So they went up to the town. As they were heading for the middle of the town, Samuel was coming in their direction ¹  to go up to the high place.

David realized ¹  that Saul had come out to seek his life; at that time David was in Horesh in the desert of Ziph.

It’s like the old proverb says: ‘From evil people evil proceeds.’ But my hand will not be against you.

Don’t keep speaking so arrogantly, ¹  letting proud talk come out of your mouth! For the Lord is a God who knows; he ²  evaluates what people do.

Who has the king of Israel come out after? Who is it that you are pursuing? A dead dog? A single flea?

He took a pair ¹  of oxen and cut them up. Then he sent the pieces throughout the territory of Israel by the hand of messengers, who said, “Whoever does not go out after Saul and after Samuel should expect this to be done to his oxen!” Then the terror of the Lord fell on the people, and they went out as one army. 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.”

Then David went from there to Mizpah in Moab, where he said to the king of Moab, “Please let my father and mother stay ¹  with you until I know what God is going to do for me.”

Now don’t let my blood fall to the ground away from the Lord’s presence, for the king of Israel has gone out to look for a flea the way one looks for a partridge ¹  in the hill country.”