1 Samuel 19-27
New American Standard Bible
Chapter 19
1Now Saul told his son Jonathan and all his servants to put David to death. But Jonathan, Saul’s son, greatly delighted in David. 2So Jonathan informed David, saying, 'My father Saul is seeking to put you to death. Now then, please be on your guard in the morning, and stay in a hiding place and conceal yourself. 3And as for me, I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are hiding, and I will speak with my father about you; and whatever I find out, I will tell you.' 4Then Jonathan spoke well of David to his father Saul and said to him, 'May the king not sin against his servant David, since he has not sinned against you, and since his deeds have been very beneficial to you. 5For he took his life in his hand and struck the Philistine, and the Lord brought about a great victory for all Israel; you saw it and rejoiced. Why then would you sin against innocent blood by putting David to death for no reason?' 6Saul listened to the voice of Jonathan, and Saul vowed, 'As the Lord lives, David shall not be put to death.' 7Then Jonathan called David, and Jonathan told him all these words. And Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence as before.
8When there was war again, David went out and fought the Philistines and defeated them with great slaughter, so that they fled from him.
9Now there was an evil spirit from the Lord on Saul as he was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand, and David was playing the harp with his hand.
10And Saul tried to pin David to the wall with the spear, but he escaped from Saul’s presence, so that he stuck the spear into the wall. And David fled and escaped that night.
11Then Saul sent messengers to David’s house to watch him, in order to put him to death in the morning. But Michal, David’s wife, informed him, saying, 'If you do not save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be put to death!'
12So Michal let David down through a window, and he went and fled, and escaped.
13And Michal took the household idol and laid it on the bed, and put a quilt of goats’ hair at its head, and covered it with clothing.
14When Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, 'He is sick.'
15Then Saul sent messengers to see David, saying, 'Bring him up to me on his bed, so that I may put him to death.'
16When the messengers entered, behold, the household idol was on the bed with the quilt of goats’ hair at its head.
17So Saul said to Michal, 'Why have you betrayed me like this and let my enemy go, so that he has escaped?' And Michal said to Saul, 'He said to me, ‘Let me go! Why should I put you to death?’?'
18So David fled and escaped, and came to Samuel at Ramah; and he informed him of everything that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and stayed in Naioth.
19But it was reported to Saul, saying, 'Behold, David is at Naioth in Ramah.'
20Then Saul sent messengers to take David, but when they saw the company of prophets prophesying, with Samuel standing and presiding over them, the Spirit of God came upon the messengers of Saul; and they also prophesied.
21When Saul was informed of this, he sent other messengers, but they also prophesied. So Saul sent messengers again the third time, yet they prophesied.
22Then he went to Ramah himself and came as far as the large well that is in Secu; and he asked, 'Where are Samuel and David?' And someone said, 'Behold, they are at Naioth in Ramah.'
23So he proceeded there to Naioth in Ramah; but the Spirit of God came upon him also, so that he went along prophesying continually until he came to Naioth in Ramah.
24He also stripped off his clothes, and he too prophesied before Samuel and lay down naked all that day and all night. Therefore they say, 'Is Saul also among the prophets?'
Chapter 20
1Then David fled from Naioth in Ramah, and he came and said to Jonathan, 'What have I done? What is my guilt? And what is my sin before your father, that he is seeking my life?' 2He said to him, 'Far from it, you shall not die! Behold, my father does nothing either great or small without informing me. So why would my father hide this thing from me? It is not so!' 3Yet David vowed again, saying, 'Your father is well aware that I have found favor in your sight, and he has said, ‘Jonathan is not to know this, otherwise he will be worried.’ But indeed as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, there is just a step between me and death.' 4Then Jonathan said to David, 'Whatever you say, I will do for you.' 5So David said to Jonathan, 'Behold, tomorrow is the new moon, and I am obligated to sit down to eat with the king. But let me go so that I may hide myself in the field until the third evening. 6If your father misses me at all, then say, ‘David earnestly requested leave of me to run to Bethlehem, his city, because it is the yearly sacrifice there for the whole family.’ 7If he says, ‘ That is good,’ your servant will be safe; but if he is very angry, be aware that he has decided on evil. 8So deal kindly with your servant, for you have brought your servant into a covenant of the Lord with you. But if I am guilty of wrongdoing, kill me yourself; for why then should you bring me to your father?' 9Jonathan said, 'Far be it from you! For if I in fact learn that my father has decided to inflict harm on you, would I not inform you?' 10Then David said to Jonathan, 'Who will inform me if your father answers you harshly?' 11Jonathan said to David, 'Come, and let’s go out to the field.' So both of them went out to the field.
12Then Jonathan said to David, 'The Lord, the God of Israel, is my witness! When I have sounded out my father about this time tomorrow or the third day, behold, if he has a good feeling toward you, shall I not then send word to you and inform you?
13If it pleases my father to do you harm, may the Lord do so to me and more so, if I fail to inform you and send you away, so that you may go in safety. And may the Lord be with you as He has been with my father.
14And if I am still alive, will you not show me the faithfulness of the Lord, so that I do not die?
15And you shall never cut off your loyalty to my house, not even when the Lord cuts off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth.'
16So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, 'May the Lord demand it from the hands of David’s enemies.'
17And Jonathan made David vow again because of his love for him, because he loved him as he loved his own life.
18Then Jonathan said to him, 'Tomorrow is the new moon, and you will be missed since your seat will be empty.
19When you have stayed for three days, you shall go down quickly and come to the place where you hid yourself on that eventful day, and you shall remain beside the stone Ezel.
20And I will shoot three arrows to the side, as though I shot at a target.
21Then behold, I will send the boy, telling him, ‘Go, find the arrows.’ If I specifically say to the boy, ‘Behold, the arrows are on this side of you, get them,’ then come, because it is safe for you and there is nothing to harm you, as the Lord lives.
22But if I say to the youth, ‘Behold, the arrows are beyond you,’ go, because the Lord has sent you away.
23As for the agreement of which you and I have spoken, behold, the Lord is between you and me forever.'
24So David hid himself in the field; and when the new moon came, the king sat down to eat food.
25Now the king sat on his seat as usual, the seat by the wall; then Jonathan stood up and Abner sat down by Saul’s side; but David’s place was empty.
26Nevertheless Saul did not say anything that day, because he thought, 'It must have been an accident; he is not clean, undoubtedly he is not clean.'
27But it came about the next day, the second day of the new moon, that David’s place was empty again; so Saul said to his son Jonathan, 'Why has the son of Jesse not come to the meal, either yesterday or today?'
28And Jonathan answered Saul, 'David earnestly requested leave of me to go to Bethlehem.
29He said, ‘Please let me go, because our family has a sacrifice in the city, and my brother has ordered me to attend. So now, if I have found favor in your sight, please let me slip away so that I may see my brothers.’ For this reason he has not come to the king’s table.'
30Then Saul’s anger burned against Jonathan, and he said to him, 'You son of a perverse, rebellious woman! Do I not know that you are choosing the son of Jesse to your own shame, and to the shame of your mother’s nakedness?
31For, as long as the son of Jesse lives on the earth, neither you nor your kingdom will be established. Now then, send men and bring him to me, for he is doomed to die!'
32But Jonathan replied to his father Saul and said to him, 'Why must he be put to death? What has he done?'
33Then Saul hurled his spear at him to strike and kill him; so Jonathan knew that his father had decided to put David to death.
34Then Jonathan got up from the table in the heat of anger, and did not eat food on the second day of the new moon, because he was worried about David since his father had insulted him.
35Now it came about in the morning that Jonathan went out to the field at the time agreed upon with David, and a little boy was with him.
36He said to his boy, 'Run, find now the arrows which I am about to shoot.' The boy ran, and he shot an arrow past him.
37When the boy reached the location of the arrow which Jonathan had shot, Jonathan called after the boy and said, 'Is the arrow not beyond you?'
38Then Jonathan called after the boy, 'Hurry, be quick, do not stay!' And Jonathan’s boy picked up the arrow and came to his master.
39But the boy was not aware of anything; only Jonathan and David knew about the matter.
40Then Jonathan gave his weapons to his boy and said to him, 'Go, bring them to the city.'
41When the boy was gone, David got up from the south side, then he fell on his face to the ground and bowed three times. And they kissed each other and wept together, until David wept immeasurably.
42Then Jonathan said to David, 'Go in safety, since we have sworn to each other in the name of the Lord, saying, ‘The Lord will be between me and you, and between my descendants and your descendants forever.’?' So David set out and went on his way, while Jonathan went into the city.
Chapter 21
1Then David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest; and Ahimelech came trembling to meet David and said to him, 'Why are you alone, and no one with you?' 2David said to Ahimelech the priest, 'The king has commissioned me with a matter and has said to me, ‘No one is to know anything about the matter on which I am sending you and with which I have commissioned you; and I have directed the young men to a certain place.’ 3Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever can be found.' 4The priest answered David and said, 'There is no ordinary bread on hand, but there is consecrated bread, if only the young men have kept themselves from women.' 5David answered the priest and said to him, 'Be assured, women have been denied to us as previously when I left and the bodies of the young men were consecrated, though it was an ordinary journey; how much more then will their bodies be consecrated today?' 6So the priest gave him consecrated bread; for there was no bread there except the bread of the Presence which was removed from its place before the Lord, in order to put hot bread in its place on the day it was taken away.
8David said to Ahimelech, 'Now is there no spear or sword on hand? For I brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king’s matter was urgent.'
9Then the priest said, 'The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the Valley of Elah, behold, it is wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod; if you would take it for yourself, take it. For there is no other except it here.' And David said, 'There is none like it; give it to me.'
12David took these words to heart and greatly feared Achish king of Gath.
13So he disguised his sanity while in their sight and acted insanely in their custody, and he scribbled on the doors of the gate, and drooled on his beard.
14Then Achish said to his servants, 'Look, you see the man is behaving like an insane person. Why do you bring him to me?
15Do I lack insane people, that you have brought this one to behave like an insane person in my presence? Shall this one come into my house?'
Chapter 22
1So David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam; and when his brothers and all his father’s household heard about it, they went down there to him. 2Then everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to him; and he became captain over them. Now there were about four hundred men with him.
3And David went from there to Mizpah of Moab; and he said to the king of Moab, 'Please let my father and my mother come and stay with you until I know what God will do for me.'
4Then he left them with the king of Moab; and they stayed with him all the time that David was in the stronghold.
5But Gad the prophet said to David, 'Do not stay in the stronghold; leave, and go into the land of Judah.' So David left and went into the forest of Hereth.
6Then Saul heard that David and the men who were with him had been discovered. Now Saul was in Gibeah, sitting under the tamarisk tree on the height with his spear in his hand, and all his servants were standing in front of him.
7Saul said to his servants who were standing in front of him, 'Hear now, you Benjaminites! Will the son of Jesse really give all of you fields and vineyards? Will he make you all commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds?
8For all of you have conspired against me so that there is no one who informs me when my son makes a covenant with the son of Jesse, and there is none of you who cares about me or informs me that my son has stirred up my servant against me to lie in ambush, as it is this day.'
