Saul is Israel’s first king. A son of Kish from the tribe of Benjamin, he meets the prophet Samuel while searching for his father’s lost donkeys. Scripture introduces him as handsome and taller than the other Israelites. He and a servant travel through the hill country of Ephraim and other regions without finding the animals.
The servant suggests asking a man of God in a nearby town for directions. That man is Samuel. The day before, God has told Samuel to anoint a man coming from Benjamin as Israel’s leader. Samuel tells Saul that the donkeys have been found, seats him in the place of honor at a feast, and gives him meat reserved in advance.
The next morning, as they leave the town, Samuel sends the servant ahead and pours oil on Saul’s head. He describes people and signs Saul will encounter on the journey. As Saul leaves, God gives him another heart, and the promised signs occur that day. He meets a group of prophets and prophesies with them.
Samuel gathers the people at Mizpah and selects a tribe and family by lot. Saul is chosen but cannot be found. When they ask God, they learn that he is hiding among the baggage. They bring him out and acclaim him as king. Others despise him and ask how he can save them, but Saul remains silent.
Nahash the Ammonite besieges Jabesh Gilead and demands that the inhabitants surrender their right eyes as a condition of peace. Saul hears the news as he returns from the fields with his oxen. God’s Spirit comes upon him, and he becomes very angry. He cuts a pair of oxen into pieces and sends them throughout Israel, warning that anyone who will not follow him and Samuel will have their oxen treated the same way.
Saul divides the gathered people into three companies and attacks the Ammonite camp in the morning watch. The enemy scatters, and Jabesh Gilead is rescued. When the people want to kill those who had despised Saul, he refuses, saying that God has brought deliverance that day. At Gilgal, the people make him king before the Lord, offer peace offerings, and celebrate.
When the Philistine army gathers, Israelites hide in caves and among the rocks. At Gilgal, Saul waits the seven days set by Samuel. Samuel has not arrived, and the people begin leaving, so Saul offers the burnt offering. Samuel arrives as he finishes. Saul explains that the dispersing troops and threat of attack compelled him to sacrifice. Samuel says his kingdom will not continue because he has not kept God’s command.
About six hundred men remain with Saul. Among those with him and Jonathan on the day of battle, only the king and his son have a sword or spear. Jonathan and his armor-bearer attack a Philistine outpost, and panic spreads through the enemy camp. Saul binds the people with an oath cursing anyone who eats before evening. Jonathan, who has not heard the command, tastes honey in the woods.
The exhausted people later slaughter animals and eat them with the blood. Saul has them bring their animals to him so they will not eat the blood. When God gives no answer about another attack, he seeks to discover who has sinned by casting lots. Jonathan is selected, and Saul declares that even his son must die. The people refuse to let the man who has brought such a great deliverance be killed, and they rescue him.
Samuel brings God’s command that Saul attack Amalek and spare neither its people nor its animals. Saul and the people keep King Agag alive and preserve the best sheep and cattle. Saul claims to have obeyed, explaining that the people kept the animals for sacrifice. Samuel answers that listening to God and obeying him are better than sacrifice.
Saul admits that he feared the people and listened to them. He asks Samuel to return with him so he can worship God. When Samuel refuses and turns to leave, Saul grabs his robe and tears it. Samuel says that God has likewise torn the kingdom from Saul and given it to a better neighbor.
Saul again admits his sin but asks Samuel to honor him before the elders and people. Samuel goes back with him, and Saul worships God. Samuel kills Agag and returns to Ramah; Saul goes home. The chapter closes by saying that Samuel mourns for Saul and no longer comes to visit him.
God sends Samuel to Bethlehem to anoint David. God’s Spirit departs from Saul, and an evil spirit from God troubles him. On a servant’s recommendation, Saul calls for David, who plays the harp skillfully. His music brings Saul relief. Saul loves him and makes him an armor-bearer.
When David returns from killing Goliath, women sing of more victories for David than for Saul. Saul becomes angry and watches David from that day onward. He throws a spear at him while he plays music. David escapes from his presence twice.
