The First Book of Shemu'el
1:1Now there was a certain man of Ramatayim-Tzofim, of the
hill-country of Efrayim, and his name was Elkana, the son of Yerocham, the
son of Elihu, the son of Tochu, the son of Tzuf, an Efratite:
1:2and he had two wives; the name of the one was Channah, and the
name of other Peninnah: and Peninnah had children, but Channah had no
children. 1:3This man went up out of his city from year to year to worship and
to sacrifice to the LORD of Hosts in Shiloh. The two sons of `Eli, Chofni
and Pinechas, kohanim to the LORD, were there.
1:4When the day came that Elkana sacrificed, he gave to Peninnah his
wife, and to all her sons and her daughters, portions:
1:5but to Channah he gave a double portion; for he loved Channah,
but the LORD had shut up her womb. 1:6Her rival provoked
her sore, to make her fret, because the LORD had shut up her womb.
1:7as he did so year by year, when she
went up to the house of the LORD, so she provoked her; therefore she wept,
and did not eat.
1:8Elkana her husband said to her,
Channah, why weep you? and why don't you eat? and why is your heart
grieved? am I not better to you than ten sons?
1:9So
Channah rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh, and after they had drunk.
Now `Eli the kohen was sitting on his seat by the
door-post of the temple of the LORD.
1:10She
was in bitterness of soul, and prayed to the LORD, and wept sore.
1:11She vowed a vow, and said, the LORD of hosts, if you will indeed
look on the affliction of your handmaid, and remember me, and not forget
your handmaid, but will give to your handmaid a man-child, then I will
give him to the LORD all the days of his life, and there shall no razor
come on his head.
1:12It happened, as she continued
praying before the LORD, that `Eli marked her mouth.
1:13Now Channah, she spoke in her heart; only her lips moved, but her
voice was not heard: therefore `Eli thought she had been drunken.
1:14`Eli said to her, How long will you be drunken? put away your
wine from you.
1:15Channah answered, No, my lord, I
am a woman of a sorrowful spirit: I have drunk neither wine nor strong
drink, but I poured out my soul before the LORD.
1:16Don't
count your handmaid for a wicked woman; for out of the abundance of my
complaint and my provocation have I spoken hitherto.
1:17Then `Eli answered, Go in shalom; and the G-d of Yisra'el grant
your petition that you have asked of him.
1:18She
said, Let your handmaid find favor in your sight. So the woman went her
way, and ate; and her facial expression wasn't sad any more.
1:19They rose up in the morning early, and worshiped before the LORD,
and returned, and came to their house to Ramah: and Elkana knew Channah
his wife; and the LORD remembered her.
1:20It
happened, when the time was come about, that Channah conceived, and bore a
son; and she named him Shemu'el, saying, Because I have asked him
of the LORD.
1:21The man Elkana, and all his house,
went up to offer to the LORD the yearly sacrifice, and his vow.
1:22But Channah didn't go up; for she said to her husband, I will
not go up until the child be weaned; and then I will bring him, that
he may appear before the LORD, and there abide forever.
1:23Elkana her husband said to her, Do what seems you good; wait
until you have weaned him; only the LORD establish his word. So the woman
waited and nursed her son, until she weaned him.
1:24When
she had weaned him, she took him up with her, with three bulls, and one
efah of meal, and a bottle of wine, and brought him to the house of the
LORD in Shiloh: and the child was young.
1:25They
killed the bull, and brought the child to `Eli.
1:26She
said, Oh, my lord, as your soul lives, my lord, I am the woman who stood
by you here, praying to the LORD. 1:27For this child I
prayed; and the LORD has given me my petition which I asked of him:
1:28therefore also I have granted him to the LORD; as long as he
lives he is granted to the LORD. He worshiped the LORD there.
2:1Channah prayed, and said:
My heart exults in the LORD;
My horn is exalted in the LORD;
My mouth is enlarged over my enemies;
Because I rejoice in your salvation.
2:2There is none holy as the LORD;
For there is none besides you,
Neither is there any rock like our G-d.
2:3Talk no more so exceeding proudly;
Don't let arrogance come out of your mouth;
For the LORD is a G-d of knowledge,
By him actions are weighed.
2:4The bows of the mighty men are broken;
Those who stumbled are girded with strength.
2:5Those who were full have hired out themselves for bread;
Those who were hungry have ceased to hunger:
Yes, the barren has borne seven;
She who has many children languishes.
2:6The LORD kills, and makes alive:
He brings down to She'ol, and brings up.
2:7The LORD makes poor, and makes rich:
He brings low, he also lifts up.
2:8He raises up the poor out of the dust,
He lifts up the needy from the dunghill,
To make them sit with princes,
Inherit the throne of glory:
For the pillars of the earth are the LORD's,
He has set the world on them.
2:9He will keep the feet of his holy ones;
But the wicked shall be put to silence in darkness;
For by strength shall no man prevail.
2:10Those who strive with the LORD shall be broken to pieces;
Against them will he thunder in the sky:
The LORD will judge the ends of the earth;
He will give strength to his king,
Exalt the horn of his anointed.
2:11Elkana went to Ramah to his house. The child did minister to the
LORD before `Eli the kohen.
2:12Now
the sons of `Eli were base men; they didn't know the LORD.
2:13The custom of the kohanim with the people was
that when any man offered sacrifice, the kohen's servant
came, while the flesh was boiling, with a flesh-hook of three teeth in his
hand; 2:14and he struck it into the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot; all
that the flesh-hook brought up the kohen took therewith.
So they did in Shiloh to all the Yisra'elites who came there.
2:15Yes, before they burnt the fat, the kohen's
servant came, and said to the man who sacrificed, Give flesh to roast for
the kohen; for he will not have boiled flesh of you, but
raw. 2:16If the man said to him, They will surely burn the fat first, and
then take as much as your soul desires; then he would say, No, but you
shall give it me now: and if not, I will take it by force.
2:17The sin of the young men was very great before the LORD; for the
men despised the offering of the LORD.
2:18But
Shemu'el ministered before the LORD, being a child, girded with a linen
efod. 2:19Moreover his mother made him a little robe, and brought it to him
from year to year, when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly
sacrifice.
2:20`Eli blessed Elkana and his wife, and
said, the LORD give you seed of this woman for the petition which was
asked of the LORD. They went to their own home.
2:21The
LORD visited Channah, and she conceived, and bore three sons and two
daughters. The child Shemu'el grew before the LORD.
2:22Now `Eli was very old; and he heard all that his sons did to all
Yisra'el, and how that they lay with the women who served at the door of
the tent of meeting. 2:23He said to them,
Why do you such things? for I hear of your evil dealings from all this
people. 2:24No, my sons; for it is no good report that I hear: you make the
LORD's people to disobey. 2:25If one man sin
against another, G-d shall judge him; but if a man sin against the LORD,
who shall entreat for him? Notwithstanding, they didn't listen to the
voice of their father, because the LORD was minded to kill them.
2:26The child Shemu'el grew on, and increased in favor both with the
LORD, and also with men. 2:27There came a man
of G-d to `Eli, and said to him, Thus says the LORD, Did I reveal myself
to the house of your father, when they were in Egypt in bondage to
Par`oh's house?
2:28and did I choose him out of all
the tribes of Yisra'el to be my kohen, to go up to my
altar, to burn incense, to wear an efod before me? and did I give to the
house of your father all the offerings of the children of Yisra'el made by
fire? 2:29Why kick you at my sacrifice and at my offering, which I have
commanded in my habitation, and honor your sons above me, to make
yourselves fat with the best of all the offerings of Yisra'el my people?
2:30Therefore the LORD, the G-d of Yisra'el, says, I said indeed that
your house, and the house of your father, should walk before me forever:
but now the LORD says, Be it far from me; for those who honor me I will
honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed.
2:31Behold, the days come, that I will cut off your arm, and the arm
of your father's house, that there shall not be an old man in your house.
2:32You shall see the affliction of my habitation, in all the
wealth which God shall give Yisra'el; and there shall not be an old
man in your house forever. 2:33The man of yours,
whom I shall not cut off from my altar, shall be to consume
your eyes, and to grieve your heart; and all the increase of your house
shall die in the flower of their age.
2:34This
shall be the sign to you, that shall come on your two sons, on Chofni and
Pinechas: in one day they shall die both of them.
2:35I
will raise me up a faithful kohen, that shall do
according to that which is in my heart and in my mind: and I will build
him a sure house; and he shall walk before my anointed forever.
2:36It shall happen, that everyone who is left in your house shall
come and bow down to him for a piece of silver and a loaf of bread, and
shall say, Please put me into one of the kohanim'
offices, that I may eat a morsel of bread.
3:1The child Shemu'el ministered to the LORD before `Eli. The word
of the LORD was precious in those days; there was no frequent vision.
3:2It happened at that time, when `Eli was laid down in his place
(now his eyes had begun to grow dim, so that he could not see),
3:3and the lamp of G-d hadn't yet gone out, and Shemu'el had laid
down to sleep, in the temple of the LORD, where the ark of G-d was;
3:4that the LORD called Shemu'el; and he said, Here am I.
3:5He ran to `Eli, and said, Here am I; for you called me. He said,
I didn't call; lie down again. He went and lay down.
3:6The LORD called yet again, Shemu'el. Shemu'el arose and went to
`Eli, and said, Here am I; for you called me. He answered, I didn't call,
my son; lie down again. 3:7Now Shemu'el
didn't yet know the LORD, neither was the word of the LORD yet revealed to
him. 3:8The LORD called Shemu'el again the third time. He arose and went
to `Eli, and said, Here am I; for you called me. `Eli perceived that the
LORD had called the child. 3:9Therefore `Eli
said to Shemu'el, Go, lie down: and it shall be, if he call you, that you
shall say, Speak, the LORD; for your servant hears. So Shemu'el went and
lay down in his place. 3:10The LORD came,
and stood, and called as at other times, Shemu'el, Shemu'el. Then Shemu'el
said, Speak; for your servant hears.
3:11The
LORD said to Shemu'el, Behold, I will do a thing in Yisra'el, at which
both the ears of everyone who hears it shall tingle.
3:12In that day I will perform against `Eli all that I have spoken
concerning his house, from the beginning even to the end.
3:13For I have told him that I will judge his house forever, for the
iniquity which he knew, because his sons did bring a curse on themselves,
and he didn't restrain them. 3:14Therefore I have
sworn to the house of `Eli, that the iniquity of `Eli's house shall not be
expiated with sacrifice nor offering forever.
3:15Shemu'el
lay until the morning, and opened the doors of the house of the LORD.
Shemu'el feared to show `Eli the vision.
3:16Then
`Eli called Shemu'el, and said, Shemu'el, my son. He said, Here am I.
3:17He said, "What is the thing that the LORD has spoken to
you? Please don't hide it from me. G-d do so to you, and more also, if you
hide anything from me of all the things that he spoke to you."
3:18Shemu'el told him every whit, and hid nothing from him. He said,
It is the LORD: let him do what seems him good.
3:19Shemu'el
grew, and the LORD was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the
ground. 3:20All Yisra'el from Dan even to Be'er-Sheva knew that Shemu'el was
established to be a prophet of the LORD.
3:21The
LORD appeared again in Shiloh; for the LORD revealed himself to Shemu'el
in Shiloh by the word of the LORD.
4:1The word of Shemu'el came to all Yisra'el. Now Yisra'el went out
against the Pelishtim to battle, and encamped beside Even-Ha`ezer: and the
Pelishtim encamped in Afek. 4:2The Pelishtim put
themselves in array against Yisra'el: and when they joined battle,
Yisra'el was struck before the Pelishtim; and they killed of the army in
the field about four thousand men. 4:3When the people
were come into the camp, the elders of Yisra'el said, Why has the LORD
struck us today before the Pelishtim? Let us get the ark of the covenant
of the LORD out of Shiloh to us, that it may come among us, and save us
out of the hand of our enemies. 4:4So the people sent
to Shiloh; and they brought from there the ark of the covenant of the LORD
of Hosts, who sits above the Keruvim: and the two sons of `Eli,
Chofni and Pinechas, were there with the ark of the covenant of G-d.
4:5When the ark of the covenant of the LORD came into the camp, all
Yisra'el shouted with a great shout, so that the earth rang again.
4:6When the Pelishtim heard the noise of the shout, they said, What
means the noise of this great shout in the camp of the Hebrews? They
understood that the ark of the LORD was come into the camp.
4:7The Pelishtim were afraid, for they said, G-d is come into the
camp. They said, Woe to us! for there has not been such a thing
heretofore. 4:8Woe to us! who shall deliver us out of the hand of these mighty
gods? these are the gods that struck the Egyptians with all manner of
plagues in the wilderness. 4:9Be strong, and
behave yourselves like men, O you Pelishtim, that you not be servants to
the Hebrews, as they have been to you: quit yourselves like men, and
fight. 4:10The Pelishtim fought, and Yisra'el was struck, and they fled
every man to his tent: and there was a very great slaughter; for there
fell of Yisra'el thirty thousand footmen.
4:11The
ark of G-d was taken; and the two sons of `Eli, Chofni and Pinechas, were
slain. 4:12There ran a man of Binyamin out of the army, and came to Shiloh
the same day, with his clothes torn, and with dirt on his head.
4:13When he came, behold, `Eli was sitting on his seat by the road
watching; for his heart trembled for the ark of G-d. When the man came
into the city, and told it, all the city cried out.
4:14When `Eli heard the noise of the crying, he said, What means the
noise of this tumult? The man hurried, and came and told `Eli.
4:15Now `Eli was ninety-eight years old; and his eyes were set, so
that he could not see. 4:16The man said to
`Eli, I am he who came out of the army, and I fled today out of the army.
He said, How went the matter, my son?
4:17He
who brought the news answered, Yisra'el is fled before the Pelishtim, and
there has been also a great slaughter among the people, and your two sons
also, Chofni and Pinechas, are dead, and the ark of G-d is taken.
4:18It happened, when he made mention of the ark of G-d, that `Eli
fell from off his seat backward by the side of the gate; and his neck
broke, and he died: for he was an old man, and heavy. He had judged
Yisra'el forty years. 4:19His
daughter-in-law, Pinechas' wife, was with child, near to be delivered: and
when she heard the news that the ark of G-d was taken, and that her
father-in-law and her husband were dead, she bowed herself and brought
forth; for her pains came on her. 4:20About the time of
her death the women who stood by her said to her, Don't be afraid; for you
have brought forth a son. But she didn't answer, neither did she regard
it. 4:21She named the child Ikhavod, saying, The glory is departed from
Yisra'el; because the ark of G-d was taken, and because of her
father-in-law and her husband. 4:22She said, The
glory is departed from Yisra'el; for the ark of G-d is taken.