9Then Doeg the Edomite, who was standing in front of the servants of Saul, responded and said, 'I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub.
10And he inquired of the Lord for him, gave him provisions, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.'
11Then the king sent a messenger to summon Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitub, and all his father’s household, the priests who were in Nob; and all of them came to the king.
12Saul said, 'Listen now, son of Ahitub.' And he replied, 'Here I am, my lord.'
13Saul then said to him, 'Why have you and the son of Jesse conspired against me, in that you have given him bread and a sword, and have inquired of God for him, so that he would rise up against me by lying in ambush as it is this day?'
14Then Ahimelech answered the king and said, 'And who among all your servants is as faithful as David, the king’s own son-in-law, who is commander over your bodyguard, and is honored in your house?
15Did I just begin to inquire of God for him today? Far be it from me! Do not let the king impute anything against his servant or against any of the household of my father, because your servant knows nothing at all of this whole affair.'
16But the king said, 'You shall certainly die, Ahimelech, you and all your father’s household!'
17And the king said to the guards who were attending him, 'Turn around and put the priests of the Lord to death, because their hand also is with David and because they knew that he was fleeing and did not inform me.' But the servants of the king were unwilling to reach out with their hands to attack the priests of the Lord.
18Then the king said to Doeg, 'You, turn around and attack the priests!' And Doeg the Edomite turned around and attacked the priests, and he killed on that day eighty-five men who wore the linen ephod.
19He also struck Nob the city of the priests with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children and infants; he also struck oxen, donkeys, and sheep with the edge of the sword.
20But one son of Ahimelech the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped and fled to David.
21Abiathar informed David that Saul had killed the priests of the Lord.
22Then David said to Abiathar, 'I knew on that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would certainly tell Saul. I myself have turned against every person in your father’s household.
23Stay with me; do not be afraid, even though he who is seeking my life is seeking your life. For you are safe with me.'
Chapter 23
1Then they informed David, saying, 'Behold, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah and are plundering the threshing floors.' 2So David inquired of the Lord, saying, 'Shall I go and attack these Philistines?' And the Lord said to David, 'Go and attack the Philistines and save Keilah.' 3But David’s men said to him, 'Behold, we are fearful here in Judah. How much more then if we go to Keilah against the ranks of the Philistines?' 4So David inquired of the Lord once more. And the Lord answered him and said, 'Arise, go down to Keilah, for I am going to hand the Philistines over to you.' 5Then David and his men went to Keilah and fought the Philistines; and he drove away their livestock and struck them with a great slaughter. So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah.
6Now it came about, when Abiathar the son of Ahimelech fled to David at Keilah, that he came down with an ephod in his hand.
7When it was reported to Saul that David had come to Keilah, Saul said, 'God has handed him over to me, for he shut himself in by entering a city with double gates and bars.'
8So Saul summoned all the people for war, to go down to Keilah to besiege David and his men.
9But David knew that Saul was plotting evil against him; so he said to Abiathar the priest, 'Bring the ephod here.'
10Then David said, 'Lord God of Israel, Your servant has heard for certain that Saul is seeking to come to Keilah to destroy the city on my account.
11Will the citizens of Keilah hand me over to him? Will Saul come down just as Your servant has heard? Lord God of Israel, please, tell Your servant.' And the Lord said, 'He will come down.'
12Then David said, 'Will the citizens of Keilah hand me and my men over to Saul?' And the Lord said, 'They will hand you over.'
13Then David and his men, about six hundred, rose up and departed from Keilah, and they went wherever they could go. When it was reported to Saul that David had escaped from Keilah, he gave up the pursuit.
14David stayed in the wilderness in the strongholds, and remained in the hill country in the wilderness of Ziph. And Saul searched for him every day, but God did not hand him over to him.
15Now David saw that Saul had come out to seek his life while David was in the wilderness of Ziph, at Horesh.
16And Jonathan, Saul’s son, set out and went to David at Horesh, and encouraged him in God.
17He said to him, 'Do not be afraid, because the hand of Saul my father will not find you, and you will be king over Israel, and I will be second in command to you; and Saul my father knows that as well.'
18So the two of them made a covenant before the Lord; and David stayed at Horesh, while Jonathan went to his house.
19Then Ziphites came up to Saul at Gibeah, saying, 'Is David not keeping himself hidden with us in the strongholds at Horesh, on the hill of Hachilah, which is south of Jeshimon?
20Now then, O king, come down, since you fully desire to do so; and our part shall be to hand him over to the king.'
21Saul said, 'May you be blessed of the Lord, since you have had compassion on me.
22Go now, be more persistent, and investigate and see his place where he is hiding, and who has seen him there; for I am told that he is very cunning.
23So look, and learn about all the hiding places where he keeps himself hidden, and return to me with certainty, and I will go with you; and if he is in the land, I will search him out among all the thousands of Judah.'
24So they set out and went to Ziph ahead of Saul. Now David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon, in the Arabah to the south of Jeshimon.
25When Saul and his men went to seek him, they informed David, and he came down to the rock and stayed in the wilderness of Maon. And when Saul heard about it, he pursued David in the wilderness of Maon.
26Saul went on one side of the mountain, and David and his men on the other side of the mountain; and David was hurrying to get away from Saul, while Saul and his men were surrounding David and his men to apprehend them.
27But a messenger came to Saul, saying, 'Hurry and come, for the Philistines have launched an attack against the land!'
28So Saul returned from pursuing David and went to confront the Philistines; therefore they called that place the Rock of Division.
29And David went up from there and stayed in the strongholds of Engedi.
Chapter 24
1Now when Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, it was reported to him, saying, 'Behold, David is in the wilderness of Engedi.' 2Then Saul took three thousand chosen men from all Israel and went to search for David and his men in front of the Rocks of the Mountain Goats. 3And he came to the sheepfolds on the way, where there was a cave; and Saul went in to relieve himself. Now David and his men were sitting in the inner recesses of the cave. 4Then David’s men said to him, 'Behold, this is the day of which the Lord said to you, ‘Behold; I am about to hand your enemy over to you, and you shall do to him as it seems good to you.’?' Then David got up and cut off the edge of Saul’s robe secretly. 5But it came about afterward that David’s conscience bothered him because he had cut off the edge of Saul’s robe. 6So he said to his men, 'Far be it from me because of the Lord that I would do this thing to my lord, the Lord’S anointed, to reach out with my hand against him, since he is the Lord’S anointed.' 7And David rebuked his men with these words and did not allow them to rise up against Saul. And Saul got up, left the cave, and went on his way.
8Afterward, however, David got up and went out of the cave, and called after Saul, saying, 'My lord the king!' And when Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the ground and prostrated himself.
9And David said to Saul, 'Why do you listen to the words of men who say, ‘Behold, David is seeking to harm you’?
10Behold, this day your eyes have seen that the Lord had handed you over to me today in the cave, and someone said to kill you, but I spared you; and I said, ‘I will not reach out with my hand against my lord, because he is the Lord’S anointed.’
11So, my father, look! Indeed, look at the edge of your robe in my hand! For by the fact that I cut off the edge of your robe but did not kill you, know and understand that there is no evil or rebellion in my hands, and I have not sinned against you, though you are lying in wait for my life, to take it.
12May the Lord judge between you and me, and may the Lord take vengeance on you for me; but my hand shall not be against you.
13As the proverb of the ancients says, ‘Out of the wicked comes wickedness’; but my hand shall not be against you.
14After whom has the king of Israel gone out? Whom are you pursuing? A dead dog, a single flea?
15May the Lord therefore be judge and decide between you and me; and may He see and plead my cause and save me from your hand.'
16When David had finished speaking these words to Saul, Saul said, 'Is this your voice, my son David?' Then Saul raised his voice and wept.
17And he said to David, 'You are more righteous than I; for you have dealt well with me, while I have dealt maliciously with you.
18You have declared today that you have done good to me, that the Lord handed me over to you and yet you did not kill me.
19Though if a man finds his enemy, will he let him go away unharmed? May the Lord therefore reward you with good in return for what you have done to me this day.
20Now, behold, I know that you will certainly be king, and that the kingdom of Israel will be established in your hand.
21So now swear to me by the Lord that you will not cut off my descendants after me, and that you will not eliminate my name from my father’s household.'
22And David swore an oath to Saul. Then Saul went to his home, but David and his men went up to the stronghold.
2Now there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel; and the man was very rich, and he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. And it came about while he was shearing his sheep in Carmel
3(now the man’s name was Nabal, and his wife’s name was Abigail. And the woman was intelligent and beautiful in appearance, but the man was harsh and evil in his dealings, and he was a Calebite),
4that David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep.
5So David sent ten young men; and David said to the young men, 'Go up to Carmel and visit Nabal, and greet him in my name;
6and this is what you shall say: ‘ Have a long life, peace to you, and peace to your house, and peace to all that you have!
7Now then, I have heard that you have shearers. Now, your shepherds have been with us; we have not harmed them, nor has anything of theirs gone missing all the days they were in Carmel.
8Ask your young men and they will tell you. Therefore let my young men find favor in your eyes, for we have come on a festive day. Please give whatever you find at hand to your servants and to your son David.’?'
9When David’s young men came, they spoke to Nabal in accordance with all these words in David’s name; then they waited.
10But Nabal answered David’s servants and said, 'Who is David? And who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants today who are each breaking away from his master.
11Shall I then take my bread and my water and my meat that I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give it to men whose origin I do not know?'
12So David’s young men made their way back and returned; and they came and informed him in accordance with all these words.
13Then David said to his men, 'Each of you strap on his sword.' So each man strapped on his sword. And David also strapped on his sword, and about four hundred men went up behind David, while two hundred stayed with the baggage.
14Now one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, saying, 'Behold, David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master, and he spoke to them in anger.
15Yet the men were very good to us, and we were not harmed, nor did anything go missing as long as we went with them, while we were in the fields.
16They were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the time we were with them tending the sheep.
17Now then, be aware and consider what you should do, because harm is plotted against our master and against all his household; and he is such a worthless man that no one can speak to him.'
18Then Abigail hurried and took two hundred loaves of bread and two jugs of wine, and five sheep already prepared and five measures of roasted grain, and a hundred cakes of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs, and she loaded them on donkeys.
19Then she said to her young men, 'Go on ahead of me; behold, I am coming after you.' But she did not tell her husband Nabal.
20And it happened as she was riding on her donkey and coming down by the hidden part of the mountain, that behold, David and his men were coming down toward her; so she met them.
21Now David had said, 'It is certainly for nothing that I have guarded everything that this man has in the wilderness, so that nothing has gone missing of all that belonged to him! For he has returned me evil for good.
22May God do so to the enemies of David, and more so, if by morning I leave alive as much as one male of any who belong to him.'
23When Abigail saw David, she hurried and dismounted from her donkey, and fell on her face in front of David and bowed herself to the ground.
24She fell at his feet and said, 'On me alone, my lord, be the blame. And please let your slave speak to you, and listen to the words of your slave.
