’s son-in-law. Now the specified time had not yet expired ² 

So the servants of David went to Abigail at Carmel and said to her, “David has sent us to you to bring you back to be his wife.”

Whenever the day came for Elkanah to sacrifice, he used to give meat portions to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters.

The five leaders of the Philistines watched what was happening and then returned to Ekron on the same day.

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

You have explained today how you have treated me well. The Lord delivered me into your hand, but you did not kill me.

The men of Israel realized they had a problem because their army was hard pressed. So the army hid in caves, thickets, cliffs, strongholds, ¹  and cisterns.

The Philistines arranged their forces to fight ¹  Israel. As the battle spread out, ²  Israel was defeated by ³  the Philistines, who ⁴  killed about four thousand men in the battle line in the field.

David replied to Saul, “Your servant has been a shepherd for his father’s flock. Whenever a lion or bear would come and carry off a sheep from the flock,

Once she had weaned him, she took him up with her, along with three bulls, an ephah ¹  of flour, and a container ²  of wine. She brought him to the Lord’s house at Shiloh, even though he was young. ³ 

On the third day David and his men came to Ziklag. Now the Amalekites had raided the Negev and Ziklag. They attacked Ziklag and burned it. ¹ 

So he took David ¹  down, and they found them spread out over the land. They were eating and drinking and enjoying themselves because of all the loot ²  they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah.

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

Now the priests would always treat the people in the following way: ¹  Whenever anyone was making a sacrifice, while the meat was boiling, the priest’s attendant would come with a three-pronged fork ²  in his hand.

There was fierce war with the Philistines all the days of Saul. So whenever Saul saw anyone who was a warrior or a brave individual, he would conscript him.

These men were very good to us. They did not insult us, nor did we sustain any loss during the entire time we were together ¹  in the field.

(Now it used to be in Israel that whenever someone went to inquire of God he would say, “Come on, let’s go to the seer.” For today’s prophet used to be called a seer.)

After Saul had secured his royal position over Israel, he fought against all their ¹  enemies on all sides – the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, the kings of Zobah, and the Philistines. In every direction that he turned he was victorious. ² 

¹ Now as Saul watched David going out to fight the Philistine, he asked Abner, the general in command of the army, “Whose son is this young man, Abner?” Abner replied, “As surely as you live, O king, I don’t know.”