Immerse: Kingdoms Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 147
1S
| 30:21–31:9
S am u el – K I N G S
135
Then David returned to the brook Besor and met up with the 200 men
who had been left behind because they were too exhausted to go with him.
They went out to meet David and his men, and David greeted them joyfully. But some evil troublemakers among David’s men said, “They didn’t
go with us, so they can’t have any of the plunder we recovered. Give them
their wives and children, and tell them to be gone.”
But David said, “No, my brothers! Don’t be selfish with what the Lord
has given us. He has kept us safe and helped us defeat the band of raiders
that attacked us. Who will listen when you talk like this? We share and
share a like—those who go to battle and those who guard the equipment.”
From then on David made this a decree and regulation for Israel, and it is
still followed today.
When he arrived at Ziklag, David sent part of the plunder to the elders
of Judah, who were his friends. “Here is a present for you, taken from the
Lord’s enemies,” he said.
The gifts were sent to the people of the following towns Dav id had
v isited: Bethel, Ramoth-negev, Jattir, Aroer, Siphmoth, Eshtemoa,
R acal, the towns of the Jerahmeelites, the towns of the Kenites, Hormah,
Bor-ashan, Athach, Hebron, and all the other places David and his men
had visited.
Now the Philistines attacked Israel, and the men of Israel fled before
them. Many were slaughtered on the slopes of Mount Gilboa. The Phi
listines closed in on Saul and his sons, and they killed three of his s ons—
Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malkishua. The fighting grew very fierce around
Saul, and the Philistine archers caught up with him and wounded him
severely.
Saul groaned to his armor bearer, “Take your sword and kill me before
these pagan Philistines come to run me through and taunt and torture me.”
But his armor bearer was afraid and would not do it. So Saul took his
own sword and fell on it. When his armor bearer realized that Saul was
dead, he fell on his own sword and died beside the king. So Saul, his three
sons, his armor bearer, and his troops all died together that same day.
When the Israelites on the other side of the Jezreel Valley and beyond
the Jordan saw that the Israelite army had fled and that Saul and his sons
were dead, they abandoned their towns and fled. So the Philistines moved
in and occupied their towns.
The next day, when the Philistines went out to strip the dead, they found
the bodies of Saul and his three sons on Mount Gilboa. So they cut off
Saul’s head and stripped off his armor. Then they proclaimed the good
news of Saul’s death in their pagan temple and to the people throughout