25Please do not let my lord pay attention to this worthless man, Nabal, for as his name is, so is he. Nabal is his name, and stupidity is with him; but I your slave did not see the young men of my lord whom you sent.
26Now then, my lord, as the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, since the Lord has restrained you from shedding blood, and from avenging yourself by your own hand, now then, may your enemies and those who seek evil against my lord, be like Nabal.
27And now let this gift which your servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who accompany my lord.
28Please forgive the offense of your slave; for the Lord will certainly make for my lord an enduring house, because my lord is fighting the battles of the Lord, and evil will not be found in you all your days.
29Should anyone rise up to pursue you and to seek your life, then the life of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living with the Lord your God; but the lives of your enemies He will sling out as from the hollow of a sling.
30And when the Lord does for my lord in accordance with all the good that He has spoken concerning you, and appoints you ruler over Israel,
31this will not become an obstacle to you, or a troubled heart to my lord, both by having shed blood without cause and by my lord’s having avenged himself. When the Lord deals well with my lord, then remember your slave.'
32Then David said to Abigail, 'Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me,
33and blessed be your discernment, and blessed be you, who have kept me this day from bloodshed and from avenging myself by my own hand.
34Nevertheless, as the Lord God of Israel lives, who has restrained me from harming you, if you had not come quickly to meet me, there certainly would not have been left to Nabal until the morning light as much as one male.'
35So David accepted from her hand what she had brought him, and said to her, 'Go up to your house in peace. See, I have listened to you and granted your request.'
36Then Abigail came to Nabal, and behold, he was having a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. And Nabal’s heart was cheerful within him, for he was very drunk; so she did not tell him anything at all until the morning light.
37But in the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal, his wife told him these things, and his heart died within him so that he became like a stone.
38About ten days later, the Lord struck Nabal and he died.
39When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, 'Blessed be the Lord, who has pleaded the cause of the shame inflicted on me by the hand of Nabal, and has kept back His servant from evil. The Lord has also returned the evildoing of Nabal on his own head.' Then David sent a proposal to Abigail, to take her as his wife.
40When the servants of David came to Abigail at Carmel, they spoke to her, saying, 'David has sent us to you to take you to him as his wife.'
41And she got up and bowed with her face to the ground, and said, 'Behold, your slave is a servant to wash the feet of my lord’s servants.'
42Then Abigail got up quickly, and rode on a donkey, with her five female attendants who accompanied her; and she followed the messengers of David and became his wife.
Chapter 26
1Then the Ziphites came to Saul at Gibeah, saying, 'Is David not keeping himself hidden on the hill of Hachilah, which is opposite Jeshimon?' 2So Saul set out and went down to the wilderness of Ziph, taking with him three thousand chosen men of Israel, to search for David in the wilderness of Ziph. 3And Saul camped on the hill of Hachilah, which is opposite Jeshimon, beside the road, and David was staying in the wilderness. When he saw that Saul had come after him into the wilderness, 4David sent out spies, and he learned that Saul was definitely coming. 5David then set out and came to the place where Saul had camped. And David saw the place where Saul lay, and Abner the son of Ner, the commander of his army; and Saul was lying in the circle of the camp, and the people were camped around him.
6Then David said to Ahimelech the Hittite and to Abishai the son of Zeruiah, Joab’s brother, saying, 'Who will go down with me to Saul in the camp?' And Abishai said, 'I will go down with you.'
7So David and Abishai came to the people by night, and behold, Saul lay sleeping inside the circle of the camp with his spear stuck in the ground at his head; and Abner and the people were lying around him.
8Then Abishai said to David, 'Today God has handed your enemy over to you; now then, please let me pin him with the spear to the ground with one thrust, and I will not do it to him a second time.'
9But David said to Abishai, 'Do not kill him, for who can reach out with his hand against the Lord’S anointed and remain innocent?'
10David also said, 'As the Lord lives, the Lord certainly will strike him, or his day will come that he dies, or he will go down in battle and perish.
11The Lord forbid that I would reach out with my hand against the Lord’S anointed! But now please take the spear that is at his head and the jug of water, and let’s go.'
12So David took the spear and the jug of water that were at Saul’s head, and they left; and no one saw or knew about it, nor did anyone awaken, for they were all asleep, because a deep sleep from the Lord had fallen on them.
13Then David crossed over to the other side and stood on top of the mountain at a distance with a large area between them.
14And David called to the people and to Abner the son of Ner, saying, 'Will you not answer, Abner?' Then Abner replied, 'Who are you who calls to the king?'
15So David said to Abner, 'Are you not a man? And who is like you in Israel? Why then have you not guarded your lord the king? For one of the people came to kill the king your lord!
16This thing that you have done is not good. As the Lord lives, all of you undoubtedly must die, because you did not guard your lord, the Lord’S anointed. And now, see where the king’s spear is and the jug of water that was at his head!'
17Then Saul recognized David’s voice and said, 'Is this your voice, my son David?' And David said, 'It is my voice, my lord the king.'
18He also said, 'Why then is my lord pursuing his servant? For what have I done? Or what evil is in my hand?
19Now then, please let my lord the king listen to the words of his servant. If the Lord has incited you against me, may He accept an offering; but if it is people, cursed are they before the Lord, because they have driven me out today so that I would have no share in the inheritance of the Lord, saying, ‘Go, serve other gods.’
20Now then, do not let my blood fall to the ground far from the presence of the Lord; for the king of Israel has come out to search for a single flea, just as one hunts a partridge in the mountains.'
21Then Saul said, 'I have sinned. Return, my son David, for I will not harm you again since my life was precious in your sight this day. Behold, I have played the fool and have made a very great mistake.'
22David replied, 'Behold, the spear of the king! Now have one of the young men come over and take it.
23And the Lord will repay each man for his righteousness and his faithfulness; for the Lord handed you over to me today, but I refused to reach out with my hand against the Lord’S anointed.
24Therefore behold, just as your life was highly valued in my sight this day, so may my life be highly valued in the sight of the Lord, and may He rescue me from all distress.'
25Then Saul said to David, 'Blessed are you, my son David; you will both accomplish much and assuredly prevail.' So David went on his way, and Saul returned to his place.
Chapter 27
1Then David said to himself, 'Now I will perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than to safely escape into the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will despair of searching for me anymore in all the territory of Israel, and I will escape from his hand.' 2So David set out and went over, he and the six hundred men who were with him, to Achish the son of Maoch, king of Gath. 3And David lived with Achish in Gath, he and his men, each with his own household—David with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the Carmelitess, Nabal’s widow. 4Now it was reported to Saul that David had fled to Gath, so he no longer searched for him.
5Then David said to Achish, 'If now I have found favor in your sight, have them give me a place in one of the cities in the country, so that I may live there; for why should your servant live in the royal city with you?'
6So Achish gave him Ziklag that day; therefore Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah to this day.
7The number of days that David lived in the country of the Philistines was a year and four months.
8Now David and his men went up and attacked the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites; for they were the inhabitants of the land from ancient times, as you come to Shur even as far as the land of Egypt.
9David attacked the land and did not leave a man or a woman alive, and he took the sheep, the cattle, the donkeys, the camels, and the clothing. Then he returned and came to Achish.
10Now Achish said, 'Where did you carry out an attack today?' And David said, 'Against the Negev of Judah, against the Negev of the Jerahmeelites, and against the Negev of the Kenites.'
11And David did not leave a man or a woman alive to bring to Gath, saying, 'Otherwise they will tell about us, saying, ‘This is what David has done, and this has been his practice all the time that he has lived in the country of the Philistines.’?'
12So Achish believed David, saying, 'He has undoubtedly made himself repulsive among his people Israel; therefore he will become my servant forever.'
King James Version
Chapter 19
1And Saul spake to Jonathan his son, and to all his servants, that they should kill David. 2But Jonathan Saul's son delighted much in David: and Jonathan told David, saying, Saul my father seeketh to kill thee: now therefore, I pray thee, take heed to thyself until the morning, and abide in a secret place, and hide thyself: 3And I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where thou art, and I will commune with my father of thee; and what I see, that I will tell thee.
4And Jonathan spake good of David unto Saul his father, and said unto him, Let not the king sin against his servant, against David; because he hath not sinned against thee, and because his works have been to thee-ward very good:
5For he did put his life in his hand, and slew the Philistine, and the Lord wrought a great salvation for all Israel: thou sawest it, and didst rejoice: wherefore then wilt thou sin against innocent blood, to slay David without a cause?
6And Saul hearkened unto the voice of Jonathan: and Saul sware, As the Lord liveth, he shall not be slain.
7And Jonathan called David, and Jonathan shewed him all those things. And Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence, as in times past.
8And there was war again: and David went out, and fought with the Philistines, and slew them with a great slaughter; and they fled from him.
9And the evil spirit from the Lord was upon Saul, as he sat in his house with his javelin in his hand: and David played with his hand.
10And Saul sought to smite David even to the wall with the javelin; but he slipped away out of Saul's presence, and he smote the javelin into the wall: and David fled, and escaped that night.
11Saul also sent messengers unto David's house, to watch him, and to slay him in the morning: and Michal David's wife told him, saying, If thou save not thy life to night, to morrow thou shalt be slain.
12So Michal let David down through a window: and he went, and fled, and escaped.
13And Michal took an image, and laid it in the bed, and put a pillow of goats' hair for his bolster, and covered it with a cloth.
14And when Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, He is sick.
15And Saul sent the messengers again to see David, saying, Bring him up to me in the bed, that I may slay him.
16And when the messengers were come in, behold, there was an image in the bed, with a pillow of goats' hair for his bolster.
18So David fled, and escaped, and came to Samuel to Ramah, and told him all that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and dwelt in Naioth.
19And it was told Saul, saying, Behold, David is at Naioth in Ramah.
20And Saul sent messengers to take David: and when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing as appointed over them, the Spirit of God was upon the messengers of Saul, and they also prophesied.
21And when it was told Saul, he sent other messengers, and they prophesied likewise. And Saul sent messengers again the third time, and they prophesied also.
22Then went he also to Ramah, and came to a great well that is in Sechu: and he asked and said, Where are Samuel and David? And one said, Behold, they be at Naioth in Ramah.
23And he went thither to Naioth in Ramah: and the Spirit of God was upon him also, and he went on, and prophesied, until he came to Naioth in Ramah.
24And he stripped off his clothes also, and prophesied before Samuel in like manner, and lay down naked all that day and all that night. Wherefore they say, Is Saul also among the prophets?
3And David sware moreover, and said, Thy father certainly knoweth that I have found grace in thine eyes; and he saith, Let not Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved: but truly as the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, there is but a step between me and death.
4Then said Jonathan unto David, Whatsoever thy soul desireth, I will even do it for thee.
5And David said unto Jonathan, Behold, to morrow is the new moon, and I should not fail to sit with the king at meat: but let me go, that I may hide myself in the field unto the third day at even.
6If thy father at all miss me, then say, David earnestly asked leave of me that he might run to Bethlehem his city: for there is a yearly sacrifice there for all the family.
