To the Chief Musician. Set to "The Silent Dove in Distant Lands." A Michtam of David when the Philistines captured him in Gath. Be merciful to me, O God, for man would swallow me up; Fighting all day he oppresses me.

Now the LORD said to Samuel, "How long will you mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go; I am sending you to Jesse the Bethlehemite. For I have provided Myself a king among his sons."

So the women sang as they danced, and said: "Saul has slain his thousands, And David his ten thousands."

Then Saul was very angry, and the saying displeased him; and he said, "They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed [only] thousands. Now [what] more can he have but the kingdom?"

"[Is] this not David, of whom they sang to one another in dances, saying: 'Saul has slain his thousands, And David his ten thousands'?"