Whatever mission Saul sent him on, David was so successful that Saul gave him a high rank in the army. This pleased all the troops, and Saul’s officers as well.When the men were returning home after David had killed the Philistine, the women came out from all the towns of Israel to meet King Saul with singing and dancing, with joyful songs and timbrels and lyres. As they danced, they sang: “Saul h...  Read More

As soon as David returned from killing the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul, with David still holding the Philistine’s head.“Whose son are you, young man?” Saul asked him. David said, “I am the son of your servant Jesse of Bethlehem.”After David had finished talking with Saul, Jonathan became one in spirit with David, and he loved him as himself. From that day Saul kept David...  Read More

As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead.  The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground.So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and ki...  Read More

Meanwhile, the Philistine, with his shield bearer in front of him, kept coming closer to David.  . . . and he despised him.  . . .  And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. “Come here,” he said, “and I’ll give your flesh to the birds and the wild animals!”David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty...  Read More

David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go out and fight him.” Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth.”But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the f...  Read More

David asked the men standing near him, “What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the Living God?” . . . When Eliab, David’s older brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger at him and asked, “Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those ...  Read More