David at the court of Saul

16 The Lord said to Samuel, ‘How long will you grieve over Saul, when I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have chosen for myself a king among his sons.’ 2 And Samuel said, ‘How can I go, since Saul will hear of it and kill me?’ But the Lord said, ‘Take a calf with you and say you have come to sacrifice to the Lord. 3 Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what to do, and anoint the man whom I name.’ 4 So Samuel did that which the Lord had commanded. When he came to Bethlehem, the elders of the city came trembling to meet him and said, ‘Do you come in peace?’ 5 He said ‘Yes, I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Purify yourselves and rejoiced with me in the sacrifice.’ He purified Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.

6 When they came and he saw Eliab, he said, ‘Surely the Lord’s annointed is now in presence.’ 7 But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Pay no attention to his appearance or to the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. The Lord does not see as humans see, for they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.’ 8 Then Jesse called Abinadab, and brought him before Samuel. But he said, ‘Neither has the Lord chosen this one.’ 9 Then Jesse brought forward Shammah. But he said, Neither hath the Lord chosen this one. 10 Then Jesse brought his seven sons before Samuel. But Samuel said to Jesse, ‘The Lord has not chosen these.’ 11 And Samuel said to Jesse, ‘Are these all your sons?’ He said, ‘There is still the youngest, but he is a shepherd with the flock.’ So Samuel said to Jesse, ‘Send and bring him, for we will not sit down until he is brought here.’ 12 So he sent and brought him in. Now he was handsome, a youth with beautiful eyes and ruddy cheeks. And the Lord said, ‘Get up, anoint him, for this is the man.’ 13 Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. The spirit of the Lord came with power upon David from that day forward. And Samuel arose and went to Ramah.

14 Now the spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul and an evil spirit from the Lord tormented him. 15 And Saul’s servants said to him, ‘See now, an evil spirit from God is tormenting you. 16 Command your servants who are before and they will seek for our lord a man skilful in playing the lyre. Then whenever the evil spirit comes upon you he will play with his hand, and you will be better.’ 17 So Saul said to his servants, ‘Provide me now someone who plays well, and bring him to me.’ 18 One of the young men answered, ‘I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite who is skilful in playing and a valiant man, a good fighter, judicious in speech, a man of good appearance, and the Lord is with him.’ 19 So Saul sent messengers to Jesse and said, ‘Send me David your son, who is with the flock.’ 20 And Jesse took ten loaves of bread, and a skin of wine, and a kid, and sent them to Saul with David his son. 21 So David came to Saul and entered his service. Saul loved him so much that he became one of his armour-bearers, 22 and sent a message to Jesse, saying, ‘Let David enter my service, for he has found favour in my sight.’ 23 Whenever the evil spirit from God came upon Saul, David would take the lyre and play with his hand and Saul would breathe freely and would feel better and the evil spirit would depart from him.

17 Now the Philistines mustered together their forces for war. They were gathered together at Socoh, which belongs to Judah, and encamped between Socoh and Azekah, in Ephes-dammim. 2 Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together and encamped in the valley of Elah, and they drew up in battle-array against the Philistines. 3 The Philistines were standing on the mountain on the one side, and the Israelites were standing on the mountain on the other side, and the valley was between them. 4 A champion came out from the camp of the Philistines. His name was Goliath of Gath and he was over nine feet in height. 5 He had a helmet of bronze on his head, and he was clad with a bronze breastplate of scales, the weight of which was about two hundred pounds. 6 He had greaves of bronze on his legs and a javelin of bronze slung between his shoulders. 7 The shaft of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and the head of his iron spear weighed twenty-four pounds. His shield-bearer went before him. 8 He stood and cried out to the ranks of Israel, ‘Why have you come out to draw up the line of battle? Am not I a Philistine and you Saul’s servants? Choose a man for yourselves and let him come down to me. 9 If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you will be our servants and serve us.’ 10 The Philistine said, ‘I have insulted the ranks of Israel today! Give me a man that we may fight together.’ 11 When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were terrified and greatly afraid.

12 Now David was the son of an Ephrathite of Bethlehem in Judah, whose name was Jesse. Jesse had eight sons. The man was old in the days of Saul, advanced in years among men. 13 The three eldest sons of Jesse had gone after Saul to the war. Their names were Eliab, the eldest, his second Abinadab, and the third Shammah. 14 David was the youngest. The three eldest had followed Saul, 15 while David went to and fro from Saul to feed his father’s sheep at Bethlehem.