7If he say thus, It is well; thy servant shall have peace: but if he be very wroth, then be sure that evil is determined by him.
8Therefore thou shalt deal kindly with thy servant; for thou hast brought thy servant into a covenant of the Lord with thee: notwithstanding, if there be in me iniquity, slay me thyself; for why shouldest thou bring me to thy father?
9And Jonathan said, Far be it from thee: for if I knew certainly that evil were determined by my father to come upon thee, then would not I tell it thee?
10Then said David to Jonathan, Who shall tell me? or what if thy father answer thee roughly?
11And Jonathan said unto David, Come, and let us go out into the field. And they went out both of them into the field.
12And Jonathan said unto David, O Lord God of Israel, when I have sounded my father about to morrow any time, or the third day, and, behold, if there be good toward David, and I then send not unto thee, and shew it thee;
13The Lord do so and much more to Jonathan: but if it please my father to do thee evil, then I will shew it thee, and send thee away, that thou mayest go in peace: and the Lord be with thee, as he hath been with my father.
14And thou shalt not only while yet I live shew me the kindness of the Lord, that I die not:
15But also thou shalt not cut off thy kindness from my house for ever: no, not when the Lord hath cut off the enemies of David every one from the face of the earth.
16So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, Let the Lord even require it at the hand of David's enemies.
17And Jonathan caused David to swear again, because he loved him: for he loved him as he loved his own soul.
18Then Jonathan said to David, To morrow is the new moon: and thou shalt be missed, because thy seat will be empty.
19And when thou hast stayed three days, then thou shalt go down quickly, and come to the place where thou didst hide thyself when the business was in hand, and shalt remain by the stone Ezel.
20And I will shoot three arrows on the side thereof, as though I shot at a mark.
21And, behold, I will send a lad, saying, Go, find out the arrows. If I expressly say unto the lad, Behold, the arrows are on this side of thee, take them; then come thou: for there is peace to thee, and no hurt; as the Lord liveth.
22But if I say thus unto the young man, Behold, the arrows are beyond thee; go thy way: for the Lord hath sent thee away.
23And as touching the matter which thou and I have spoken of, behold, the Lord be between thee and me for ever.
24So David hid himself in the field: and when the new moon was come, the king sat him down to eat meat.
25And the king sat upon his seat, as at other times, even upon a seat by the wall: and Jonathan arose, and Abner sat by Saul's side, and David's place was empty.
26Nevertheless Saul spake not any thing that day: for he thought, Something hath befallen him, he is not clean; surely he is not clean.
27And it came to pass on the morrow, which was the second day of the month, that David's place was empty: and Saul said unto Jonathan his son, Wherefore cometh not the son of Jesse to meat, neither yesterday, nor to day?
28And Jonathan answered Saul, David earnestly asked leave of me to go to Bethlehem:
29And he said, Let me go, I pray thee; for our family hath a sacrifice in the city; and my brother, he hath commanded me to be there: and now, if I have found favour in thine eyes, let me get away, I pray thee, and see my brethren. Therefore he cometh not unto the king's table.
30Then Saul's anger was kindled against Jonathan, and he said unto him, Thou son of the perverse rebellious woman, do not I know that thou hast chosen the son of Jesse to thine own confusion, and unto the confusion of thy mother's nakedness?
31For as long as the son of Jesse liveth upon the ground, thou shalt not be established, nor thy kingdom. Wherefore now send and fetch him unto me, for he shall surely die.
32And Jonathan answered Saul his father, and said unto him, Wherefore shall he be slain? what hath he done?
33And Saul cast a javelin at him to smite him: whereby Jonathan knew that it was determined of his father to slay David.
34So Jonathan arose from the table in fierce anger, and did eat no meat the second day of the month: for he was grieved for David, because his father had done him shame.
35And it came to pass in the morning, that Jonathan went out into the field at the time appointed with David, and a little lad with him.
36And he said unto his lad, Run, find out now the arrows which I shoot. And as the lad ran, he shot an arrow beyond him.
37And when the lad was come to the place of the arrow which Jonathan had shot, Jonathan cried after the lad, and said, Is not the arrow beyond thee?
38And Jonathan cried after the lad, Make speed, haste, stay not. And Jonathan's lad gathered up the arrows, and came to his master.
39But the lad knew not any thing: only Jonathan and David knew the matter.
40And Jonathan gave his artillery unto his lad, and said unto him, Go, carry them to the city.
41And as soon as the lad was gone, David arose out of a place toward the south, and fell on his face to the ground, and bowed himself three times: and they kissed one another, and wept one with another, until David exceeded.
42And Jonathan said to David, Go in peace, forasmuch as we have sworn both of us in the name of the Lord, saying, The Lord be between me and thee, and between my seed and thy seed for ever. And he arose and departed: and Jonathan went into the city.
Chapter 21
1Then came David to Nob to Ahimelech the priest: and Ahimelech was afraid at the meeting of David, and said unto him, Why art thou alone, and no man with thee? 2And David said unto Ahimelech the priest, The king hath commanded me a business, and hath said unto me, Let no man know any thing of the business whereabout I send thee, and what I have commanded thee: and I have appointed my servants to such and such a place. 3Now therefore what is under thine hand? give me five loaves of bread in mine hand, or what there is present.
4And the priest answered David, and said, There is no common bread under mine hand, but there is hallowed bread; if the young men have kept themselves at least from women.
5And David answered the priest, and said unto him, Of a truth women have been kept from us about these three days, since I came out, and the vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in a manner common, yea, though it were sanctified this day in the vessel.
6So the priest gave him hallowed bread: for there was no bread there but the shewbread, that was taken from before the Lord, to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away.
7Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord; and his name was Doeg, an Edomite, the chiefest of the herdmen that belonged to Saul.
8And David said unto Ahimelech, And is there not here under thine hand spear or sword? for I have neither brought my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king's business required haste.
9And the priest said, The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom thou slewest in the valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod: if thou wilt take that, take it: for there is no other save that here. And David said, There is none like that; give it me.
10And David arose, and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath.
11And the servants of Achish said unto him, Is not this David the king of the land? did they not sing one to another of him in dances, saying, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands?
12And David laid up these words in his heart, and was sore afraid of Achish the king of Gath.
13And he changed his behaviour before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down upon his beard.
14Then said Achish unto his servants, Lo, ye see the man is mad: wherefore then have ye brought him to me?
15Have I need of mad men, that ye have brought this fellow to play the mad man in my presence? shall this fellow come into my house?
Chapter 22
1David therefore departed thence, and escaped to the cave Adullam: and when his brethren and all his father's house heard it, they went down thither to him. 2And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him; and he became a captain over them: and there were with him about four hundred men.
3And David went thence to Mizpeh of Moab: and he said unto the king of Moab, Let my father and my mother, I pray thee, come forth, and be with you, till I know what God will do for me.
4And he brought them before the king of Moab: and they dwelt with him all the while that David was in the hold.
5And the prophet Gad said unto David, Abide not in the hold; depart, and get thee into the land of Judah. Then David departed, and came into the forest of Hareth.
6When Saul heard that David was discovered, and the men that were with him, (now Saul abode in Gibeah under a tree in Ramah, having his spear in his hand, and all his servants were standing about him;)
7Then Saul said unto his servants that stood about him, Hear now, ye Benjamites; will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards, and make you all captains of thousands, and captains of hundreds;
8That all of you have conspired against me, and there is none that sheweth me that my son hath made a league with the son of Jesse, and there is none of you that is sorry for me, or sheweth unto me that my son hath stirred up my servant against me, to lie in wait, as at this day?
9Then answered Doeg the Edomite, which was set over the servants of Saul, and said, I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub.
10And he enquired of the Lord for him, and gave him victuals, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.
11Then the king sent to call Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitub, and all his father's house, the priests that were in Nob: and they came all of them to the king.
12And Saul said, Hear now, thou son of Ahitub. And he answered, Here I am, my lord.
13And Saul said unto him, Why have ye conspired against me, thou and the son of Jesse, in that thou hast given him bread, and a sword, and hast enquired of God for him, that he should rise against me, to lie in wait, as at this day?
14Then Ahimelech answered the king, and said, And who is so faithful among all thy servants as David, which is the king's son in law, and goeth at thy bidding, and is honourable in thine house?
15Did I then begin to enquire of God for him? be it far from me: let not the king impute any thing unto his servant, nor to all the house of my father: for thy servant knew nothing of all this, less or more.
16And the king said, Thou shalt surely die, Ahimelech, thou, and all thy father's house.
17And the king said unto the footmen that stood about him, Turn, and slay the priests of the Lord; because their hand also is with David, and because they knew when he fled, and did not shew it to me. But the servants of the king would not put forth their hand to fall upon the priests of the Lord.
18And the king said to Doeg, Turn thou, and fall upon the priests. And Doeg the Edomite turned, and he fell upon the priests, and slew on that day fourscore and five persons that did wear a linen ephod.
19And Nob, the city of the priests, smote he with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children and sucklings, and oxen, and asses, and sheep, with the edge of the sword.
20And one of the sons of Ahimelech the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped, and fled after David.
21And Abiathar shewed David that Saul had slain the Lord'S priests.
22And David said unto Abiathar, I knew it that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul: I have occasioned the death of all the persons of thy father's house.
23Abide thou with me, fear not: for he that seeketh my life seeketh thy life: but with me thou shalt be in safeguard.
Chapter 23
1Then they told David, saying, Behold, the Philistines fight against Keilah, and they rob the threshingfloors. 2Therefore David enquired of the Lord, saying, Shall I go and smite these Philistines? And the Lord said unto David, Go, and smite the Philistines, and save Keilah.
3And David's men said unto him, Behold, we be afraid here in Judah: how much more then if we come to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?
4Then David enquired of the Lord yet again. And the Lord answered him and said, Arise, go down to Keilah; for I will deliver the Philistines into thine hand.
5So David and his men went to Keilah, and fought with the Philistines, and brought away their cattle, and smote them with a great slaughter. So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah.
6And it came to pass, when Abiathar the son of Ahimelech fled to David to Keilah, that he came down with an ephod in his hand.
7And it was told Saul that David was come to Keilah. And Saul said, God hath delivered him into mine hand; for he is shut in, by entering into a town that hath gates and bars.
8And Saul called all the people together to war, to go down to Keilah, to besiege David and his men.
9And David knew that Saul secretly practised mischief against him; and he said to Abiathar the priest, Bring hither the ephod.
10Then said David, O Lord God of Israel, thy servant hath certainly heard that Saul seeketh to come to Keilah, to destroy the city for my sake.
11Will the men of Keilah deliver me up into his hand? will Saul come down, as thy servant hath heard? O Lord God of Israel, I beseech thee, tell thy servant. And the Lord said, He will come down.
12Then said David, Will the men of Keilah deliver me and my men into the hand of Saul? And the Lord said, They will deliver thee up.
13Then David and his men, which were about six hundred, arose and departed out of Keilah, and went whithersoever they could go. And it was told Saul that David was escaped from Keilah; and he forbare to go forth.
