Then Saul stopped chasing the Philistines, and the Philistines went back home. ¹ 

When the Philistines heard that the Israelites had gathered at Mizpah, the leaders of the Philistines went up against Israel. When the Israelites heard about this, they were afraid of the Philistines.

Now the Philistines were fighting against Israel. The men of Israel fled from the Philistines and many of them fell dead on Mount Gilboa.

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

Israel and the Philistines drew up their battle lines opposite one another.

Samuel revealed the word of the Lord ¹  to all Israel.Then the Israelites went out to fight the Philistines. ²  They camped at Ebenezer, ³  and the Philistines camped at Aphek.

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.

So the Philistines were defeated; they did not invade Israel again. The hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel.

Jonathan attacked the Philistine outpost ¹  that was at Geba and the Philistines heard about it. Then Saul alerted ²  all the land saying, “Let the Hebrews pay attention!”

All Israel heard this message, ¹  “Saul has attacked the Philistine outpost, and now Israel is repulsive ²  to the Philistines!” So the people were summoned to join ³  Saul at Gilgal.

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.”

As he was speaking with them, the champion named Goliath, the Philistine from Gath, was coming up from the battle lines of the Philistines. He spoke the way he usually did, ¹  and David heard it.

The Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you are coming after me with sticks?” ¹  Then the Philistine cursed David by his gods.

The Philistine drew steadily closer to David to attack him, while David quickly ran toward the battle line to attack the Philistine. ¹ 

¹ David prevailed over the Philistine with just the sling and the stone. He struck down the Philistine and killed him. David did not even have a sword in his hand. ² 

So when David returned from striking down the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul. He still had the head of the Philistine in his hand.

So David asked the Lord, “Should I go and strike down these Philistines?” The Lord said to David, “Go, strike down the Philistines and deliver Keilah.”

So David and his men got up early in the morning to return ¹  to the land of the Philistines, but the Philistines went up to Jezreel.

The Philistines stayed right on the heels ¹  of Saul and his sons. They ²  struck down Saul’s sons Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malki-Shua.

When the ark of the Lord had been in the land ¹  of the Philistines for seven months, ²