5:1Now the Pelishtim had taken the ark of G-d, and they brought it
from Even-Ha`ezer to Ashdod. 5:2The Pelishtim took
the ark of G-d, and brought it into the house of Dagon, and set it by
Dagon. 5:3When they of Ashdod arose early on the next day, behold, Dagon
was fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of the LORD. They took
Dagon, and set him in his place again.
5:4When
they arose early on the next day morning, behold, Dagon was fallen on his
face to the ground before the ark of the LORD; and the head of Dagon and
both the palms of his hands lay cut off on the threshold; only
the stump of Dagon was left to him.
5:5Therefore
neither the kohanim of Dagon, nor any who come into
Dagon's house, tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod, to this day.
5:6But the hand of the LORD was heavy on them of Ashdod, and he
destroyed them, and struck them with tumors, even Ashdod and the borders
of it. 5:7When the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, The ark of
the G-d of Yisra'el shall not abide with us; for his hand is sore on us,
and on Dagon our G-d. 5:8They sent
therefore and gathered all the lords of the Pelishtim to them, and said,
What shall we do with the ark of the G-d of Yisra'el? They answered, Let
the ark of the G-d of Yisra'el be carried about to Gat. They carried the
ark of the G-d of Yisra'el there.
5:9It
was so, that after they had carried it about, the hand of the LORD was
against the city with a very great confusion: and he struck the men of the
city, both small and great; and tumors broke out on them.
5:10So they sent the ark of G-d to `Ekron. It happened, as the ark of
G-d came to `Ekron, that the `Ekroni cried out, saying, They have brought
about the ark of the G-d of Yisra'el to us, to kill us and our people.
5:11They sent therefore and gathered together all the lords of the
Pelishtim, and they said, Send away the ark of the G-d of Yisra'el, and
let it go again to its own place, that it not kill us and our people. For
there was a deadly confusion throughout all the city; the hand of G-d was
very heavy there.
5:12The men who didn't die were
struck with the tumors; and the cry of the city went up to heaven.
6:1The ark of the LORD was in the country of the Pelishtim seven
months. 6:2The Pelishtim called for the kohanim and the
diviners, saying, "What shall we do with the ark of the LORD? Show us with
which we shall send it to its place."
6:3They said, "If you send away the ark of the G-d of Yisra'el,
don't send it empty; but by all means return him a trespass-offering: then
you shall be healed, and it shall be known to you why his hand is not
removed from you."
6:4Then they said, "What shall be the trespass-offering which we
shall return to him?"
They said, "Five golden tumors, and five golden mice,
according to the number of the lords of the Pelishtim; for one plague
was on you all, and on your lords. 6:5Therefore you
shall make images of your tumors, and images of your mice that mar the
land; and you shall give glory to the G-d of Yisra'el: peradventure he
will lighten his hand from off you, and from off your gods, and from off
your land. 6:6Why then do you harden your hearts, as the Egyptians and Par`oh
hardened their hearts? When he had worked wonderfully among them, didn't
they let the people go, and they departed?
6:7Now
therefore take and prepare yourselves a new cart, and two milk cattle, on
which there has come no yoke; and tie the cattle to the cart, and bring
their calves home from them; 6:8and take the ark
of the LORD, and lay it on the cart; and put the jewels of gold, which you
return him for a trespass-offering, in a coffer by the side of it; and
send it away, that it may go. 6:9Behold; if it goes
up by the way of its own border to Beth-shemesh, then he has done us this
great evil: but if not, then we shall know that it is not his hand that
struck us; it was a chance that happened to us."
6:10The men did so, and took two milk cattle, and tied them to the
cart, and shut up their calves at home;
6:11and
they put the ark of the LORD on the cart, and the coffer with the mice of
gold and the images of their tumors.
6:12The
cattle took the straight way by the way to Beth-shemesh; they went along
the highway, lowing as they went, and didn't turn aside to the right hand
or to the left; and the lords of the Pelishtim went after them to the
border of Beth-shemesh. 6:13They of Beth-shemesh
were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley; and they lifted up their
eyes, and saw the ark, and rejoiced to see it.
6:14The
cart came into the field of Yehoshua the Beth-shemite, and stood there,
where there was a great stone: and they split the wood of the cart, and
offered up the cattle for a burnt offering to the LORD.
6:15The Levites took down the ark of the LORD, and the coffer that
was with it, in which the jewels of gold were, and put them on the great
stone: and the men of Beth-shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed
sacrifices the same day to the LORD.
6:16When
the five lords of the Pelishtim had seen it, they returned to `Ekron the
same day. 6:17These are the golden tumors which the Pelishtim returned for a
trespass-offering to the LORD: for Ashdod one, for `Aza one, for Ashkelon
one, for Gat one, for `Ekron one; 6:18and the golden
mice, according to the number of all the cities of the Pelishtim belonging
to the five lords, both of fortified cities and of country villages, even
to the great stone, whereon they set down the ark of the LORD, which
stone remains to this day in the field of Yehoshua the Beth-shemite.
6:19He struck of the men of Beth-shemesh, because they had looked
into the teivah of the LORD, he struck of the people
fifty thousand seventy men; and the people mourned, because the LORD had
struck the people with a great slaughter.
6:20The
men of Beth-shemesh said, Who is able to stand before the LORD, this holy
G-d? and to whom shall he go up from us?
6:21They
sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiryat-Ye`arim, saying, The
Pelishtim have brought back the ark of the LORD; come you down, and bring
it up to you.
7:1The men of Kiryat-Ye`arim came, and fetched up the ark of the
LORD, and brought it into the house of Avinadav in the hill, and
sanctified El`azar his son to keep the ark of the LORD.
7:2It happened, from the day that the ark abode in Kiryat-Ye`arim,
that the time was long; for it was twenty years: and all the house of
Yisra'el lamented after the LORD. 7:3Shemu'el spoke to
all the house of Yisra'el, saying, If you do return to the LORD with all
your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the `Ashtarot from among
you, and direct your hearts to the LORD, and serve him only; and he will
deliver you out of the hand of the Pelishtim.
7:4Then
the children of Yisra'el did put away the Ba`alim and the `Ashtarot, and
served the LORD only. 7:5Shemu'el said,
Gather all Yisra'el to Mitzpah, and I will pray for you to the LORD.
7:6They gathered together to Mitzpah, and drew water, and poured it
out before the LORD, and fasted on that day, and said there, We have
sinned against the LORD. Shemu'el judged the children of Yisra'el in
Mitzpah. 7:7When the Pelishtim heard that the children of Yisra'el were
gathered together at Mitzpah, the lords of the Pelishtim went up against
Yisra'el. When the children of Yisra'el heard it, they were afraid of the
Pelishtim. 7:8The children of Yisra'el said to Shemu'el, "Don't cease to cry to
the LORD our G-d for us, that he will save us out of the hand of the
Pelishtim." 7:9Shemu'el took a sucking lamb, and offered it for a whole
burnt-offering to the LORD: and Shemu'el cried to the LORD for Yisra'el;
and the LORD answered him. 7:10As Shemu'el was
offering up the burnt offering, the Pelishtim drew near to battle against
Yisra'el; but the LORD thundered with a great thunder on that day on the
Pelishtim, and confused them; and they were struck down before Yisra'el.
7:11The men of Yisra'el went out of Mitzpah, and pursued the
Pelishtim, and struck them, until they came under Beit-Kar.
7:12Then Shemu'el took a stone, and set it between Mitzpah and Shen,
and called the name of it Even-Ha`ezer, saying, Hitherto has the LORD
helped us.
7:13So the Pelishtim were subdued, and
they came no more within the border of Yisra'el: and the hand of the LORD
was against the Pelishtim all the days of Shemu'el.
7:14The cities which the Pelishtim had taken from Yisra'el were
restored to Yisra'el, from `Ekron even to Gat; and the border of it did
Yisra'el deliver out of the hand of the Pelishtim. There was shalom
between Yisra'el and the Amori. 7:15Shemu'el judged
Yisra'el all the days of his life. 7:16He went from year
to year in circuit to Beit-El and Gilgal, and Mitzpah; and he judged
Yisra'el in all those places. 7:17His return was to
Ramah, for there was his house; and there he judged Yisra'el: and he built
there an altar to the LORD.
8:1It happened, when Shemu'el was old, that he made his sons judges
over Yisra'el.
8:2Now the name of his firstborn was
Yo'el; and the name of his second, Aviyah: they were judges in Be'er-Sheva.
8:3His sons didn't walk in his ways, but turned aside after lucre,
and took bribes, and perverted justice.
8:4Then
all the elders of Yisra'el gathered themselves together, and came to
Shemu'el to Ramah;
8:5and they said to him, Behold, you
are old, and your sons don't walk in your ways: now make us a king to
judge us like all the nations. 8:6But the thing
displeased Shemu'el, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. Shemu'el
prayed to the LORD.
8:7The LORD said to Shemu'el, Listen
to the voice of the people in all that they tell you; for they have not
rejected you, but they have rejected me, that I should not be king over
them. 8:8According to all the works which they have done since the day
that I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, in that they have
forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also to you.
8:9Now therefore listen to their voice: however you shall protest
solemnly to them, and shall show them the manner of the king who shall
reign over them.
8:10Shemu'el told all the words of
the LORD to the people who asked of him a king.
8:11He
said, This will be the manner of the king who shall reign over you: he
will take your sons, and appoint them to him, for his chariots, and to be
his horsemen; and they shall run before his chariots;
8:12and he will appoint them to him for captains of thousands, and
captains of fifties; and he will set some to plow his ground, and
to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and the
instruments of his chariots. 8:13He will take your
daughters to be perfumers, and to be cooks, and to be bakers.
8:14He will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your olive
groves, even the best of them, and give them to his servants.
8:15He will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and
give to his officers, and to his servants.
8:16He
will take your men-servants, and your maid-servants, and your best young
men, and your donkeys, and put them to his work.
8:17He
will take the tenth of your flocks: and you shall be his servants.
8:18You shall cry out in that day because of your king whom you shall
have chosen you; and the LORD will not answer you in that day.
8:19But the people refused to listen to the voice of Shemu'el; and
they said, No: but we will have a king over us,
8:20that
we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us, and
go out before us, and fight our battles.
8:21Shemu'el
heard all the words of the people, and he rehearsed them in the ears of
the LORD. 8:22The LORD said to Shemu'el, Listen to their voice, and make them a
king. Shemu'el said to the men of Yisra'el, Go you every man to his city.
9:1Now there was a man of Binyamin, whose name was Kish, the son of
Aviel, the son of Tzeror, the son of Bekhorat, the son of Afiach, the son
of a Binyamini, a mighty man of valor.
9:2He
had a son, whose name was Sha'ul, an impressive young man; and there was
not among the children of Yisra'el a better person than he. From his
shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people.
9:3The donkeys of Kish, Sha'ul's father, were lost. Kish said to
Sha'ul his son, Take now one of the servants with you, and arise, go seek
the donkeys.
9:4He passed through the hill-country of
Efrayim, and passed through the land of Shalishah, but they didn't find
them: then they passed through the land of Sha`alim, and there they
weren't there: and he passed through the land of the Binyamini, but they
didn't find them.
9:5When they had come to the land of
Tzuf, Sha'ul said to his servant who was with him, Come, and let us
return, lest my father leave off caring for the donkeys, and be anxious
for us. 9:6He said to him, See now, there is in this city a man of G-d, and
he is a man who is held in honor; all that he says comes surely to pass:
now let us go there; peradventure he can tell us concerning our journey
whereon we go.
9:7Then said Sha'ul to his servant, But,
behold, if we go, what shall we bring the man? for the bread is spent in
our vessels, and there is not a present to bring to the man of G-d: what
have we? 9:8The servant answered Sha'ul again, and said, Behold, I have in my
hand the fourth part of a shekel of silver: that will I give to the man of
G-d, to tell us our way. 9:9(In earlier times
in Yisra'el, when a man went to inquire of G-d, thus he said, Come, and
let us go to the seer; for he who is now called a Prophet was before
called a Seer.)
9:10Then said Sha'ul to his servant,
Well said; come, let us go. So they went to the city where the man of G-d
was. 9:11As they went up the ascent to the city, they found young maidens
going out to draw water, and said to them, Is the seer here?
9:12They answered them, and said, He is; behold, he is before
you: make haste now, for he is come today into the city; for the people
have a sacrifice today in the high place:
9:13as
soon as you are come into the city, you shall immediately find him, before
he goes up to the high place to eat; for the people will not eat until he
come, because he does bless the sacrifice; and afterwards they eat
who are invited. Now therefore get you up; for at this time you shall find
him. 9:14They went up to the city; and as they came within the
city, behold, Shemu'el came out toward them, to go up to the high place.
9:15Now the LORD had revealed to Shemu'el a day before Sha'ul came,
saying, 9:16Tomorrow about this time I will send you a man out of the land of
Binyamin, and you shall anoint him to be prince over my people Yisra'el;
and he shall save my people out of the hand of the Pelishtim: for I have
looked on my people, because their cry is come to me.
9:17When Shemu'el saw Sha'ul, the LORD said to him, Behold, the man
of whom I spoke to you! this same shall have authority over my people.
9:18Then Sha'ul drew near to Shemu'el in the gate, and said, Tell me,
Please, where the seer's house is. 9:19Shemu'el answered
Sha'ul, and said, I am the seer; go up before me to the high place, for
you shall eat with me today: and in the morning I will let you go, and
will tell you all that is in your heart.
9:20As
for your donkeys who were lost three days ago, don't set your mind on
them; for they are found. For whom is all that is desirable in Yisra'el?
Is it not for you, and for all your father's house?
9:21Sha'ul answered, Am I not a Binyamini, of the smallest of the
tribes of Yisra'el? and my family the least of all the families of the
tribe of Binyamin? why then speak you to me after this manner?
9:22Shemu'el took Sha'ul and his servant, and brought them into the
guest-chamber, and made them sit in the best place among those who were
invited, who were about thirty persons.
9:23Shemu'el
said to the cook, Bring the portion which I gave you, of which I said to
you, Set it by you. 9:24The cook took up
the thigh, and that which was on it, and set it before Sha'ul. Shemu'el
said, Behold, that which has been reserved! set it before you and eat;
because to the appointed time has it been kept for you, for I said, I have
invited the people. So Sha'ul ate with Shemu'el that day.
9:25When they were come down from the high place into the city, he
talked with Sha'ul on the housetop.
9:26They
arose early: and it happened about the spring of the day, that Shemu'el
called to Sha'ul on the housetop, saying, Up, that I may send you away.
Sha'ul arose, and they went out both of them, he and Shemu'el, abroad.
9:27As they were going down at the end of the city, Shemu'el said to
Sha'ul, Bid the servant pass on before us (and he passed on), but stand
you still first, that I may cause you to hear the word of G-d.