14And David abode in the wilderness in strong holds, and remained in a mountain in the wilderness of Ziph. And Saul sought him every day, but God delivered him not into his hand.
15And David saw that Saul was come out to seek his life: and David was in the wilderness of Ziph in a wood.
16And Jonathan Saul's son arose, and went to David into the wood, and strengthened his hand in God.
17And he said unto him, Fear not: for the hand of Saul my father shall not find thee; and thou shalt be king over Israel, and I shall be next unto thee; and that also Saul my father knoweth.
18And they two made a covenant before the Lord: and David abode in the wood, and Jonathan went to his house.
19Then came up the Ziphites to Saul to Gibeah, saying, Doth not David hide himself with us in strong holds in the wood, in the hill of Hachilah, which is on the south of Jeshimon?
20Now therefore, O king, come down according to all the desire of thy soul to come down; and our part shall be to deliver him into the king's hand.
21And Saul said, Blessed be ye of the Lord; for ye have compassion on me.
22Go, I pray you, prepare yet, and know and see his place where his haunt is, and who hath seen him there: for it is told me that he dealeth very subtilly.
23See therefore, and take knowledge of all the lurking places where he hideth himself, and come ye again to me with the certainty, and I will go with you: and it shall come to pass, if he be in the land, that I will search him out throughout all the thousands of Judah.
24And they arose, and went to Ziph before Saul: but David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon, in the plain on the south of Jeshimon.
25Saul also and his men went to seek him. And they told David: wherefore he came down into a rock, and abode in the wilderness of Maon. And when Saul heard that, he pursued after David in the wilderness of Maon.
26And Saul went on this side of the mountain, and David and his men on that side of the mountain: and David made haste to get away for fear of Saul; for Saul and his men compassed David and his men round about to take them.
27But there came a messenger unto Saul, saying, Haste thee, and come; for the Philistines have invaded the land.
28Wherefore Saul returned from pursuing after David, and went against the Philistines: therefore they called that place Selahammahlekoth.
29And David went up from thence, and dwelt in strong holds at Engedi.
Chapter 24
1And it came to pass, when Saul was returned from following the Philistines, that it was told him, saying, Behold, David is in the wilderness of Engedi. 2Then Saul took three thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and went to seek David and his men upon the rocks of the wild goats. 3And he came to the sheepcotes by the way, where was a cave; and Saul went in to cover his feet: and David and his men remained in the sides of the cave. 4And the men of David said unto him, Behold the day of which the Lord said unto thee, Behold, I will deliver thine enemy into thine hand, that thou mayest do to him as it shall seem good unto thee. Then David arose, and cut off the skirt of Saul's robe privily. 5And it came to pass afterward, that David's heart smote him, because he had cut off Saul's skirt. 6And he said unto his men, The Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, the Lord'S anointed, to stretch forth mine hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the Lord. 7So David stayed his servants with these words, and suffered them not to rise against Saul. But Saul rose up out of the cave, and went on his way.
8David also arose afterward, and went out of the cave, and cried after Saul, saying, My lord the king. And when Saul looked behind him, David stooped with his face to the earth, and bowed himself.
9And David said to Saul, Wherefore hearest thou men's words, saying, Behold, David seeketh thy hurt?
10Behold, this day thine eyes have seen how that the Lord had delivered thee to day into mine hand in the cave: and some bade me kill thee: but mine eye spared thee; and I said, I will not put forth mine hand against my lord; for he is the Lord'S anointed.
11Moreover, my father, see, yea, see the skirt of thy robe in my hand: for in that I cut off the skirt of thy robe, and killed thee not, know thou and see that there is neither evil nor transgression in mine hand, and I have not sinned against thee; yet thou huntest my soul to take it.
12The Lord judge between me and thee, and the Lord avenge me of thee: but mine hand shall not be upon thee.
13As saith the proverb of the ancients, Wickedness proceedeth from the wicked: but mine hand shall not be upon thee.
14After whom is the king of Israel come out? after whom dost thou pursue? after a dead dog, after a flea.
15The Lord therefore be judge, and judge between me and thee, and see, and plead my cause, and deliver me out of thine hand.
16And it came to pass, when David had made an end of speaking these words unto Saul, that Saul said, Is this thy voice, my son David? And Saul lifted up his voice, and wept.
17And he said to David, Thou art more righteous than I: for thou hast rewarded me good, whereas I have rewarded thee evil.
18And thou hast shewed this day how that thou hast dealt well with me: forasmuch as when the Lord had delivered me into thine hand, thou killedst me not.
19For if a man find his enemy, will he let him go well away? wherefore the Lord reward thee good for that thou hast done unto me this day.
20And now, behold, I know well that thou shalt surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in thine hand.
21Swear now therefore unto me by the Lord, that thou wilt not cut off my seed after me, and that thou wilt not destroy my name out of my father's house.
Chapter 25
1And Samuel died; and all the Israelites were gathered together, and lamented him, and buried him in his house at Ramah. And David arose, and went down to the wilderness of Paran. 2And there was a man in Maon, whose possessions were in Carmel; and the man was very great, and he had three thousand sheep, and a thousand goats: and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel. 3Now the name of the man was Nabal; and the name of his wife Abigail: and she was a woman of good understanding, and of a beautiful countenance: but the man was churlish and evil in his doings; and he was of the house of Caleb.
4And David heard in the wilderness that Nabal did shear his sheep.
5And David sent out ten young men, and David said unto the young men, Get you up to Carmel, and go to Nabal, and greet him in my name:
6And thus shall ye say to him that liveth in prosperity, Peace be both to thee, and peace be to thine house, and peace be unto all that thou hast.
7And now I have heard that thou hast shearers: now thy shepherds which were with us, we hurt them not, neither was there ought missing unto them, all the while they were in Carmel.
8Ask thy young men, and they will shew thee. Wherefore let the young men find favour in thine eyes: for we come in a good day: give, I pray thee, whatsoever cometh to thine hand unto thy servants, and to thy son David.
9And when David's young men came, they spake to Nabal according to all those words in the name of David, and ceased.
10And Nabal answered David's servants, and said, Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse? there be many servants now a days that break away every man from his master.
11Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and give it unto men, whom I know not whence they be?
12So David's young men turned their way, and went again, and came and told him all those sayings.
13And David said unto his men, Gird ye on every man his sword. And they girded on every man his sword; and David also girded on his sword: and there went up after David about four hundred men; and two hundred abode by the stuff.
14But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, saying, Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to salute our master; and he railed on them.
15But the men were very good unto us, and we were not hurt, neither missed we any thing, as long as we were conversant with them, when we were in the fields:
16They were a wall unto us both by night and day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep.
17Now therefore know and consider what thou wilt do; for evil is determined against our master, and against all his household: for he is such a son of Belial, that a man cannot speak to him.
18Then Abigail made haste, and took two hundred loaves, and two bottles of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of parched corn, and an hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on asses.
19And she said unto her servants, Go on before me; behold, I come after you. But she told not her husband Nabal.
20And it was so, as she rode on the ass, that she came down by the covert of the hill, and, behold, David and his men came down against her; and she met them.
21Now David had said, Surely in vain have I kept all that this fellow hath in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that pertained unto him: and he hath requited me evil for good.
22So and more also do God unto the enemies of David, if I leave of all that pertain to him by the morning light any that pisseth against the wall.
23And when Abigail saw David, she hasted, and lighted off the ass, and fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground,
24And fell at his feet, and said, Upon me, my lord, upon me let this iniquity be: and let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak in thine audience, and hear the words of thine handmaid.
25Let not my lord, I pray thee, regard this man of Belial, even Nabal: for as his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and folly is with him: but I thine handmaid saw not the young men of my lord, whom thou didst send.
26Now therefore, my lord, as the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, seeing the Lord hath withholden thee from coming to shed blood, and from avenging thyself with thine own hand, now let thine enemies, and they that seek evil to my lord, be as Nabal.
27And now this blessing which thine handmaid hath brought unto my lord, let it even be given unto the young men that follow my lord.
28I pray thee, forgive the trespass of thine handmaid: for the Lord will certainly make my lord a sure house; because my lord fighteth the battles of the Lord, and evil hath not been found in thee all thy days.
29Yet a man is risen to pursue thee, and to seek thy soul: but the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the Lord thy God; and the souls of thine enemies, them shall he sling out, as out of the middle of a sling.
30And it shall come to pass, when the Lord shall have done to my lord according to all the good that he hath spoken concerning thee, and shall have appointed thee ruler over Israel;
31That this shall be no grief unto thee, nor offence of heart unto my lord, either that thou hast shed blood causeless, or that my lord hath avenged himself: but when the Lord shall have dealt well with my lord, then remember thine handmaid.
32And David said to Abigail, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, which sent thee this day to meet me:
33And blessed be thy advice, and blessed be thou, which hast kept me this day from coming to shed blood, and from avenging myself with mine own hand.
34For in very deed, as the Lord God of Israel liveth, which hath kept me back from hurting thee, except thou hadst hasted and come to meet me, surely there had not been left unto Nabal by the morning light any that pisseth against the wall.
35So David received of her hand that which she had brought him, and said unto her, Go up in peace to thine house; see, I have hearkened to thy voice, and have accepted thy person.
36And Abigail came to Nabal; and, behold, he held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king; and Nabal's heart was merry within him, for he was very drunken: wherefore she told him nothing, less or more, until the morning light.
37But it came to pass in the morning, when the wine was gone out of Nabal, and his wife had told him these things, that his heart died within him, and he became as a stone.
38And it came to pass about ten days after, that the Lord smote Nabal, that he died.
40And when the servants of David were come to Abigail to Carmel, they spake unto her, saying, David sent us unto thee, to take thee to him to wife.
41And she arose, and bowed herself on her face to the earth, and said, Behold, let thine handmaid be a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.
42And Abigail hasted, and arose, and rode upon an ass, with five damsels of hers that went after her; and she went after the messengers of David, and became his wife.
43David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel; and they were also both of them his wives.
44But Saul had given Michal his daughter, David's wife, to Phalti the son of Laish, which was of Gallim.
Chapter 26
1And the Ziphites came unto Saul to Gibeah, saying, Doth not David hide himself in the hill of Hachilah, which is before Jeshimon? 2Then Saul arose, and went down to the wilderness of Ziph, having three thousand chosen men of Israel with him, to seek David in the wilderness of Ziph. 3And Saul pitched in the hill of Hachilah, which is before Jeshimon, by the way. But David abode in the wilderness, and he saw that Saul came after him into the wilderness. 4David therefore sent out spies, and understood that Saul was come in very deed.
5And David arose, and came to the place where Saul had pitched: and David beheld the place where Saul lay, and Abner the son of Ner, the captain of his host: and Saul lay in the trench, and the people pitched round about him.
6Then answered David and said to Ahimelech the Hittite, and to Abishai the son of Zeruiah, brother to Joab, saying, Who will go down with me to Saul to the camp? And Abishai said, I will go down with thee.
7So David and Abishai came to the people by night: and, behold, Saul lay sleeping within the trench, and his spear stuck in the ground at his bolster: but Abner and the people lay round about him.