16 The Philistine drew near morning and evening and took his stand for forty days. 17 One day Jesse said to David his son, ‘Take now for your brothers a bushel of this parched grain and these ten loaves and carry them quickly to the camp to your brothers. 18 But bring these ten cheeses to the commander of their thousand and look after your brothers’ welfare and bring back some token of assurance from them.

19 They are with Saul and all the men of Israel in the valley of Elah fighting with the Philistines.’

20 So David rose up early in the morning and left the flock with a keeper and went, as Jesse had commanded him. He came to the encampments just as the army was going forth to the battle-array, shouting the war cry. 21 Israel and the Philistines drew up the line of battle, army confronting army. 22 David left his vessels in the charge of the keeper of the baggage and ran to the line of battle and came and asked for the welfare of his brothers. 23 Just as he was talking with them, the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, came up out of the ranks of the Philistines and spoke the same words as before, and David heard them.

24 All the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him and were greatly afraid. 25 ‘Have you seen this man who has come up?’ they said, ‘Surely he has come up to insult Israel. Whoever kills him, the king will greatly enrich and will give him his daughter and will make his father’s house free in Israel.’ 26 Then David spoke to the men who stood by him, ‘What should be done for the man who strikes that Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he has dared to insult the armies of the living God?’ 27 The people answered him in the words just given, ‘This is what will be done to the man who kills him.’

28 Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spoke to the men. Eliab’s anger was kindled against David, and he said, ‘Why have you come down? With whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know you well and the wickedness of your heart. You have come down to see the battle.’ 29 David said, ‘What have I done now? It was only a question.’ 30 Turning away from him to another, he spoke as before, and the people answered him again as at the first time.

31 When the words were heard which David spoke, they reported them to Saul. They took him and brought him before Saul. 32 David said to Saul, ‘Let not my lord’s courage fail him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.’ 33 Saul answered, ‘You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him. You are only a youth and he has been a warrior from his youth.’ 34 But David said to Saul, ‘Your servant was a shepherd with his father’s flock, and when a lion or a bear would come and take a lamb out of the flock, 35 I would go out after him and kill him and rescue the lamb from his mouth. If he rose up against me, I would seize him by his jaw and slay him with a blow. 36 Your servant has killed both lion and bear. Now this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, since he has insulted the armies of the living God. 37 The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion, and from the paw of the bear, will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.’ So Saul said to David, ‘Go, and may the Lord be with you.’

38 Saul clothed David with his armour, and put a helmet of bronze on his head and clad him with a coat of mail. 39 David girded his sword over his coat and made a vain attempt to go, for he had not tried them. Then David said to Saul, I cannot go with these because I am not used to them. And he took them off. 40 He took his staff in his hand, and chose five smooth stones out of the brook and put them in his bag, and took his sling in his hand, and he drew near to the Philistine.

41 The Philistine kept coming nearer to David, and the man who was bearing the shield went before him. 42 When the Philistine looked and saw David, he had nothing but disdain for him, because he was only a youth with ruddy cheeks, a young man of attractive appearance. 43 The Philistine said to David, ‘Am I a dog that you come to me with a stick?’ The Philistine cursed David by his gods, 44 and said, ‘Come to me so that I may give your flesh to the birds of the heavens and to the beasts of the field.’ 45 Then David answered the Philistine, ‘You come to me with a sword and a spear and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of armies, and the God of the ranks of Israel whom you have insulted. 46 Today the Lord will deliver you into my hands, that I may strike you and cut off your head. I will this day give the dead of the army of the Philistines to the birds of the heavens and to the wild beasts of the earth, so that all the world may know that there is a God in Israel, 47 so that all this assembly may know that not with the sword and spear does the Lord save, for the battle is the Lord’s and he will give you into our hand.’

48 When the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, David quickly ran toward the line of battle to meet the Philistine. 49 David put his hand in his bag and took from it a stone and slung it and struck the Philistine on his forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, so that he fell on his face to the earth.

50 So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone and struck down the Philistine, killing him, although there was no sword in David’s hand. 51 Then David ran and stood over the Philistine, and took his sword, drawing it out of its sheath, and slew him, and cut off his head with it.

