Daily Text and Bible Reading: Tuesday, April 1 [Press play below]

17.1 And the Philistines assembled their armies for war. They assembled at Socoh, which belongs to Judah, and they camped between Socoh and Azekah, in Ephes-dammim.
17.2 Saul and the men of Israel assembled and camped in the Valley of Elah, and they drew up in battle formation to meet the Philistines.
17.3 The Philistines occupied the mountain on one side, and the Israelites occupied the mountain on the other side, with the valley between them.
17.4 Then a champion came out from the camps of the Philistines; his name was Goliath, from Gath, and his height was six cubits and a span.
17.5 He had a helmet of copper on his head, and he was wearing a coat of mail of overlapping scales. The weight of the copper coat of mail was 5,000 shekels.
17.6 He had shin guards of copper on his legs and a javelin of copper slung between his shoulders.
17.7 The wooden shaft of his spear was like the beam of loom workers, and the iron blade of his spear weighed 600 shekels; and his shield-bearer was marching ahead of him.
17.8 Then he stood and called out to the battle line of Israel and said to them: “Why have you come out to draw up in battle formation? Am I not the Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me.
17.9 If he is able to fight with me and strike me down, we will then become your servants. But if I prevail against him and strike him down, you will become our servants and serve us.”
17.10 The Philistine then said: “I do taunt the battle line of Israel this day. Give me a man, and let us fight it out!”
17.11 When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they became terrified and greatly afraid.
17.12 Now David was the son of the Ephrathite from Bethlehem of Judah named Jesse, who had eight sons and who in the days of Saul was already an old man.
17.13 The three oldest sons of Jesse had followed Saul to the war. The names of his three sons who went to war were Eliab the firstborn, his second son Abinadab, and the third Shammah.
17.14 David was the youngest, and the three oldest followed Saul.
17.15 David was going back and forth from Saul to tend the sheep of his father at Bethlehem.
17.16 Meanwhile, the Philistine would come forward and take his position each morning and each evening for 40 days.
17.17 Then Jesse said to his son David: “Take, please, this ephah of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread, and carry them quickly to your brothers in the camp.
17.18 And take these ten portions of cheese to the chief of the thousand; also, you should check on the welfare of your brothers and bring back some token from them.”
17.19 They were with Saul and all the other men of Israel in the Valley of Elah, fighting against the Philistines.
17.20 So David got up early in the morning and left someone in charge of the sheep; then he packed up and went just as Jesse had commanded him. When he came to the camp enclosure, the army was going out to the battle line, shouting a battle cry.
17.21 Israel and the Philistines drew up so that one battle line faced the other battle line.
17.22 David immediately left his baggage in the care of the baggage keeper and ran to the battle line. When he arrived, he began asking about the welfare of his brothers.
17.23 While he was speaking with them, there came the champion named Goliath, the Philistine from Gath. He came out from the battle line of the Philistines, and he spoke the same words as before, and David heard him.
17.24 When all the men of Israel saw the man, they fled from him, terrified.
17.25 The men of Israel were saying: “Have you seen this man who is coming out? He comes to taunt Israel. The king will give great riches to the man who strikes him down, he will give him his own daughter, and he will give the house of his father exemption in Israel.”
17.26 David began to say to the men who were standing near him: “What will be done for the man who strikes down that Philistine over there and takes away reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should taunt the battle line of the living God?”
17.27 Then the people told him the same thing as before: “This is what will be done for the man who strikes him down.”
17.28 When his oldest brother Eliab heard him speak to the men, he became angry with David and said: “Why have you come down? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness? I well know your presumptuousness and the bad intentions of your heart; you came down just to see the battle.”
17.29 To this David said: “What have I done now? I was only asking a question!”
17.30 So he turned from him toward someone else and asked the same thing as before, and the people gave him the same reply as before.
17.31 The words that David had spoken were overheard and reported to Saul. So he sent for him.
17.32 David said to Saul: “Let no one lose heart because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.”
17.33 But Saul said to David: “You are not able to go fight against this Philistine, for you are but a boy, and he has been a soldier from his youth.”
17.34 David then said to Saul: “Your servant became a shepherd of his father’s flock, and a lion came, also a bear, and each carried off a sheep from the flock.
17.35 I went out after it and struck it down and rescued it from its mouth. When it rose up against me, I grabbed it by its fur and struck it down and put it to death.
17.36 Your servant struck down both the lion and the bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine will become like one of them, for he has taunted the battle lines of the living God.”
17.37 Then David added: “Jehovah, who rescued me from the claws of the lion and the bear, he is the one who will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.” At this Saul said to David: “Go, and may Jehovah be with you.”
17.38 Saul now clothed David with his garments. He put a copper helmet on his head, after which he clothed him with a coat of mail.
17.39 Then David strapped on his sword over his garments and tried to go but could not, for he was not used to them. David said to Saul: “I am unable to go in these things, for I am not used to them.” So David took them off.
17.40 He then took his staff in his hand and chose five smooth stones from the streambed and placed them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag, and his sling was in his hand. And he began approaching the Philistine.
17.41 The Philistine came closer and closer to David, and his shield-bearer was ahead of him.
17.42 When the Philistine looked and saw David, he sneered at him in contempt because he was just a ruddy and handsome boy.
17.43 So the Philistine said to David: “Am I a dog, so that you are coming against me with sticks?” With that the Philistine cursed David by his gods.
17.44 The Philistine said to David: “Just come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the heavens and to the beasts of the field.”
