Jonathan said to him, “Tomorrow is the new moon, and you will be missed, for your seat will be empty.

So Saul said to the army that was with him, “Muster the troops and see who is no longer with us.” When they mustered the troops, ¹  Jonathan and his armor bearer were not there.

When Saul counted them at Bezek, the Israelites were 300,000 ¹  strong and the men of Judah numbered 30,000. ² 

If your father happens to miss me, you should say, ‘David urgently requested me to let him go ¹  to his city Bethlehem, ²  for there is an annual sacrifice there for his entire family.’

So the Lord graciously attended to Hannah, and she was able to conceive and gave birth to three sons and two daughters. The boy Samuel grew up at the Lord’s sanctuary. ¹ 

Then Samuel set out and went up from Gilgal ¹  to Gibeah in the territory of Benjamin. ²  Saul mustered the army that remained with him; there were about six hundred men.

Here is what the Lord of hosts says: ‘I carefully observed how the Amalekites opposed ¹  Israel along the way when Israel ²  came up from Egypt.

So Saul assembled ¹  the army ²  and mustered them at Telaim. There were 200,000 foot soldiers and 10,000 men of Judah.

Also take these ten portions of cheese to their commanding officer. ¹  Find out how your brothers are doing ²  and bring back their pledge that they received the goods. ³ 

The king sat down in his usual place by the wall, with Jonathan opposite him ¹  and Abner at his side. ²  But David’s place was vacant.

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.

But the next morning, the second day of the new moon, David’s place was still vacant. So Saul said to his son Jonathan, “Why has Jesse’s son not come to the meal yesterday or today?”

Now I hear that they are shearing sheep for you. When your shepherds were with us, we neither insulted them nor harmed them the whole time they were in Carmel.

Now David had been thinking, ¹  “In vain I guarded everything that belonged to this man in the desert. I didn’t take anything from him. But he has repaid my good with evil.

But the leaders of the Philistines became angry with him and said ¹  to him, “Send the man back! Let him return to the place that you assigned him! Don’t let him go down with us into the battle, for he might become ²  our adversary in the battle. What better way to please his lord than with the heads of these men? ³