King Saul

Saul was, according to the Old Testament, the first king of the kingdom of Israel and Judah.

Anointed king
As a young man, Saul and a servant were sent from their home in Gibeah to find his father's stray donkeys. They eventually arrived at the town of Ramah, where they went to see the prophet Samuel, who secretly anointed Saul king of Israel.

After a popular movement arose for a monarchy, Samuel organised the Israelites by tribe and ultimately selected Saul from the tribe of Benjamin, although his kingship was heavily contested. Soon after, the Ammonites, lead by their king Nahash, laid siege to Jabesh-Gilead, where they told the people to either surrender, in which case they would each have their right eye gouged out and be sold into slavery, or fight him and be slaughtered. Instead, they called on the rest of the Israelites, and Saul counterattacked and destroyed Nahash's army. Saul was then crowned king and immediately outlawed retribution against those who had opposed him.

As king
After defeating the Ammonites, Saul lead military campaigns against the Moabites, the Edomites, the Arameans and the Philistines, and was successful every time. In Saul's second year, a group of only 1000 Israelite soldiers, lead by his son Jonathan, defeated a much larger force of Philistines and Saul promptly ordered his men to fast, despite the fact that they were already starving. However, Jonathan was not aware of this, and so he and his men broke the fast. Saul then attempted to put him and his men to death, but popular opinion forced him to let them go.

During the campaign against the Philistines, Saul was told by Samuel not to begin the battle until he arrived to perform the regular rites. However, Samuel was late, and Saul began preparations to attack. However, Samuel arrived and reprimanded him for disobeying his divine instructions. Saul then proceeded to destroy the Philistine army in the Battle of Michmash Pass.

Several years later, Samuel told Saul that God had given him instructions to wipe out the Amalekites as revenge for attacks performed against them by the Amalekites when they fled Rameses the Great in Egypt. Saul attacked Amalek and killed most of the Amalekites, but allowed the best livestock to live and took the Amalekite king Agag captive rather than kill him. He then attempted to appease God by sacrificing the livestock to him, but was reprimanded once again by Samuel for failing to obey God's command. Samuel then claimed that God had rejected Saul as king. As he left, Saul grabbed at his robe, tearing a piece off. Samuel prophesied that Israel would likely be split from Saul. Samuel then executed Agag himself.After rejecting Saul as king, Samuel went to Bethlehem, where he met a young boy named David, and anointed him king like he did with Saul. Later, God sent an evil spirit to torment Saul, and he sent for David, who had become renowned as a harpist, to soothe him during his torment.

Fighting David
After rejecting Saul as king, Samuel went to Bethlehem, where he met a young boy named David and anointed him king like he did with Saul. Later, God sent an evil spirit to torment Saul, and he sent for David, by now a renowned harpist to soothe him during his torment. This worked, and Saul ordered David to attend court.

Soon after, the Philistines, lead by a giant named Goliath, attacked Israel. Goliath challenged the Israelites to send a man to fight him in single conflict, and David was ultimately chosen as champion by Saul after he was overheard mocking the Philistines. David went out to fight Goliath, and easily defeated him by slingshotting a rock at him, knocking him down, and then decapitating him. Saul and his cousin Abner then put David in charge of fighting the Philistines.

As David became more popular, the people began to want him as king, enraging Saul and his son and heir Ish-bosheth, to the point where Saul repeatedly attempted to kill David by throwing a spear at him, missing both times he did this. Saul then sought to kill him via enemy troops, offering his daughter Michal's hand in marriage to David, but telling him that he had a bride-price of 100 Philistine foreskins, hoping that David would die attempting to collect them. However, David not only returned, but offered Saul 200 foreskins, and took Michal's hand in marriage, further angering Saul.

Saul then progressed to sending assassins to kill David, but Michal helped him to escape, leaving a household idol in his place. Saul then discovered Jonathan was protecting David, and threw a spear at him. David soon fled to Nob, where the high priest Abimelech gave him a sword. Saul followed him to Nob, where his henchman Doeg the Edomite, acting on Saul's orders, Murdered Abimelech and eighty-five other priests. Saul then wiped out the population of Nob, but David managed to escape to Ziph.

While David was hiding in Ziph, Saul was informed of his location and lead a party of soldiers to find and kill him, only for the Philistines to invade Israel. After defeating them, Saul went after David again. While Saul was sleeping one night, David came across him, and cut off a piece of his robe. The next day, he showed it to Saul, proving that he had had the opportunity to kill him, but didn't. Saul departed, but later went after him again. David infiltrated his camp, and stole his spear and water jug, using this as further proof that he meant no harm. As a result, Saul agreed not to harm him, and gave up The Philistines attacked Israel again, and Saul went out to fight them at Mount Gilboa. Just before the battle, he consulted a wise woman, who showed him th spirit of the late Samuel. Samuel told Saul that God had fully rejected him, and that the next day he would lose the battle and die in the process. The next day, he went out to face the Philistines, and was defeated, with Jonathan and two of his other sons being killed. Saul was subsequently crnered, and ordered his armour bearer to kill him rather than give the Philistines the satisfaction of killing him themselves. However, the armour bearer refused, and Saul committed suicide by falling on his sword. The armour bearer then committed suicide as well. Saul's body was recovered by the Philistines, but the Israelites stole it from them overnight and gave him a proper burial. An Amalekite was subsquently killed by David after falsely claiming to have killed Saul to find favour, and a power struggle began between David, Abner and Ish-bosheth.