Now David was the youngest. While the three oldest sons followed Saul,

So Saul, his three sons, his armor bearer, and all his men died together that day.

I will shoot three arrows near it, as though I were shooting at a target.

“As you continue on from there, you will come to the tall tree of Tabor. At that point three men who are going up to God at Bethel ¹  will meet you. One of them will be carrying three young goats, one of them will be carrying three round loaves of bread, and one of them will be carrying a container of wine.

They gave him a slice of pressed figs and two bunches of raisins to eat. This greatly refreshed him, ¹  for he had not eaten food or drunk water for three days and three nights.

Jesse’s three oldest sons had followed Saul to war. The names of the ¹  three sons who went to war were Eliab, his firstborn, Abinadab, the second oldest, and Shammah, the third oldest.

Raiding bands went out from the camp of the Philistines in three groups. One band turned toward the road leading to Ophrah by the land of Shual;

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.

So Saul took three thousand select men from all Israel and went to find ¹  David and his men in the region of ²  the rocks of the mountain goats. ³ 

So Saul arose and went down to the desert of Ziph, accompanied by three thousand select men of Israel, to look for David in the desert of Ziph.

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 

Don’t be concerned ¹  about the donkeys that you lost three days ago, for they have been found. Whom does all Israel desire? Is it not you, and all your father’s family?” ² 

David said to him, “To whom do you belong, and where are you from?” The young man said, “I am an Egyptian, the servant of an Amalekite man. My master abandoned me when I was ill for three days.

Once she had weaned him, she took him up with her, along with three bulls, an ephah ¹  of flour, and a container ²  of wine. She brought him to the Lord’s house at Shiloh, even though he was young. ³ 

There was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel. This man was very wealthy; ¹  he owned three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. At that time he was shearing his sheep in Carmel.

Now the priests would always treat the people in the following way: ¹  Whenever anyone was making a sacrifice, while the meat was boiling, the priest’s attendant would come with a three-pronged fork ²  in his hand.

The next day Saul placed the people in three groups. They went to the Ammonite camp during the morning watch and struck them ¹  down until the hottest part of the day. The survivors scattered; no two of them remained together.

When the servant had left, David got up from beside the mound, ¹  knelt ²  with his face to the ground, and bowed three times. Then they kissed each other and they both wept, especially David.

Saul selected for himself three thousand men from Israel. Two thousand of these were with Saul at Micmash and in the hill country of Bethel; ¹  the remaining thousand were with Jonathan at Gibeah in the territory of Benjamin. ²  He sent all the rest of the people back home. ³ 

When the men ¹  arrived after David returned from striking down the Philistine, the women from all the cities of Israel came out singing and dancing to meet King Saul. They were happy as they played their tambourines and three-stringed instruments. ²