Understand the KJV Bible

Epizodes

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  Close escapes at Keilah and Ziph - 1 Samuel 23 (KJV) explained 15.08.2026 42min

  The people in Keilah should have been truly grateful to David. With his group of 600 men, he fought to save them from the Philistines, who had been robbing their supplies of food. However, when Saul threatened to surround their town with his army, they cared little about David's life. In Ziph, the inhabitants did not even need to be threatened to want to hand over David. They were glad to see an opportunity to please King Saul.From both of these places, David's escape was truly a miracle. At one, a warning from God himself; at the other, an urgent message for Saul, was all that saved David from capture.Yet in the middle of all this, David's friend Jonathan, the son of Saul, found him, and strengthened him with a reminder of the promises of God.
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  Refuge at Adullam, disaster at Nob - 1 Samuel 22 (KJV) explained 08.08.2026 44min

  In the midst of Saul's persecution, David found a place of refuge in the cave at Adullam, and a band of men, outcasts from Israel, joined themselves with him.However, Saul's anger continued unabated, and it drove him to one of the most terrible incidents in the entire Bible. Doeg the Edomite was remorseless in hunting down the families of Israel's chief priests. The sole survivor, Abiathar, escaped to David, taking the chief priest's ephod with him.
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  Episode 200: David's desperate escape - 1 Samuel 21 (KJV) explained 01.08.2026 38min

  Welcome to our 200th Episode. During the last 5 years, we have released 200 talks covering 175 complete chapters of the King James Bible, studying each chapter verse-by-verse and word-by-word.Today we reach 1 Samuel 21, with David in a truly desperate state, fleeing from King Saul, who is determined to kill him. David first goes to Nob, the town of the priests, where he begs for bread and a sword. Then he goes to Gath, the town of his enemy, the Philistine champion Goliath, hoping for a safe place of refuge from Saul's anger. On the way, there's deceit, and fear and danger, and the chapter doesn't show David at his best. But even so, David is learning a deeper trust in God too, and his experiences in this chapter provided the inspiration for two of the Psalms, Psalm 56 and 34.Please also visit our website, usefulbible.com
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  A friendship and a parting - 1 Samuel 20:24-42 (KJV) explained 25.07.2026 42min

  Jonathan tested the attitudes of his father, King Saul, towards David. Alas, the situation was much worse than Jonathan had ever imagined. An angry outburst from Saul was so violent that he almost killed Jonathan himself.So it was a sad and difficult message that Jonathan brought to David as David hid in the field. It had become plain that Saul's cruelty had, at last, forced the two friends to separate.Separated, yes - but still the love remained. Apart from each other, in life or even after their deaths, their friendship must continue. Their covenant, their serious promises to each other in front of God, demanded it.
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  Jonathan's covenant with David - 1 Samuel 20:1-23 (KJV) explained 18.07.2026 40min

  Saul was dangerous and unpredictable - but until now, David and Jonathan believed that they were in control of the situation. Now however, after many attempts to kill David, David was at last convinced. His life was in danger; he could no longer remain with Saul.So David asked Jonathan to test Saul. It was the beginning of the month, a festive occasion in Israel, and Saul expected David to be present at his feast. David, however, would go to Bethlehem and return on the third day. That would give Jonathan the opportunity to find out Saul's reaction to David's absence.David and Jonathan realised the likely effect on their own friendship of this. If Saul was determined to kill David, then Jonathan and David must separate, perhaps for ever. So they made a covenant, promises of friendship, which they intended to be binding on them, and their families after them into the future.
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  Reconciliation and assassination, lies and prophecies: surviving in Saul's palace - 1 Samuel 19 (KJV) explained 11.07.2026 44min

  David was now son-in-law to King Saul, and one of the chief commanders in his army. It did not make his life with this unpredictable and unreliable king any easier - rather, matters grew much worse.Still for about 10 years, and with the strong support of Jonathan, Saul's eldest son, David managed to continue to serve Saul. Then, suddenly, matters grew much worse...
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  David in the palace of King Saul - 1 Samuel 18 (KJV) explained 04.07.2026 40min