10:1Then Shemu'el took the vial of oil, and poured it on his head,
and kissed him, and said, Isn't it that the LORD has anointed you to be
prince over his inheritance? 10:2When you are
departed from me today, then you shall find two men by Rachel's tomb, in
the border of Binyamin at Tzeltzach; and they will tell you, The donkeys
which you went to seek are found; and, behold, your father has left off
caring for the donkeys, and is anxious for you, saying, What shall I do
for my son?
10:3Then shall you go on forward from
there, and you shall come to the oak of Tavor; and there shall meet you
there three men going up to G-d to Beit-El, one carrying three kids, and
another carrying three loaves of bread, and another carrying a bottle of
wine: 10:4and they will greet you, and give you two loaves of bread, which
you shall receive of their hand. 10:5After that you
shall come to the hill of G-d, where is the garrison of the Pelishtim: and
it shall happen, when you are come there to the city, that you shall meet
a band of prophets coming down from the high place with a psaltery, and a
tambourine, and a pipe, and a harp, before them; and they will be
prophesying:
10:6and the Spirit of the LORD will come
mightily on you, and you shall prophesy with them, and shall be turned
into another man.
10:7Let it be, when these signs are
come to you, that you do as occasion shall serve you; for G-d is with you.
10:8You shall go down before me to Gilgal; and, behold, I will come
down to you, to offer burnt offerings, and to sacrifice sacrifices of
peace-offerings: seven days shall you wait, until I come to you, and show
you what you shall do. 10:9It was so, that
when he had turned his back to go from Shemu'el, G-d gave him another
heart: and all those signs happened that day.
10:10When
they came there to the hill, behold, a band of prophets met him; and the
Spirit of G-d came mightily on him, and he prophesied among them.
10:11It happened, when all who knew him before saw that, behold, he
prophesied with the prophets, then the people said one to another, What is
this that is come to the son of Kish? Is Sha'ul also among the prophets?
10:12One of the same place answered, Who is their father? Therefore it
became a proverb, Is Sha'ul also among the prophets?
10:13When he had made an end of prophesying, he came to the high
place. 10:14Sha'ul's uncle said to him and to his servant, Where went you? He
said, To seek the donkeys; and when we saw that they were not found, we
came to Shemu'el.
10:15Sha'ul's uncle said, Tell me,
Please, what Shemu'el said to you.
10:16Sha'ul
said to his uncle, He told us plainly that the donkeys were found. But
concerning the matter of the kingdom, of which Shemu'el spoke, he didn't
tell him.
10:17Shemu'el called the people together
to the LORD to Mitzpah; 10:18and he said to
the children of Yisra'el, Thus says the LORD, the G-d of Yisra'el, I
brought up Yisra'el out of Egypt, and I delivered you out of the hand of
the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all the kingdoms that oppressed you:
10:19but you have this day rejected your G-d, who himself saves you
out of all your calamities and your distresses; and you have said to him,
No, but set a king over us. Now therefore present yourselves before
the LORD by your tribes, and by your thousands.
10:20So
Shemu'el brought all the tribes of Yisra'el near, and the tribe of
Binyamin was taken. 10:21He brought the
tribe of Binyamin near by their families; and the family of the Matri was
taken; and Sha'ul the son of Kish was taken: but when they sought him, he
could not be found. 10:22Therefore they
asked of the LORD further, Is there yet a man to come here? the LORD
answered, Behold, he has hid himself among the baggage.
10:23They ran and fetched him there; and when he stood among the
people, he was higher than any of the people from his shoulders and
upward. 10:24Shemu'el said to all the people, "You see him whom the LORD has
chosen, that there is none like him among all the people?"
All the people shouted, and said, Long live the
king. 10:25Then Shemu'el told the people the manner of the kingdom, and
wrote it in a book, and laid it up before the LORD. Shemu'el sent all the
people away, every man to his house.
10:26Sha'ul
also went to his house to Gevah; and there went with him the host, whose
hearts G-d had touched. 10:27But certain
worthless fellows said, How shall this man save us? They despised him, and
brought him no present. But he held his shalom.
11:1Then Nachash the `Ammonite came up, and encamped against
Yavesh-Gil`ad: and all the men of Yavesh said to Nachash, Make a covenant
with us, and we will serve you. 11:2Nachash the
`Ammonite said to them, On this condition will I make it with you, that
all your right eyes be put out; and I will lay it for a reproach on all
Yisra'el. 11:3The elders of Yavesh said to him, Give us seven days' respite,
that we may send messengers to all the borders of Yisra'el; and then, if
there be none to save us, we will come out to you.
11:4Then
came the messengers to Gevah of Sha'ul, and spoke these words in the ears
of the people: and all the people lifted up their voice, and wept.
11:5Behold, Sha'ul came following the oxen out of the field; and
Sha'ul said, What ails the people that they weep? They told him the words
of the men of Yavesh. 11:6The Spirit of G-d
came mightily on Sha'ul when he heard those words, and his anger was
kindled greatly.
11:7He took a yoke of oxen, and cut
them in pieces, and sent them throughout all the borders of Yisra'el by
the hand of messengers, saying, Whoever doesn't come forth after Sha'ul
and after Shemu'el, so shall it be done to his oxen. The dread of the LORD
fell on the people, and they came out as one man.
11:8He
numbered them in Bezek; and the children of Yisra'el were three hundred
thousand, and the men of Yehudah thirty thousand.
11:9They
said to the messengers who came, Thus shall you tell the men of
Yavesh-Gil`ad, Tomorrow, by the time the sun is hot, you shall have
deliverance. The messengers came and told the men of Yavesh; and they were
glad. 11:10Therefore the men of Yavesh said, Tomorrow we will come out to
you, and you shall do with us all that seems good to you.
11:11It was so on the next day, that Sha'ul put the people in three
companies; and they came into the midst of the camp in the morning watch,
and struck the `Ammonim until the heat of the day: and it happened, that
those who remained were scattered, so that no two of them were left
together.
11:12The people said to Shemu'el, Who is
he who said, Shall Sha'ul reign over us? bring the men, that we may put
them to death.
11:13Sha'ul said, There shall not a
man be put to death this day; for today the LORD has worked deliverance in
Yisra'el.
11:14Then said Shemu'el to the people,
Come, and let us go to Gilgal, and renew the kingdom there.
11:15All the people went to Gilgal; and there they made Sha'ul king
before the LORD in Gilgal; and there they offered sacrifices of
peace-offerings before the LORD; and there Sha'ul and all the men of
Yisra'el rejoiced greatly.
12:1Shemu'el said to all Yisra'el, Behold, I have listened to your
voice in all that you said to me, and have made a king over you.
12:2Now, behold, the king walks before you; and I am old and
gray-headed; and, behold, my sons are with you: and I have walked before
you from my youth to this day. 12:3Here I am:
witness against me before the LORD, and before his anointed: whose ox have
I taken? or whose donkey have I taken? or whom have I defrauded? whom have
I oppressed? or of whose hand have I taken a ransom to blind my eyes
therewith? and I will restore it you.
12:4They
said, You have not defrauded us, nor oppressed us, neither have you taken
anything of any man's hand. 12:5He said to them,
the LORD is witness against you, and his anointed is witness this day,
that you have not found anything in my hand. They said, He is witness.
12:6Shemu'el said to the people, It is the LORD who appointed Moshe
and Aharon, and that brought your fathers up out of the land of Egypt.
12:7Now therefore stand still, that I may plead with you before the
LORD concerning all the righteous acts of the LORD, which he did to you
and to your fathers. 12:8When Ya`akov was
come into Egypt, and your fathers cried to the LORD, then the LORD sent
Moshe and Aharon, who brought forth your fathers out of Egypt, and made
them to dwell in this place. 12:9But they forgot
the LORD their G-d; and he sold them into the hand of Sisera, captain of
the host of Chatzor, and into the hand of the Pelishtim, and into the hand
of the king of Mo'av; and they fought against them.
12:10They cried to the LORD, and said, We have sinned, because we have
forsaken the LORD, and have served the Ba`alim and the `Ashtarot: but now
deliver us out of the hand of our enemies, and we will serve you.
12:11The LORD sent Yerubba`al, and Bedan, and Yiftach, and Shemu'el,
and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side; and you
lived in safety.
12:12When you saw that Nachash the
king of the children of `Ammon came against you, you said to me, No, but a
king shall reign over us; when the LORD your G-d was your king.
12:13Now therefore see the king whom you have chosen, and whom you
have asked for: and, behold, the LORD has set a king over you.
12:14If you will fear the LORD, and serve him, and listen to his
voice, and not rebel against the mitzvah of the LORD,
and both you and also the king who reigns over you are followers of the
LORD your G-d, well: 12:15but if you will
not listen to the voice of the LORD, but rebel against the
mitzvah of the LORD, then will the hand of the LORD be against you, as
it was against your fathers. 12:16Now therefore
stand still and see this great thing, which the LORD will do before your
eyes. 12:17Isn't it wheat harvest today? I will call to the LORD, that he
may send thunder and rain; and you shall know and see that your wickedness
is great, which you have done in the sight of the LORD, in asking you a
king. 12:18So Shemu'el called to the LORD; and the LORD sent thunder and
rain that day: and all the people greatly feared the LORD and Shemu'el.
12:19All the people said to Shemu'el, Pray for your servants to the
LORD your G-d, that we not die; for we have added to all our sins this
evil, to ask us a king. 12:20Shemu'el said to
the people, "Don't be afraid; you have indeed done all this evil; yet
don't turn aside from following the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your
heart: 12:21and don't turn aside; for then would you go after vain
things which can't profit nor deliver, for they are vain.
12:22For the LORD will not forsake his people for his great name's
sake, because it has pleased the LORD to make you a people to himself.
12:23Moreover as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against
the LORD in ceasing to pray for you: but I will instruct you in the good
and the right way. 12:24Only fear the
LORD, and serve him in truth with all your heart; for consider how great
things he has done for you. 12:25But if you shall
still do wickedly, you shall be consumed, both you and your king."
13:1Sha'ul was forty years old when he began to reign; and
when he had reigned two years over Yisra'el,
13:2Sha'ul
chose him three thousand men of Yisra'el, of which two thousand were with
Sha'ul in Mikhmash and in the Mount of Beit-El, and one thousand were with
Yonatan in Gevah of Binyamin: and the rest of the people he sent every man
to his tent.
13:3Yonatan struck the garrison of the
Pelishtim that was in Geva: and the Pelishtim heard of it. Sha'ul blew the
shofar throughout all the land, saying, Let the Hebrews
hear. 13:4All Yisra'el heard say that Sha'ul had struck the garrison of the
Pelishtim, and also that Yisra'el was had in abomination with the
Pelishtim. The people were gathered together after Sha'ul to Gilgal.
13:5The Pelishtim assembled themselves together to fight with
Yisra'el, thirty thousand chariots, and six thousand horsemen, and people
as the sand which is on the sea-shore in multitude: and they came up, and
encamped in Mikhmash, eastward of Beit-Aven.
13:6When
the men of Yisra'el saw that they were in a strait (for the people were
distressed), then the people did hide themselves in caves, and in
thickets, and in rocks, and in coverts, and in pits.
13:7Now some of the Hebrews had gone over the Yarden to the land of
Gad and Gil`ad; but as for Sha'ul, he was yet in Gilgal, and all the
people followed him trembling. 13:8He stayed seven
days, according to the set time that Shemu'el had appointed: but
Shemu'el didn't come to Gilgal; and the people were scattered from him.
13:9Sha'ul said, Bring here the burnt offering to me, and the
peace-offerings. He offered the burnt offering.
13:10It
came to pass that as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt
offering, behold, Shemu'el came; and Sha'ul went out to meet him, that he
might greet him.
13:11Shemu'el said, What have you
done? Sha'ul said, Because I saw that the people were scattered from me,
and that you didn't come within the days appointed, and that the Pelishtim
assembled themselves together at Mikhmash;
13:12therefore
said I, Now will the Pelishtim come down on me to Gilgal, and I haven't
entreated the favor of the LORD: I forced myself therefore, and offered
the burnt offering. 13:13Shemu'el said to
Sha'ul, You have done foolishly; you have not kept the
mitzvah of the LORD your G-d, which he commanded you: for now would
the LORD have established your kingdom on Yisra'el forever.
13:14But now your kingdom shall not continue: the LORD has sought him
a man after his own heart, and the LORD has appointed him to be prince
over his people, because you have not kept that which the LORD commanded
you. 13:15Shemu'el arose, and got him up from Gilgal to Gevah of Binyamin.
Sha'ul numbered the people who were present with him, about six hundred
men. 13:16Sha'ul, and Yonatan his son, and the people who were present with
them, abode in Geva of Binyamin: but the Pelishtim encamped in Mikhmash.
13:17The spoilers came out of the camp of the Pelishtim in three
companies: one company turned to the way that leads to Ofrat, to the land
of Shual;
13:18and another company turned the way to
Beit-Choron; and another company turned the way of the border that looks
down on the valley of Tzevo`im toward the wilderness.
13:19Now there was no smith found throughout all Eretz-Yisra'el; for
the Pelishtim said, Lest the Hebrews make them swords or spears:
13:20but all the Yisra'elites went down to the Pelishtim, to sharpen
every man his plowshare, mattock, axe, and sickle;
13:21yet they had a file for the mattocks, and for the plowshares, and
for the forks, and for the axes, and to set the goads.
13:22So it came to pass in the day of battle, that there was neither
sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people who were with
Sha'ul and Yonatan: but with Sha'ul and with Yonatan his son was there
found. 13:23The garrison of the Pelishtim went out to the pass of Mikhmash.
14:1Now it fell on a day, that Yonatan the son of Sha'ul said to the
young man who bore his armor, Come, and let us go over to the Pelishtim'
garrison, that is on yonder side. But he didn't tell his father.
14:2Sha'ul abode in the uttermost part of Gevah under the pomegranate
tree which is in Migron: and the people who were with him were about six
hundred men;
14:3and Achiyah, the son of Achituv,
Ikhavod's brother, the son of Pinechas, the son of `Eli, the
kohen of the LORD in Shiloh, wearing an efod. The
people didn't know that Yonatan was gone.
14:4Between
the passes, by which Yonatan sought to go over to the Pelishtim' garrison,
there was a rocky crag on the one side, and a rocky crag on the other
side: and the name of the one was Botzetz, and the name of the other
Senneh. 14:5The one crag rose up on the north in front of Mikhmash, and the
other on the south in front of Geva.
14:6Yonatan
said to the young man who bore his armor, Come, and let us go over to the
garrison of these uncircumcised: it may be that the LORD will work for us;
for there is no restraint to the LORD to save by many or by few.
