1 ¹ WHEN DAVID RETURNED from his victory over the Amalekites, he spent two days in Ziklag. 1 ² And on the third day after Saul's death a man came from the army with his clothes rent and dust on his head. When he came into David's presence he fell to the ground in obeisance, 1 ³ and David asked him where he had come from. He answered, 'I have escaped from the army of Israel.' 1 ⁴ And David said to him, 'What news? Tell me.' 'The army has been driven from the field,' he answered, 'and many have fallen in battle. Saul and Jonathan his son are dead.' 1 ⁵ David said to the young man who brought the news, 'How do you know that Saul and Jonathan are dead?' 1 ⁶ The man answered, 'It so happened that I was on Mount Gilboa and saw Saul leaning on his spear with the chariots and horsemen closing in upon him. 1 ⁷ He turned round and, seeing me, called to me. I said, "What is it, sir?" 1 ⁸ He asked who I was, and I said, "An Amalekite." 1 ⁹ Then he said to me, "Come and stand over me and dispatch me. I still live, but the throes of death have seized me." 1 ¹⁰ So I stood over him and gave him the death-blow; for I knew that, broken as he was, he could not live. Then I took the crown from his head and the armlet from his arm, and I have brought them here to you, sir.'

1 ¹¹ At that David caught at his clothes and rent them, and so did all the men with him. 1 ¹² They beat their breasts and wept, because Saul and Jonathan his son and the people of the LORD, the house of Israel, had fallen in battle; and they fasted till evening. 1 ¹³ David said to the young man who brought the news, 'Where do you come from?', and he answered, 'I am the son of an alien, an Amalekite.' 1 ¹⁴ 'How is it', said David, 'that you were not afraid to raise your hand to slay the LORD's anointed?' 1 ¹⁵ And he summoned one of his own young men and ordered him to fall upon the man. So the young man struck him down and killed him; 1 ¹⁶ and David said, 'Your blood be on your own head; for out of your own mouth you condemned yourself when you said, "I killed the LORD's anointed." '