1 Samuel Chapters 16-31
The Rise of David
Samuel goes to the city of Bethlehem in Judah to find the next king. He goes to the house of Jesse and eventually finds David, Jesse's son who is tending his father's sheep. Samuel secretly anoints him king. (1 Sam. 16:1-13)
There are two different versions of David's introduction to Saul's court.
1. In the first, David is presented as a "brave man and a fighter" who is also a musician, a harpist whom Saul employs to drive out the "evil spirits" with which Yahweh afflicts the king (1 Sam. 16:14-23).
2. In the second, David is introduced as a stranger to Saul (1 Sam. 17:55-56). In this version, David is a mere boy who volunteers to fight the Philistine champion Goliath single-handedly. David knocks Goliath unconscious with a stone from his slingshot (1 Sam. 17:4-54).
Saul's son Jonathan lavishes his love on the victorious David. As the king's presumed heir, Jonathan should be David's chief rival, but instead he works to promote David's advancement, stripping off his armor and giving it to his friend. This act foreshadows David's taking Jonathan's place as Saul's successor (1 Sam. 18:1-5). David further strengthens his ties to the royal family by marrying Saul's daughter and Jonathan's sister Michal.
Saul becomes jealous when he hears the song of Israelite women praising David's superiority to the king. "Saul has killed his thousands, and David his tens of thousands." Slipping again into a period of mental disturbance, Saul attempted to kill David while David was playing music for him (18:6-11). Saul then tries to eliminate his rival by having him lead assaults on the Philistines (1 Sam. 18). David uses the love and loyalty of Jonathan and Michal, to circumvent Saul's attempts to murder him. Both Jonathan and Michal prefer to help David rather than their father.
When forced to flee Israel and take refuge among the Philistines, David even wins the friendship of the Philistine ruler. (1 Sam. 19-23) Ziklag is the name of the city where David lived while he was in service to the Philistines. King Achish of Gath gave David this city. At this point, David is an outlaw and guerrilla fighter on the run from Saul and his army. David has to survive by his wits as he tries to avoid capture. He twice refuses to kill Saul when he has the opportunity to do so. The reason that David gave for not killing Saul or allowing anyone else to harm him is that Saul is God's anointed.
Saul and the Witch of Endor (1 Sam. 28:3-25)
As the Philistine army gathered for a battle, Saul was becoming desperate. Samuel was dead, David was in the camp of the enemy, and Saul was over-whelmed by his lifelong sense of inadequacy. Even his prophets claimed that the LORD had nothing to say (28:3-6). He sought a medium (or witch) who supposedly could call up the dead. A medium was found in the nearby village of Endor. Saul sought her out at night and asked her to call up Samuel for him. The message she conveyed to Saul was a message of doom. He was reminded of his failures as a king and was told that he and his sons would die the next day (28:7-19).
The Philistines eliminate Saul and Jonathan at the Battle of Gilboa. Wounded at this battle at Gilboa by the Philistines, Saul committed suicide by falling on his own sword. (1 Samuel 31:1-5) The next day, the Philistines find the body of Saul and his son Jonathan and two other sons. The Philistines cut Saul's head off and strip him of his armor. They put his armor in one of their temples, and fastened his body to the wall of Beth-Shan. The people of Jabesh-Gilead stole the bodies during the night and disposed of them properly. At this point, the way is open for David to ascend the throne (1 Sam. 24-31).