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¹ After the death of Saul, when Dauid was returned from the slaughter of the Amalekites, and had ben two daies in Ziklag:² Beholde, there came a man the thirde day out of the hoast from Saul, with his clothes rent, & earth vpon his head: And when he came to Dauid, he fell to the earth, and did obeysaunce.³ Dauid sayde vnto him: whence comest thou? He sayde vnto him: Out of the hoast of Israel I am escaped.⁴ And Dauid sayde vnto him: And what is done I pray thee? tell me. He sayde: The people is fled from the battell, and many of the people are ouerthrowen and dead, and Saul and Ionathan his sonne are dead also.⁵ And Dauid sayd vnto the young man that tolde it him: Howe knowest thou that Saul and Ionathan his sonne be dead?⁶ The young man that tolde him, aunswered: As I came vnaduisedly to mount Gilboa, beholde Saul leaned vpon his speare: and lo, the charettes and horsemen folowed hard after him.⁷ And when he loked backe, he sawe me, and called me. And I aunswered: here am I.⁸ And he sayde vnto me: Who art thou? I aunswered him: I am an Amalekite.⁹ He sayde vnto me agayne: I pray thee come vpon me, and slea me: For anguyshe is come vpon me, because my life is yet whole in me.¹⁰ And so I stoode vpon him, and slue him, and because I was sure that he coulde not liue after that he had fallen, I toke the crowne that was vpon his head, and the braselet that was on his arme, and haue brought them hyther vnto my lorde.

¹¹ Then Dauid toke holde on his clothes, and rent them, and so did all the men that were with him.¹² And they mourned, and wept, and fasted vntil euen for Saul and Ionathan his sonne, & for the people of the Lorde, and for the house of Israel, because they were ouerthrowen with the sworde.¹³ And Dauid sayd vnto the young man that brought him these tidings: Whence art thou? He aunswered: I am the sonne of an aliaunt, an Amakelite.¹⁴ And Dauid sayde vnto him: Howe is it that thou wast not afrayde to lay thyne hande on the lordes annoynted, to destroy him?¹⁵ And Dauid called one of his young me, and sayd: Go to, and fall vpon him. And he smote him, that he died.¹⁶ Then said Dauid vnto him, Thy blood be vpon thyne owne head: For thyne owne mouth hath testified against thee, saying, I haue slayne the lordes annoynted.

¹⁷ And Dauid mourned with this lamentation ouer Saul and ouer Ionathan his sonne,¹⁸ (Also he bad them teache the children of Iuda the vse of the bowe: And beholde, it is written in the booke of the righteous:)¹⁹ O noble Israel, he is slaine vpon thy hie places: howe are the mightie ouerthrowen?²⁰ Tell it not in Gath, nor publishe it in the streates of Askalon: lest the daughters of the Philistines reioyce, and lest the daughters of the vncircumcised triumph.²¹ Ye mountaynes of Gilboa, vpon you be neither deawe nor raine, nor fieldes of offeringes: For there the shield of the mightie is cast downe, the shielde of Saul, as though he had not ben annoynted with oyle.²² The bowe of Ionathan neuer turned backe, neither did the sword of Saul returne emptie fro the blood of the slayne, and from the fat of the mightie.²³ Saul and Ionathan were louely and pleasaunt in their lyues, and in their deathes they were not deuided: They were swyfter then Egles, and stronger then Lions.²⁴ Ye daughters of Israel weepe ouer Saul, which clothed you in scarlet with pleasures, and hanged ornamentes of golde vpon your apparell.²⁵ Howe were the mightie slayne in the middest of the battel? O Ionathan thou wast slayne in thyne hye places.²⁶ Wo is me for thee my brother Ionathan, very kinde hast thou ben vnto me: Thy loue to me was wonderful, passing the loue of women.²⁷ O how are the mightie ouerthrowen, and the weapons of warre destroyed?