The rulers of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to celebrate. They said, “Our god has handed Samson, our enemy, over to us.”

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 

The Benjaminites heard that the Israelites had gone up to Mizpah. Then the Israelites said, “Explain how this wicked thing happened!”

Then the Benjaminites said, “They are defeated just as before.” But the Israelites said, “Let’s retreat ¹  and lure them ²  away from the city into the main roads.”

They said, “Why, O Lord God of Israel, has this happened in Israel?” An entire ¹  tribe has disappeared from Israel today!”

Now at that very moment, ¹  Boaz arrived from Bethlehem ²  and greeted ³  the harvesters, “May the Lord be with you!” They replied, ⁴  “May the Lord bless you!”

The Philistines were scared because they thought that gods had come to the camp. ¹  They said, “Too bad for ²  us! We’ve never seen anything like this!

The residents of Beth Shemesh asked, “Who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God? To whom will the ark ¹  go up from here?”

The Israelites said to Samuel, “Keep ¹  crying out to the Lord our ²  God so that he may save us ³  from the hand of the Philistines!”

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.”

As they were going up the ascent to the town, they met some girls coming out to draw water. They said to them, “Is this where the seer is?”

¹ Nahash ²  the Ammonite marched ³  against Jabesh Gilead. All the men of Jabesh Gilead said to Nahash, “Make a treaty with us and we will serve you.”

When they ¹  made themselves known to the Philistine garrison, the Philistines said, “Look! The Hebrews are coming out of the holes in which they hid themselves.”

Then Samuel said to Saul, “Wait a minute! ¹  Let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night.” Saul ²  said to him, “Tell me.”

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?”

David took all the flocks and herds and drove them in front of the rest of the animals. People were saying, “This is David’s plunder!”

All the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron saying, “Look, we are your very flesh and blood! ¹ 

When David saw that his servants were whispering to one another, he ¹  realized that the child was dead. So David asked his servants, “Is the child dead?” They replied, “Yes, he’s dead.”

They replied to the king, “As for this man who exterminated us and who schemed against us so that we were destroyed and left without status throughout all the borders of Israel –

When all the people saw this, they threw themselves down with their faces to the ground and said, “The Lord is the true God! ¹  The Lord is the true God!”