14:7His armor bearer said to him, Do all that is in your heart: turn
you, behold, I am with you according to your heart.
14:8Then said Yonatan, Behold, we will pass over to the men, and we
will disclose ourselves to them. 14:9If they say thus
to us, Wait until we come to you; then we will stand still in our place,
and will not go up to them. 14:10But if they say
thus, Come up to us; then we will go up; for the LORD has delivered them
into our hand: and this shall be the sign to us.
14:11Both
of them disclosed themselves to the garrison of the Pelishtim: and the
Pelishtim said, Behold, the Hebrews come forth out of the holes where they
had hid themselves. 14:12The men of the
garrison answered Yonatan and his armor bearer, and said, Come up to us,
and we will show you a thing. Yonatan said to his armor bearer, Come up
after me; for the LORD has delivered them into the hand of Yisra'el.
14:13Yonatan climbed up on his hands and on his feet, and his armor
bearer after him: and they fell before Yonatan; and his armor bearer
killed them after him. 14:14That first
slaughter, which Yonatan and his armor bearer made, was about twenty men,
within as it were half a furrow's length in an acre of land.
14:15There was a trembling in the camp, in the field, and among all
the people; the garrison, and the spoilers, they also trembled; and the
earth quaked: so there was an exceeding great trembling.
14:16The watchmen of Sha'ul in Gevah of Binyamin looked; and, behold,
the multitude melted away, and they went here and there.
14:17Then said Sha'ul to the people who were with him, Number now, and
see who is gone from us. When they had numbered, behold, Yonatan and his
armor bearer were not there. 14:18Sha'ul said to
Achiyah, Bring here the ark of G-d. For the ark of G-d was there at
that time with the children of Yisra'el.
14:19It
happened, while Sha'ul talked to the kohen, that the
tumult that was in the camp of the Pelishtim went on and increased: and
Sha'ul said to the kohen, Withdraw your hand.
14:20Sha'ul and all the people who were with him were gathered
together, and came to the battle: and, behold, every man's sword was
against his fellow, and there was a very great confusion.
14:21Now the Hebrews who were with the Pelishtim as before, and who
went up with them into the camp, from the country round about, even
they also turned to be with the Yisra'elites who were with Sha'ul
and Yonatan.
14:22Likewise all the men of Yisra'el who
had hid themselves in the hill-country of Efrayim, when they heard that
the Pelishtim fled, even they also followed hard after them in the battle.
14:23So the LORD saved Yisra'el that day: and the battle passed over
by Beit-Aven.
14:24The men of Yisra'el were
distressed that day; for Sha'ul had adjured the people, saying, Cursed be
the man who eats any food until it be evening, and I be avenged on my
enemies. So none of the people tasted food.
14:25All
the people came into the forest; and there was honey on the ground.
14:26When the people were come to the forest, behold, the honey
dropped: but no man put his hand to his mouth; for the people feared the
oath. 14:27But Yonatan didn't hear when his father charged the people with
the oath: therefore he put forth the end of the rod who was in his hand,
and dipped it in the honeycomb, and put his hand to his mouth; and his
eyes were enlightened. 14:28Then answered
one of the people, and said, Your father directly charged the people with
an oath, saying, Cursed be the man who eats food this day. The people were
faint. 14:29Then said Yonatan, My father has troubled the land. Please look
how my eyes have been enlightened, because I tasted a little of this
honey. 14:30How much more, if haply the people had eaten freely today of the
spoil of their enemies which they found? for now has there been no great
slaughter among the Pelishtim. 14:31They struck of
the Pelishtim that day from Mikhmash to Ayalon. The people were very
faint; 14:32and the people flew on the spoil, and took sheep, and oxen, and
calves, and killed them on the ground; and the people ate them with the
blood. 14:33Then they told Sha'ul, saying, Behold, the people sin against the
LORD, in that they eat with the blood. He said, you have dealt
treacherously: roll a great stone to me this day.
14:34Sha'ul
said, Disperse yourselves among the people, and tell them, Bring me here
every man his ox, and every man his sheep, and kill them here, and eat;
and don't sin against the LORD in eating with the blood. All the people
brought every man his ox with him that night, and killed them there.
14:35Sha'ul built an altar to the LORD: the same was the first altar
that he built to the LORD. 14:36Sha'ul said, Let
us go down after the Pelishtim by night, and take spoil among them until
the morning light, and let us not leave a man of them. They said, Do
whatever seems good to you. Then said the kohen, Let us
draw near here to G-d. 14:37Sha'ul asked
counsel of G-d, Shall I go down after the Pelishtim? will you deliver them
into the hand of Yisra'el? But he didn't answer him that day.
14:38Sha'ul said, Draw near here, all you chiefs of the people; and
know and see in which this sin has been this day.
14:39For,
as the LORD lives, who saves Yisra'el, though it be in Yonatan my son, he
shall surely die. But there was not a man among all the people who
answered him.
14:40Then said he to all Yisra'el, Be
you on one side, and I and Yonatan my son will be on the other side. The
people said to Sha'ul, Do what seems good to you.
14:41Therefore
Sha'ul said to the LORD, the G-d of Yisra'el, Show the right. Yonatan and
Sha'ul were taken by lot; but the people escaped.
14:42Sha'ul said, Cast lots between me and Yonatan my son.
Yonatan was taken. 14:43Then Sha'ul said
to Yonatan, Tell me what you have done. Yonatan told him, and said, I did
certainly taste a little honey with the end of the rod that was in my
hand; and, behold, I must die. 14:44Sha'ul said, G-d
do so and more also; for you shall surely die, Yonatan.
14:45The people said to Sha'ul, Shall Yonatan die, who has worked this
great salvation in Yisra'el? Far from it: as the LORD lives, there shall
not one hair of his head fall to the ground; for he has worked with G-d
this day. So the people rescued Yonatan, that he didn't die.
14:46Then Sha'ul went up from following the Pelishtim; and the
Pelishtim went to their own place.
14:47Now
when Sha'ul had taken the kingdom over Yisra'el, he fought against all his
enemies on every side, against Mo'av, and against the children of `Ammon,
and against Edom, and against the kings of Tzovah, and against the
Pelishtim: and wherever he turned himself, he put them to the
worse. 14:48He did valiantly, and struck the `Amaleki, and delivered Yisra'el
out of the hands of those who despoiled them.
14:49Now
the sons of Sha'ul were Yonatan, and Yishvi, and Malki-Shua; and the names
of his two daughters were these: the name of the firstborn Merav, and the
name of the younger Mikhal: 14:50and the name of
Sha'ul's wife was Achino'am the daughter of Achima`atz. The name of the
captain of his host was Aviner the son of Ner, Sha'ul's uncle.
14:51Kish was the father of Sha'ul; and Ner the father of Aviner was
the son of Aviel.
14:52There was sore war against the
Pelishtim all the days of Sha'ul: and when Sha'ul saw any mighty man, or
any valiant man, he took him to him.
15:1Shemu'el said to Sha'ul, the LORD sent me to anoint you to be
king over his people, over Yisra'el: now therefore listen you to the voice
of the words of the LORD. 15:2Thus says the
LORD of Hosts, I have marked that which `Amalek did to Yisra'el, how he
set himself against him in the way, when he came up out of Egypt.
15:3Now go and strike `Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they
have, and don't spare them; but kill both man and woman, infant and
suckling, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.
15:4Sha'ul
summoned the people, and numbered them in Tela'im, two hundred thousand
footmen, and ten thousand men of Yehudah.
15:5Sha'ul
came to the city of `Amalek, and laid wait in the valley.
15:6Sha'ul said to the Kinim, Go, depart, get you down from among the
`Amaleki, lest I destroy you with them; for you shown kindness to all the
children of Yisra'el, when they came up out of Egypt. So the Kinim
departed from among the `Amaleki. 15:7Sha'ul struck the
`Amaleki, from Chavilah as you go to Shur, that is before Egypt.
15:8He took Agag the king of the `Amaleki alive, and utterly
destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.
15:9But Sha'ul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep,
and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was
good, and wouldn't utterly destroy them: but everything that was vile and
refuse, that they destroyed utterly.
15:10Then
came the word of the LORD to Shemu'el, saying,
15:11It
repents me that I have set up Sha'ul to be king; for he is turned back
from following me, and has not performed my mitzvot.
Shemu'el was angry; and he cried to the LORD all night.
15:12Shemu'el rose early to meet Sha'ul in the morning; and it was
told Shemu'el, saying, Sha'ul came to Karmel, and, behold, he set him up a
monument, and turned, and passed on, and went down to Gilgal.
15:13Shemu'el came to Sha'ul; and Sha'ul said to him, Blessed are you
by the LORD: I have performed the mitzvah of the LORD.
15:14Shemu'el said, What means then this bleating of the sheep in my
ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?
15:15Sha'ul
said, They have brought them from the `Amaleki: for the people spared the
best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice to the LORD your G-d; and
the rest we have utterly destroyed.
15:16Then
Shemu'el said to Sha'ul, Stay, and I will tell you what the LORD has said
to me this night. He said to him, Say on.
15:17Shemu'el
said, "Though you were little in your own sight, weren't you made the head
of the tribes of Yisra'el? the LORD anointed you king over Yisra'el;
15:18and the LORD sent you on a journey, and said, 'Go, and utterly
destroy the sinners the `Amaleki, and fight against them until they are
consumed.'
15:19Why then didn't you obey the voice of
the LORD, but flew on the spoil, and did that which was evil in the sight
of the LORD?"
15:20Sha'ul said to Shemu'el, Yes, I
have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and have gone the way which the LORD
sent me, and have brought Agag the king of `Amalek, and have utterly
destroyed the `Amaleki. 15:21But the people
took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the devoted things, to
sacrifice to the LORD your G-d in Gilgal.
15:22Shemu'el
said, Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as
in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than
sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.
15:23For
rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as idolatry and
terafim. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has also
rejected you from being king. 15:24Sha'ul said to
Shemu'el, I have sinned; for I have transgressed the
mitzvah of the LORD, and your words, because I feared the people, and
obeyed their voice. 15:25Now therefore,
please pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD.
15:26Shemu'el said to Sha'ul, I will not return with you; for you have
rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD has rejected you from being
king over Yisra'el. 15:27As Shemu'el
turned about to go away, Sha'ul laid hold on the skirt of his robe,
and it tore.
15:28Shemu'el said to him, the LORD has
torn the kingdom of Yisra'el from you this day, and has given it to a
neighbor of yours who is better than you.
15:29Also
the Strength of Yisra'el will not lie nor repent; for he is not a man,
that he should repent. 15:30Then he said, I
have sinned: yet honor me now, Please, before the elders of my people, and
before Yisra'el, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD your
G-d. 15:31So Shemu'el turned again after Sha'ul; and Sha'ul worshiped the
LORD. 15:32Then said Shemu'el, Bring you here to me Agag the king of the `Amaleki.
Agag came to him cheerfully. Agag said, Surely the bitterness of death is
past. 15:33Shemu'el said, As your sword has made women childless, so shall
your mother be childless among women. Shemu'el hewed Agag in pieces before
the LORD in Gilgal. 15:34Then Shemu'el
went to Ramah; and Sha'ul went up to his house to Gevah of Sha'ul.
15:35Shemu'el came no more to see Sha'ul until the day of his death;
for Shemu'el mourned for Sha'ul: and the LORD repented that he had made
Sha'ul king over Yisra'el.
16:1The LORD said to Shemu'el, How long will you mourn for Sha'ul,
seeing I have rejected him from being king over Yisra'el? fill your horn
with oil, and go: I will send you to Yishai the Beit-Hallachmite; for I
have provided me a king among his sons.
16:2Shemu'el
said, How can I go? if Sha'ul hear it, he will kill me. The LORD said,
Take a heifer with you, and say, I am come to sacrifice to the LORD.
16:3Call Yishai to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall
do: and you shall anoint to me him whom I name to you.
16:4Shemu'el did that which the LORD spoke, and came to Beit-Lechem.
The elders of the city came to meet him trembling, and said, Come you
peaceably?
16:5He said, Peaceably; I am come to
sacrifice to the LORD: sanctify yourselves, and come with me to the
sacrifice. He sanctified Yishai and his sons, and called them to the
sacrifice.
16:6It happened, when they had come, that
he looked at Eli'av, and said, Surely the LORD's anointed is before him.
16:7But the LORD said to Shemu'el, "Don't look on his face, or on the
height of his stature; because I have rejected him: for the LORD sees
not as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD
looks at the heart." 16:8Then Yishai
called Avinadav, and made him pass before Shemu'el. He said, Neither has
the LORD chosen this. 16:9Then Yishai made
Shammah to pass by. He said, Neither has the LORD chosen this.
16:10Yishai made seven of his sons to pass before Shemu'el. Shemu'el
said to Yishai, the LORD has not chosen these.
16:11Shemu'el
said to Yishai, Are here all your children? He said, There remains yet the
youngest, and, behold, he is keeping the sheep. Shemu'el said to Yishai,
Send and get him; for we will not sit down until he come here.
16:12He sent, and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and withal of a
beautiful face, and goodly to look on. The LORD said, Arise, anoint him;
for this is he.
16:13Then Shemu'el took the horn of
oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brothers: and the Spirit of the
LORD came mightily on David from that day forward. So Shemu'el rose up,
and went to Ramah. 16:14Now the Spirit
of the LORD departed from Sha'ul, and an evil spirit from the LORD
troubled him.
16:15Sha'ul's servants said to him,
See now, an evil spirit from G-d troubles you.
16:16Let
our lord now command your servants who are before you, to seek out a man
who is a skillful player on the harp: and it shall happen, when the evil
spirit from G-d is on you, that he shall play with his hand, and you shall
be well.
16:17Sha'ul said to his servants, Provide
me now a man who can play well, and bring him to me.
16:18Then answered one of the young men, and said, Behold, I have seen
a son of Yishai the Beit-Hallachmite, who is skillful in playing, and a
mighty man of valor, and a man of war, and prudent in speech, and a comely
person; and the LORD is with him. 16:19Therefore Sha'ul
sent messengers to Yishai, and said, Send me David your son, who is with
the sheep.
16:20Yishai took a donkey loaded with
bread, and a bottle of wine, and a kid, and sent them by David his son to
Sha'ul. 16:21David came to Sha'ul, and stood before him: and he loved him
greatly; and he became his armor bearer.
16:22Sha'ul
sent to Yishai, saying, Please let David stand before me; for he has found
favor in my sight. 16:23It happened,
when the evil spirit from G-d was on Sha'ul, that David took the
harp, and played with his hand: so Sha'ul was refreshed, and was well, and
the evil spirit departed from him.
17:1Now the Pelishtim gathered together their armies to battle; and
they were gathered together at Sokho, which belongs to Yehudah, and
encamped between Sokho and `Azeka, in Efes-Dammim.
