1. Now it came to pass after the death of Saul—when David had returned from the slaughter of the Amalekites—that David stayed two days in Ziklag.
2. On the third day, behold, a man came from Saul’s camp, with his clothes torn and dust on his head. Now when he approached David, he fell to the ground and prostrated himself.
3. Then David asked him, “Where are you coming from?” “I’ve escaped from the camp of Israel,” he answered.
4. “How did things go?” David asked him. “Please, tell me.” He answered, “The troops fled the battlefield—also many of the troops fell and died. And even Saul and his son Jonathan are dead.”
5. David asked the young man informing him, “How do you know that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead?”
6. The young man informing him answered, “I happened by chance to be on Mount Gilboa, and look, Saul was leaning on his spear, while the chariots and the horsemen were closing in on him.
7. When he turned around and saw me, he called me. So I answered, ‘Here I am.’
8. Then he asked me, ‘Who are you?’ “So I answered him, ‘I am an Amalekite.’
9. So he said to me, ‘Stand now over me and kill me! For I’m in agony, yet I’m still alive.’