Bible in 90 Days

³⁰ “Therefore, I, the Lord God of Israel, declare that although I promised that your branch of the tribe of Levi could always be my priests, it is ridiculous to think that what you are doing can continue. I will honor only those who honor me, and I will despise those who despise me. ³¹ I will put an end to your family, so that it will no longer serve as priests. Every member will die before his time. None shall live to be old. ³² You will envy the prosperity I will give my people, but you and your family will be in distress and need. Not one of them will live out his days. ³³ Those who are left alive will live in sadness and grief; and their children shall die by the sword. ³⁴ And to prove that what I have said will come true, I will cause your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, to die on the same day!

³⁵ “Then I will raise up a faithful priest who will serve me and do whatever I tell him to do. I will bless his descendants, and his family shall be priests to my kings forever. ³⁶ Then all of your descendants shall bow before him, begging for money and food. ‘Please,’ they will say, ‘give me a job among the priests so that I will have enough to eat.’”

3 Meanwhile little Samuel was helping the Lord by assisting Eli. Messages from the Lord were very rare in those days, ^2-3 but one night after Eli had gone to bed (he was almost blind with age by now), and Samuel was sleeping in the Temple near the Ark, ^4-5 the Lord called out, “Samuel! Samuel!”

“Yes?” Samuel replied. “What is it?” He jumped up and ran to Eli. “Here I am. What do you want?” he asked.

“I didn’t call you,” Eli said. “Go on back to bed.” So he did. ⁶ Then the Lord called again, “Samuel!” And again Samuel jumped up and ran to Eli.

“Yes?” he asked. “What do you need?”

“No, I didn’t call you, my son,” Eli said. “Go on back to bed.”

⁷ (Samuel had never had a message from Jehovah before.^[a]) ⁸ So now the Lord called the third time, and once more Samuel jumped up and ran to Eli.

“Yes?” he asked. “What do you need?”

Then Eli realized it was the Lord who had spoken to the child. ⁹ So he said to Samuel, “Go and lie down again, and if he calls again, say, ‘Yes, Lord, I’m listening.’” So Samuel went back to bed.

¹⁰ And the Lord came and called as before, “Samuel! Samuel!”

And Samuel replied, “Yes, I’m listening.”

¹¹ Then the Lord said to Samuel, “I am going to do a shocking thing in Israel. ¹² I am going to do all of the dreadful things I warned Eli about. ¹³ I have continually threatened him and his entire family with punishment because his sons are blaspheming God, and he doesn’t stop them. ¹⁴ So I have vowed that the sins of Eli and of his sons shall never be forgiven by sacrifices and offerings.”

¹⁵ Samuel stayed in bed until morning, then opened the doors of the Temple as usual, for he was afraid to tell Eli what the Lord had said to him. ^16-17 But Eli called him.

“My son,” he said, “what did the Lord say to you? Tell me everything. And may God punish you if you hide anything from me!”

¹⁸ So Samuel told him what the Lord had said.

“It is the Lord’s will,” Eli replied; “let him do what he thinks best.”

¹⁹ As Samuel grew, the Lord was with him and people listened carefully to his advice. ²⁰ And all Israel from one end of the land to the other knew that Samuel was going to be a prophet of the Lord. ²¹ Then the Lord began to give messages to him there at the Tabernacle in Shiloh, 4 ¹ and he passed them on to the people of Israel.

At that time Israel was at war with the Philistines. The Israeli army was camped near Ebenezer, the Philistines at Aphek. ² And the Philistines defeated Israel, killing four thousand of them. ³ After the battle was over, the army of Israel returned to their camp and their leaders discussed why the Lord had let them be defeated.

“Let’s bring the Ark here from Shiloh,” they said. “If we carry it into battle with us, the Lord will be among us and he will surely save us from our enemies.”

⁴ So they sent for the Ark of the Lord of heaven who is enthroned above the angels. Hophni and Phinehas, the sons of Eli, accompanied it into the battle. ⁵ When the Israelis saw the Ark coming, their shout of joy was so loud that it almost made the ground shake!

⁶ “What’s going on?” the Philistines asked. “What’s all the shouting about over in the camp of the Hebrews?”

When they were told it was because the Ark of the Lord had arrived, ⁷ they panicked.

“God has come into their camp!” they cried out. “Woe upon us, for we have never had to face anything like this before! ⁸ Who can save us from these mighty gods of Israel? They are the same gods who destroyed the Egyptians with plagues when Israel was in the wilderness. ⁹ Fight as you never have before, O Philistines, or we will become their slaves just as they have been ours.”

¹⁰ So the Philistines fought desperately and Israel was defeated again. Thirty thousand men of Israel died that day, and the remainder fled to their tents. ¹¹ And the Ark of God was captured, and Hophni and Phinehas were killed.

¹² A man from the tribe of Benjamin ran from the battle and arrived at Shiloh the same day with his clothes torn and dirt on his head.^{[b] 13} Eli was waiting beside the road to hear the news of the battle, for his heart trembled for the safety of the Ark of God. As the messenger from the battlefront arrived and told what had happened, a great cry arose throughout the city.

¹⁴ “What is all the noise about?” Eli asked. And the messenger rushed over to Eli and told him what had happened. ¹⁵ (Eli was ninety-eight years old and was blind.)