8Then said Abishai to David, God hath delivered thine enemy into thine hand this day: now therefore let me smite him, I pray thee, with the spear even to the earth at once, and I will not smite him the second time.
9And David said to Abishai, Destroy him not: for who can stretch forth his hand against the Lord'S anointed, and be guiltless?
10David said furthermore, As the Lord liveth, the Lord shall smite him; or his day shall come to die; or he shall descend into battle, and perish.
11The Lord forbid that I should stretch forth mine hand against the Lord'S anointed: but, I pray thee, take thou now the spear that is at his bolster, and the cruse of water, and let us go.
12So David took the spear and the cruse of water from Saul's bolster; and they gat them away, and no man saw it, nor knew it, neither awaked: for they were all asleep; because a deep sleep from the Lord was fallen upon them.
13Then David went over to the other side, and stood on the top of an hill afar off; a great space being between them:
14And David cried to the people, and to Abner the son of Ner, saying, Answerest thou not, Abner? Then Abner answered and said, Who art thou that criest to the king?
15And David said to Abner, Art not thou a valiant man? and who is like to thee in Israel? wherefore then hast thou not kept thy lord the king? for there came one of the people in to destroy the king thy lord.
16This thing is not good that thou hast done. As the Lord liveth, ye are worthy to die, because ye have not kept your master, the Lord'S anointed. And now see where the king's spear is, and the cruse of water that was at his bolster.
17And Saul knew David's voice, and said, Is this thy voice, my son David? And David said, It is my voice, my lord, O king.
18And he said, Wherefore doth my lord thus pursue after his servant? for what have I done? or what evil is in mine hand?
19Now therefore, I pray thee, let my lord the king hear the words of his servant. If the Lord have stirred thee up against me, let him accept an offering: but if they be the children of men, cursed be they before the Lord; for they have driven me out this day from abiding in the inheritance of the Lord, saying, Go, serve other gods.
20Now therefore, let not my blood fall to the earth before the face of the Lord: for the king of Israel is come out to seek a flea, as when one doth hunt a partridge in the mountains.
21Then said Saul, I have sinned: return, my son David: for I will no more do thee harm, because my soul was precious in thine eyes this day: behold, I have played the fool, and have erred exceedingly.
22And David answered and said, Behold the king's spear! and let one of the young men come over and fetch it.
23The Lord render to every man his righteousness and his faithfulness: for the Lord delivered thee into my hand to day, but I would not stretch forth mine hand against the Lord'S anointed.
24And, behold, as thy life was much set by this day in mine eyes, so let my life be much set by in the eyes of the Lord, and let him deliver me out of all tribulation.
25Then Saul said to David, Blessed be thou, my son David: thou shalt both do great things, and also shalt still prevail. So David went on his way, and Saul returned to his place.
2And David arose, and he passed over with the six hundred men that were with him unto Achish, the son of Maoch, king of Gath.
3And David dwelt with Achish at Gath, he and his men, every man with his household, even David with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the Carmelitess, Nabal's wife.
4And it was told Saul that David was fled to Gath: and he sought no more again for him.
5And David said unto Achish, If I have now found grace in thine eyes, let them give me a place in some town in the country, that I may dwell there: for why should thy servant dwell in the royal city with thee?
6Then Achish gave him Ziklag that day: wherefore Ziklag pertaineth unto the kings of Judah unto this day.
7And the time that David dwelt in the country of the Philistines was a full year and four months.
8And David and his men went up, and invaded the Geshurites, and the Gezrites, and the Amalekites: for those nations were of old the inhabitants of the land, as thou goest to Shur, even unto the land of Egypt.
9And David smote the land, and left neither man nor woman alive, and took away the sheep, and the oxen, and the asses, and the camels, and the apparel, and returned, and came to Achish.
10And Achish said, Whither have ye made a road to day? And David said, Against the south of Judah, and against the south of the Jerahmeelites, and against the south of the Kenites.
11And David saved neither man nor woman alive, to bring tidings to Gath, saying, Lest they should tell on us, saying, So did David, and so will be his manner all the while he dwelleth in the country of the Philistines.
12And Achish believed David, saying, He hath made his people Israel utterly to abhor him; therefore he shall be my servant for ever.
Christian Standard Bible
Chapter 19
1Saul ordered his son Jonathan and all his servants to kill David. But Saul’s son Jonathan liked David very much, 2so he told him: "My father Saul intends to kill you. Be on your guard in the morning and hide in a secret place and stay there. 3I’ll go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are and talk to him about you. When I see what he says, I’ll tell you."
4Jonathan spoke well of David to his father Saul. He said to him: "The king should not sin against his servant David. He hasn’t sinned against you; in fact, his actions have been a great advantage to you.
5He took his life in his hands when he struck down the Philistine, and the Lord brought about a great victory for all Israel. You saw it and rejoiced, so why would you sin against innocent blood by killing David for no reason?"
6Saul listened to Jonathan’s advice and swore an oath: "As surely as the Lord lives, David will not be killed."
7So Jonathan summoned David and told him all these words. Then Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he served him as he did before.
9Now an evil spirit sent from the Lord came on Saul as he was sitting in his palace holding a spear. David was playing the lyre,
10and Saul tried to pin David to the wall with the spear. As the spear struck the wall, David eluded Saul, ran away, and escaped that night.
11Saul sent agents to David’s house to watch for him and kill him in the morning. But his wife Michal warned David, "If you don’t escape tonight, you will be dead tomorrow!"
12So she lowered David from the window, and he fled and escaped.
13Then Michal took the household idol and put it on the bed, placed some goat hair on its head, and covered it with a garment.
14When Saul sent agents to seize David, Michal said, "He’s sick."
15Saul sent the agents back to see David and said, "Bring him on his bed so I can kill him."
16When the agents arrived, to their surprise, the household idol was on the bed with some goat hair on its head.
19When it was reported to Saul that David was at Naioth in Ramah,
20he sent agents to seize David. However, when they saw the group of prophets prophesying with Samuel leading them, the Spirit of God came on Saul’s agents, and they also started prophesying.
21When they reported to Saul, he sent other agents, and they also began prophesying. So Saul tried again and sent a third group of agents, and even they began prophesying.
23So he went to Naioth in Ramah. The Spirit of God also came on him, and as he walked along, he prophesied until he entered Naioth in Ramah.
24Saul then removed his clothes and also prophesied before Samuel; he collapsed and lay naked all that day and all that night. That is why they say, "Is Saul also among the prophets?"
5So David told him, "Look, tomorrow is the New Moon, and I’m supposed to sit down and eat with the king. Instead, let me go, and I’ll hide in the countryside for the next two nights.
6If your father misses me at all, say, ‘David urgently requested my permission to go quickly to his hometown Bethlehem for an annual sacrifice there involving the whole clan.’
7If he says, ‘Good,’ then your servant is safe, but if he becomes angry, you will know he has evil intentions.
8Deal kindly with your servant, for you have brought me into a covenant with you before the Lord. If I have done anything wrong, then kill me yourself; why take me to your father?"
11He answered David, "Come on, let’s go out to the countryside." So both of them went out to the countryside.
12"By the Lord, the God of Israel, I will sound out my father by this time tomorrow or the next day. If I find out that he is favorable toward you, will I not send for you and tell you?
13If my father intends to bring evil on you, may God punish Jonathan and do so severely if I do not tell you and send you away so you may leave safely. May the Lord be with you, just as he was with my father.
14If I continue to live, show me kindness from the Lord, but if I die,
15don’t ever withdraw your kindness from my household—not even when the Lord cuts off every one of David’s enemies from the face of the earth."
16Then Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, "May the Lord hold David’s enemies accountable."
17Jonathan once again swore to David in his love for him, because he loved him as he loved himself.
18Then Jonathan said to him, "Tomorrow is the New Moon; you’ll be missed because your seat will be empty.
19The following day hurry down and go to the place where you hid on the day this incident began and stay beside the rock Ezel.
20I will shoot three arrows beside it as if I’m aiming at a target.
21Then I will send a servant and say, ‘Go and find the arrows!’ Now, if I expressly say to the servant, ‘Look, the arrows are on this side of you—get them,’ then come, because as the Lord lives, it is safe for you and there is no problem.
22But if I say this to the youth, ‘Look, the arrows are beyond you!’ then go, for the Lord is sending you away.
23As for the matter you and I have spoken about, the Lord will be a witness between you and me forever."
24So David hid in the countryside. At the New Moon, the king sat down to eat the meal.
25He sat at his usual place on the seat by the wall. Jonathan sat facing him and Abner took his place beside Saul, but David’s place was empty.
26Saul did not say anything that day because he thought, "Something unexpected has happened; he must be ceremonially unclean—yes, that’s it, he is unclean."
28Jonathan answered, "David asked for my permission to go to Bethlehem.
29He said, ‘Please let me go because our clan is holding a sacrifice in the town, and my brother has told me to be there. So now, if I have found favor with you, let me go so I can see my brothers.’ That’s why he didn’t come to the king’s table."
30Then Saul became angry with Jonathan and shouted, "You son of a perverse and rebellious woman! Don’t I know that you are siding with Jesse’s son to your own shame and to the disgrace of your mother?
31Every day Jesse’s son lives on earth you and your kingship are not secure. Now send for him and bring him to me—he must die!"
33Then Saul threw his spear at Jonathan to kill him, so he knew that his father was determined to kill David.
34He got up from the table fiercely angry and did not eat any food that second day of the New Moon, for he was grieved because of his father’s shameful behavior toward David.
35In the morning Jonathan went out to the countryside for the appointed meeting with David. A young servant was with him.
36He said to the servant, "Run and find the arrows I’m shooting." As the servant ran, Jonathan shot an arrow beyond him.
37He came to the location of the arrow that Jonathan had shot, but Jonathan called to him and said, "The arrow is beyond you, isn’t it?"
38Then Jonathan called to him, "Hurry up and don’t stop!" Jonathan’s servant picked up the arrow and returned to his master.
39He did not know anything; only Jonathan and David knew the arrangement.
40Then Jonathan gave his equipment to the servant who was with him and said, "Go, take it back to the city."
2David answered the priest Ahimelech, "The king gave me a mission, but he told me, ‘Don’t let anyone know anything about the mission I’m sending you on or what I have ordered you to do.’ I have stationed my young men at a certain place.
3Now what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread or whatever can be found."
5David answered him, "I swear that women are being kept from us, as always when I go out to battle. The young men’s bodies are consecrated even on an ordinary mission, so of course their bodies are consecrated today."
6So the priest gave him the consecrated bread, for there was no bread there except the Bread of the Presence that had been removed from the presence of the Lord. When the bread was removed, it had been replaced with warm bread.
12David took this to heart and became very afraid of King Achish of Gath,
13so he pretended to be insane in their presence. He acted like a madman around them, scribbling on the doors of the city gate and letting saliva run down his beard.
14"Look! You can see the man is crazy," Achish said to his servants. "Why did you bring him to me?
15Do I have such a shortage of crazy people that you brought this one to act crazy around me? Is this one going to come into my house?"
