“So why have you schemed in a similar way against the people of God?” the woman asked. “Since Your Majesty just decided my case by what you said, haven't you convicted yourself because you refuse to bring back the son you banished?
So then, tell my servant David this is what the Lord Almighty says. I was the one who took you from the fields, from looking after sheep, to become a leader of my people Israel.
“I'm not causing trouble for Israel,” Elijah replied. “It's you and your father's family! You have rejected the Lord's commands and are worshiping the Baals.
But while your servant was busy with other things, the man got away.” “So that will be your punishment then,” the king of Israel told him. “You have sentenced yourself.”
He told the king, “This is what the Lord says: You have let go a man I had decided should die. Therefore you will pay for his life with your life, your people for his people.”
This is you, Your Majesty. You have grown strong, your power has become so great that it has reached high into the sky, and your rule extends to the ends of the earth.
“You've been really stupid,” Samuel told him. “You haven't kept the commands of the Lord your God. If you had, the Lord would have made your kingdom over Israel secure forever.
“Once you didn't use to think much of yourself, but haven't you become the leader of the tribes of Israel?” Samuel asked. “The Lord anointed you king of Israel.
Samuel took the flask of olive oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and the Spirit of the Lord came on David in power from that day on. Then Samuel left and returned to Ramah.
“I'll give her to David,” Saul thought. “She can be the bait so the Philistines can trap him.” So Saul said to David, “This is the second time you can become my son-in-law.”
David set up camp in the wilderness strongholds, staying in the mountains of the Desert of Ziph. Saul searched for him continually, but God did not let David be captured.
When Saul found out that David had gone to Keilah, he said, “God has handed him over to me, because he has locked himself inside a town with gates that can be barred shut.”