¹⁶ “I have just come from the battle—I was there today,” he told Eli, ¹⁷ “and Israel has been defeated and thousands of the Israeli troops are dead on the battlefield. Hophni and Phinehas were killed too, and the Ark has been captured.”

¹⁸ When the messenger mentioned what had happened to the Ark, Eli fell backward from his seat beside the gate and his neck was broken by the fall, and he died (for he was old and fat). He had judged Israel for forty years.

¹⁹ When Eli’s daughter-in-law, Phinehas’ wife, who was pregnant, heard that the Ark had been captured and that her husband and father-in-law were dead, her labor pains suddenly began. ²⁰ Just before she died, the women who were attending her told her that everything was all right and that the baby was a boy. But she did not reply or respond in any way. ^21-22 Then she murmured, “Name the child ‘Ichabod,’ for Israel’s glory is gone.” (Ichabod means “there is no glory.” She named him this because the Ark of God had been captured and because her husband and her father-in-law were dead.)

5 ^1-2 The Philistines took the captured Ark of God from the battleground at Ebenezer to the temple of their idol Dagon in the city of Ashdod. ³ But when the local citizens went to see it the next morning, Dagon had fallen with his face to the ground before the Ark of Jehovah! They set him up again, ⁴ but the next morning the same thing had happened—the idol had fallen face down before the Ark of the Lord again. This time his head and hands had been cut off and were lying in the doorway; only the trunk of his body was left intact. ⁵ (That is why to this day neither the priests of Dagon nor his worshipers will walk on the threshold of the temple of Dagon in Ashdod.)

⁶ Then the Lord began to destroy the people of Ashdod and the nearby villages with bubonic plague. ⁷ When the people realized what was happening, they exclaimed, “We can’t keep the Ark of the God of Israel here any longer. We will all perish along with our god Dagon.”

⁸ So they called a conference of the mayors of the five cities of the Philistines to decide how to dispose of the Ark. The decision was to take it to Gath. ⁹ But when the Ark arrived at Gath, the Lord began destroying its people, young and old, with the plague, and there was a great panic. ¹⁰ So they sent the Ark to Ekron, but when the people of Ekron saw it coming they cried out, “They are bringing the Ark of the God of Israel here to kill us too!”

¹¹ So they summoned the mayors again and begged them to send the Ark back to its own country, lest the entire city die. For the plague had already begun, and great fear was sweeping across the city. ¹² Those who didn’t die were deathly ill; and there was weeping everywhere.

6 The Ark remained in the Philistine country for seven months in all. ² Then the Philistines called for their priests and diviners and asked them, “What shall we do about the Ark of God? What sort of gift shall we send with it when we return it to its own land?”

³ “Yes, send it back with a gift,” they were told. “Send a guilt offering so that the plague will stop. Then, if it doesn’t, you will know God didn’t send the plague upon you after all.”

^4-5 “What guilt offering shall we send?” they asked.

And they were told, “Send five gold models of the tumor caused by the plague, and five gold models of the rats that have ravaged the whole land—the capital cities and villages alike. If you send these gifts and then praise the God of Israel, perhaps he will stop persecuting you and your god. ⁶ Don’t be stubborn and rebellious as Pharaoh and the Egyptians were. They wouldn’t let Israel go until God had destroyed them with dreadful plagues. ⁷ Now build a new cart and hitch to it two cows that have just had calves—cows that never before have been yoked—and shut their calves away from them in the barn. ⁸ Place the Ark of God on the cart beside a chest containing the gold models of the rats and tumors, and let the cows go wherever they want to. ⁹ If they cross the border of our land and go into Beth-shemesh, then you will know that it was God who brought this great evil upon us; if they don’t but return to their calves,^[c] then we will know that the plague was simply a coincidence and was not sent by God at all.”

¹⁰ So these instructions were carried out. Two cows with newborn calves were hitched to the cart and their calves were shut up in the barn. ¹¹ Then the Ark of the Lord and the chest containing the gold rats and tumors were placed upon the cart. ¹² And sure enough, the cows went straight along the road toward Beth-shemesh, lowing as they went; and the Philistine mayors followed them as far as the border of Beth-shemesh. ¹³ The people of Beth-shemesh were reaping wheat in the valley, and when they saw the Ark, they went wild with joy!

¹⁴ The cart came into the field of a man named Joshua and stopped beside a large rock. So the people broke up the wood of the cart for a fire and killed the cows and sacrificed them to the Lord as a burnt offering. ¹⁵ Several men of the tribe of Levi lifted the Ark and the chest containing the gold rats and tumors from the cart and laid them on the rock. And many burnt offerings and sacrifices were offered to the Lord that day by the men of Beth-shemesh.

¹⁶ After the five Philistine mayors had watched for a while, they returned to Ekron that same day. ¹⁷ The five gold models of tumors which had been sent by the Philistines as a guilt offering to the Lord were gifts from the mayors of the capital cities, Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron. ¹⁸ The gold rats were to placate God for the other Philistine cities, both the fortified cities and the country villages controlled by the five capitals. (By the way, that large rock at Beth-shemesh can still be seen in the field of Joshua.) ¹⁹ But the Lord killed seventy of the men of Beth-shemesh because they looked into the Ark. And the people mourned because of the many people whom the Lord had killed.

