1 Samuel
King James Version · 31 chapters · 810 verses · Old Testament
Israel asks for a king
It opens with a barren woman praying at the temple of the LORD, and her son Samuel becomes the last of the judges. The people want a king like the nations have, and God gives them one. Saul starts tall and promising and unravels through impatience and disobedience. Samuel anoints a shepherd boy instead, and David kills Goliath while Saul's army watches from the hill. The rest is a long pursuit: Saul hunting David through the wilderness, David twice with the chance to kill him and twice refusing. It ends badly for Saul, wounded by Philistine archers on mount Gilboa and falling on his own sword.