Young Man David Dances Before the Lord"
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Saul and the Israelites assembled and camped in the Valley of Elah and drew up their battle line to meet the Philistines.
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The Philistines occupied one hill and the Israelites another, with the valley between them.
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A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. He was over nine feet tall.
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He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing five thousand shekels ;
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on his legs he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back.
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His spear shaft was like a weaver's rod, and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels.His shield bearer went ahead of him.
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Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, "Why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose a man and have him come down to me.
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If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us."
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Then the Philistine said, "This day I defy the ranks of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other."
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On hearing the Philistine's words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified.
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Now David was the son of an Ephrathite named Jesse, who was from Bethlehem in Judah. Jesse had eight sons, and in Saul's time he was old and well advanced in years.
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Jesse's three oldest sons had followed Saul to the war: The firstborn was Eliab; the second, Abinadab; and the third, Shammah.
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David was the youngest. The three oldest followed Saul,
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but David went back and forth from Saul to tend his father's sheep at Bethlehem.
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For forty days the Philistine came forward every morning and evening and took his stand.
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Now Jesse said to his son David, "Take this ephah of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread for your brothers and hurry to their camp.
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Take along these ten cheeses to the commander of their unit. See how your brothers are and bring back some assurance from them.
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They are with Saul and all the men of Israel in the Valley of Elah, fighting against the Philistines."
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Early in the morning David left the flock with a shepherd, loaded up and set out, as Jesse had directed. He reached the camp as the army was going out to its battle positions, shouting the war cry.
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Israel and the Philistines were drawing up their lines facing each other.
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David left his things with the keeper of supplies, ran to the battle lines and greeted his brothers.
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As he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual defiance, and David heard it.
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When the Israelites saw the man, they all ran from him in great fear.
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Now the Israelites had been saying, "Do you see how this man keeps coming out? He comes out to defy Israel. The king will give great wealth to the man who kills him. He will also give him his daughter in marriage and will exempt his father's family from taxes in Israel."
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David asked the men standing near him, "What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?"
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They repeated to him what they had been saying and told him, "This is what will be done for the man who kills him."
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When Eliab, David's oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger at him and asked, "Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the desert? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle."
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"Now what have I done?" said David. "Can't I even speak?"
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He then turned away to someone else and brought up the same matter, and the men answered him as before.
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What David said was overheard and reported to Saul, and Saul sent for him.
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David said to Saul, "Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him."
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Saul replied, "You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth."
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But David said to Saul, "Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock,
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I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it.
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Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God.
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The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." Saul said to David, "Go, and the LORD be with you."
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Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head.
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David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them. "I cannot go in these," he said to Saul, "because I am not used to them." So he took them off.
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Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd's bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine.
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Meanwhile, the Philistine, with his shield bearer in front of him, kept coming closer to David.
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He looked David over and saw that he was only a boy, ruddy and handsome, and he despised him.
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He said to David, "Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?" And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.
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"Come here," he said, "and I'll give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field!"
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David said to the Philistine, "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.
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This day the LORD will hand you over to me, and I'll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel.
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All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD's, and he will give all of you into our hands."
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As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him.
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Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground.
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So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him.
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David ran and stood over him. He took hold of the Philistine's sword and drew it from the scabbard. After he killed him, he cut off his head with the sword. When the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they turned and ran.
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Then the men of Israel and Judah surged forward with a shout and pursued the Philistines to the entrance of Gath and to the gates of Ekron. Their dead were strewn along the Shaaraim road to Gath and Ekron.
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When the Israelites returned from chasing the Philistines, they plundered their camp.
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David took the Philistine's head and brought it to Jerusalem, and he put the Philistine's weapons in his own tent.
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As Saul watched David going out to meet the Philistine, he said to Abner, commander of the army, "Abner, whose son is that young man?" Abner replied, "As surely as you live, O king, I don't know."
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The king said, "Find out whose son this young man is."
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As soon as David returned from killing the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul, with David still holding the Philistine's head.
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"Whose son are you, young man?" Saul asked him. David said, "I am the son of your servant Jesse of Bethlehem."
2 Samuel 6:1) David again brought together out of Israel chosen men, thirty thousand in all.
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He and all his men set out from Baalah of Judah to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the Name, the name of the LORD Almighty, who is enthroned between the cherubim that are on the ark.
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They set the ark of God on a new cart and brought it from the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, sons of Abinadab, were guiding the new cart
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with the ark of God on it, and Ahio was walking in front of it.
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David and the whole house of Israel were celebrating with all their might before the LORD, with songs and with harps, lyres, tambourines, sistrums and cymbals.
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When they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark of God, because the oxen stumbled.
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The LORD's anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act; therefore God struck him down and he died there beside the ark of God.
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Then David was angry because the LORD's wrath had broken out against Uzzah, and to this day that place is called Perez Uzzah.
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David was afraid of the LORD that day and said, "How can the ark of the LORD ever come to me?"
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He was not willing to take the ark of the LORD to be with him in the City of David. Instead, he took it aside to the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite.
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The ark of the LORD remained in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite for three months, and the LORD blessed him and his entire household.
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Now King David was told, "The LORD has blessed the household of Obed-Edom and everything he has, because of the ark of God." So David went down and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with rejoicing.
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When those who were carrying the ark of the LORD had taken six steps, he sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf.
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David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the LORD with all his might,
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while he and the entire house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouts and the sound of trumpets.
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As the ark of the LORD was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD, she despised him in her heart.
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They brought the ark of the LORD and set it in its place inside the tent that David had pitched for it, and David sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings [6] before the LORD.
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After he had finished sacrificing the burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the LORD Almighty.
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Then he gave a loaf of bread, a cake of dates and a cake of raisins to each person in the whole crowd of Israelites, both men and women. And all the people went to their homes.
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When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, "How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, disrobing in the sight of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!"
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David said to Michal, "It was before the LORD, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the LORD's people Israel--I will celebrate before the LORD.
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I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor."
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And Michal daughter of Saul had no children to the day of her death.
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