²⁰ “Who is able to stand before Jehovah, this holy God?” they cried out. “Where can we send the Ark from here?”

²¹ So they sent messengers to the people at Kiriath-jearim and told them that the Philistines had brought back the Ark of the Lord.

“Come and get it!” they begged.

7 So the men of Kiriath-jearim came and took the Ark to the hillside home of Abinadab and installed his son Eleazar to be in charge of it. ² The Ark remained there for twenty years, and during that time all Israel was in sorrow because the Lord had seemingly abandoned them.

³ At that time Samuel said to them, “If you are really serious about wanting to return to the Lord, get rid of your foreign gods and your Ashtaroth idols. Determine to obey only the Lord; then he will rescue you from the Philistines.”

⁴ So they destroyed their idols of Baal and Ashtaroth and worshiped only the Lord.

⁵ Then Samuel told them, “Come to Mizpah, all of you, and I will pray to the Lord for you.”

⁶ So they gathered there and, in a great ceremony, drew water from the well and poured it out before the Lord. They also went without food all day as a sign of sorrow for their sins. So it was at Mizpah that Samuel became Israel’s judge.

⁷ When the Philistine leaders heard about the great crowds at Mizpah, they mobilized their army and advanced. The Israelis were badly frightened when they learned that the Philistines were approaching.

⁸ “Plead with God to save us!” they begged Samuel.

⁹ So Samuel took a suckling lamb and offered it to the Lord as a whole burnt offering and pleaded with him to help Israel. And the Lord responded. ¹⁰ Just as Samuel was sacrificing the burnt offering, the Philistines arrived for battle, but the Lord spoke with a mighty voice of thunder from heaven, and they were thrown into confusion, and the Israelis routed them ¹¹ and chased them from Mizpah to Beth-car, killing them all along the way. ¹² Samuel then took a stone and placed it between Mizpah and Jeshanah and named it Ebenezer (meaning, “the Stone of Help”), for he said, “The Lord has certainly helped us!” ¹³ So the Philistines were subdued and didn’t invade Israel again at that time because the Lord was against them throughout the remainder of Samuel’s lifetime. ¹⁴ The Israeli cities between Ekron and Gath, which had been conquered by the Philistines, were now returned to Israel, for the Israeli army rescued them from their Philistine captors. And there was peace between Israel and the Amorites in those days.

¹⁵ Samuel continued as Israel’s judge for the remainder of his life. ¹⁶ He rode circuit annually, setting up his court first at Bethel, then Gilgal, and then Mizpah, and cases of dispute were brought to him in each of those three cities from all the surrounding territory. ¹⁷ Then he would come back to Ramah, for his home was there, and he would hear cases there too. And he built an altar to the Lord at Ramah.

8 In his old age, Samuel retired and appointed his sons as judges in his place. ² Joel and Abijah, his oldest sons, held court in Beersheba; ³ but they were not like their father, for they were greedy for money. They accepted bribes and were very corrupt in the administration of justice. ⁴ Finally the leaders of Israel met in Ramah to discuss the matter with Samuel. ⁵ They told him that since his retirement things hadn’t been the same, for his sons were not good men.

“Give us a king like all the other nations have,” they pleaded. ⁶ Samuel was terribly upset and went to the Lord for advice.

⁷ “Do as they say,” the Lord replied, “for I am the one they are rejecting, not you—they don’t want me to be their king any longer. ⁸ Ever since I brought them from Egypt they have continually forsaken me and followed other gods. And now they are giving you the same treatment. ⁹ Do as they ask, but warn them about what it will be like to have a king!”

¹⁰ So Samuel told the people what the Lord had said:

¹¹ “If you insist on having a king, he will conscript your sons and make them run before his chariots; ¹² some will be made to lead his troops into battle, while others will be slave laborers; they will be forced to plow in the royal fields and harvest his crops without pay, and make his weapons and chariot equipment. ¹³ He will take your daughters from you and force them to cook and bake and make perfumes for him. ¹⁴ He will take away the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his friends. ¹⁵ He will take a tenth of your harvest and distribute it to his favorites. ¹⁶ He will demand your slaves and the finest of your youth and will use your animals for his personal gain. ¹⁷ He will demand a tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. ¹⁸ You will shed bitter tears because of this king you are demanding, but the Lord will not help you.”

¹⁹ But the people refused to listen to Samuel’s warning.

“Even so, we still want a king,” they said, ²⁰ “for we want to be like the nations around us. He will govern us and lead us to battle.”

²¹ So Samuel told the Lord what the people had said, ²² and the Lord replied again, “Then do as they say and give them a king.”

So Samuel agreed and sent the men home again.

9 Kish was a rich, influential man from the tribe of Benjamin. He was the son of Abiel, grandson of Zeror, great-grandson of Becorath, and great-great-grandson of Aphiah. ² His son Saul was the most handsome man in Israel. And he was head and shoulders taller than anyone else in the land!

³ One day Kish’s donkeys strayed away, so he sent Saul and a servant to look for them. ⁴ They traveled all through the hill country of Ephraim, the land of Shalisha, the Shaalim area, and the entire land of Benjamin, but couldn’t find them anywhere. ⁵ Finally, after searching in the land of Zuph, Saul said to the servant, “Let’s go home; by now my father will be more worried about us than about the donkeys!”

