1 Samuel 18:6-16

6After David had killed the Philistine, Goliath, he and the soldiers returned to their homes. Women came out from all the towns in Israel to meet King Saul. The women were happy as they sang songs and they danced. They made music with tambourines and lyres.

7They sang this song while they danced: ‘Saul has killed thousands of his enemies. And David has killed tens of thousands of his enemies.’

8Saul did not like this song. He became very angry. He thought, ‘The women say that David has killed tens of thousands of men. But they say that I have only killed thousands of men. They will soon want David to be their king.’

9After that, Saul was jealous of David and he watched David carefully.

10The next day God caused an evil spirit to come and control Saul. Saul started to prophesy in his house. David was making music on his harp as he did every day. Saul had a spear in his hand.

11He threw the spear at David. He thought, ‘I will hit David so that it fixes him to the wall.’ He tried to do this twice, but David moved out of the way.

12The Lord was with David. But the Lord had left Saul. So Saul was afraid of David.

13So Saul sent David away from him. He made David the leader of 1,000 soldiers. David led the soldiers into battles, but he always came back again.

14David won all his fights because the Lord was with him.

15Saul saw that David was a great soldier. So he became more afraid of David.

16All the people in Israel and Judah loved David because he led the army in their battles.