to hearken unto thy words which thou hast spoken unto me.

Now therefore thou also shalt obey thy handmaid’s voice. I will set before thee a morsel of bread, that thou mayest eat, and recover thy strength, and go thy way.

But he refused, and said: I will not eat. And his servants and the woman constrained him, that he should obey their voice. And he arose from the earth, and sat up in bed.

And the woman had a fatted calf at home; and she made haste, and slew it, and took flour, and kneaded it, and baked it unleavened.

And he brought it before Saul, and before his servants. And when they had eaten, they arose, and passed the night.
(1 Samuel)
Chapter 29
David is sent back by the Philistines.

And the Philistines gathered all their armies to Aphek: and Israel encamped at Am in Jezreel.

And the lords of the Philistines went by hundreds, and by thousands: but David and his men went behind at Achish.

And the princes of the Philistines said, What shall these Ebrams do? And Achish said unto them: Is not this David the servant of Saul king of Israel, which hath been with me year and day, and hath found nothing in him from the time he fell away until now?

And the lords of the Philistines were wroth with him, and said unto him, Let the man return, and abide in his place whither thou hast appointed him, lest he go down to battle with us, and be our adversary in the battle. For in what will he please his lord better than in the heads of these men?

Is not he David, of whom they sang in the round dance, saying, Saul hath slain a thousand, but David ten thousand?

And Achish called David, and said unto him, As surely as the LORD liveth, I think thee
honest, and thy going out and thy coming in with me in the army pleaseth me well, and I have not seen any evil in thee since the time that thou camest unto me unto this day: but thou pleasest not with the princes.

Now therefore return, and go in peace, that thou do not evil in the sight of the lords of the Philistines.

And David said unto Achish, What have I done, and what hast thou reproved thy servant, from the time that I was before thee until now, that I should not come and fight against the enemies of my lord the king?

And Achish answered and said unto David, I know it: for thou art pleasing in mine eyes, as an angel of God. But the princes of the Philistines have said, Let him not go up with us to battle.

Now therefore arise early in the morning, and thy master’s servants that are come with thee: and when ye have risen early in the morning, that it may be light, go.

So David and his men rose up early, and went in the morning, and returned into the land of the Philistines. And the Philistines went up to Jezreel.
Chapter 30
David is victorious against the Amalekites and divides the plunder.

And it came to pass on the third day, when David was come to Ziklag with his men, that the Amalekites came in at noon, and at Ziklag, and smote Ziklag, and burned it with fire; 2. And they had led away the women out of it, both small and great: but they had not killed any, but had driven them away, and gone their way.

And when David and his men were come to the city, he saw that it was burned with fire, and that their wives and their sons and their daughters were taken captives, 4. And David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice, and wept, until they could weep no more.

For David’s two wives were also captives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabai the Carmelite.

And David was sore troubled: for the people would have stoned him: for all the people’s souls were troubled, every man for his sons and for his daughters. But David strengthened himself in the LORD his God.

And he said unto Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech’s son, Bring me the ephod. And when Abiathar had brought the ephod unto David,

And David asked the LORD, saying, Shall I pursue after the men of war, and shall I seize them? And he said, Pursue them, and thou shalt seize them, and shalt do salvation.

And David went, and the six hundred men that were with him: and when they came to the brook Besor, some stood still:

And David and the four hundred men pursued; but the two hundred men that stayed were too weary to go over the brook Besor.

And they found an Egyptian man in the field, and brought him unto David, and gave him bread, that he might eat, and watered him with water;

And they gave him a piece of figs, and :two pieces of raisins. And when he had eaten, his spirit came again to him: for he had eaten nothing, neither drunk water, in three days and three nights.

And David said unto him, Whose art thou? and whence art thou? And he said: I am an Egyptian lad, the servant of an Amalekite: and my lord hath forsaken me, because I was sick three days ago.

We fell upon Krethi at noon, and upon Judah at noon, and upon Caleb at noon, and burned Ziklag with fire.

And David said unto him, Wilt thou bring me down unto these men of war? And he said, Swear to me by God that thou wilt not kill me, nor deliver me into the hand of my lord, and I will bring thee down unto these men of war.

And he brought them down. And, behold, they were scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth, eating and drinking, and feasting upon all the great spoil which they had taken
out of the land of the Philistines and Judah.

And David smote them from the morning until the evening toward the second day: and there escaped not one of them, save four hundred young men, which fell upon camels, and fled.

So David delivered all that the Amalekites had taken, and his two wives; 19. And lacked none, neither small nor great, neither sons, nor daughters, nor spoil, nor any thing that they had taken: David brought it all again.

And David took the sheep and the oxen, and drove the people before him: and they said, This is David’s spoil.

And when David came to the two hundred men that were too weary to follow David, and had tarried by the brook Besor, they went out to meet David, and the people that were with him.
And David stood by the people, and greeted them kindly.

Then answered they that were wicked and loose among them that went with David, and said: Because they went not with us, let nothing be given them of the spoil which we have delivered: but let every man lead his wife and his children, and go.

And David said, Ye shall not do so, my brethren, with that which the LORD hath given us, and hath preserved us, and delivered into our hand these men of war that came against us.

Who shall obey you in this? As the portion of them that go down to battle, so shall the portion of them that abide in the device be, and shall be divided alike.

This hath been the custom and the law in Israel from that time forward unto this day.

And when David was come to Ziklag, he sent of the spoil to the elders of Judah, to his friends, saying, Behold, ye have the blessing of the spoil of the enemies of the LORD; 27. Namely, to them that are at Bethel, and to them that are at Ramoth in the south day, and to them that are at Jathir,

To them of Aroer, to them of Siphamoth, to them of Esthemoa, 29. To them that are in Rachel, to them that are in the cities of the Jerahmeelites, to them that are in the cities of the Kenites,

To those of Horma, to those of Bor-asan, to those of Athah,

To them in Hebron, and to all the places where David walked with his men.
Chapter 31
Saul’s last war against the Philistines, wherein he stabbed himself.

And the Philistines fought against Israel: and the men of Israel fled before the Philistines, and fell down slain in mount Gilboa.

And the Philistines attached themselves to Saul and to his sons, and smote Jonathan, and Abinadab, and Malchishua, Saul’s sons.

And the battle was sore against Saul, and the archers smote him with bows, and he was greatly wounded of the archers.

And Saul said unto his armourbearer, Put forth thy sword, and thrust me therewith, lest these uncircumcised come and stab me, and make a mockery of me. But his armourbearer would not; for he was sore afraid. So Saul took the sword and fell on it.

And when his armourbearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell upon his sword, and died with him.

So Saul died, and his three sons, and his armourbearer, and all his men, at the same time that day.

And when the men of Israel that were beyond the bottom, and that were beyond Jordan, saw that the men of Israel were fled, and that Saul and his sons were dead, they forsook the cities, and fled also: so the Philistines came and dwelt within.

And the next day the Philistines came to strip the slain, and found Saul and his three sons lying in mount Gilboa.

And they cut off his head, and stripped him of