⁶ But the servant said, “I’ve just thought of something! There is a prophet who lives here in this city; he is held in high honor by all the people because everything he says comes true; let’s go and find him, and perhaps he can tell us where the donkeys are.”

⁷ “But we don’t have anything to pay him with,” Saul replied. “Even our food is gone, and we don’t have a thing to give him.”

⁸ “Well,” the servant said, “I have a dollar! We can at least offer it to him and see what happens!”

^9-11 “All right,” Saul agreed, “let’s try it!”

So they started into the city where the prophet lived. As they were climbing a hill toward the city, they saw some young girls going out to draw water and asked them if they knew whether the seer was in town. (In those days prophets were called seers. “Let’s go and ask the seer,” people would say, rather than, “Let’s go and ask the prophet,” as we would say now.)

^12-13 “Yes,” they replied, “stay right on this road. He lives just inside the city gates. He has just arrived back from a trip to take part in a public sacrifice up on the hill. So hurry, because he’ll probably be leaving about the time you get there; the guests can’t eat until he arrives and blesses the food.”

¹⁴ So they went into the city, and as they were entering the gates they saw Samuel coming out toward them to go up the hill. ¹⁵ The Lord had told Samuel the previous day, ¹⁶ “About this time tomorrow I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin. You are to anoint him as the leader of my people. He will save them from the Philistines, for I have looked down on them in mercy and have heard their cry.”

¹⁷ When Samuel saw Saul, the Lord said, “That’s the man I told you about! He will rule my people.”

¹⁸ Just then Saul approached Samuel and asked, “Can you please tell me where the seer’s house is?”

¹⁹ “I am the seer!” Samuel replied. “Go on up the hill ahead of me and we’ll eat together; in the morning I will tell you what you want to know and send you on your way. ²⁰ And don’t worry about those donkeys that were lost three days ago, for they have been found. And anyway, you own all the wealth of Israel now!”

²¹ “Pardon me, sir,” Saul replied. “I’m from the tribe of Benjamin, the smallest in Israel, and my family is the least important of all the families of the tribe! You must have the wrong man!”

²² Then Samuel took Saul and his servant into the great hall and placed them at the head of the table, honoring them above the thirty special guests. ²³ Samuel then instructed the chef to bring Saul the choicest cut of meat, the piece that had been set aside for the guest of honor. ²⁴ So the chef brought it in and placed it before Saul.

“Go ahead and eat it,” Samuel said, “for I was saving it for you, even before I invited these others!”

So Saul ate with Samuel. ²⁵ After the feast, when they had returned to the city, Samuel took Saul up to the porch on the roof and talked with him there. ^26-27 At daybreak the next morning, Samuel called up to him, “Get up; it’s time you were on your way!”

So Saul got up, and Samuel accompanied him to the edge of the city. When they reached the city walls, Samuel told Saul to send the servant on ahead. Then he told him, “I have received a special message for you from the Lord.”

10 Then Samuel took a flask of olive oil and poured it over Saul’s head, and kissed him on the cheek and said,

“I am doing this because the Lord has appointed you to be the king of his people, Israel! ² When you leave me, you will see two men beside Rachel’s tomb at Zelzah, in the land of Benjamin; they will tell you that the donkeys have been found and that your father is worried about you and is asking, ‘How am I to find my son?’ ³ And when you get to the oak of Tabor, you will see three men coming toward you who are on their way to worship God at the altar at Bethel; one will be bringing three young goats, another will have three loaves of bread, and the third will have a bottle of wine. ⁴ They will greet you and offer you two of the loaves, which you are to accept. ⁵ After that you will come to Gibeath-elohim, also known as “God’s Hill,” where the garrison of the Philistines is. As you arrive there you will meet a band of prophets coming down the hill playing a psaltery, a timbrel, a flute, and a harp, and prophesying as they come.

⁶ “At that time the Spirit of the Lord will come mightily upon you and you will prophesy with them, and you will feel and act like a different person. ⁷ From that time on your decisions should be based on whatever seems best under the circumstances, for the Lord will guide you. ⁸ Go to Gilgal and wait there seven days for me, for I will be coming to sacrifice burnt offerings and peace offerings. I will give you further instructions when I arrive.”

⁹ As Saul said good-bye and started to go, God gave him a new attitude, and all of Samuel’s prophecies came true that day. ¹⁰ When Saul and the servant arrived at the Hill of God, they saw the prophets coming toward them, and the Spirit of God came upon him, and he too began to prophesy.

¹¹ When his friends heard about it, they exclaimed, “What? Saul a prophet?” ¹² And one of the neighbors added, “With a father like his?” So that is the origin of the proverb, “Is Saul a prophet too?”^[d]

¹³ When Saul had finished prophesying he climbed the hill to the altar.

¹⁴ “Where in the world did you go?” Saul’s uncle asked him.

And Saul replied, “We went to look for the donkeys, but we couldn’t find them; so we went to the prophet Samuel to ask him where they were.”

¹⁵ “Oh? And what did he say?” his uncle asked.

¹⁶ “He said the donkeys had been found!” Saul replied. (But he didn’t tell him that he had been anointed as king!)

¹⁷ Samuel now called a convocation of all Israel at Mizpah ^18-19 and gave them this message from the Lord God: “I brought you from Egypt and rescued you from the Egyptians and from all of the nations that were torturing you. But although I have done so much for you, you have rejected me and have said, ‘We want a king instead!’ All right, then, present yourselves before the Lord by tribes and clans.”

