He will take your male and female servants, as well as your best cattle and your donkeys, and assign them for his own use.

So the Lord sent Jerub-Baal, ¹  Barak, ²  Jephthah, and Samuel, ³  and he delivered you from the hand of the enemies all around you, and you were able to live securely.

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.

So the Israelites ¹  removed the Baals and images of Ashtoreth. They served only the Lord.

They put the ark of the Lord on the cart, along with the chest, the gold mice, and the images of the sores.

So all Israel had to go down to the Philistines in order to get their plowshares, cutting instruments, axes, and sickles ¹  sharpened.

Once the bull had been slaughtered, they brought the boy to Eli.

The Philistines took the ark of God and brought it into the temple of Dagon, where they positioned it beside Dagon.

The Lord attacked ¹  the residents of Ashdod severely, bringing devastation on them. He struck the people of ²  both Ashdod and the surrounding area with sores. ³ 

Samuel said to the people, “The Lord is the one who chose Moses and Aaron and who brought your ancestors ¹  up from the land of Egypt.

However, fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart. Just look at the great things he has done for you!

The Lord sent you on a campaign ¹  saying, ‘Go and exterminate those sinful Amalekites! Fight against them until you ²  have destroyed them.’

Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned, for I have disobeyed what the Lord commanded ¹  and what you said as well. ²  For I was afraid of the army, and I followed their wishes. ³ 

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 

Then Saul sent the messengers back to see David, saying, “Bring him up to me on his bed so I can kill him.”

Should I take my bread and my water and my meat that I have slaughtered for my shearers and give them to these men? I don’t even know where they came from!”

The next day, when the Philistines came to strip loot from the corpses, they discovered Saul and his three sons lying dead ¹  on Mount Gilboa.

They cut off Saul’s ¹  head and stripped him of his armor. They sent messengers to announce the news in the temple of their idols and among their people throughout the surrounding land of the Philistines.

This man Elkanah went up with all his family to make the yearly sacrifice to the Lord and to keep his vow,

So Samuel spoke all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking him for a king.