Chapter 22
1So David left Gath and took refuge in the cave of Adullam. When David’s brothers and his father’s whole family heard, they went down and joined him there. 2In addition, every man who was desperate, in debt, or discontented rallied around him, and he became their leader. About four hundred men were with him.
3From there David went to Mizpeh of Moab where he said to the king of Moab, "Please let my father and mother stay with you until I know what God will do for me."
4So he left them in the care of the king of Moab, and they stayed with him the whole time David was in the stronghold.
6Saul heard that David and his men had been discovered. At that time Saul was in Gibeah, sitting under the tamarisk tree at the high place. His spear was in his hand, and all his servants were standing around him.
7Saul said to his servants, "Listen, men of Benjamin: Is Jesse’s son going to give all of you fields and vineyards? Do you think he’ll make all of you commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds?
8That’s why all of you have conspired against me! Nobody tells me when my own son makes a covenant with Jesse’s son. None of you cares about me or tells me that my son has stirred up my own servant to wait in ambush for me, as is the case today."
9Then Doeg the Edomite, who was in charge of Saul’s servants, answered: "I saw Jesse’s son come to Ahimelech son of Ahitub at Nob.
10Ahimelech inquired of the Lord for him and gave him provisions. He also gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine."
14Ahimelech replied to the king: "Who among all your servants is as faithful as David? He is the king’s son-in-law, captain of your bodyguard, and honored in your house.
15Was today the first time I inquired of God for him? Of course not! Please don’t let the king make an accusation against your servant or any of my father’s family, for your servant didn’t have any idea about all this."
18So the king said to Doeg, "Go and execute the priests!" So Doeg the Edomite went and executed the priests himself. On that day, he killed eighty-five men who wore linen ephods.
19He also struck down Nob, the city of the priests, with the sword—both men and women, infants and nursing babies, oxen, donkeys, and sheep.
20However, one of the sons of Ahimelech son of Ahitub escaped. His name was Abiathar, and he fled to David.
21Abiathar told David that Saul had killed the priests of the Lord.
22Then David said to Abiathar, "I knew that Doeg the Edomite was there that day and that he was sure to report to Saul. I myself am responsible for the lives of everyone in your father’s family.
23Stay with me. Don’t be afraid, for the one who wants to take my life wants to take your life. You will be safe with me."
4Once again, David inquired of the Lord, and the Lord answered him: "Go at once to Keilah, for I will hand the Philistines over to you."
5Then David and his men went to Keilah, fought against the Philistines, drove their livestock away, and inflicted heavy losses on them. So David rescued the inhabitants of Keilah.
6Abiathar son of Ahimelech fled to David at Keilah, and he brought an ephod with him.
7When it was reported to Saul that David had gone to Keilah, he said, "God has handed him over to me, for he has trapped himself by entering a town with barred gates."
8Then Saul summoned all the troops to go to war at Keilah and besiege David and his men.
13So David and his men, numbering about six hundred, left Keilah at once and moved from place to place. When it was reported to Saul that David had escaped from Keilah, he called off the expedition.
14David then stayed in the wilderness strongholds and in the hill country of the Wilderness of Ziph. Saul searched for him every day, but God did not hand David over to him.
15David was in the Wilderness of Ziph in Horesh when he saw that Saul had come out to take his life.
16Then Saul’s son Jonathan came to David in Horesh and encouraged him in his faith in God,
17saying, "Don’t be afraid, for my father Saul will never lay a hand on you. You yourself will be king over Israel, and I’ll be your second-in-command. Even my father Saul knows it is true."
18Then the two of them made a covenant in the Lord’s presence. Afterward, David remained in Horesh, while Jonathan went home.
19Some Ziphites came up to Saul at Gibeah and said, "David is hiding among us in the strongholds in Horesh on the hill of Hachilah south of Jeshimon.
20Now, whenever the king wants to come down, let him come down. Our part will be to hand him over to the king."
21"May you be blessed by the Lord," replied Saul, "for you have shown concern for me.
22Go and check again. Investigate where he goes and who has seen him there; they tell me he is extremely cunning.
23Investigate all the places where he hides. Then come back to me with accurate information, and I’ll go with you. If it turns out he really is in the region, I’ll search for him among all the clans of Judah."
24So they went to Ziph ahead of Saul. Now David and his men were in the wilderness near Maon in the Arabah south of Jeshimon,
25and Saul and his men went to look for him. When David was told about it, he went down to the rock and stayed in the Wilderness of Maon. Saul heard of this and pursued David there.
26Saul went along one side of the mountain and David and his men went along the other side. Even though David was hurrying to get away from Saul, Saul and his men were closing in on David and his men to capture them.
27Then a messenger came to Saul saying, "Come quickly, because the Philistines have raided the land!"
28So Saul broke off his pursuit of David and went to engage the Philistines. Therefore, that place was named the Rock of Separation.
29From there David went up and stayed in the strongholds of En-gedi.
Chapter 24
1When Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, he was told, "David is in the wilderness near En-gedi." 2So Saul took three thousand of Israel’s fit young men and went to look for David and his men in front of the Rocks of the Wild Goats. 3When Saul came to the sheep pens along the road, a cave was there, and he went in to relieve himself. David and his men were staying in the recesses of the cave, 4so they said to him, "Look, this is the day the Lord told you about: ‘I will hand your enemy over to you so you can do to him whatever you desire.’" Then David got up and secretly cut off the corner of Saul’s robe.
5Afterward, David’s conscience bothered him because he had cut off the corner of Saul’s robe.
6He said to his men, "I swear before the Lord: I would never do such a thing to my lord, the Lord’s anointed. I will never lift my hand against him, since he is the Lord’s anointed."
7With these words David persuaded his men, and he did not let them rise up against Saul. Then Saul left the cave and went on his way.
8After that, David got up, went out of the cave, and called to Saul, "My lord the king!" When Saul looked behind him, David knelt low with his face to the ground and paid homage.
9David said to Saul, "Why do you listen to the words of people who say, ‘Look, David intends to harm you’?
10You can see with your own eyes that the Lord handed you over to me today in the cave. Someone advised me to kill you, but I took pity on you and said: I won’t lift my hand against my lord, since he is the Lord’s anointed.
11Look, my father! Look at the corner of your robe in my hand, for I cut it off, but I didn’t kill you. Recognize that I’ve committed no crime or rebellion. I haven’t sinned against you even though you are hunting me down to take my life.
12"May the Lord judge between me and you, and may the Lord take vengeance on you for me, but my hand will never be against you.
13As the old proverb says, ‘Wickedness comes from wicked people.’ My hand will never be against you.
14Who has the king of Israel come after? What are you chasing after? A dead dog? A single flea?
15May the Lord be judge and decide between you and me. May he take notice and plead my case and deliver me from you."
16When David finished saying these things to him, Saul replied, "Is that your voice, David my son?" Then Saul wept aloud
17and said to David, "You are more righteous than I, for you have done what is good to me though I have done what is evil to you.
18You yourself have told me today what good you did for me: when the Lord handed me over to you, you didn’t kill me.
19When a man finds his enemy, does he let him go unharmed? May the Lord repay you with good for what you’ve done for me today.
20"Now I know for certain you will be king, and the kingdom of Israel will be established in your hand.
21Therefore swear to me by the Lord that you will not cut off my descendants or wipe out my name from my father’s family."
22So David swore to Saul. Then Saul went back home, and David and his men went up to the stronghold.
2A man in Maon had a business in Carmel; he was a very rich man with three thousand sheep and one thousand goats and was shearing his sheep in Carmel.
3The man’s name was Nabal, and his wife’s name, Abigail. The woman was intelligent and beautiful, but the man, a Calebite, was harsh and evil in his dealings.
4While David was in the wilderness, he heard that Nabal was shearing sheep,
5so David sent ten young men instructing them, "Go up to Carmel, and when you come to Nabal, greet him in my name.
6Then say this: ‘Long life to you, and peace to you, peace to your family, and peace to all that is yours.
7I hear that you are shearing. When your shepherds were with us, we did not harass them, and nothing of theirs was missing the whole time they were in Carmel.
8Ask your young men, and they will tell you. So let my young men find favor with you, for we have come on a feast day. Please give whatever you have on hand to your servants and to your son David.’"
9David’s young men went and said all these things to Nabal on David’s behalf, and they waited.
10Nabal asked them, "Who is David? Who is Jesse’s son? Many slaves these days are running away from their masters.
11Am I supposed to take my bread, my water, and my meat that I butchered for my shearers and give them to these men? I don’t know where they are from."
12David’s young men retraced their steps. When they returned to him, they reported all these words.
13He said to his men, "All of you, put on your swords!" So each man put on his sword, and David also put on his sword. About four hundred men followed David while two hundred stayed with the supplies.
14One of Nabal’s young men informed Abigail, Nabal’s wife: "Look, David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master, but he screamed at them.
15The men treated us very well. When we were in the field, we weren’t harassed and nothing of ours was missing the whole time we were living among them.
16They were a wall around us, both day and night, the entire time we were with them herding the sheep.
17Now consider carefully what you should do, because there is certain to be trouble for our master and his entire family. He is such a worthless fool nobody can talk to him!"
18Abigail hurried, taking two hundred loaves of bread, two clay jars of wine, five butchered sheep, a bushel of roasted grain, one hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of pressed figs, and loaded them on donkeys.
19Then she said to her male servants, "Go ahead of me. I will be right behind you." But she did not tell her husband Nabal.
20As she rode the donkey down a mountain pass hidden from view, she saw David and his men coming toward her and met them.
21David had just said, "I guarded everything that belonged to this man in the wilderness for nothing. He was not missing anything, yet he paid me back evil for good.
22May God punish me and do so severely if I let any of his males survive until morning."
23When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off the donkey and knelt down with her face to the ground and paid homage to David.
24She knelt at his feet and said, "The guilt is mine, my lord, but please let your servant speak to you directly. Listen to the words of your servant.
25My lord should pay no attention to this worthless fool Nabal, for he lives up to his name: His name means ‘stupid,’ and stupidity is all he knows. I, your servant, didn’t see my lord’s young men whom you sent.
26Now my lord, as surely as the Lord lives and as you yourself live— it is the Lord who kept you from participating in bloodshed and avenging yourself by your own hand—may your enemies and those who intend to harm my lord be like Nabal.
27Let this gift your servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who follow my lord.
28Please forgive your servant’s offense, for the Lord is certain to make a lasting dynasty for my lord because he fights the Lord’s battles. Throughout your life, may evil not be found in you.
29"Someone is pursuing you and intends to take your life. My lord’s life is tucked safely in the place where the Lord your God protects the living, but he is flinging away your enemies’ lives like stones from a sling.
30When the Lord does for my lord all the good he promised you and appoints you ruler over Israel,
31there will not be remorse or a troubled conscience for my lord because of needless bloodshed or my lord’s revenge. And when the Lord does good things for my lord, may you remember me your servant."
32Then David said to Abigail, "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who sent you to meet me today!