²⁰ So Samuel called the tribal leaders together before the Lord, and the tribe of Benjamin was chosen by sacred lot. ²¹ Then he brought each family of the tribe of Benjamin before the Lord, and the family of the Matrites was chosen. And finally the sacred lot selected Saul, the son of Kish. But when they looked for him, he had disappeared!

²² So they asked the Lord, “Where is he? Is he here among us?”

And the Lord replied, “He is hiding in the baggage.”

²³ So they found him and brought him out, and he stood head and shoulders above anyone else.

²⁴ Then Samuel said to all the people, “This is the man the Lord has chosen as your king. There isn’t his equal in all of Israel!”

And all the people shouted, “Long live the king!”

²⁵ Then Samuel told the people again what the rights and duties of a king were; he wrote them in a book and put it in a special place before the Lord. Then Samuel sent the people home again.

²⁶ When Saul returned to his home at Gibeah, a band of men whose hearts the Lord had touched became his constant companions. ²⁷ There were, however, some bums and loafers who exclaimed, “How can this man save us?” And they despised him and refused to bring him presents, but he took no notice.

11 At this time Nahash led the army of the Ammonites against the Israeli city of Jabesh-gilead. But the citizens of Jabesh asked for peace. “Leave us alone and we will be your servants,” they pleaded.

² “All right,” Nahash said, “but only on one condition: I will gouge out the right eye of every one of you as a disgrace upon all Israel!”

³ “Give us seven days to see if we can get some help!” replied the elders of Jabesh. “If none of our brothers will come and save us, we will agree to your terms.”

⁴ When a messenger came to Gibeah, Saul’s hometown, and told the people about their plight, everyone broke into tears.

⁵ Saul was plowing in the field, and when he returned to town he asked, “What’s the matter? Why is everyone crying?”

So they told him about the message from Jabesh. ⁶ Then the Spirit of God came strongly upon Saul and he became very angry. ⁷ He took two oxen and cut them into pieces and sent messengers to carry them throughout all Israel.

“This is what will happen to the oxen of anyone who refuses to follow Saul and Samuel to battle!” he announced. And God caused the people to be afraid of Saul’s anger, and they came to him as one man. ⁸ He counted them in Bezek and found that there were three hundred thousand of them in addition to thirty thousand from Judah.

⁹ So he sent the messengers back to Jabesh-gilead to say, “We will rescue you before tomorrow noon!” What joy there was throughout the city when that message arrived!

¹⁰ The men of Jabesh then told their enemies, “We surrender. Tomorrow we will come out to you and you can do to us as you wish.”

¹¹ But early the next morning Saul arrived, having divided his army into three detachments, and launched a surprise attack against the Ammonites and slaughtered them all morning. The remnant of their army was so badly scattered that no two of them were left together.

¹² Then the people exclaimed to Samuel, “Where are those men who said that Saul shouldn’t be our king? Bring them here and we will kill them!”

¹³ But Saul replied, “No one will be executed today; for today the Lord has rescued Israel!”

¹⁴ Then Samuel said to the people, “Come, let us all go to Gilgal and reconfirm Saul as our king.”

¹⁵ So they went to Gilgal and in a solemn ceremony before the Lord they crowned him king. Then they offered peace offerings to the Lord, and Saul and all Israel were very happy.

12 Then Samuel addressed the people again:

“Look,” he said, “I have done as you asked. I have given you a king. ² I have selected him ahead of my own sons and now I stand here, an old, gray-haired man who has been in public service from the time he was a lad. ³ Now tell me as I stand before the Lord and before his anointed king—whose ox or donkey have I stolen? Have I ever defrauded you? Have I ever oppressed you? Have I ever taken a bribe? Tell me and I will make right whatever I have done wrong.”

⁴ “No,” they replied, “you have never defrauded or oppressed us in any way and you have never taken even one single bribe.”

⁵ “The Lord and his anointed king are my witnesses,” Samuel declared, “that you can never accuse me of robbing you.”

“Yes, it is true,” they replied.

⁶ “It was the Lord who appointed Moses and Aaron,” Samuel continued. “He brought your ancestors out of the land of Egypt.

⁷ “Now stand here quietly before the Lord as I remind you of all the good things he has done for you and for your ancestors:

⁸ “When the Israelites were in Egypt and cried out to the Lord, he sent Moses and Aaron to bring them into this land. ⁹ But they soon forgot about the Lord their God, so he let them be conquered by Sisera, the general of King Hazor’s army, and by the Philistines and the king of Moab.

¹⁰ “Then they cried to the Lord again and confessed that they had sinned by turning away from him and worshiping the Baal and Ashtaroth idols. And they pleaded, ‘We will worship you and you alone if you will only rescue us from our enemies.’ ¹¹ Then the Lord sent Gideon, Barak, Jephthah, and Samuel to save you, and you lived in safety.

¹² “But when you were afraid of Nahash, the king of Ammon, you came to me and said that you wanted a king to reign over you. But the Lord your God was already your King, for he has always been your King. ¹³ All right, here is the king you have chosen. Look him over. You have asked for him, and the Lord has answered your request.

