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      ⁸And Saul disguised himself, and put on other raiment, and went, he and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night; and he said: 'Divine unto me, I pray thee, by a ghost, and bring me up whomsoever I shall name unto thee.' ⁹And the woman said unto him: 'Behold, thou knowest what Saul hath done, how he hath cut off those that divine by a ghost or a familiar spirit out of the land; wherefore then layest thou a snare for my life, to cause me to die?' ¹⁰And Saul swore to her by the Lord, saying: 'As the Lord liveth, there shall no punishment happen to thee for this thing.' ¹¹Then said the woman: 'Whom shall I bring up unto thee?' And he said: 'Bring me up Samuel.' ¹²And when the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice; and the woman spoke to Saul, saying: 'Why hast thou deceived me? for thou art Saul.' ¹³And the king said unto her: 'Be not afraid; for what seest thou?' And the woman said unto Saul: 'I see a godlike being coming up out of the earth.' ¹⁴And he said unto her: 'What form is he of?' And she said: 'An old man cometh up; and he is covered with a robe.' And Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he bowed with his face to the ground, and prostrated himself.

      ¹⁵And Samuel said to Saul: 'Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up?' And Saul answered: 'I am sore distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God is departed from me, and answereth me no more, neither by prophets, nor by dreams; therefore I have called thee, that thou mayest make known unto me what I shall do.' ¹⁶And Samuel said: 'Wherefore then dost thou ask of me, seeing the Lord is departed from thee, and is become thine adversary? ¹⁷And the Lord hath wrought for Himself; as He spoke by me; and the Lord hath rent the kingdom out of thy hand, and given it to thy neighbour, even to David. ¹⁸Because thou didst not hearken to the voice of the Lord, and didst not execute His fierce wrath upon Amalek, therefore hath the Lord done this thing unto thee this day. ¹⁹Moreover the Lord will deliver Israel also with thee into the hand of the Philistines; and to-morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me; the Lord will deliver the host of Israel also into the hand of the Philistines.'

      ²⁰Then Saul fell straightway his full length upon the earth, and was sore afraid, because of the words of Samuel; and there was no strength in him; for he had eaten no bread all the day, nor all the night. ²¹And the woman came unto Saul, and saw that he was sore affrighted, and said unto him: 'Behold, thy handmaid hath hearkened unto thy voice, and I have put my life in my hand, and have hearkened unto thy words which thou spokest unto me. ²²Now therefore, I pray thee, hearken thou also unto the voice of thy handmaid, and let me set a morsel of bread before thee; and eat, that thou mayest have strength, when thou goest on thy way.' ²³But he refused, and said: 'I will not eat.' But his servants, together with the woman, urged him; and he hearkened unto their voice. So he arose from the earth, and sat upon the bed. ²⁴And the woman had a fatted calf in the house; and she made haste, and killed it; and she took flour, and kneaded it, and did bake unleavened bread thereof; ²⁵and she brought it before Saul, and before his servants; and they did eat. Then they rose up, and went away that night.

      29Now the Philistines gathered together all their hosts to Aphek; and the Israelites pitched by the fountain which is in Jezreel. ²And the lords of the Philistines passed on by hundreds, and by thousands; and David and his men passed on in the rearward with Achish. ³Then said the princes of the Philistines: 'What do these Hebrews here?' And Achish said unto the princes of the Philistines: 'Is not this David, the servant of Saul the king of Israel, who hath been with me these days or these years, and I have found no fault in him since he fell away unto me unto this day?' ⁴But the princes of the Philistines were wroth with him; and the princes of the Philistines said unto him: 'Make the man return, that he may go back to his place where thou hast appointed him, and let him not go down with us to battle, lest in the battle he become an adversary to us; for wherewith should this fellow reconcile himself unto his lord? should it not be with the heads of these men? ⁵Is not this David, of whom they sang one to another in dances, saying:

      Saul hath slain his thousands,And David his ten thousands?'

      ⁶Then Achish called David, and said unto him: 'As the Lord liveth, thou hast been upright, and thy going out and thy coming in with me in the host is good in my sight; for I have not found evil in thee since the day of thy coming unto me unto this day; nevertheless the lords favour thee not. ⁷Wherefore now return, and go in peace, that thou displease not the lords of the Philistines.' ⁸And David said unto Achish: 'But what have I done? and what hast thou found in thy servant so long as I have been before thee unto this day, that I may not go and fight against the enemies of my lord the king?' ⁹And Achish answered and said to David: 'I know that thou art good in my sight, as an angel of God; notwithstanding the princes of the Philistines have said: He shall not go up with us to the battle. ¹⁰Wherefore now rise up early in the morning with the servants of thy lord that are come with thee; and as soon as ye are up early in the morning, and have light, depart.' ¹¹So David rose up early, he and his men, to depart in the morning, to return into the land of the Philistines. And the Philistines went up to Jezreel.

      30And it came to pass, when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had made a raid upon the South, and upon Ziklag, and had smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire; ²and had taken captive the women and all that were therein, both small and great; they slew not any, but carried them off, and went their way. ³And when David and his men came to the city, behold, it was burned with fire; and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, were taken captives. ⁴Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep. ⁵And David's two wives were taken captives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite. ⁶And David was greatly distressed; for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters; but David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.

      ⁷And David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelech: 'I pray thee, bring me hither the ephod.' And Abiathar brought thither the ephod to David. ⁸And David inquired of the Lord, saying: 'Shall I pursue after this troop? shall I overtake them?' And He answered him: 'Pursue; for thou shalt surely overtake them, and shalt without fail recover all.' ⁹So David went, he and the six hundred men that were with him, and came to the brook Besor, where those that were left behind stayed. ¹⁰But David pursued, he and four hundred men; for two hundred stayed behind, who were so faint that they could not go over the brook Besor.

      ¹¹And they found an Egyptian in the field, and brought him to David, and gave him bread, and he did eat; and they gave him water to drink; ¹²and they gave him a piece of a cake of figs, and two clusters of raisins; and when he had eaten, his spirit came back to him; for he had eaten no bread, nor drunk any water, three days and three nights. ¹³And David said unto him: 'To whom belongest thou? and whence art thou?' And he said: 'I am a young Egyptian, servant to an Amalekite; and my master left me, because three days ago I fell sick. ¹⁴We made a raid upon the South of the Cherethites, and upon that which belongeth to Judah, and upon the South of Caleb; and we burned Ziklag with fire.' ¹⁵And David said to him: 'Wilt thou bring me down to this troop?' And he said: 'Swear unto me by God, that thou wilt neither kill me, nor deliver me up into the hands of my master, and I will bring thee down to this troop.'

      ¹⁶And when he had brought him down, behold, they were spread abroad over all the ground, eating and drinking, and feasting, because of all the great spoil that they had taken out of the land of the Philistines, and out of the land of Judah. ¹⁷And David smote them from the twilight even unto the evening of the next day; and there escaped not a man of them, save four hundred young men, who rode upon camels and fled. ¹⁸And David recovered all that the Amalekites had taken; and David rescued his two wives. ¹⁹And there was nothing lacking to them, neither small nor great, neither sons nor daughters, neither spoil, nor any thing that they had taken to them; David brought back all. ²⁰And David took all the flocks and the herds, which they drove before those other cattle, and said: 'This is David's spoil.'

      ²¹And David came to the two hundred men, who were so faint that they could not follow David,

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