  When David defeated Goliath, the result was an immediate change in his life. Before, David was an unknown shepherd boy; now in towns across Israel, women sang to celebrate his victory. Before, David would occasionally go to the palace, to play on his harp to help the king, when the evil spirit troubled him. Now Saul commanded that David must work for him constantly. He became the friend of Jonathan, Saul's son, and the husband of Michal, Saul's daughter. And he became one of the chief commanders in Saul's army.All this promotion was a cause of great danger for David - and the greatest danger was Saul himself, the king whom David respected and loved. Saul was jealous, violent and unpredictable. At any moment, he might attack David, or cause David to be at great risk in battle.But David acted with great wisdom. He did not try to oppose Saul. He waited for God to carry out his (God's) plans in his life.
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  David and Goliath: Defeating the giant - 1 Samuel 17:31-58 27.06.2026 44min

  David had no experience in war, but he came to the battle with a deep and mature trust in God, formed during his work as a shepherd boy on the hills near Bethlehem. There, he had defeated enemies who were stronger than him: a lion and a bear. He was confident that the God who saved him then, would defend him now.It must have been difficult to reject the sword and the armour that King Saul offered him. Yet without experience of such things, David chose the simple home-made weapons of a shepherd. So when God gave him the victory, with nothing but a sling and five smooth stones, that would bring great honour to God. As David told Goliath before the fight began, people across the world would hear of this fight, and know that there truly is a God in Israel - in fact, that Israel's God is the only true God.
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  David and Goliath: Before the fight - 1 Samuel 17:1-30 (KJV) explained 20.06.2026 40min

  David was never intended to fight in the battle against Goliath, the champion of the Philistine army. His three eldest brothers had joined Saul's army; but David was assigned a different task: to look after the family's sheep.However, the battle was slow to begin. For 40 days, Goliath taunted Israel's army. He demanded that they must find a man who dared fight against him, massive as he was. If they dared not fight him, how could they hope to defeat Philistia's army?So it was that David was sent to the battlefield, not to fight, but to refresh the supplies for his brothers. And there he heard Goliath. But David was not, like the other men, terrified by Goliath. Rather, David was defiant: who is this, who dares to taunt the army of the living God?
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  The anointing of David: shepherd and psalmist, prophet and king - 1 Samuel 16 (KJV) explained 13.06.2026 40min

  One nation, two men anointed king.Saul is the people's choice, that is, the kind of king that the people wanted. A proud and fierce man, who battles for his authority and his country. But God's Spirit has left him, and an evil spirit troubles him.David is just a youngster, who must pass through many troubles before his rule begins - but he is God's choice, the man after God's own heart, who desires above all else, to please God. On him, God's Spirit has come.And now we see the two together, Saul the present king, troubled by his evil spirit, and David, destined to be king, playing his harp, and bringing comfort and healing.
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  The judgment against Amalek - 1 Samuel 15 (KJV) explained 06.06.2026 44min

  Amalek: a nation of desert robbers who attacked the weakest of Israel's people as Moses led them across the desert, and against whom God made an especially severe judgment. That judgment was not carried out until the rule of Saul, some 400 years later, by which time Amalek had become even worse, destroying and depopulating whole towns in Judah and Philistia.So God commanded Saul, as the captain of his armies on earth, to carry out that terrible judgment, and Saul did it in part. That is, he did the part that he wanted to do. He did not hesitate to destroy what was weak and worthless, but he saved the best, and even Amalek's wicked and ruthless king, Agag. That was the reason why God finally made the firm and definite decision to reject Saul as king. It was also the reason why Amalek continued to trouble the southern part of Israel for long after.
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  Israel's men save Jonathan from Saul - 1 Samuel 14:24-52 (KJV) explained 30.05.2026 41min

  After Jonathan, Saul's son, had acted bravely in great faith in God to rescue Israel from certain defeat, Israel's men had to save him from his father.The problem was an unwise oath that Saul had demanded that the army should swear when they went into battle. For Jonathan, an innocent mistake - he simply tasted a little honey - developed into a life-and-death matter. Saul tried to deal with the situation by making even worse oaths. He was the king, and his authority absolute; but Israel's men would not hear of it. Jonathan had worked with God to save Israel that day, they reminded Saul. So Saul must repent of his oaths, and Jonathan must live.
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  The Lord can save by many or by few - 1 Samuel 14:1-23 (KJV) explained 23.05.2026 39min

  One of the greatest victories in war in the Bible was achieved by just two men: Jonathan and his armour-bearer, against a massive army of Philistines.What makes this battle astonishing is the great faith of Jonathan, the eldest son of King Saul. Saul, without faith and leading just 600 men, thought that disaster was inevitable. Jonathan however didn't think that small numbers were any limitation on the power of God to save.
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  Samuel's delay is Saul's weakness - 1 Samuel 13 (KJV) explained 16.05.2026 41min