¹⁴ “Now if you will fear and worship the Lord, and listen to his commandments and not rebel against the Lord, and if both you and your king follow the Lord your God, then all will be well. ¹⁵ But if you rebel against the Lord’s commandments and refuse to listen to him, then his hand will be as heavy upon you as it was upon your ancestors.

¹⁶ “Now watch as the Lord does great miracles. ¹⁷ You know that it does not rain at this time of the year, during the wheat harvest; I will pray for the Lord to send thunder and rain today, so that you will realize the extent of your wickedness in asking for a king!”

¹⁸ So Samuel called to the Lord, and the Lord sent thunder and rain; and all the people were very much afraid of the Lord and of Samuel.

¹⁹ “Pray for us lest we die!” they cried out to Samuel. “For now we have added to all our other sins by asking for a king.”

²⁰ “Don’t be frightened,” Samuel reassured them. “You have certainly done wrong, but make sure now that you worship the Lord with true enthusiasm, and that you don’t turn your back on him in any way. ²¹ Other gods can’t help you. ²² The Lord will not abandon his chosen people, for that would dishonor his great name. He made you a special nation for himself—just because he wanted to!

²³ “As for me, I will certainly not sin against the Lord by ending my prayers for you; and I will continue to teach you those things which are good and right.

²⁴ “Trust the Lord and sincerely worship him; think of all the tremendous things he has done for you. ²⁵ But if you continue to sin, you and your king will be destroyed.”

13 By this time Saul had reigned for one year.^[e] In the second year of his reign, ² he selected three thousand special troops and took two thousand of them with him to Michmash and Mount Bethel while the other thousand remained with Jonathan, Saul’s son, in Gibeah in the land of Benjamin. The rest of the army was sent home. ^3-4 Then Jonathan attacked and destroyed the garrison of the Philistines at Geba. The news spread quickly throughout the land of the Philistines, and Saul sounded the call to arms throughout Israel. He announced that he had destroyed the Philistine garrison and warned his men that the army of Israel stank to high heaven as far as the Philistines were concerned. So the entire Israeli army mobilized again and joined at Gilgal. ⁵ The Philistines recruited a mighty army of three thousand chariots, six thousand horsemen, and so many soldiers that they were as thick as sand along the seashore; and they camped at Michmash east of Beth-aven.

⁶ When the men of Israel saw the vast mass of enemy troops, they lost their nerve entirely and tried to hide in caves, thickets, coverts, among the rocks, and even in tombs and cisterns. ⁷ Some of them crossed the Jordan River and escaped to the land of Gad and Gilead. Meanwhile, Saul stayed at Gilgal, and those who were with him trembled with fear at what awaited them. ⁸ Samuel had told Saul earlier to wait seven days for his arrival, but when he still didn’t come, and Saul’s troops were rapidly slipping away, ⁹ he decided to sacrifice the burnt offering and the peace offerings himself. ¹⁰ But just as he was finishing, Samuel arrived. Saul went out to meet him and to receive his blessing, ¹¹ but Samuel said, “What is this you have done?”

“Well,” Saul replied, “when I saw that my men were scattering from me, and that you hadn’t arrived by the time you said you would, and that the Philistines were at Michmash, ready for battle, ¹² I said, ‘The Philistines are ready to march against us and I haven’t even asked for the Lord’s help!’ So I reluctantly offered the burnt offering without waiting for you to arrive.”

¹³ “You fool!” Samuel exclaimed. “You have disobeyed the commandment of the Lord your God. He was planning to make you and your descendants kings of Israel forever, ¹⁴ but now your dynasty must end; for the Lord wants a man who will obey him. And he has discovered the man he wants and has already appointed him as king over his people; for you have not obeyed the Lord’s commandment.”

¹⁵ Samuel then left Gilgal and went to Gibeah in the land of Benjamin.

When Saul counted the soldiers who were still with him, he found only six hundred left! ¹⁶ Saul and Jonathan and these six hundred men set up their camp in Geba in the land of Benjamin; but the Philistines stayed at Michmash. ¹⁷ Three companies of raiders soon left the camp of the Philistines; one went toward Ophrah in the land of Shual, ¹⁸ another went to Beth-horon, and the third moved toward the border above the valley of Zeboim near the desert.

¹⁹ There were no blacksmiths at all in the land of Israel in those days, for the Philistines wouldn’t allow them for fear of their making swords and spears for the Hebrews. ²⁰ So whenever the Israelites needed to sharpen their plowshares, discs, axes, or sickles, they had to take them to a Philistine blacksmith. ²¹ The schedule of charges was as follows:

²² So there was not a single sword or spear in the entire “army” of Israel that day, except for Saul’s and Jonathan’s. ²³ The mountain pass at Michmash had meanwhile been secured by a contingent of the Philistine army.

14 A day or so later, Prince Jonathan said to his young bodyguard, “Come on, let’s cross the valley to the garrison of the Philistines.” But he didn’t tell his father that he was leaving.

² Saul and his six hundred men were camped at the edge of Gibeah, around the pomegranate tree at Migron. ³ Among his men was Ahijah the priest (the son of Ahitub, Ichabod’s brother; Ahitub was the son of Phinehas and the grandson of Eli, the priest of the Lord in Shiloh).

No one realized that Jonathan had gone. ⁴ To reach the Philistine garrison, Jonathan had to go over a narrow pass between two rocky crags which had been named Bozez and Seneh. ⁵ The crag on the north was in front of Michmash and the southern one was in front of Geba.