17:2Sha'ul
and the men of Yisra'el were gathered together, and encamped in the valley
of Elah, and set the battle in array against the Pelishtim.
17:3The Pelishtim stood on the mountain on the one side, and Yisra'el
stood on the mountain on the other side: and there was a valley between
them. 17:4There went out a champion out of the camp of the Pelishtim, named
Golyat, of Gat, whose height was six cubits and a span.
17:5He had a helmet of brass on his head, and he was clad with a coat
of mail; and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of brass.
17:6He had brass shin-armor on his legs, and a javelin of brass
between his shoulders. 17:7The staff of his
spear was like a weaver's beam; and his spear's head weighed six
hundred shekels of iron: and his shield-bearer went before him.
17:8He stood and cried to the armies of Yisra'el, and said to them,
Why are you come out to set your battle in array? am I not a Pelishti, and
you servants to Sha'ul? choose you a man for you, and let him come down to
me. 17:9If he be able to fight with me, and kill me, then will we be your
servants; but if I prevail against him, and kill him, then shall you be
our servants, and serve us. 17:10The Pelishti
said, I defy the armies of Yisra'el this day; give me a man, that we may
fight together.
17:11When Sha'ul and all Yisra'el
heard those words of the Pelishti, they were dismayed, and greatly afraid.
17:12Now David was the son of that Efratite of Beit-Lechem-Yehudah,
whose name was Yishai; and he had eight sons: and the man was an old man
in the days of Sha'ul, stricken in years among men.
17:13The three eldest sons of Yishai had gone after Sha'ul to the
battle: and the names of his three sons who went to the battle were Eli'av
the firstborn, and next to him Avinadav, and the third Shammah.
17:14David was the youngest; and the three eldest followed Sha'ul.
17:15Now David went back and forth from Sha'ul to feed his father's
sheep at Beit-Lechem. 17:16The Pelishti
drew near morning and evening, and presented himself forty days.
17:17Yishai said to David his son, Take now for your brothers an efah
of this parched grain, and these ten loaves, and carry them quickly
to the camp to your brothers; 17:18and bring these
ten cheeses to the captain of their thousand, and look how your brothers
fare, and take their pledge. 17:19Now Sha'ul, and
they, and all the men of Yisra'el, were in the valley of Elah, fighting
with the Pelishtim. 17:20David rose up
early in the morning, and left the sheep with a keeper, and took, and
went, as Yishai had commanded him; and he came to the place of the wagons,
as the host which was going forth to the fight shouted for the battle.
17:21Yisra'el and the Pelishtim put the battle in array, army against
army. 17:22David left his baggage in the hand of the keeper of the baggage,
and ran to the army, and came and greeted his brothers.
17:23As he talked with them, behold, there came up the champion, the
Pelishti of Gat, Golyat by name, out of the ranks of the Pelishtim, and
spoke according to the same words: and David heard them.
17:24All the men of Yisra'el, when they saw the man, fled from him,
and were sore afraid. 17:25The men of
Yisra'el said, Have you seen this man who is come up? surely to defy
Yisra'el is he come up: and it shall be, that the man who kills him, the
king will enrich him with great riches, and will give him his daughter,
and make his father's house free in Yisra'el.
17:26David
spoke to the men who stood by him, saying, What shall be done to the man
who kills this Pelishti, and takes away the reproach from Yisra'el? for
who is this uncircumcised Pelishti, that he should defy the armies of the
living G-d?
17:27The people answered him after this
manner, saying, So shall it be done to the man who kills him.
17:28Eli'av his eldest brother heard when he spoke to the men; and
Eli'av's anger was kindled against David, and he said, Why are you come
down? and with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I
know your pride, and the naughtiness of your heart; for you have come down
that you might see the battle. 17:29David said, What
have I now done? Is there not a cause?
17:30He
turned away from him toward another, and spoke after the same manner: and
the people answered him again after the former manner.
17:31When the words were heard which David spoke, they rehearsed them
before Sha'ul; and he sent for him.
17:32David
said to Sha'ul, Let no man's heart fail because of him; your servant will
go and fight with this Pelishti. 17:33Sha'ul said to
David, You are not able to go against this Pelishti to fight with him; for
you are but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.
17:34David said to Sha'ul, Your servant was keeping his father's
sheep; and when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb out of the
flock, 17:35I went out after him, and struck him, and delivered it out of his
mouth; and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and struck
him, and killed him. 17:36Your servant
struck both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Pelishti shall
be as one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living G-d.
17:37David said, the LORD who delivered me out of the paw of the lion,
and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this
Pelishti. Sha'ul said to David, Go, and the LORD shall be with you.
17:38Sha'ul clad David with his clothing, and he put a helmet of brass
on his head, and he clad him with a coat of mail.
17:39David
girded his sword on his clothing, and he tried to go; for he had not
proved it. David said to Sha'ul, I can't go with these; for I have not
proved them. David put them off him.
17:40He
took his staff in his hand, and chose him five smooth stones out of the
brook, and put them in the shepherd's bag which he had, even in his
wallet; and his sling was in his hand: and he drew near to the Pelishti.
17:41The Pelishti came on and drew near to David; and the man who bore
the shield went before him. 17:42When the
Pelishti looked about, and saw David, he disdained him; for he was but a
youth, and ruddy, and withal of a fair face.
17:43The
Pelishti said to David, Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks? The
Pelishti cursed David by his gods.
17:44The
Pelishti said to David, Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the
birds of the sky, and to the animals of the field.
17:45Then said David to the Pelishti, You come to me with a sword, and
with a spear, and with a javelin: but I come to you in the name of the
LORD of hosts, the G-d of the armies of Yisra'el, whom you have defied.
17:46This day will the LORD deliver you into my hand; and I will
strike you, and take your head from off you; and I will give the dead
bodies of the host of the Pelishtim this day to the birds of the sky, and
to the wild animals of the earth; that all the earth may know that there
is a G-d in Yisra'el, 17:47and that all
this assembly may know that the LORD doesn't save with sword and spear:
for the battle is the LORD's, and he will give you into our hand.
17:48It happened, when the Pelishti arose, and came and drew near to
meet David, that David hurried, and ran toward the army to meet the
Pelishti.
17:49David put his hand in his bag, and
took there a stone, and slang it, and struck the Pelishti in his forehead;
and the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the
earth. 17:50So David prevailed over the Pelishti with a sling and with a
stone, and struck the Pelishti, and killed him; but there was no sword in
the hand of David. 17:51Then David ran,
and stood over the Pelishti, and took his sword, and drew it out of the
sheath of it, and killed him, and cut off his head therewith. When the
Pelishtim saw that their champion was dead, they fled.
17:52The men of Yisra'el and of Yehudah arose, and shouted, and
pursued the Pelishtim, until you come to Gai, and to the gates of `Ekron.
The wounded of the Pelishtim fell down by the way to Sha`arayim, even to
Gat, and to `Ekron. 17:53The children of
Yisra'el returned from chasing after the Pelishtim, and they plundered
their camp.
17:54David took the head of the Pelishti,
and brought it to Yerushalayim; but he put his armor in his tent.
17:55When Sha'ul saw David go forth against the Pelishti, he said to
Aviner, the captain of the host, Aviner, whose son is this youth? Aviner
said, As your soul lives, O king, I can't tell.
17:56The
king said, "Inquire whose son the young man is!"
17:57As David returned from the slaughter of the Pelishti, Aviner took
him, and brought him before Sha'ul with the head of the Pelishti in his
hand. 17:58Sha'ul said to him, Whose son are you, you young man? David
answered, I am the son of your servant Yishai the Beit-Hallachmite.
18:1It happened, when he had made an end of speaking to Sha'ul, that
the soul of Yonatan was knit with the soul of David, and Yonatan loved him
as his own soul.
18:2Sha'ul took him that day, and
would let him go no more home to his father's house.
18:3Then Yonatan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as
his own soul.
18:4Yonatan stripped himself of the robe
that was on him, and gave it to David, and his clothing, even to his
sword, and to his bow, and to his sash.
18:5David
went out wherever Sha'ul sent him, and behaved himself wisely: and
Sha'ul set him over the men of war, and it was good in the sight of all
the people, and also in the sight of Sha'ul's servants.
18:6It happened as they came, when David returned from the slaughter
of the Pelishti, that the women came out of all the cities of Yisra'el,
singing and dancing, to meet king Sha'ul, with timbrels, with joy, and
with instruments of music. 18:7The women sang
one to another as they played, and said, Sha'ul has slain his thousands,
David his ten thousands. 18:8Sha'ul was very
angry, and this saying displeased him; and he said, They have ascribed to
David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed but thousands: and what
can he have more but the kingdom? 18:9Sha'ul eyed David
from that day and forward. 18:10It happened on
the next day, that an evil spirit from G-d came mightily on Sha'ul, and he
prophesied in the midst of the house: and David played with his hand, as
he did day by day. Sha'ul had his spear in his hand;
18:11and Sha'ul cast the spear; for he said, I will strike David even
to the wall. David avoided out of his presence twice.
18:12Sha'ul was afraid of David, because the LORD was with him, and
was departed from Sha'ul. 18:13Therefore Sha'ul
removed him from him, and made him his captain over a thousand; and he
went out and came in before the people.
18:14David
behaved himself wisely in all his ways; and the LORD was with him.
18:15When Sha'ul saw that he behaved himself very wisely, he stood in
awe of him.
18:16But all Yisra'el and Yehudah loved
David; for he went out and came in before them.
18:17Sha'ul
said to David, Behold, my elder daughter Merav, her will I give you as
wife: only be valiant for me, and fight the LORD's battles. For Sha'ul
said, Don't let my hand be on him, but let the hand of the Pelishtim be on
him. 18:18David said to Sha'ul, Who am I, and what is my life, or my
father's family in Yisra'el, that I should be son-in-law to the king?
18:19But it happened at the time when Merav, Sha'ul's daughter, should
have been given to David, that she was given to `Adri'el the Mecholati as
wife. 18:20Mikhal, Sha'ul's daughter, loved David: and they told Sha'ul, and
the thing pleased him. 18:21Sha'ul said, I
will give her to him, that she may be a snare to him, and that the hand of
the Pelishtim may be against him. Therefore Sha'ul said to David, You
shall this day be my son-in-law a second time.
18:22Sha'ul
commanded his servants, saying, Commune with David secretly, and
say, Behold, the king has delight in you, and all his servants love you:
now therefore be the king's son-in-law.
18:23Sha'ul's
servants spoke those words in the ears of David. David said, Seems it to
you a light thing to be the king's son-in-law, seeing that I am a poor
man, and lightly esteemed? 18:24The servants of
Sha'ul told him, saying, On this manner spoke David.
18:25Sha'ul said, Thus shall you tell David, The king desires no dowry
except one hundred foreskins of the Pelishtim, to be avenged of the king's
enemies. Now Sha'ul thought to make David fall by the hand of the
Pelishtim.
18:26When his servants told David these
words, it pleased David well to be the king's son-in-law. The days were
not expired;
18:27and David arose and went, he and his
men, and killed of the Pelishtim two hundred men; and David brought their
foreskins, and they gave them in full number to the king, that he might be
the king's son-in-law. Sha'ul gave him Mikhal his daughter as wife.
18:28Sha'ul saw and knew that the LORD was with David; and Mikhal,
Sha'ul's daughter, loved him. 18:29Sha'ul was yet
the more afraid of David; and Sha'ul was David's enemy continually.
18:30Then the princes of the Pelishtim went forth: and it happened, as
often as they went forth, that David behaved himself more wisely than all
the servants of Sha'ul; so that his name was much set by.
19:1Sha'ul spoke to Yonatan his son, and to all his servants, that
they should kill David. But Yonatan, Sha'ul's son, delighted much in
David. 19:2Yonatan told David, saying, Sha'ul my father seeks to kill you:
now therefore, please take care of yourself in the morning, and live in a
secret place, and hide yourself: 19:3and I will go out
and stand beside my father in the field where you are, and I will commune
with my father of you; and if I see anything, I will tell you.
19:4Yonatan spoke good of David to Sha'ul his father, and said to
him, Don't let the king sin against his servant, against David; because he
has not sinned against you, and because his works have been very good
toward you:
19:5for he put his life in his hand, and
struck the Pelishti, and the LORD worked a great victory for all Yisra'el:
you saw it, and did rejoice; why then will you sin against innocent blood,
to kill David without a cause? 19:6Sha'ul listened
to the voice of Yonatan: and Sha'ul swore, As the LORD lives, he shall not
be put to death.
19:7Yonatan called David, and Yonatan
showed him all those things. Yonatan brought David to Sha'ul, and he was
in his presence, as before. 19:8There was war
again: and David went out, and fought with the Pelishtim, and killed them
with a great slaughter; and they fled before him.
19:9An
evil spirit from the LORD was on Sha'ul, as he sat in his house with his
spear in his hand; and David was playing with his hand.
19:10Sha'ul sought to strike David even to the wall with the spear;
but he slipped away out of Sha'ul's presence, and he struck the spear into
the wall: and David fled, and escaped that night.
19:11Sha'ul
sent messengers to David's house, to watch him, and to kill him in the
morning: and Mikhal, David's wife, told him, saying, If you don't save
your life tonight, tomorrow you will be slain.
19:12So
Mikhal let David down through the window: and he went, and fled, and
escaped.
19:13Mikhal took the terafim, and laid it
in the bed, and put a pillow of goats' hair at the head of it, and
covered it with the clothes. 19:14When Sha'ul sent
messengers to take David, she said, He is sick.
19:15Sha'ul
sent the messengers to see David, saying, Bring him up to me in the bed,
that I may kill him. 19:16When the
messengers came in, behold, the terafim was in the bed, with the pillow of
goats' hair at the head of it.
19:17Sha'ul
said to Mikhal, Why have you deceived me thus, and let my enemy go, so
that he is escaped? Mikhal answered Sha'ul, He said to me, Let me go; why
should I kill you? 19:18Now David fled,
and escaped, and came to Shemu'el to Ramah, and told him all that Sha'ul
had done to him. He and Shemu'el went and lived in Nayot.
19:19It was told Sha'ul, saying, Behold, David is at Nayot in Ramah.
19:20Sha'ul sent messengers to take David: and when they saw the
company of the prophets prophesying, and Shemu'el standing as head over
them, the Spirit of G-d came on the messengers of Sha'ul, and they also
prophesied.
19:21When it was told Sha'ul, he sent
other messengers, and they also prophesied. Sha'ul sent messengers again
the third time, and they also prophesied.
