Micah said to him, “Where do you come from?” He replied, “I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah. I am looking for a new place to live.” ¹ 

The Danites said to him, “Don’t say another word to us, or some very angry men ¹  will attack you, and you and your family will die.” ² 

But his master said to him, “We should not stop at a foreign city where non-Israelites live. ¹  We will travel on to Gibeah.”

Ruth ¹  knelt before him with her forehead to the ground ²  and said to him, “Why are you so kind ³  and so attentive to me, ⁴  even though ⁵  I am a foreigner?” ⁶ 

They said to him, “Look, you are old, and your sons don’t follow your ways. So now appoint over us a king to lead ¹  us, just like all the other nations have.”

Saul’s uncle asked him and his servant, “Where did you go?” Saul ¹  replied, “To look for the donkeys. But when we realized they were lost, ²  we went to Samuel.”

There was fierce war with the Philistines all the days of Saul. So whenever Saul saw anyone who was a warrior or a brave individual, he would conscript him.

Samuel said to him, “The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day and has given it to one of your colleagues who is better than you!

Then Samuel said, “Bring me King Agag of the Amalekites.” So Agag came to him trembling, ¹  thinking to himself, ²  “Surely death is bitter!” ³ 

Saul said to him, “Whose son are you, young man?” David replied, “I am the son of your servant Jesse in Bethlehem.” ¹ 

So David left there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and the rest of his father’s family ¹  learned about it, they went down there to him.

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?”

Now be aware of this, and see what you can do. For disaster has been planned for our lord and his entire household. ¹  He is such a wicked person ²  that no one tells him anything!”

David said to him, “Your blood be on your own head! Your own mouth has testified against you, saying ‘I have put the Lord’s anointed to death.’”

Her husband went along behind her, weeping all the way to Bahurim. Finally Abner said to him, “Go back!” ¹  So he returned home.

So David was no longer willing to bring the ark of the Lord to be with him in the City of David. David left it in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite.

Now there was a servant from Saul’s house named Ziba, so he was summoned to David. The king asked him, “Are you Ziba?” He replied, “At your service.” ¹ 

Then the king summoned Ziba, Saul’s attendant, and said to him, “Everything that belonged to Saul and to his entire house I hereby give to your master’s grandson.

When Joab saw that the battle would be fought on two fronts, he chose some of Israel’s best men and deployed them against the Arameans. ¹ 

David sent some messengers to get her. ¹  She came to him and he had sexual relations with her. ²  (Now at that time she was in the process of purifying herself from her menstrual uncleanness.) ³  Then she returned to her home.