⁶ “Yes, let’s go across to those heathen,” Jonathan had said to his bodyguard. “Perhaps the Lord will do a miracle for us. For it makes no difference to him how many enemy troops there are!”

⁷ “Fine!” the youth replied. “Do as you think best; I’m with you heart and soul, whatever you decide.”

⁸ “All right, then this is what we’ll do,” Jonathan told him. ⁹ “When they see us, if they say, ‘Stay where you are or we’ll kill you!’ then we will stop and wait for them. ¹⁰ But if they say, ‘Come on up and fight!’ then we will do just that; for it will be God’s signal that he will help us defeat them!”

¹¹ When the Philistines saw them coming they shouted, “Look! The Israelis are crawling out of their holes!” ¹² Then they shouted to Jonathan, “Come on up here and we’ll show you how to fight!”

“Come on, climb right behind me,” Jonathan exclaimed to his bodyguard, “for the Lord will help us defeat them!”

¹³ So they clambered up on their hands and knees, and the Philistines fell back as Jonathan and the lad killed them right and left, ¹⁴ about twenty men in all, and their bodies were scattered over about half an acre of land. ¹⁵ Suddenly panic broke out throughout the entire Philistine army, and even among the raiders. And just then there was a great earthquake, increasing the terror.

¹⁶ Saul’s lookouts in Gibeah saw a strange sight—the vast army of the Philistines began to melt away in all directions.

¹⁷ “Find out who isn’t here,” Saul ordered. And when they had checked, they found that Jonathan and his bodyguard were gone. ¹⁸ “Bring the Ark of God,” Saul shouted to Ahijah. (For the Ark was among the people of Israel at that time.) ¹⁹ But while Saul was talking to the priest, the shouting and the tumult in the camp of the Philistines grew louder and louder. “Quick! What does God say?” Saul demanded.

²⁰ Then Saul and his six hundred men rushed out to the battle and found the Philistines killing each other, and there was terrible confusion everywhere. ²¹ And now the Hebrews who had been drafted into the Philistine army revolted and joined with the Israelis. ²² Finally even the men hiding in the hills joined the chase when they saw that the Philistines were running away. ²³ So the Lord saved Israel that day, and the battle continued out beyond Beth-aven.

^24-25 Saul had declared, “A curse upon anyone who eats anything before evening—before I have full revenge on my enemies.” So no one ate anything all day, even though they found honeycomb on the ground in the forest, ²⁶ for they all feared Saul’s curse. ²⁷ Jonathan, however, had not heard his father’s command; so he dipped a stick into a honeycomb, and when he had eaten the honey he felt much better. ²⁸ Then someone told him that his father had laid a curse upon anyone who ate food that day, and everyone was weary and faint as a result.

²⁹ “That’s ridiculous!” Jonathan exclaimed. “A command like that only hurts us. See how much better I feel now that I have eaten this little bit of honey. ³⁰ If the people had been allowed to eat freely from the food they found among our enemies, think how many more we could have slaughtered!”

³¹ But hungry as they were, they chased and killed the Philistines all day from Michmash to Aijalon, growing more and more faint. ³² That evening^[f] they flew upon the battle loot and butchered the sheep, oxen, and calves, and ate the raw, bloody meat. ³³ Someone reported to Saul what was happening, that the people were sinning against the Lord by eating blood.

“That is very wrong,” Saul said. “Roll a great stone over here, ³⁴ and go out among the troops and tell them to bring the oxen and sheep here to kill and drain them, and not to sin against the Lord by eating the blood.” So that is what they did.

³⁵ And Saul built an altar to the Lord—his first.

³⁶ Afterwards Saul said, “Let’s chase the Philistines all night and destroy every last one of them.”

“Fine!” his men replied. “Do as you think best.”

But the priest said, “Let’s ask God first.”

³⁷ So Saul asked God, “Shall we go after the Philistines? Will you help us defeat them?” But the Lord made no reply all night.

³⁸ Then Saul said to the leaders, “Something’s wrong!^[g] We must find out what sin was committed today. ³⁹ I vow by the name of the God who saved Israel that though the sinner be my own son Jonathan, he shall surely die!” But no one would tell him what the trouble was.

⁴⁰ Then Saul proposed, “Jonathan and I will stand over here, and all of you stand over there.” And the people agreed.

⁴¹ Then Saul said, “O Lord God of Israel, why haven’t you answered my question? What is wrong? Are Jonathan and I guilty, or is the sin among the others? O Lord God, show us who is guilty.” And Jonathan and Saul were chosen by sacred lot as the guilty ones, and the people were declared innocent.

⁴² Then Saul said, “Now draw lots between me and Jonathan.” And Jonathan was chosen as the guilty one.

⁴³ “Tell me what you’ve done,” Saul demanded of Jonathan.

“I tasted a little honey,” Jonathan admitted. “It was only a little bit on the end of a stick; but now I must die.”

⁴⁴ “Yes, Jonathan,” Saul said, “you must die; may God strike me dead if you are not executed for this.”

⁴⁵ But the troops retorted, “Jonathan, who saved Israel today, shall die? Far from it! We vow by the life of God that not one hair on his head will be touched, for he has been used of God to do a mighty miracle today.” So the people rescued Jonathan.