17.45 David replied to the Philistine: “You are coming against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I am coming against you in the name of Jehovah of armies, the God of the battle line of Israel, whom you have taunted.
17.46 This very day Jehovah will surrender you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head; and on this day I will give the corpses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the heavens and to the wild beasts of the earth; and people of all the earth will know that there is a God in Israel.
17.47 And all those gathered here will know that it is not with the sword or the spear that Jehovah saves, for the battle belongs to Jehovah, and he will give all of you into our hand.”
17.48 Then the Philistine rose and drew steadily closer to meet David, but David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine.
17.49 David thrust his hand into his bag and took a stone from there and slung it. He struck the Philistine in the forehead, and the stone sank into his forehead and he fell facedown on the ground.
17.50 So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; he struck down the Philistine and put him to death, though there was no sword in David’s hand.
17.51 David continued running and stood over him. Then he took hold of the Philistine’s sword and pulled it out of its sheath and made sure that he was dead by cutting off his head with it. When the Philistines saw that their mighty one had died, they fled.
17.52 At that the men of Israel and of Judah rose and broke into shouting and pursued the Philistines all the way from the valley to the gates of Ekron, and the slain of the Philistines lay fallen along the road from Shaaraim, as far as Gath and Ekron.
17.53 After the Israelites returned from hotly pursuing the Philistines, they pillaged their camps.
17.54 Then David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem, but he put the Philistine’s weapons in his own tent.
17.55 At the moment that Saul saw David go out to meet the Philistine, he said to Abner, the chief of the army: “Whose son is this boy, Abner?” Abner replied: “As surely as you live, O king, I do not know!”
17.56 The king said: “Find out whose son the young man is.”
17.57 So as soon as David returned from striking down the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul with the head of the Philistine in his hand.
17.58 Saul now said to him: “Whose son are you, boy?” to which David said: “The son of your servant Jesse the Bethlehemite.”

18.1 As soon as David had finished speaking to Saul, Jonathan and David became bound together in close friendship, and Jonathan began to love him as himself.
18.2 From that day, Saul kept David with him, and he did not allow him to return to his father’s house.
18.3 And Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as himself.
18.4 Jonathan took off the sleeveless coat that he wore and gave it to David, along with his gear, his sword, his bow, and his belt.
18.5 David began going out and was successful wherever Saul would send him. So Saul put him in charge of the fighting men, and this pleased all the people and the servants of Saul.
18.6 When David and the others would return from striking down the Philistines, the women would come out from all the cities of Israel with song and dances to meet King Saul with tambourines, with rejoicing, and with lutes.
18.7 The women who were celebrating would sing: “Saul has struck down his thousands, And David his tens of thousands.”
18.8 Saul became very angry, and this song displeased him, for he said: “They have credited David with tens of thousands, but to me they have credited thousands. The only thing left to give him is the kingship!”
18.9 From that day on, Saul was always looking at David suspiciously.
18.10 The next day a bad spirit from God gripped Saul, and he started to act strangely inside the house, while David was playing music on the harp as on other occasions. Saul had a spear in his hand,
18.11 and he hurled the spear, saying to himself: ‘I will pin David to the wall!’ But David escaped from him twice.
18.12 Then Saul was afraid of David because Jehovah was with him but had departed from Saul.
18.13 So Saul removed him from his presence and appointed him as chief of a thousand, and David would lead the army into battle.
18.14 David continued to have success in all he did, and Jehovah was with him.
18.15 And when Saul saw that he was very successful, he became afraid of him.
18.16 But all Israel and Judah loved David, because he would lead them in their campaigns.
18.17 Saul later said to David: “Here is my oldest daughter Merab. I will give her to you as a wife. However, you should continue to display your courage for me and fight the wars of Jehovah.” For Saul said to himself: ‘Do not let my hand come against him. Let the hand of the Philistines strike him.’
18.18 At this David said to Saul: “Who am I and who are my relatives, my father’s family in Israel, for me to become son-in-law to the king?”
18.19 However, when the time came to give Saul’s daughter Merab to David, she had already been given to be the wife of Adriel the Meholathite.
18.20 Now Saul’s daughter Michal was in love with David, and it was reported to Saul, and this pleased him.
18.21 So Saul said: “I will give her to him to serve as a snare to him, so that the hand of the Philistines may come upon him.” Saul then said to David a second time: “You will form a marriage alliance with me today.”
18.22 Further, Saul ordered his servants: “Speak to David secretly and say, ‘Look! The king is pleased with you, and all his servants are fond of you. So now form a marriage alliance with the king.’”
18.23 When Saul’s servants told David these things, David said: “Is it a trivial matter to you to form a marriage alliance with the king when I am a man poor and lightly esteemed?”
18.24 Then Saul’s servants reported to him: “These are the words that David spoke.”
18.25 At that Saul said: “This is what you should say to David, ‘The king does not want any bride price except 100 foreskins of the Philistines, to take revenge on the enemies of the king.’” For Saul was scheming to have David fall by the hand of the Philistines.
18.26 So his servants reported these words to David, and it was pleasing to David to form a marriage alliance with the king. Before the allotted time,
18.27 David went with his men and struck down 200 Philistine men, and David brought the full number of their foreskins to the king, to form a marriage alliance with the king. Therefore, Saul gave him his daughter Michal as a wife.
18.28 Saul realized that Jehovah was with David and that his daughter Michal loved him.
18.29 This made Saul even more afraid of David, and Saul became an enemy of David for the rest of his life.
18.30 The princes of the Philistines would go out to battle, but as often as they went out, David was more successful than all the servants of Saul; and his name was highly esteemed.