  For seven days, Saul waited at Gilgal. His enemy, the Philistines, was gathering a massive army, and Saul's men were afraid. This time, Saul had failed to gather Israel's men to defend their country, and the small group of soldiers with him were afraid. But God had promised that after 7 days, Samuel would come to offer sacrifices and to direct Saul what to do.When just 600 men remained with Saul, he could wait no longer. He offered the sacrifice himself, without waiting for Samuel, and so disobeyed God's instructions to him. As the king of Israel, he had to be the servant of God - but he did not obey his divine Master's orders.
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  Retirement in the work of God - 1 Samuel 12 (KJV) explained 09.05.2026 41min

  Now that Saul had established his authority as king, Samuel the prophet retired. Of course, he did not retire from his calling as a prophet: he would continue to pray for the people and teach them the ways of God. He retired from his work as leader of his nation, and therefore from many of his public activities. But God would still have important work for Samuel to do.The people had been wrong to desire a king. The enemy whom they feared, King Nahash of Ammon, had already been defeated. But God had permitted Israel to have its first king, and both he and the people had the serious duty to remain loyal to God.
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  How Saul established his authority as leader of his nation - 1 Samuel 11 (KJV) explained 02.05.2026 37min

  After Saul became king, he simply returned to his work on his father's farm. It seemed as if nothing had happened; some doubted that he could ever achieve anything as king. But when King Nahash of Ammon threatened the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead, Saul did not hesitate.Saul's anger against this cruel enemy was as great as his zeal on behalf of Israel. He demanded that every one of Israel's men must fight to save Jabesh; and so they came, in great force, to the battle.
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  Is Saul also among the prophets? - 1 Samuel 10 (KJV) explained 25.04.2026 41min

  There needed to be a great change in the character of Saul to make him king. Saul had never even led his own family group, and certainly not a nation or its army. He needed to gain a new kind of maturity, a real zeal and passion for the people whom he would lead, and a powerful determination to act against its fierce enemies.So God needed to work powerfully in Saul's life before he ever could match the people's requirements for their king. Saul had to be anointed as king, a symbol of God's Spirit coming upon him. Then God needed to reveal to the people this man who would rule so powerfully over them.
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  Saul loses his donkeys, but finds himself king - 1 Samuel 9 (KJV) explained 18.04.2026 41min

  Our first sight of Saul is full of contradictions. Here is a tall and impressive man, but yet to find his purpose in life. He is the man whom God has selected to be the people's choice for king: a powerful and fierce man who, so far, has shown no power whatever. He is not important in the army, and not even the head of his own family. He is already in his 40s, but still seems immature. And he cares so little for his own nation that he seems not to know Samuel, its Judge and national leader, who tomorrow will anoint him king.But God will take that man, empower him to rule, and give him a heart for his nation. What Saul will then do, is for him to choose.
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  Success from failure - 1 Samuel 8 (KJV) explained 10.04.2026 37min

  Samuel ruled over Israel as its prophet-judge for many years. However, that time of righteous and good leadership would end in failure. When Samuel's sons used their power dishonestly, the elders of the nation felt they could no longer trust God to look after their nation. Instead, they wanted a powerful and fierce king to rule over them, and to lead them in their battles. In short, they wanted to be like all the other nations.That could have driven Samuel to despair, but instead he turned to God in prayer. God told him to allow the nation to go its own way, but first to warn them severely about what that king would do. Now, they were free people - but the king would demand taxes and force them to work for him. They would become like slaves.Samuel's success in this crisis, as always, was to obey God's instructions.
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  Ebenezer! The Lord answers Samuel's prayer - 1 Samuel 7 (KJV) explained 04.04.2026 37min

  Ebenezer, or the stone of help, marked Samuel's testimony: Hitherto hath the LORD helped us. That was the name of the memorial stone that Samuel set up to commemorate a truly great deliverance. Israel's people, weak from a day of fasting and repentance, subdued the powerful army of Philistia, which had ruled over them for the last 20 years.It us not a victory brought about by military might, but rather an answer to Samuel's prayer, and it commenced a period of peace in Israel, as Samuel the prophet became the national leader of his country.