⁴⁶ Then Saul called back the army, and the Philistines returned home. ⁴⁷ And now, since he was securely in the saddle as king of Israel, Saul sent the Israeli army out in every direction against Moab, Ammon, Edom, the kings of Zobah, and the Philistines. And wherever he turned, he was successful. ⁴⁸ He did great deeds and conquered the Amalekites and saved Israel from all those who had been their conquerors.

⁴⁹ Saul had three sons, Jonathan, Ishvi, and Malchishua; and two daughters, Merab and Michal. ^50-51 Saul’s wife was Ahinoam, the daughter of Ahimaaz. And the general-in-chief of his army was his cousin Abner, his uncle Ner’s son. (Abner’s father, Ner, and Saul’s father, Kish, were brothers; both were the sons of Abiel.)

⁵² The Israelis fought constantly with the Philistines throughout Saul’s lifetime. And whenever Saul saw any brave, strong young man, he conscripted him into his army.

15 One day Samuel said to Saul, “I crowned you king of Israel because God told me to. Now be sure that you obey him. ² Here is his commandment to you: ‘I have decided to settle accounts with the nation of Amalek for refusing to allow my people to cross their territory when Israel came from Egypt. ³ Now go and completely destroy the entire Amalek nation—men, women, babies, little children, oxen, sheep, camels, and donkeys.’”

⁴ So Saul mobilized his army at Telaim. There were two hundred thousand troops in addition to ten thousand men from Judah. ⁵ The Amalekites were camped in the valley below them. ⁶ Saul sent a message to the Kenites, telling them to get out from among the Amalekites or else die with them. “For you were kind to the people of Israel when they came out of the land of Egypt,” he explained. So the Kenites packed up and left.

⁷ Then Saul butchered the Amalekites from Havilah all the way to Shur, east of Egypt. ⁸ He captured Agag, the king of the Amalekites, but killed everyone else. ⁹ However, Saul and his men kept the best of the sheep and oxen and the fattest of the lambs—everything, in fact, that appealed to them. They destroyed only what was worthless or of poor quality.

¹⁰ Then the Lord said to Samuel, ¹¹ “I am sorry that I ever made Saul king, for he has again refused to obey me.”

Samuel was so deeply moved when he heard what God was saying, that he cried to the Lord all night. ¹² Early the next morning he went out to find Saul. Someone said that he had gone to Mount Carmel to erect a monument to himself and had then gone on to Gilgal. ¹³ When Samuel finally found him, Saul greeted him cheerfully.

“Hello there,” he said. “Well, I have carried out the Lord’s command!”

¹⁴ “Then what was all the bleating of sheep and lowing of oxen I heard?” Samuel demanded.

¹⁵ “It’s true that the army spared the best of the sheep and oxen,” Saul admitted, “but they are going to sacrifice them to the Lord your God; and we have destroyed everything else.”

¹⁶ Then Samuel said to Saul, “Stop! Listen to what the Lord told me last night!”

“What was it?” Saul asked.

¹⁷ And Samuel told him, “When you didn’t think much of yourself, God made you king of Israel. ¹⁸ And he sent you on an errand and told you, ‘Go and completely destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, until they are all dead.’ ¹⁹ Then why didn’t you obey the Lord? Why did you rush for the loot and do exactly what God said not to?”

²⁰ “But I have obeyed the Lord,” Saul insisted. “I did what he told me to; and I brought King Agag but killed everyone else. ²¹ And it was only when my troops demanded it that I let them keep the best of the sheep and oxen and loot to sacrifice to the Lord.”

²² Samuel replied, “Has the Lord as much pleasure in your burnt offerings and sacrifices as in your obedience? Obedience is far better than sacrifice. He is much more interested in your listening to him than in your offering the fat of rams to him. ²³ For rebellion is as bad as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as bad as worshiping idols. And now because you have rejected the word of Jehovah, he has rejected you from being king.”

²⁴ “I have sinned,” Saul finally admitted. “Yes, I have disobeyed your instructions and the command of the Lord, for I was afraid of the people and did what they demanded. ²⁵ Oh, please pardon my sin now and go with me to worship the Lord.”

²⁶ But Samuel replied, “It’s no use! Since you have rejected the commandment of the Lord, he has rejected you from being the king of Israel.”

²⁷ As Samuel turned to go, Saul grabbed at him to try to hold him back and tore his robe.

²⁸ And Samuel said to him, “See? The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to a countryman of yours who is better than you are. ²⁹ And he who is the glory of Israel is not lying, nor will he change his mind, for he is not a man!”

³⁰ Then Saul pleaded again, “I have sinned; but oh, at least honor me before the leaders and before my people by going with me to worship the Lord your God.”

³¹ So Samuel finally agreed and went with him.

³² Then Samuel said, “Bring King Agag to me.” Agag arrived all full of smiles, for he thought, “Surely the worst is over and I have been spared!” ³³ But Samuel said, “As your sword has killed the sons of many mothers, now your mother shall be childless.” And Samuel chopped him in pieces before the Lord at Gilgal. ³⁴ Then Samuel went home to Ramah, and Saul returned to Gibeah. ³⁵ Samuel never saw Saul again, but he mourned constantly for him; and the Lord was sorry that he had ever made Saul king of Israel.