19:22Then
went he also to Ramah, and came to the great well that is in Sekhu: and he
asked and said, Where are Shemu'el and David? One said, Behold, they are
at Nayot in Ramah. 19:23He went there to
Nayot in Ramah: and the Spirit of G-d came on him also, and he went on,
and prophesied, until he came to Nayot in Ramah.
19:24He
also stripped off his clothes, and he also prophesied before Shemu'el, and
lay down naked all that day and all that night. Therefore they say, "Is
Sha'ul also among the prophets?"
20:1David fled from Nayot in Ramah, and came and said before Yonatan,
"What have I done? What is my iniquity?" and "What is my sin before your
father, that he seeks my life?"
20:2He said to him, "Far from it; you shall not die: behold, my
father does nothing either great or small, but that he discloses it to me;
and why should my father hide this thing from me? It is not so."
20:3David swore moreover, and said, Your father knows well that I
have found favor in your eyes; and he says, Don't let Yonatan know this,
lest he be grieved: but truly as the LORD lives, and as your soul lives,
there is but a step between me and death.
20:4Then
said Yonatan to David, Whatever your soul desires, I will even do it for
you. 20:5David said to Yonatan, Behold, tomorrow is the new moon, and I
should not fail to sit with the king at meat: but let me go, that I may
hide myself in the field to the third day at evening.
20:6If your father miss me at all, then say, David earnestly asked
leave of me that he might run to Beit-Lechem his city; for it is the
yearly sacrifice there for all the family.
20:7If
he says, 'It is well;' your servant shall have shalom: but if he be angry,
then know that evil is determined by him.
20:8Therefore
deal kindly with your servant; for you have brought your servant into a
covenant of the LORD with you: but if there be in me iniquity, kill me
yourself; for why should you bring me to your father?
20:9Yonatan said, Far be it from you; for if I should at all know
that evil were determined by my father to come on you, then wouldn't I
tell you that?
20:10Then said David to Yonatan, Who
shall tell me if perchance your father answer you roughly?
20:11Yonatan said to David, Come, and let us go out into the field.
They went out both of them into the field.
20:12Yonatan
said to David, the LORD, the G-d of Yisra'el, be witness: when I
have sounded my father about this time tomorrow, or the third day,
behold, if there be good toward David, shall I not then send to you, and
disclose it to you? 20:13The LORD do so
to Yonatan, and more also, should it please my father to do you evil, if I
don't disclose it to you, and send you away, that you may go in shalom:
and the LORD be with you, as he has been with my father.
20:14You shall not only while yet I live show me the loving kindness
of the LORD, that I not die; 20:15but also you
shall not cut off your kindness from my house forever; no, not when the
LORD has cut off the enemies of David everyone from the surface of the
earth. 20:16So Yonatan made a covenant with the house of David, saying,
the LORD will require it at the hand of David's enemies.
20:17Yonatan caused David to swear again, for the love that he had to
him; for he loved him as he loved his own soul.
20:18Then
Yonatan said to him, Tomorrow is the new moon: and you will be missed,
because your seat will be empty. 20:19When you have
stayed three days, you shall go down quickly, and come to the place where
you did hide yourself when the business was in hand, and shall remain by
the stone Ezel.
20:20I will shoot three arrows on the
side of it, as though I shot at a mark.
20:21Behold,
I will send the boy, saying, Go, find the arrows. If I tell the
boy, Behold, the arrows are on this side of you; take them, and come; for
there is shalom to you and no hurt, as the LORD lives.
20:22But if I say thus to the boy, Behold, the arrows are beyond you;
go your way; for the LORD has sent you away.
20:23As
touching the matter which you and I have spoken of, behold, the LORD is
between you and me forever. 20:24So David hid
himself in the field: and when the new moon was come, the king sat him
down to eat food.
20:25The king sat on his seat, as at
other times, even on the seat by the wall; and Yonatan stood up, and
Aviner sat by Sha'ul's side: but David's place was empty.
20:26Nevertheless Sha'ul didn't say anything that day: for he thought,
Something has happened to him. He is not clean. Surely he is not clean.
20:27It happened on the next day after the new moon, which was
the second day, that David's place was empty: and Sha'ul said to
Yonatan his son, Why doesn't the son of Yishai come to meat, neither
yesterday, nor today? 20:28Yonatan answered
Sha'ul, David earnestly asked leave of me to go to Beit-Lechem:
20:29and he said, Please let me go, for our family has a sacrifice in
the city; and my brother, he has commanded me to be there: and now,
if I have found favor in your eyes, let me get away, I pray you, and see
my brothers. Therefore he is not come to the king's table.
20:30Then Sha'ul's anger was kindled against Yonatan, and he said to
him, You son of a perverse rebellious woman, don't I know that you have
chosen the son of Yishai to your own shame, and to the shame of your
mother's nakedness? 20:31For as long as
the son of Yishai lives on the earth, you shall not be established, nor
your kingdom. Therefore now send and bring him to me, for he shall surely
die.
20:32Yonatan answered Sha'ul his father, and said to him, "Why should
he be put to death? What has he done?"
20:33Sha'ul cast his spear at him to strike him. By this Yonatan knew
that his father was determined to put David to death.
20:34So Yonatan arose from the table in fierce anger, and ate no food
the second day of the month; for he was grieved for David, because his
father had done him shame. 20:35It happened in
the morning, that Yonatan went out into the field at the time appointed
with David, and a little boy with him.
20:36He
said to his boy, Run, find now the arrows which I shoot. As the boy ran,
he shot an arrow beyond him. 20:37When the boy was
come to the place of the arrow which Yonatan had shot, Yonatan cried after
the boy, and said, Isn't the arrow beyond you?
20:38Yonatan
cried after the boy, Go fast! Hurry! Don't delay! Yonatan's boy gathered
up the arrows, and came to his master.
20:39But
the boy didn't know anything: only Yonatan and David knew the matter.
20:40Yonatan gave his weapons to his boy, and said to him, Go, carry
them to the city.
20:41As soon as the boy was gone,
David arose out of a place toward the South, and fell on his face
to the ground, and bowed himself three times: and they kissed one another,
and wept one with another, until David exceeded.
20:42Yonatan
said to David, Go in shalom, because we have sworn both of us in the name
of the LORD, saying, the LORD shall be between me and you, and between my
seed and your seed, forever. He arose and departed: and Yonatan went into
the city.
21:1Then came David to Nov to Achimelekh the kohen:
and Achimelekh came to meet David trembling, and said to him, Why are you
alone, and no man with you? 21:2David said to
Achimelekh the kohen, The king has commanded me a
business, and has said to me, Let no man know anything of the business
about which I send you, and what I have commanded you: and I have
appointed the young men to such and such a place.
21:3Now
therefore what is under your hand? give me five loaves of bread in my
hand, or whatever there is present.
21:4The
kohen answered David, and said, There is no common
bread under my hand, but there is holy bread; if only the young men have
kept themselves from women. 21:5David answered
the kohen, and said to him, Of a truth women have been
kept from us about these three days; when I came out, the vessels of the
young men were holy, though it was but a common journey; how much more
then today shall their vessels be holy?
21:6So
the kohen gave him holy bread; for there was no
bread there but the show bread, that was taken from before the LORD, to
put hot bread in the day when it was taken away.
21:7Now
a certain man of the servants of Sha'ul was there that day, detained
before the LORD; and his name was Do'eg the Edomite, the best of the
herdsmen who belonged to Sha'ul. 21:8David said to
Achimelekh, Isn't there here under your hand spear or sword? for I have
neither brought my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king's
business required haste. 21:9The
kohen said, The sword of Golyat the Pelishti, whom you
killed in the valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind
the efod: if you will take that, take it; for there is no other except
that here. David said, There is none like that; give it me.
21:10David arose, and fled that day for fear of Sha'ul, and went to
Akhish the king of Gat. 21:11The servants of
Akhish said to him, "Isn't this David the king of the land? Didn't they
sing one to another about him in dances, saying, 'Sha'ul has slain his
thousands, David his ten thousands?'"
21:12David
laid up these words in his heart, and was very afraid of Akhish the king
of Gat. 21:13He changed his behavior before them, and feigned himself mad in
their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle
fall down on his beard. 21:14Then said Akhish
to his servants, Look, you see the man is mad; why then have you brought
him to me?
21:15Do I lack madmen, that you have
brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? shall this fellow
come into my house?
22:1David therefore departed there, and escaped to the cave of `Adullam:
and when his brothers and all his father's house heard it, they went down
there to him.
22:2Everyone who was in distress, and
everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented, gathered
themselves to him; and he became captain over them: and there were with
him about four hundred men. 22:3David went there
to Mitzpeh of Mo'av: and he said to the king of Mo'av, Please let my
father and my mother come forth, and be with you, until I know what
G-d will do for me. 22:4He brought them
before the king of Mo'av: and they lived with him all the while that David
was in the stronghold. 22:5The prophet Gad
said to David, Don't stay in the stronghold; depart, and get you into the
land of Yehudah. Then David departed, and came into the forest of Cheret.
22:6Sha'ul heard that David was discovered, and the men who were with
him: now Sha'ul was sitting in Gevah, under the tamarisk tree in Ramah,
with his spear in his hand, and all his servants were standing about him.
22:7Sha'ul said to his servants who stood about him, Hear now, you
Binyamini; will the son of Yishai give everyone of you fields and
vineyards, will he make you all captains of thousands and captains of
hundreds, 22:8that all of you have conspired against me, and there is none who
discloses to me when my son makes a league with the son of Yishai, and
there is none of you who is sorry for me, or discloses to me that my son
has stirred up my servant against me, to lie in wait, as at this day?
22:9Then answered Do'eg the Edomite, who stood by the servants of
Sha'ul, and said, I saw the son of Yishai coming to Nov, to Achimelekh the
son of Achituv.
22:10He inquired of the LORD for him,
and gave him food, and gave him the sword of Golyat the Pelishti.
22:11Then the king sent to call Achimelekh the kohen,
the son of Achituv, and all his father's house, the kohanim
who were in Nov: and they came all of them to the king.
22:12Sha'ul said, Hear now, you son of Achituv. He answered, Here I
am, my lord.
22:13Sha'ul said to him, Why have you
conspired against me, you and the son of Yishai, in that you have given
him bread, and a sword, and have inquired of G-d for him, that he should
rise against me, to lie in wait, as at this day?
22:14Then
Achimelekh answered the king, and said, Who among all your servants is so
faithful as David, who is the king's son-in-law, and is taken into your
council, and is honorable in your house?
22:15Have
I today begun to inquire of G-d for him? be it far from me: don't let the
king impute anything to his servant, nor to all the house of my father;
for your servant knows nothing of all this, less or more.
22:16The king said, You shall surely die, Achimelekh, you, and all
your father's house. 22:17The king said to
the guard who stood about him, Turn, and kill the kohanim
of the LORD; because their hand also is with David, and because they knew
that he fled, and didn't disclose it to me. But the servants of the king
wouldn't put forth their hand to fall on the kohanim of
the LORD.
22:18The king said to Do'eg, Turn you, and
fall on the kohanim. Do'eg the Edomite turned, and he
fell on the kohanim, and he killed on that day
eighty-five persons who wore a linen efod.
22:19Nov,
the city of the kohanim, struck he with the edge of the
sword, both men and women, children and nursing babies, and oxen and
donkeys and sheep, with the edge of the sword.
22:20One
of the sons of Achimelekh, the son of Achituv, named Avyatar, escaped, and
fled after David.
22:21Avyatar told David that Sha'ul
had slain the LORD's kohanim.
22:22David
said to Avyatar, I knew on that day, when Do'eg the Edomite was there,
that he would surely tell Sha'ul: I have occasioned the death of
all the persons of your father's house.
22:23Abide
you with me, don't be afraid; for he who seeks my life seeks your life:
for with me you shall be in safeguard.
23:1They told David, saying, Behold, the Pelishtim are fighting
against Ke`ilah, and are robbing the threshing floors.
23:2Therefore David inquired of the LORD, saying, Shall I go and
strike these Pelishtim? the LORD said to David, Go, and strike the
Pelishtim, and save Ke`ilah. 23:3David's men said
to him, Behold, we are afraid here in Yehudah: how much more then if we go
to Ke`ilah against the armies of the Pelishtim?
23:4Then
David inquired of the LORD yet again. The LORD answered him, and said,
Arise, go down to Ke`ilah; for I will deliver the Pelishtim into your
hand. 23:5David and his men went to Ke`ilah, and fought with the Pelishtim,
and brought away their cattle, and killed them with a great slaughter. So
David saved the inhabitants of Ke`ilah.
23:6It
happened, when Avyatar the son of Achimelekh fled to David to Ke`ilah,
that he came down with an efod in his hand.
23:7It
was told Sha'ul that David was come to Ke`ilah. Sha'ul said, G-d has
delivered him into my hand; for he is shut in, by entering into a town
that has gates and bars. 23:8Sha'ul summoned
all the people to war, to go down to Ke`ilah, to besiege David and his
men. 23:9David knew that Sha'ul was devising mischief against him; and he
said to Avyatar the kohen, Bring here the efod.
23:10Then said David, O LORD, the G-d of Yisra'el, your servant has
surely heard that Sha'ul seeks to come to Ke`ilah, to destroy the city for
my sake.
23:11Will the men of Ke`ilah deliver me up
into his hand? will Sha'ul come down, as your servant has heard? LORD, the
G-d of Yisra'el, I beg you, tell your servant. The LORD said, He will come
down. 23:12Then said David, Will the men of Ke`ilah deliver up to me and my
men into the hand of Sha'ul? the LORD said, They will deliver you up.
23:13Then David and his men, who were about six hundred, arose and
departed out of Ke`ilah, and went wherever they could go. It was told
Sha'ul that David was escaped from Ke`ilah; and he gave up going there.
23:14David abode in the wilderness in the strongholds, and remained in
the hill-country in the wilderness of Zif. Sha'ul sought him every day,
but G-d didn't deliver him into his hand.
23:15David
saw that Sha'ul had come out to seek his life: and David was in the
wilderness of Zif in the wood. 23:16Yonatan,
Sha'ul's son, arose, and went to David into the wood, and strengthened his
hand in G-d.
23:17He said to him, Don't be afraid; for
the hand of Sha'ul my father shall not find you; and you shall be king
over Yisra'el, and I shall be next to you; and that also Sha'ul my father
knows. 23:18They two made a covenant before the LORD: and David abode in the
wood, and Yonatan went to his house.
23:19Then
came up the Zifim to Sha'ul to Gevah, saying, Doesn't David hide himself
with us in the strongholds in the wood, in the hill of Chakhilah, which is
on the south of the desert? 23:20Now therefore, O
king, come down, according to all the desire of your soul to come down;
and our part shall be to deliver him up into the king's hand.
23:21Sha'ul said, Blessed be you of the LORD; for you have had
compassion on me.