Hoping that the Philistines will kill David, Saul demands the foreskins of one hundred Philistines as the marriage payment for his daughter Michal. David and his men kill two hundred and bring their foreskins to the king. Saul gives him Michal as his wife. Seeing that God is with David and that Michal loves him, Saul fears him still more.
Saul orders Jonathan and his servants to kill David. Jonathan argues that David has done the king no wrong and has fought for Israel. Saul swears not to kill him, but later throws another spear and sends men to his house to watch for a chance to kill him. Michal lowers David through a window so he can escape.
David takes refuge with Samuel, and they go to Naioth in Ramah. The men Saul sends to seize him see the prophets and Samuel and begin prophesying themselves. The same happens when Saul sends more men. When he goes in person, God’s Spirit comes upon him too, and he prophesies before Samuel.
When David’s place at the royal meal is empty, Saul demands an explanation from Jonathan. Jonathan defends David, and Saul throws a spear at his own son. Knowing that his father intends to kill David, Jonathan warns him through their agreed signal with arrows in the field. They meet, weep, and part, and David leaves.
Doeg the Edomite reports that Ahimelech, the priest at Nob, has given David food and Goliath’s sword. Saul summons the priests and accuses them of conspiracy. Ahimelech answers that David is a faithful servant and the king’s son-in-law, and that he knows nothing of the matter. Saul orders the priests killed. His guards refuse, but Doeg kills eighty-five men wearing linen ephods and also kills the residents and animals of Nob. Ahimelech’s son Abiathar escapes to David.
Saul pursues David with troops. When he enters a cave at En Gedi, David, who is hiding deeper inside, secretly cuts off the corner of his robe. David refuses to harm the king anointed by God and restrains his own men. Outside the cave, he displays the cloth and explains that he has spared Saul. Saul weeps and admits that David is more righteous and will become king. He asks David to swear that he will preserve his descendants.
Later, Saul again pursues David in the wilderness of Ziph. David and Abishai enter the royal camp at night. Abishai offers to kill the sleeping king, but David forbids it and takes only the spear and water jar by Saul’s head. When David calls from a distance to explain what happened, Saul admits his sin and asks him to return. David goes his way, and Saul returns to his own place.
After Samuel’s death, the Philistines gather at Shunem, and Saul is afraid. God gives no answer through dreams, Urim, or prophets. Saul seeks a woman who consults spirits, although he has expelled such people from the land. Disguised in different clothing, he travels with two men to Endor at night and asks her to bring up Samuel.
The woman describes an old man wearing a robe, and Saul recognizes him as Samuel and bows down. The narrative then records Samuel speaking of Saul’s disobedience and the kingdom given to David. He says that Saul and his sons will be with him the next day and that Israel’s army will fall to the Philistines. Saul collapses in fear, weakened by not eating. The woman and his servants persuade him to eat, and he leaves that night.
In the battle on Mount Gilboa, Israel is defeated, and Saul’s sons Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua are killed. The World English Bible describes Saul as greatly distressed when the archers overtake him. He asks his armor-bearer to kill him, but the man refuses in fear. Saul falls on his own sword. When the armor-bearer sees that Saul is dead, he falls on his sword too.
The next day, the Philistines cut off Saul’s head and place his armor in the house of Ashtaroth. They fasten his body to the wall of Beth Shan. Warriors from Jabesh Gilead travel through the night, recover the bodies of Saul and his sons, and take them back to Jabesh. They burn the bodies, bury the bones beneath a tamarisk tree, and fast for seven days.
Second Samuel 1 records a different claim brought to David by an Amalekite young man. He says that Saul asked him for death and that he killed the king. He brings Saul’s crown and bracelet. David and his companions mourn and fast for Saul, Jonathan, and the fallen Israelites. David orders the young man executed because he has testified with his own mouth that he killed God’s anointed king. His claim should be distinguished from the death narrated in the preceding chapter.
Much later, David retrieves the bones of Saul and Jonathan from the people of Jabesh Gilead. The bones of executed members of Saul’s house are also gathered and buried with them in the tomb of Kish at Zela in Benjamin. Second Samuel 21 closes this account by saying that God answers prayer for the land after the burial.