When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled. 52 The men of Israel and Judah arose and raised the battle cry and pursued the Philistines to the entrance to Gath and to the gates of Ekron, so that the wounded of the Philistines fell down on the way from Shaaraim, as far as Gath and Ekron. 53 When the Israelites returned from pursuing the Philistines, they plundered their camp, 54 but David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem; and he put his armour in his tent.

55 When Saul saw David going out against the Philistine, he said to Abner, the commander of the army, ‘Abner, whose son is this lad?’ And Abner said, ‘As you live, O king, I cannot tell.’ 56 The king said, ‘Inquire whose son the young man is.’ 57 When David returned from killing the Philistine, Abner took him, and brought him before Saul with the Philistine’s head in his hand. 58 Saul said to him, ‘Whose son are you, my lad?’ And David answered, ‘I am the son of your servant Jesse the Bethlehemite.’ 18 Now when David had finished speaking with Saul, the lives of Jonathan and David became bound together, and Jonathon loved him as his own life, 2 and so Saul took David that day and would not let him return to his father’s house. 3 Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own life. 4 He stripped himself of the cloak which he had on and gave it to David and his military coat, even to his sword and to his bow and to his girdle. 5 And David went out. On every task which Saul sent him, he acted wisely and with success, so that Saul appointed him over the warriors. He was beloved alike by all the people and by the servants of Saul.

6 At the return home of the army and David’s return from slaying the Philistine, the women came out dancing from all the cities of Israel to meet King Saul with tambourines, with cries of rejoicing, and with cymbals. 7 The women sang to each other as they danced, ‘Saul has slain his thousands, but David his ten thousands.’ 8 It made Saul very angry, and this saying displeased him. He said, ‘They ascribed to David ten thousands, while to me they ascribed but thousands, and what more can he have but the kingdom?’ 9 And Saul kept his eye on David from that day forward.

10 The next day an evil spirit from God came powerfully on Saul, and he prophesied within his house. David played the lyre to him, as he did day by day. Saul had his spear in his hand, 11 and cast it, thinking, ‘I will pin David to the wall.’ But twice David dodged it.

12 Saul was afraid of David, because the Lord was with him and had departed from Saul. 13 So Saul removed him from his presence, and made him a commander over a thousand. David went out and came in at the head of his men, 14 and he acted wisely and prospered in all his ways, for the Lord was with him. 15 When Saul saw that David acted wisely and prospered, he stood in dread of him. 16 But all Israel and Judah loved David, for he went out and came in at the head of the army.

17 Then Saul said to David, ‘See my oldest daughter, Merab. I will give her to you as wife, only be a valiant champion and fight the Lord’s battles.’ For Saul said to himself, ‘I must not raise my hand against him, but let the hand of the Philistines deal with him.’ 18 And David replied to Saul, ‘Who am I, and what is my father’s clan in Israel, that I should be the king’s son-in-law?’ 19 But when the time came that Merab, Saul’s daughter, should have been given to David, she was instead given as wife to Adriel the Meholathite.

20 Michal, Saul’s daughter, fell in love with David. When they told Saul, he was pleased. 21 He thought, ‘I will give her to him, so that she becomes a snare to him and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him.’ Therefore Saul said to David a second time, ‘You will this day be my son-in-law.’ 22 Saul commanded his servants, ‘Communicate with David secretly and tell him that the king is pleased with him and all the servants love him, therefore become the king’s son-in-law.’ 23 And Saul’s servants spoke these words in the ears of David. And David said, ‘Is it an easy thing in your opinion to become the king’s son-in-law, when I am a poor man and of no reputation?’ 24 The servants of Saul reported back what David had said. 25 And Saul said, ‘Tell David: The king desires no bride-price, but a hundred foreskins of the Philistines, in order to take vengeance on the king’s enemies.’ Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines. 26 When his servants told David these words, David was well pleased with the prospect of being the king’s son-in-law. Before the appointed time, 27 he arose and went together with his men and slew a hundred Philistines. He brought their foreskins and gave them in full to the king, in order to become the king’s son-in-law. So Saul gave him Michal his daughter as wife. 28 When Saul saw and knew that the Lord was with David and his daughter Michal loved him, 29 Saul feared David still more, and from that time was David’s enemy.

30 The Philistine commanders continued to come out to battle, and as often as they came out, David acted more wisely and with greater success than all the servants of Saul, so that his name was held in high repute.