23:22Please go make yet more sure,
and know and see his place where his haunt is, and who has seen him
there; for it is told me that he deals very subtly.
23:23See therefore, and take knowledge of all the lurking-places where
he hides himself, and come you again to me of a certainty, and I will go
with you: and it shall happen, if he be in the land, that I will search
him out among all the thousands of Yehudah.
23:24They
arose, and went to Zif before Sha'ul: but David and his men were in the
wilderness of Ma`on, in the `Aravah on the south of the desert.
23:25Sha'ul and his men went to seek him. They told David: why he came
down to the rock, and abode in the wilderness of Ma`on. When Sha'ul heard
that, he pursued after David in the wilderness of Ma`on.
23:26Sha'ul went on this side of the mountain, and David and his men
on that side of the mountain: and David made haste to get away for fear of
Sha'ul; for Sha'ul and his men compassed David and his men round about to
take them.
23:27But there came a messenger to Sha'ul,
saying, Haste you, and come; for the Pelishtim have made a raid on the
land. 23:28So Sha'ul returned from pursuing after David, and went against
the Pelishtim: therefore they called that place Sela-Hammachlekot.
23:29David went up from there, and lived in the strongholds of `En-Gedi.
24:1It happened, when Sha'ul was returned from following the
Pelishtim, that it was told him, saying, Behold, David is in the
wilderness of `En-Gedi. 24:2Then Sha'ul took
three thousand chosen men out of all Yisra'el, and went to seek David and
his men on the rocks of the wild goats.
24:3He
came to the sheep pens by the way, where was a cave; and Sha'ul went in to
cover his feet. Now David and his men were abiding in the innermost parts
of the cave.
24:4The men of David said to him, Behold,
the day of which the LORD said to you, Behold, I will deliver your enemy
into your hand, and you shall do to him as it shall seem good to you. Then
David arose, and cut off the skirt of Sha'ul's robe secretly.
24:5It happened afterward, that David's heart struck him, because he
had cut off Sha'ul's skirt. 24:6He said to his
men, the LORD forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the LORD's
anointed, to put forth my hand against him, seeing he is the LORD's
anointed. 24:7So David checked his men with these words, and didn't allow them
to rise against Sha'ul. Sha'ul rose up out of the cave, and went on his
way. 24:8David also arose afterward, and went out of the cave, and cried
after Sha'ul, saying, My lord the king. When Sha'ul looked behind him,
David bowed with his face to the earth, and did obeisance.
24:9David said to Sha'ul, Why listen you to men's words, saying,
Behold, David seeks your hurt? 24:10Behold, this day
your eyes have seen how that the LORD had delivered you today into my hand
in the cave: and some bade me kill you; but my eye spared you; and
I said, I will not put forth my hand against my lord; for he is the LORD's
anointed.
24:11Moreover, my father, behold, yes, see
the skirt of your robe in my hand; for in that I cut off the skirt of your
robe, and didn't kill you, know you and see that there is neither evil nor
disobedience in my hand, and I have not sinned against you, though you
hunt after my life to take it. 24:12The LORD judge
between me and you, and the LORD avenge me of you; but my hand shall not
be on you.
24:13As says the proverb of the ancients,
Out of the wicked comes forth wickedness; but my hand shall not be on you.
24:14After whom is the king of Yisra'el come out? after whom do you
pursue? after a dead dog, after a flea.
24:15The
LORD therefore be judge, and give sentence between me and you, and see,
and plead my cause, and deliver me out of your hand.
24:16It came to pass, when David had made an end of speaking these
words to Sha'ul, that Sha'ul said, Is this your voice, my son David?
Sha'ul lifted up his voice, and wept.
24:17He
said to David, You are more righteous than I; for you have rendered to me
good, whereas I have rendered to you evil.
24:18You
have declared this day how that you have dealt well with me, because when
the LORD had delivered me up into your hand, you didn't kill me.
24:19For if a man finds his enemy, will he let him go away unharmed?
Therefore may the LORD reward you good for that which you have done to me
this day.
24:20Now, behold, I know that you shall
surely be king, and that the kingdom of Yisra'el shall be established in
your hand.
24:21Swear now therefore to me by the
LORD, that you will not cut off my seed after me, and that you will not
destroy my name out of my father's house.
24:22David
swore to Sha'ul. Sha'ul went home; but David and his men got them up to
the stronghold.
25:1Shemu'el died; and all Yisra'el gathered themselves together, and
lamented him, and buried him in his house at Ramah. David arose, and went
down to the wilderness of Paran. 25:2There was a man
in Ma`on, whose possessions were in Karmel; and the man was very great,
and he had three thousand sheep, and a thousand goats: and he was shearing
his sheep in Karmel. 25:3Now the name of
the man was Naval; and the name of his wife Avigayil; and the woman was of
good understanding, and of a beautiful face: but the man was churlish and
evil in his doings; and he was of the house of Kalev.
25:4David heard in the wilderness that Naval was shearing his sheep.
25:5David sent ten young men, and David said to the young men, Go up
to Karmel, and go to Naval, and greet him in my name:
25:6and thus shall you tell him who lives in prosperity,
Shalom be to you, and shalom be to your house, and shalom be to all that
you have. 25:7Now I have heard that you have shearers: your shepherds have now
been with us, and we did them no hurt, neither was there anything missing
to them, all the while they were in Karmel.
25:8Ask
your young men, and they will tell you: therefore let the young men find
favor in your eyes; for we come in a good day. Please give whatever comes
to your hand, to your servants, and to your son David.
25:9When David's young men came, they spoke to Naval according to all
those words in the name of David, and ceased.
25:10Naval
answered David's servants, and said, Who is David? and who is the son of
Yishai? there are many servants now-a-days who break away every man from
his master.
25:11Shall I then take my bread, and my
water, and my meat that I have killed for my shearers, and give it to men
who I don't know where they come from?
25:12So
David's young men turned on their way, and went back, and came and told
him according to all these words. 25:13David said to
his men, Gird you on every man his sword. They girded on every man his
sword; and David also girded on his sword: and there went up after David
about four hundred men; and two hundred abode by the baggage.
25:14But one of the young men told Avigayil, Naval's wife, saying,
Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to Greet our master;
and he railed at them. 25:15But the men were
very good to us, and we were not hurt, neither missed we anything, as long
as we went with them, when we were in the fields:
25:16they
were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the while we were with
them keeping the sheep. 25:17Now therefore
know and consider what you will do; for evil is determined against our
master, and against all his house: for he is such a worthless fellow that
one can't speak to him. 25:18Then Avigayil
made haste, and took two hundred loaves, and two bottles of wine, and five
sheep ready dressed, and five measures of parched grain, and one hundred
clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on
donkeys.
25:19She said to her young men, Go on
before me; behold, I come after you. But she didn't tell her husband,
Naval. 25:20It was so, as she rode on her donkey, and came down by the covert
of the mountain, that behold, David and his men came down toward her; and
she met them.
25:21Now David had said, Surely in
vain have I kept all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that
nothing was missed of all that pertained to him: and he has returned me
evil for good.
25:22God do so to the enemies of
David, and more also, if I leave of all that belongs to him by the morning
light so much as one man-child. 25:23When Avigayil
saw David, she hurried, and alighted from her donkey, and fell before
David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground.
25:24She fell at his feet, and said, On me, my lord, on me be the
iniquity; and please let your handmaid speak in your ears. Hear the words
of your handmaid.
25:25Please don't let my lord regard
this worthless fellow, even Naval; for as his name is, so is he; Naval is
his name, and folly is with him: but I your handmaid didn't see the young
men of my lord, whom you did send.
25:26Now
therefore, my lord, as the LORD lives, and as your soul lives, seeing the
LORD has withheld you from blood guiltiness, and from avenging yourself
with your own hand, now therefore let your enemies, and those who seek
evil to my lord, be as Naval. 25:27Now this present
which your servant has brought to my lord, let it be given to the young
men who follow my lord. 25:28Please forgive
the trespass of your handmaid: for the LORD will certainly make my lord a
sure house, because my lord fights the battles of the LORD; and evil shall
not be found in you all your days.
25:29Though
men be risen up to pursue you, and to seek your soul, yet the soul of my
lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the LORD your G-d; and the
souls of your enemies, them shall he sling out, as from the hollow of a
sling. 25:30It shall come to pass, when the LORD shall have done to my lord
according to all the good that he has spoken concerning you, and shall
have appointed you prince over Yisra'el,
25:31that
this shall be no grief to you, nor offense of heart to my lord, either
that you have shed blood without cause, or that my lord has avenged
himself. When the LORD shall have dealt well with my lord, then remember
your handmaid.
25:32David said to Avigayil, Blessed
be the LORD, the G-d of Yisra'el, who sent you this day to meet me:
25:33and blessed be your discretion, and blessed be you, that have
kept me this day from blood guiltiness, and from avenging myself with my
own hand.
25:34For in very deed, as the LORD, the
G-d of Yisra'el, lives, who has withheld me from hurting you, except you
had hurried and come to meet me, surely there wouldn't have been left to
Naval by the morning light so much as one man-child.
25:35So David received of her hand that which she had brought him: and
he said to her, Go up in shalom to your house; behold, I have listened to
your voice, and have accepted your person.
25:36Avigayil
came to Naval; and, behold, he held a feast in his house, like the feast
of a king; and Naval's heart was merry within him, for he was very
drunken: therefore she told him nothing, less or more, until the morning
light. 25:37It happened in the morning, when the wine was gone out of Naval,
that his wife told him these things, and his heart died within him, and he
became as a stone. 25:38It happened
about ten days after, that the LORD struck Naval, so that he died.
25:39When David heard that Naval was dead, he said, Blessed be the
LORD, who has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Naval, and
has kept back his servant from evil: and the evil-doing of Naval has the
LORD returned on his own head. David sent and spoke concerning Avigayil,
to take her to him as wife. 25:40When the
servants of David were come to Avigayil to Karmel, they spoke to her,
saying, David has sent us to you, to take you to him as wife.
25:41She arose, and bowed herself with her face to the earth, and
said, Behold, your handmaid is a servant to wash the feet of the servants
of my lord.
25:42Avigayil hurried, and arose, and rode
on a donkey, with five ladies of hers who followed her; and she went after
the messengers of David, and became his wife.
25:43David
also took Achino'am of Yizre`el; and they became both of them his wives.
25:44Now Sha'ul had given Mikhal his daughter, David's wife, to Palti
the son of Layish, who was of Gallim.
26:1The Zifim came to Sha'ul to Gevah, saying, Doesn't David hide
himself in the hill of Chakhilah, which is before the desert?
26:2Then Sha'ul arose, and went down to the wilderness of Zif, having
three thousand chosen men of Yisra'el with him, to seek David in the
wilderness of Zif.
26:3Sha'ul encamped in the hill of
Chakhilah, which is before the desert, by the way. But David abode in the
wilderness, and he saw that Sha'ul came after him into the wilderness.
26:4David therefore sent out spies, and understood that Sha'ul was
come of a certainty. 26:5David arose, and
came to the place where Sha'ul had encamped; and David saw the place where
Sha'ul lay, and Aviner the son of Ner, the captain of his host: and Sha'ul
lay within the place of the wagons, and the people were encamped round
about him.
26:6Then answered David and said to
Achimelekh the Chittite, and to Avishai the son of Tzeru'yah, brother to
Yo'av, saying, Who will go down with me to Sha'ul to the camp? Avishai
said, I will go down with you. 26:7So David and
Avishai came to the people by night: and, behold, Sha'ul lay sleeping
within the place of the wagons, with his spear stuck in the ground at his
head; and Aviner and the people lay round about him.
26:8Then said Avishai to David, G-d has delivered up your enemy into
your hand this day: now therefore please let me strike him with the spear
to the earth at one stroke, and I will not strike him the second time.
26:9David said to Avishai, Don't destroy him; for who can put forth
his hand against the LORD's anointed, and be guiltless?
26:10David said, As the LORD lives, the LORD will strike him; or his
day shall come to die; or he shall go down into battle and perish.
26:11The LORD forbid that I should put forth my hand against the
LORD's anointed: but now please take the spear that is at his head, and
the jar of water, and let us go. 26:12So David took
the spear and the jar of water from Sha'ul's head; and they got them away:
and no man saw it, nor knew it, neither did any awake; for they were all
asleep, because a deep sleep from the LORD was fallen on them.
26:13Then David went over to the other side, and stood on the top of
the mountain afar off; a great space being between them;
26:14and David cried to the people, and to Aviner the son of Ner,
saying, Don't you answer, Aviner? Then Aviner answered, Who are you who
cries to the king? 26:15David said to
Aviner, Aren't you a valiant man? and who is like you in Yisra'el?
why then have you not kept watch over your lord, the king? for there came
one of the people in to destroy the king your lord.
26:16This thing isn't good that you have done. As the LORD lives, you
are worthy to die, because you have not kept watch over your lord, the
LORD's anointed. Now see where the king's spear is, and the jar of water
that was at his head. 26:17Sha'ul knew
David's voice, and said, Is this your voice, my son David? David said, It
is my voice, my lord, O king. 26:18He said, Why
does my lord pursue after his servant? for what have I done? or what evil
is in my hand?
26:19Now therefore, please let my
lord the king hear the words of his servant. If it be the LORD that has
stirred you up against me, let him accept an offering: but if it be the
children of men, cursed be they before the LORD: for they have driven me
out this day that I shouldn't cling to the LORD's inheritance, saying, Go,
serve other gods.
26:20Now therefore, don't let my
blood fall to the earth away from the presence of the LORD: for the king
of Yisra'el is come out to seek a flea, as when one does hunt a partridge
in the mountains.
26:21Then said Sha'ul, I have sinned:
return, my son David; for I will no more do you harm, because my life was
precious in your eyes this day: behold, I have played the fool, and have
erred exceedingly. 26:22David answered,
Behold the spear, O king! let then one of the young men come over and get
it. 26:23The LORD will render to every man his righteousness and his
faithfulness; because the LORD delivered you into my hand today, and I
wouldn't put forth my hand against the LORD's anointed.
26:24Behold, as your life was much set by this day in my eyes, so let
my life be much set by in the eyes of the LORD, and let him deliver me out
of all oppression. 26:25Then Sha'ul said
to David, Blessed be you, my son David: you shall both do mightily, and
shall surely prevail. So David went his way, and Sha'ul returned to his
place.
27:1David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand
of Sha'ul: there is nothing better for me than that I should escape into
the land of the Pelishtim; and Sha'ul will despair of me, to seek me any
more in all the borders of Yisra'el: so shall I escape out of his hand.
27:2David arose, and passed over, he and the six hundred men who were
with him, to Akhish the son of Ma`okh, king of Gat.
