Then Michal took a household idol ¹  and put it on the bed. She put a quilt ²  made of goat’s hair over its head ³  and then covered the idol with a garment.

Riding on her donkey, she went down under cover of the mountain. David and his men were coming down to meet her, and she encountered them.

He said to her, “What about his appearance?” She said, “An old man is coming up! He is wrapped in a robe!” Then Saul realized it was Samuel, and he bowed his face toward the ground and kneeled down.

When the messengers came, they found only the idol on the bed and the quilt made of goat’s hair at its head.

(24:1) ¹  Then David went up from there and stayed in the strongholds of En Gedi.

He had bronze shin guards ¹  on his legs, and a bronze javelin was slung over his shoulders.

¹ The Philistine kept coming closer to David, with his shield bearer walking in front of him.

When they ¹  made themselves known to the Philistine garrison, the Philistines said, “Look! The Hebrews are coming out of the holes in which they hid themselves.”

When all the Israelites who had hidden themselves in the hill country of Ephraim heard that the Philistines had fled, they too pursued them in battle.

On the third day ¹  you should go down quickly ²  and come to the place where you hid yourself the day this all started. ³  Stay near the stone Ezel.

So David left there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and the rest of his father’s family ¹  learned about it, they went down there to him.

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 shaft ¹  of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and the iron point of his spear weighed six hundred shekels. ²  His shield bearer was walking before him.

David ran and stood over the Philistine. He grabbed Goliath’s ¹  sword, drew it from its sheath, ²  killed him, and cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw their champion was dead, they ran away.

He came to the sheepfolds by the road, where there was a cave. Saul went into it to relieve himself. ¹  Now David and his men were sitting in the recesses of the cave.

Locate precisely all the places where he hides and return to me with dependable information. ¹  Then I will go with you. If he is in the land, I will find him ²  among all the thousands of Judah.”