So the Philistines fought. Israel was defeated; they all ran home. ¹  The slaughter was very great; thirty thousand foot soldiers fell in battle.

The messenger replied, “Israel has fled from ¹  the Philistines! The army has suffered a great defeat! Your two sons, Hophni and Phineas, are dead! The ark of God has been captured!”

the Philistines called the priests and the omen readers, saying, “What should we do with the ark of the Lord? Advise us as to how we should send it back to its place.”

So he took David ¹  down, and they found them spread out over the land. They were eating and drinking and enjoying themselves because of all the loot ²  they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah.

Don’t report it in Gath, don’t spread the news in the streets of Ashkelon, ¹  or the daughters of the Philistines will rejoice, the daughters of the uncircumcised will celebrate!

Yet another battle occurred with the Philistines in Gob. On that occasion Elhanan the son of Jair ¹  the Bethlehemite killed the brother of Goliath the Gittite, ²  the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.

At the time of ¹  the harvest three ²  of the thirty leaders went down to ³  David at the cave of Adullam. A band of Philistines was camped in the valley of Rephaim.

So the woman did as the prophet said. ¹  She and her family went and lived in the land of the Philistines for seven years.

King David dedicated these things to the Lord, ¹  along with the silver and gold which he had carried off from all the nations, including ²  Edom, ³  Moab, the Ammonites, the Philistines, and Amalek.

Indeed, O Lord, ¹  you have abandoned your people, the descendants of Jacob. For diviners from the east are everywhere; ²  they consult omen readers like the Philistines do. ³  Plenty of foreigners are around. ⁴ 

the foreigners living in Egypt; ¹  all the kings of the land of Uz; ²  all the kings of the land of the Philistines, ³  the people of Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, the people who had been left alive from Ashdod; ⁴ 

So see here, I have stretched out my hand against you and cut off your rations. I have delivered you into the power of those who hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed by your obscene conduct.

Those who live by the sea, the people who came from Crete, ¹  are as good as dead. ²  The Lord has decreed your downfall, ³  Canaan, land of the Philistines: “I will destroy everyone who lives there!” ⁴ 

The leaders of the Philistines asked, “What about these Hebrews?” Achish said to the leaders of the Philistines, “Isn’t this David, the servant of King Saul of Israel, who has been with me for quite some time? ¹  I have found no fault with him from the day of his defection until the present time!” ² 

So the Philistines took dirt and filled up ¹  all the wells that his father’s servants had dug back in the days of his father Abraham.

Certainly if the army had eaten some of the enemies’ provisions that they came across today, would not the slaughter of the Philistines have been even greater?”

But David’s men said to him, “We are afraid while we are still here in Judah! What will it be like if we go to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?”

They cut off Saul’s ¹  head and stripped him of his armor. They sent messengers to announce the news in the temple of their idols and among their people throughout the surrounding land of the Philistines.

When you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the trees, act decisively. For at that moment the Lord is going before you to strike down the army ¹  of the Philistines.”

After seven years the woman returned from the land of the Philistines and went to ask the king to give her back her house and field. ¹