27:3David lived with Akhish at Gat, he and his men, every man with
his household, even David with his two wives, Achino'am the Yizre`elite,
and Avigayil the Karmelite, Naval's wife.
27:4It
was told Sha'ul that David was fled to Gat: and he sought no more again
for him. 27:5David said to Akhish, If now I have found favor in your eyes, let
them give me a place in one of the cities in the country, that I may dwell
there: for why should your servant dwell in the royal city with you?
27:6Then Akhish gave him Tziklag that day: why Tziklag pertains to
the kings of Yehudah to this day. 27:7The number of the
days that David lived in the country of the Pelishtim was a full year and
four months.
27:8David and his men went up, and made a
raid on the Geshuri, and the Gizri, and the `Amaleki; for those nations
were the inhabitants of the land, who were of old, as you go to Shur, even
to the land of Egypt. 27:9David struck the
land, and saved neither man nor woman alive, and took away the sheep, and
the oxen, and the donkeys, and the camels, and the clothing; and he
returned, and came to Akhish. 27:10Akhish said,
Against whom have you made a raid today? David said, Against the South of
Yehudah, and against the South of the Yerachme'eli, and against the South
of the Kinim.
27:11David saved neither man nor
woman alive, to bring them to Gat, saying, Lest they should tell of us,
saying, So did David, and so has been his manner all the while he has
lived in the country of the Pelishtim.
27:12Akhish
believed David, saying, He has made his people Yisra'el utterly to abhor
him; therefore he shall be my servant forever.
28:1It happened in those days, that the Pelishtim gathered their
hosts together for warfare, to fight with Yisra'el. Akhish said to David,
Know you assuredly, that you shall go out with me in the host, you and
your men. 28:2David said to Akhish, Therefore you shall know what your servant
will do. Akhish said to David, Therefore will I make you keeper of my head
for ever. 28:3Now Shemu'el was dead, and all Yisra'el had lamented him, and
buried him in Ramah, even in his own city. Sha'ul had put away those who
had familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land.
28:4The Pelishtim gathered themselves together, and came and encamped
in Shunem: and Sha'ul gathered all Yisra'el together, and they encamped in
Gilboa. 28:5When Sha'ul saw the host of the Pelishtim, he was afraid, and his
heart trembled greatly. 28:6When Sha'ul
inquired of the LORD, the LORD didn't answer him, neither by dreams, nor
by Urim, nor by prophets. 28:7Then said Sha'ul
to his servants, Seek me a woman who has a familiar spirit, that I may go
to her, and inquire of her. His servants said to him, Behold, there is a
woman who has a familiar spirit at En-dor.
28:8Sha'ul
disguised himself, and put on other clothing, and went, he and two men
with him, and they came to the woman by night: and he said, Please divine
to me by the familiar spirit, and bring me up whoever I shall name to you.
28:9The woman said to him, Behold, you know what Sha'ul has done, how
he has cut off those who have familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of
the land: why then lay you a snare for my life, to cause me to die?
28:10Sha'ul swore to her by the LORD, saying, As the LORD lives, there
shall no punishment happen to you for this thing.
28:11Then
said the woman, Whom shall I bring up to you? He said, Bring me up
Shemu'el.
28:12When the woman saw Shemu'el, she
cried with a loud voice; and the woman spoke to Sha'ul, saying, Why have
you deceived me? for you are Sha'ul.
28:13The
king said to her, Don't be afraid: for what do you see? The woman said to
Sha'ul, I see a G-d coming up out of the earth.
28:14He
said to her, What form is he of? She said, An old man comes up; and he is
covered with a robe. Sha'ul perceived that it was Shemu'el, and he bowed
with his face to the ground, and did obeisance.
28:15Shemu'el
said to Sha'ul, Why have you disquieted me, to bring me up? Sha'ul
answered, I am sore distressed; for the Pelishtim make war against me, and
G-d is departed from me, and answers me no more, neither by prophets, nor
by dreams: therefore I have called you, that you may make known to me what
I shall do.
28:16Shemu'el said, Why then do you ask of
me, seeing the LORD is departed from you, and is become your adversary?
28:17The LORD has done to you, as he spoke by me: and the LORD has
torn the kingdom out of your hand, and given it to your neighbor, even to
David. 28:18Because you didn't obey the voice of the LORD, and didn't execute
his fierce wrath on `Amalek, therefore has the LORD done this thing to you
this day.
28:19Moreover the LORD will deliver
Yisra'el also with you into the hand of the Pelishtim; and tomorrow shall
you and your sons be with me: the LORD will deliver the host of Yisra'el
also into the hand of the Pelishtim.
28:20Then
Sha'ul fell immediately his full length on the earth, and was sore afraid,
because of the words of Shemu'el: and there was no strength in him; for he
had eaten no bread all the day, nor all the night.
28:21The woman came to Sha'ul, and saw that he was sore troubled, and
said to him, Behold, your handmaid has listened to your voice, and I have
put my life in my hand, and have listened to your words which you spoke to
me. 28:22Now therefore, please listen also to the voice of your handmaid,
and let me set a morsel of bread before you; and eat, that you may have
strength, when you go on your way.
28:23But
he refused, and said, I will not eat. But his servants, together with the
woman, constrained him; and he listened to their voice. So he arose from
the earth, and sat on the bed. 28:24The woman had a
fattened calf in the house; and she hurried, and killed it; and she took
flour, and kneaded it, and did bake matzah of it:
28:25and she brought it before Sha'ul, and before his servants; and
they ate. Then they rose up, and went away that night.
29:1Now the Pelishtim gathered together all their hosts to Afek: and
the Yisra'elites encamped by the spring which is in Yizre`el.
29:2The lords of the Pelishtim passed on by hundreds, and by
thousands; and David and his men passed on in the rearward with Akhish.
29:3Then said the princes of the Pelishtim, What do these
Hebrews here? Akhish said to the princes of the Pelishtim, Isn't
this David, the servant of Sha'ul the king of Yisra'el, who has been with
me these days, or rather these years, and I have found no fault in
him since he fell away to me to this day?
29:4But
the princes of the Pelishtim were angry with him; and the princes of the
Pelishtim said to him, Make the man return, that he may go back to his
place where you have appointed him, and let him not go down with us to
battle, lest in the battle he become an adversary to us: for with what
should this fellow reconcile himself to his lord? should it not be
with the heads of these men? 29:5Is not this
David, of whom they sang one to another in dances, saying, Sha'ul has
slain his thousands, David his ten thousands?
29:6Then
Akhish called David, and said to him, As the LORD lives, you have been
upright, and your going out and your coming in with me in the host is good
in my sight; for I have not found evil in you since the day of your coming
to me to this day: nevertheless the lords don't favor you.
29:7Therefore now return, and go in shalom, that you not displease
the lords of the Pelishtim. 29:8David said to
Akhish, But what have I done? and what have you found in your servant so
long as I have been before you to this day, that I may not go and fight
against the enemies of my lord the king?
29:9Akhish
answered David, I know that you are good in my sight, as an angel of G-d:
notwithstanding the princes of the Pelishtim have said, He shall not go up
with us to the battle. 29:10Therefore now
rise up early in the morning with the servants of your lord who have come
with you; and as soon as you are up early in the morning, and have light,
depart. 29:11So David rose up early, he and his men, to depart in the morning,
to return into the land of the Pelishtim. The Pelishtim went up to
Yizre`el.
30:1It happened, when David and his men were come to Tziklag on the
third day, that the `Amaleki had made a raid on the South, and on Tziklag,
and had struck Tziklag, and burned it with fire,
30:2and
had taken captive the women and all who were therein, both small
and great: they didn't kill any, but carried them off, and went their way.
30:3When David and his men came to the city, behold, it was burned
with fire; and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, were
taken captive.
30:4Then David and the people who
were with him lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power
to weep. 30:5David's two wives were taken captive, Achino'am the Yizre`elite,
and Avigayil the wife of Naval the Karmelite.
30:6David
was greatly distressed; for the people spoke of stoning him, because the
soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his
daughters: but David strengthened himself in the LORD his G-d.
30:7David said to Avyatar the kohen, the son of
Achimelekh, Please bring me here the efod. Avyatar brought there the efod
to David. 30:8David inquired of the LORD, saying, If I pursue after this troop,
shall I overtake them? He answered him, Pursue; for you shall surely
overtake them, and shall without fail recover all.
30:9So David went, he and the six hundred men who were with him, and
came to the brook Besor, where those who were left behind stayed.
30:10But David pursued, he and four hundred men; for two hundred
stayed behind, who were so faint that they couldn't go over the brook
Besor. 30:11They found a Mitzrian in the field, and brought him to David, and
gave him bread, and he ate; and they gave him water to drink.
30:12They gave him a piece of a cake of figs, and two clusters of
raisins: and when he had eaten, his spirit came again to him; for he had
eaten no bread, nor drunk any water, three days and three nights.
30:13David said to him, To whom belong you? and whence are you? He
said, I am a young man of Egypt, servant to an `Amaleki; and my master
left me, because three days ago I fell sick.
30:14We
made a raid on the South of the Kereti, and on that which belongs to
Yehudah, and on the South of Kalev; and we burned Tziklag with fire.
30:15David said to him, Will you bring me down to this troop? He said,
Swear to me by G-d, that you will neither kill me, nor deliver me up into
the hands of my master, and I will bring you down to this troop.
30:16When he had brought him down, behold, they were spread abroad
over all the ground, eating and drinking, and dancing, because of all the
great spoil that they had taken out of the land of the Pelishtim, and out
of the land of Yehudah. 30:17David struck
them from the twilight even to the evening of the next day: and there not
a man of them escaped, except four hundred young men, who rode on camels
and fled.
30:18David recovered all that the `Amaleki
had taken; and David rescued his two wives.
30:19There
was nothing lacking to them, neither small nor great, neither sons nor
daughters, neither spoil, nor anything that they had taken to them: David
brought back all.
30:20David took all the flocks and
the herds, which they drove before those other cattle, and
said, This is David's spoil. 30:21David came to
the two hundred men, who were so faint that they could not follow David,
whom also they had made to abide at the brook Besor; and they went forth
to meet David, and to meet the people who were with him: and when David
came near to the people, he greeted them.
30:22Then
answered all the wicked men and base fellows, of those who went with
David, and said, Because they didn't go with us, we will not give them
anything of the spoil that we have recovered, except to every man his wife
and his children, that he may lead them away, and depart.
30:23Then said David, You shall not do so, my brothers, with that
which the LORD has given to us, who has preserved us, and delivered the
troop that came against us into our hand.
30:24Who
will listen to you in this matter? for as his share is who goes down to
the battle, so shall his share be who tarries by the baggage: they shall
share alike.
30:25It was so from that day forward, that
he made it a statute and an ordinance for Yisra'el to this day.
30:26When David came to Tziklag, he sent of the spoil to the elders of
Yehudah, even to his friends, saying, Behold, a present for you of the
spoil of the enemies of the LORD: 30:27To those who
were in Beit-El, and to those who were in Ramot of the South, and to those
who were in Yattir, 30:28and to those who
were in `Aro`er, and to those who were in Shefamot, and to those who were
in Eshtemoa,
30:29and to those who were in Racal, and
to those who were in the cities of the Yerachme'eli, and to those who were
in the cities of the Kinim, 30:30and to those who
were in Chormah, and to those who were in Kor-`Ashan, and to those who
were in `Atakh,
30:31and to those who were in
Chevron, and to all the places where David himself and his men used to
stay.
31:1Now the Pelishtim fought against Yisra'el: and the men of
Yisra'el fled from before the Pelishtim, and fell down slain on Mount
Gilboa. 31:2The Pelishtim followed hard on Sha'ul and on his sons; and the
Pelishtim killed Yonatan, and Avinadav, and Malki-Shua, the sons of
Sha'ul. 31:3The battle went sore against Sha'ul, and the archers overtook
him; and he was greatly distressed by reason of the archers.
31:4Then said Sha'ul to his armor bearer, Draw your sword, and thrust
me through therewith, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through,
and abuse me. But his armor bearer would not; for he was sore afraid.
Therefore Sha'ul took his sword, and fell on it.
31:5When
his armor bearer saw that Sha'ul was dead, he likewise fell on his sword,
and died with him.
31:6So Sha'ul died, and his three
sons, and his armor bearer, and all his men, that same day together.
31:7When the men of Yisra'el who were on the other side of the
valley, and those who were beyond the Yarden, saw that the men of Yisra'el
fled, and that Sha'ul and his sons were dead, they forsook the cities, and
fled; and the Pelishtim came and lived in them.
31:8It
happened on the next day, when the Pelishtim came to strip the slain, that
they found Sha'ul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa.
31:9They cut off his head, and stripped off his armor, and sent into
the land of the Pelishtim round about, to carry the news to the house of
their idols, and to the people. 31:10They put his
armor in the house of the `Ashtarot; and they fastened his body to the
wall of Beth-shan. 31:11When the
inhabitants of Yavesh-Gil`ad heard concerning him that which the Pelishtim
had done to Sha'ul, 31:12all the valiant
men arose, and went all night, and took the body of Sha'ul and the bodies
of his sons from the wall of Beth-shan; and they came to Yavesh, and burnt
them there.
31:13They took their bones, and buried
them under the tamarisk tree in Yavesh, and fasted seven days.
Notes:
[1]
back to 1:3 priests
[2]
back to 1:9 priest
[3]
back to 2:11 priest
[4]
back to 2:13 priests
[5]
back to 2:13 priest
[6]
back to 2:14 priest
[7]
back to 2:15 priest
[8]
back to 2:15 priest
[9]
back to 2:28 priest
[10]
back to 2:35 priest
[11]
back to 2:36 priests
[12]
back to 5:5 priests
[13]
back to 6:2 priests
[14]
back to 6:19 ark
[15]
back to 12:14 commandment
[16]
back to 12:15 commandment
[17]
back to 13:3 trumpet
[18]
back to 13:13 commandment
[19]
back to 14:3 priest
[20]
back to 14:19 priest
[21]
back to 14:19 priest
[22]
back to 14:36 priest
[23]
back to 15:11 commandments
[24]
back to 15:13 commandment
[25]
back to 15:24 commandment
[26]
back to 21:1 priest
[27]
back to 21:2 priest
[28]
back to 21:4 priest
[29]
back to 21:5 priest
[30]
back to 21:6 priest
[31]
back to 21:9 priest
[32]
back to 22:11 priest
[33]
back to 22:11 priests
[34]
back to 22:17 priests
[35]
back to 22:17 priests
[36]
back to 22:18 priests
[37]
back to 22:18 priests
[38]
back to 22:19 priests
[39]
back to 22:21 priests
[40]
back to 23:9 priest
[41]
back to 28:24 unleavened bread
[42]
back to 30:7 priest
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