The Daily Audio Bible

The Philistine leaders will not have David in their army

29 The Philistine army put up their tents at Aphek. The Israelites made their camp near the spring of water at Jezreel. ² The Philistine rulers marched out with their groups of soldiers. They were in groups of 100 soldiers and 1,000 soldiers. David and his men were marching with King Achish at the back of the army. ³ The Philistine leaders asked, ‘Why are these Hebrew people here?’

Achish said to them, ‘This is David. He was the servant of Israel's King Saul. But he came to me more than a year ago. Since he turned against King Saul and came to me, he has always been faithful to me.’

⁴ But the Philistine leaders were angry with Achish. They said to him, ‘Send David back to the town that you gave to him. He must not go with us to fight the battle. He might turn against us and become our enemy. Then he would start to kill our own soldiers. That would make his master, Saul, very happy! ⁵ Remember who this man David is! The Israelites sing this about him when they dance:

⁶ So Achish called David to come to him. He said, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, I know that I can trust you. I would like you to go with me to fight the battle. Since the first day that you came to me, I have never found anything wrong with you. But the other leaders do not trust you. ⁷ So return to your home and have peace in your mind. Do not do anything that will make the other Philistine leaders angry.’

⁸ David said to King Achish, ‘What have I done that is wrong? You say that you have found nothing wrong with me all the time that I have been with you. You are my master and king. So why should I not go with you to fight your enemies?’

⁹ Achish replied, ‘I believe that you are as good as an angel from God. But the Philistine leaders have said, “David must not go with us to fight the battle.” ¹⁰ So you must all get up early tomorrow morning. As soon as there is light at dawn, you must leave with the men who came with you.’

¹¹ So David and his men got up early in the morning. They returned along the road back to Ziklag. The Philistine army went to Jezreel.

David fights against the Amalekites

30 David and his men arrived at Ziklag three days after they left King Achish. They found that the Amalekites had attacked Ziklag and towns in the south of Judah. The Amalekites had destroyed Ziklag with fire. ² They had caught the women and the other people who were in the town, both young people and old people. They did not kill any of them, but they took them away as prisoners.^[a]

³ So when David and his men arrived at Ziklag, they saw that the Amalekites had destroyed the city. The Amalekites had taken away their wives, their sons and their daughters as prisoners. ⁴ David and his men wept loudly. They continued to weep until they had no strength to weep any more. ⁵ The Amalekites had taken both of David's wives: Ahinoam from Jezreel and Abigail from Carmel, who was Nabal's widow. ⁶ David was very upset because his men were complaining. They wanted to kill him with stones. His men were very upset because they had lost their sons and their daughters. But David trusted the Lord his God to make him strong.

⁷ Then David spoke to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech's son. David said to him, ‘Bring the priests' ephod to me.’ So Abiathar took the ephod to David. ⁸ David asked the Lord, ‘Should I chase after the men who attacked our town? Will I catch them?’

The Lord answered, ‘Yes, chase after them and you will certainly catch them. You will rescue your families.’^[b]

^9-10 So David and his 600 men left Ziklag. They arrived at Besor stream. Some of the men were too tired to go across the valley. So 200 men remained there.^[c] David and the other 400 men continued to chase after the Amalekites.

¹¹ David's men found an Egyptian man in a field. They took him to David. They gave the man some water to drink and food to eat. ¹² They gave him some dried figs and some raisins. Then he became stronger, because he had not eaten any food or drunk any water for three days.

¹³ David asked the man, ‘Who is your master? Where do you come from?’

The young man answered, ‘I am an Egyptian, the slave of an Amalekite man. My master left me here three days ago because I was ill. ¹⁴ We had attacked the south part of Judah, where the Kerethites live.^[d] We also attacked the land where the people of Caleb's clan live. We destroyed Ziklag with fire too.’

¹⁵ David said to him, ‘Can you take me to find these men?’

The man said, ‘Please promise me in God's name that you will not kill me. Promise me that you will not take me back to my master. If you do that, I will lead you to find them.’

¹⁶ So the Egyptian man took David to find the Amalekites. The men were sitting everywhere, all over the ground. They were having a party, eating and drinking. They were happy because they had taken so many things from the towns of the Philistines and from the people in Judah.

¹⁷ That evening, David attacked the Amalekites. The fight continued until the next evening. David and his men killed all the Amalekites except for 400 young men. Those 400 men rode away on their camels. ¹⁸ David got back everything that the Amalekites had taken. And he rescued his two wives. ¹⁹ The people had lost nothing. David brought everyone back, the young people and the old people, the sons and the daughters. He brought back all the valuable things and everything that the Amalekites had taken. ²⁰ David took all the sheep, goats and cows from the Amalekites. His men led these animals in front of the other animals. They said, ‘These animals will belong to David!’

²¹ David returned to the 200 men who had stayed beside the Besor stream. These men had been too tired to go with David. They came to meet David and the men who were with him. When David met them, he happily said ‘hello’ to them. ²² But some of the men who had gone with David were wicked and stupid. They said, ‘These men did not come with us to attack the Amalekites. So we will not give them any of the things that we have brought back. Each man can have only his wife and his children. Then they must take them back home.’

²³ David said, ‘No, my brothers. You cannot do that. The Lord has given all these things to us. He has kept us safe. He has helped us to win against the enemies who attacked us. ²⁴ Nobody will agree with what you say. Each person will receive an equal part. The men who stayed here with our things and the men who went to fight will all receive the same amount.’

²⁵ David made this a rule for the Israelites, and they still obey it.

