1. After the death of Saul, David returned from striking down the Amalekites and stayed in Ziklag two days.
2. On the third day a man arrived from Saul’s camp with his clothes torn and dust on his head. When he came to David, he fell to the ground to pay him honour.
3. ‘Where have you come from?’ David asked him.He answered, ‘I have escaped from the Israelite camp.’
4. ‘What happened?’ David asked. ‘Tell me.’‘The men fled from the battle,’ he replied. ‘Many of them fell and died. And Saul and his son Jonathan are dead.’
5. Then David said to the young man who brought him the report, ‘How do you know that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead?’
6. ‘I happened to be on Mount Gilboa,’ the young man said, ‘and there was Saul, leaning on his spear, with the chariots and their drivers in hot pursuit.
7. When he turned round and saw me, he called out to me, and I said, “What can I do?”
8. ‘He asked me, “Who are you?”‘ “An Amalekite,” I answered.
9. ‘Then he said to me, “Stand here by me and kill me! I’m in the throes of death, but I’m still alive.”