David

David asked him, "Will you lead me down to this raiding party?" He said, "If you will swear by God to me that you won't kill me or hand me back to my master, I will lead you down to the raiders."

David attacked them from dawn until the evening of the next day. Not one of them escaped, except for 400 young men who jumped on camels and got away.

David recovered all that the 'Amaleki had taken; he also rescued his two wives.

They found nothing missing, big or little - not sons, not daughters, not plundered goods or anything else they had taken - David brought it all back.

David took all the flocks and herds and drove them ahead of their own livestock, announcing, "This is David's spoil."

David came to where the two hundred men were who had been too exhausted to follow him, whom they had let stay at Vadi B'sor. They came out to meet David and the people with him. When David approached them he greeted them.

But some of the men who had gone with David were evil men, scoundrels; and they said, "They didn't go with us, so we're not giving them any of the property we've recovered. Each man can take his wife and children and leave."

Then David said, "No, my brothers, don't do this with the goods ADONAI has given us. He protected us, and he handed the raiding party over to us.

When David came to Ziklag, he sent some of the spoil to the leaders of Y'hudah who were his friends with a note, "Here is a present for you from the spoil of the enemies of ADONAI."

to those in Hevron, and to all the places where David and his men had frequently visited.

Sha'ul had died, and David had been two days in Ziklag after returning from the slaughter of the 'Amaleki.

On the third day, there came a man from Sha'ul's camp with his clothes torn and earth on his head. He approached David, fell to the ground and prostrated himself.

David said to him, "Where are you coming from?""I escaped from the camp of Isra'el," he replied.

"Tell me, please, how did things go?" asked David. "The people have fled the battle," he answered, "and many of them are wounded or dead. Sha'ul and Y'honatan his son are dead too."

David asked the young man who had told him this, "How do you know that Sha'ul and Y'honatan his son are dead?"

Then David took hold of his clothes and tore them, and likewise all the men who were with him.

David said to the young man who had told him, "Where are you from?" He answered, "I'm the son of a [resident] foreigner, an 'Amaleki."

David asked him, "How is it that you weren't afraid to raise your hand to destroy ADONAI's anointed?"

David called one of his young men and said, "Go over to him, and kill him." The man struck him down, and he died.

David said to him, "Your blood is on your own head. Your own mouth convicted you when you said, 'I killed ADONAI's anointed.'"

Then David pronounced this lament over Sha'ul and over Y'honatan his son,

After this, David consulted ADONAI; he asked, "Should I go up into any of the cities of Y'hudah?"ADONAI said to him, "Go up." David asked, "Where should I go up?" He said, "To Hevron."

So David went up there with his two wives Achino'am from Yizre'el and Avigayil the widow of Naval from Karmel.

David brought the men up with him, each with his household; and they lived in the cities of Hevron.

Then the men of Y'hudah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Y'hudah. They informed David that the men of Yavesh-Gil'ad were the ones who had buried Sha'ul.