²⁶ David arrived back at Ziklag with all the things that they had taken from the Amalekites. He sent some of the things to the leaders of Judah who were his friends. David sent this message, ‘Here is a gift for you. We took these things from the Lord's enemies.’

²⁷ David sent gifts to the leaders in these towns:

David also sent gifts to the people in the towns that he and his men had visited.

Saul and his sons die in the battle

31 The Philistines fought against the Israelites. The Israelites ran away, and the Philistines killed many of them on Gilboa mountain. ² The Philistines chased after Saul and his sons to catch them. They killed Saul's sons, Jonathan, Abinadab and Malki-Shua.

³ The Philistines were fighting the battle all around Saul. Some of their soldiers saw Saul and they shot their arrows at him. The arrows hurt Saul very much and he was nearly dead. ⁴ He said to the young man who carried his armour, ‘Kill me now with your sword. I do not want these foreign men to be cruel to me as they kill me.’ But the young man would not agree to kill Saul because he was too afraid. So Saul took his own sword and he threw himself onto it so that he died. ⁵ The young man saw that Saul was dead. So he threw himself onto his own sword and he also died.

⁶ So Saul died there, with his three sons. The young man who carried Saul's armour and all Saul's men died too.

⁷ The Israelites who lived in the Jezreel valley and on the other side of the Jordan River saw what happened. They saw that the Israelite army had run away from the Philistines. They saw that Saul and his sons were dead. So they left their towns and they ran away. Then the Philistines came to live in those towns.

⁸ The day after the battle, the Philistines came to take all the valuable things from the dead soldiers. They found the dead bodies of Saul and his three sons on Gilboa mountain. ⁹ They cut off Saul's head and they removed his armour. Then they sent men through all the country of the Philistines with the news of Saul's death. These men told the news everywhere that the Philistine people lived and in the temples of their idols. ¹⁰ They put Saul's armour in the temple of their god Ashtoreth. Then they hung Saul's dead body on the wall of Beth Shan town.^[e]

¹¹ The Israelites who lived in Jabesh Gilead heard about what the Philistines had done to Saul's body.^{[f] 12} So all their brave soldiers left Jabesh Gilead and they marched all night to Beth Shan. They removed the dead bodies of Saul and his sons from the town's wall. Then they took them to Jabesh Gilead. They burned the dead bodies there. ¹³ Then they took the bones and they buried them under a tamarisk tree at Jabesh Gilead. The men did not eat any food for seven days because they were so sad.

⁵⁵ It was almost time for the Jewish Passover Festival to begin. Many people were going from their country places to Jerusalem. They were going there to make themselves clean in front of God before they went to the festival. ⁵⁶ They were continuing to look for Jesus. While they stood in the yard of the temple, they spoke to each other about him. They asked each other, ‘Do you think that he will come to the festival or not?’ ⁵⁷ The leaders of the priests and the Pharisees had spoken to the people about Jesus. They had told them, ‘If anyone knows where Jesus is, you must tell us.’ So then they could take hold of him to put him in a prison.

Jesus at Bethany

12 Six days before the Passover festival, Jesus went to Bethany, the village where Lazarus lived. He was the man who had been dead, but Jesus had raised him. ² Some friends prepared a special meal there for Jesus. Martha gave out the food, and Lazarus sat among the visitors, with Jesus. ³ Then Mary brought a pound of very expensive oil that had a very nice smell. They used nard to make it. She poured it over Jesus' feet and then she made his feet dry again with her hair. The nice smell of the oil filled the whole house.

⁴ Judas Iscariot, one of Jesus' disciples, was there. He was the man who would sell Jesus to Jesus' enemies. ⁵ Judas said, ‘We could have sold this oil for 300 coins. That is as much money as someone would get for a year's work. Then we could have given that money to poor people.’ ⁶ He did not say this because he really wanted to help the poor people. No, he said it because he wanted the money himself. He kept the bag of money and sometimes he took money from it for himself. ⁷ But Jesus said, ‘Do not stop her! She has kept this oil safe until now. She wanted it for the day when they will bury my dead body. ⁸ You will always have poor people with you. But you will not always have me with you.’

⁹ By this time, a large crowd of Jews had heard the news that Jesus was at Bethany. So they came there to see him. They came also to see Lazarus, because Jesus had made him alive again. ¹⁰ So the leaders of the priests decided to kill not only Jesus, but Lazarus too. ¹¹ They wanted to do that because many Jews now refused to obey them. Instead, these Jews believed in Jesus because of what he had done for Lazarus.

Jesus goes into Jerusalem

¹² The next day, a large crowd of people were in Jerusalem for the festival. They heard the news that Jesus was on the way there. ¹³ So they took branches from palm trees and they went out to meet Jesus. They were shouting, ‘We praise God! May the Lord God bless the king who comes with his authority. May he bless the king of Israel!’ ¹⁴ Jesus found a young donkey, and he sat on it. This happened in the way that was written in the Bible long ago:

¹⁶ Jesus' disciples did not understand all this at that time. They understood only after Jesus had returned to God in heaven. Then they remembered that someone had written these things about him in the Bible. And they remembered that these things had now really happened to him. ¹⁷ The crowd that had been with Jesus before at Bethany continued to tell people about Lazarus. They said, ‘Jesus told Lazarus that he should come out of the hole in the rock. He made Lazarus alive again after he had died and his body had been put in there.’ ¹⁸ That is why many people came to meet Jesus. They had heard that he had done this miracle. ¹⁹ So the Pharisees said to each other, ‘This is not what we wanted.^[b] Look! All the people in the world have left us to go with him!’

God is good, so thank him^[a]