33May your discernment be blessed, and may you be blessed. Today you kept me from participating in bloodshed and avenging myself by my own hand.
34Otherwise, as surely as the Lord God of Israel lives, who prevented me from harming you, if you had not come quickly to meet me, Nabal wouldn’t have had any males left by morning light."
35Then David accepted what she had brought him and said, "Go home in peace. See, I have heard what you said and have granted your request."
37In the morning when Nabal sobered up, his wife told him about these events. His heart died and he became a stone.
38About ten days later, the Lord struck Nabal dead.
39When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, "Blessed be the Lord who championed my cause against Nabal’s insults and restrained his servant from doing evil. The Lord brought Nabal’s evil deeds back on his own head." Then David sent messengers to speak to Abigail about marrying him.
40When David’s servants came to Abigail at Carmel, they said to her, "David sent us to bring you to him as a wife."
41She stood up, paid homage with her face to the ground, and said, "Here I am, your servant, a slave to wash the feet of my lord’s servants."
42Then Abigail got up quickly, and with her five female servants accompanying her, rode on the donkey following David’s messengers. And so she became his wife.
43David also married Ahinoam of Jezreel, and the two of them became his wives.
44But Saul gave his daughter Michal, David’s wife, to Palti son of Laish, who was from Gallim.
Chapter 26
1Then the Ziphites came to Saul at Gibeah saying, "David is hiding on the hill of Hachilah opposite Jeshimon." 2So Saul, accompanied by three thousand of the fit young men of Israel, went immediately to the Wilderness of Ziph to search for David there. 3Saul camped beside the road at the hill of Hachilah opposite Jeshimon. David was living in the wilderness and discovered Saul had come there after him. 4So David sent out spies and knew for certain that Saul had come. 5Immediately, David went to the place where Saul had camped. He saw the place where Saul and Abner son of Ner, the commander of his army, were lying down. Saul was lying inside the inner circle of the camp with the troops camped around him.
7That night, David and Abishai came to the troops, and Saul was lying there asleep in the inner circle of the camp with his spear stuck in the ground by his head. Abner and the troops were lying around him.
8Then Abishai said to David, "Today God has delivered your enemy to you. Let me thrust the spear through him into the ground just once. I won’t have to strike him twice!"
9But David said to Abishai, "Don’t destroy him, for who can lift a hand against the Lord’s anointed and be innocent?"
10David added, "As the Lord lives, the Lord will certainly strike him down: either his day will come and he will die, or he will go into battle and perish.
11However, because of the Lord, I will never lift my hand against the Lord’s anointed. Instead, take the spear and the water jug by his head, and let’s go."
12So David took the spear and the water jug by Saul’s head, and they went their way. No one saw them, no one knew, and no one woke up; they all remained asleep because a deep sleep from the Lord came over them.
13David crossed to the other side and stood on top of the mountain at a distance; there was a considerable space between them.
15David called to Abner, "You’re a man, aren’t you? Who in Israel is your equal? So why didn’t you protect your lord the king when one of the people came to destroy him?
16What you have done is not good. As the Lord lives, all of you deserve to die since you didn’t protect your lord, the Lord’s anointed. Now look around; where are the king’s spear and water jug that were by his head?"
17Saul recognized David’s voice and asked, "Is that your voice, my son David?" "It is my voice, my lord and king," David said.
18Then he continued, "Why is my lord pursuing his servant? What have I done? What crime have I committed?
19Now, may my lord the king please hear the words of his servant: If it is the Lord who has incited you against me, then may he accept an offering. But if it is people, may they be cursed in the presence of the Lord, for today they have banished me from sharing in the inheritance of the Lord saying, ‘Go and worship other gods.’
20So don’t let my blood fall to the ground far from the Lord’s presence, for the king of Israel has come out to search for a single flea, like one who pursues a partridge in the mountains."
22David answered, "Here is the king’s spear; have one of the young men come over and get it.
23The Lord will repay every man for his righteousness and his loyalty. I wasn’t willing to lift my hand against the Lord’s anointed, even though the Lord handed you over to me today.
24Just as I considered your life valuable today, so may the Lord consider my life valuable and rescue me from all trouble."
Chapter 27
1David said to himself, "One of these days I’ll be swept away by Saul. There is nothing better for me than to escape immediately to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will give up searching for me everywhere in Israel, and I’ll escape from him." 2So David set out with his six hundred men and went over to Achish son of Maoch, the king of Gath. 3David and his men stayed with Achish in Gath. Each man had his family with him, and David had his two wives: Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail of Carmel, Nabal’s widow. 4When it was reported to Saul that David had fled to Gath, he no longer searched for him.
5Now David said to Achish, "If I have found favor with you, let me be given a place in one of the outlying towns, so I can live there. Why should your servant live in the royal city with you?"
6That day Achish gave Ziklag to him, and it still belongs to the kings of Judah today.
7The length of time that David stayed in Philistine territory amounted to a year and four months.
8David and his men went up and raided the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites. From ancient times they had been the inhabitants of the region through Shur as far as the land of Egypt.
9Whenever David attacked the land, he did not leave a single person alive, either man or woman, but he took flocks, herds, donkeys, camels, and clothing. Then he came back to Achish,
11David did not let a man or woman live to be brought to Gath, for he said, "Or they will inform on us and say, ‘This is what David did.’" This was David’s custom during the whole time he stayed in the Philistine territory.
12So Achish trusted David, thinking, "Since he has made himself repulsive to his people Israel, he will be my servant forever."
New Living Translation
Chapter 19
1Saul now urged his servants and his son Jonathan to assassinate David. But Jonathan, because of his strong affection for David, 2told him what his father was planning. 'Tomorrow morning,' he warned him, 'you must find a hiding place out in the fields. 3I’ll ask my father to go out there with me, and I’ll talk to him about you. Then I’ll tell you everything I can find out.'
4The next morning Jonathan spoke with his father about David, saying many good things about him. 'The king must not sin against his servant David,' Jonathan said. 'He’s never done anything to harm you. He has always helped you in any way he could.
5Have you forgotten about the time he risked his life to kill the Philistine giant and how the Lord brought a great victory to all Israel as a result? You were certainly happy about it then. Why should you murder an innocent man like David? There is no reason for it at all!'
9But one day when Saul was sitting at home, with spear in hand, the tormenting spirit from the Lord suddenly came upon him again. As David played his harp,
10Saul hurled his spear at David. But David dodged out of the way, and leaving the spear stuck in the wall, he fled and escaped into the night.
11Then Saul sent troops to watch David’s house. They were told to kill David when he came out the next morning. But Michal, David’s wife, warned him, 'If you don’t escape tonight, you will be dead by morning.'
12So she helped him climb out through a window, and he fled and escaped.
13Then she took an idol and put it in his bed, covered it with blankets, and put a cushion of goat’s hair at its head.
15But Saul sent the troops back to get David. He ordered, 'Bring him to me in his bed so I can kill him!'
16But when they came to carry David out, they discovered that it was only an idol in the bed with a cushion of goat’s hair at its head.
18So David escaped and went to Ramah to see Samuel, and he told him all that Saul had done to him. Then Samuel took David with him to live at Naioth.
19When the report reached Saul that David was at Naioth in Ramah,
20he sent troops to capture him. But when they arrived and saw Samuel leading a group of prophets who were prophesying, the Spirit of God came upon Saul’s men, and they also began to prophesy.
21When Saul heard what had happened, he sent other troops, but they, too, prophesied! The same thing happened a third time.
23But on the way to Naioth in Ramah the Spirit of God came even upon Saul, and he, too, began to prophesy all the way to Naioth!
24He tore off his clothes and lay naked on the ground all day and all night, prophesying in the presence of Samuel. The people who were watching exclaimed, 'What? Is even Saul a prophet?'
5David replied, 'Tomorrow we celebrate the new moon festival. I’ve always eaten with the king on this occasion, but tomorrow I’ll hide in the field and stay there until the evening of the third day.
6If your father asks where I am, tell him I asked permission to go home to Bethlehem for an annual family sacrifice.
7If he says, ‘Fine!’ you will know all is well. But if he is angry and loses his temper, you will know he is determined to kill me.
8Show me this loyalty as my sworn friend — for we made a solemn pact before the Lord — or kill me yourself if I have sinned against your father. But please don’t betray me to him!'
11Come out to the field with me,' Jonathan replied. And they went out there together.
12Then Jonathan told David, 'I promise by the Lord, the God of Israel, that by this time tomorrow, or the next day at the latest, I will talk to my father and let you know at once how he feels about you. If he speaks favorably about you, I will let you know.
13But if he is angry and wants you killed, may the Lord strike me and even kill me if I don’t warn you so you can escape and live. May the Lord be with you as he used to be with my father.
14And may you treat me with the faithful love of the Lord as long as I live. But if I die,
15treat my family with this faithful love, even when the Lord destroys all your enemies from the face of the earth.'
16So Jonathan made a solemn pact with David, saying, 'May the Lord destroy all your enemies!'
17And Jonathan made David reaffirm his vow of friendship again, for Jonathan loved David as he loved himself.
18Then Jonathan said, 'Tomorrow we celebrate the new moon festival. You will be missed when your place at the table is empty.
19The day after tomorrow, toward evening, go to the place where you hid before, and wait there by the stone pile.
20I will come out and shoot three arrows to the side of the stone pile as though I were shooting at a target.
21Then I will send a boy to bring the arrows back. If you hear me tell him, ‘They’re on this side,’ then you will know, as surely as the Lord lives, that all is well, and there is no trouble.
22But if I tell him, ‘Go farther — the arrows are still ahead of you,’ then it will mean that you must leave immediately, for the Lord is sending you away.
23And may the Lord make us keep our promises to each other, for he has witnessed them.'
24So David hid himself in the field, and when the new moon festival began, the king sat down to eat.
25He sat at his usual place against the wall, with Jonathan sitting opposite him and Abner beside him. But David’s place was empty.
26Saul didn’t say anything about it that day, for he said to himself, 'Something must have made David ceremonially unclean.'
27But when David’s place was empty again the next day, Saul asked Jonathan, 'Why hasn’t the son of Jesse been here for the meal either yesterday or today?'
28Jonathan replied, 'David earnestly asked me if he could go to Bethlehem.
29He said, ‘Please let me go, for we are having a family sacrifice. My brother demanded that I be there. So please let me get away to see my brothers.’ That’s why he isn’t here at the king’s table.'
30Saul boiled with rage at Jonathan. 'You stupid son of a whore!' he swore at him. 'Do you think I don’t know that you want him to be king in your place, shaming yourself and your mother?
31As long as that son of Jesse is alive, you’ll never be king. Now go and get him so I can kill him!'
32But why should he be put to death?' Jonathan asked his father. 'What has he done?'
33Then Saul hurled his spear at Jonathan, intending to kill him. So at last Jonathan realized that his father was really determined to kill David.
35The next morning, as agreed, Jonathan went out into the field and took a young boy with him to gather his arrows.
36Start running,' he told the boy, 'so you can find the arrows as I shoot them.' So the boy ran, and Jonathan shot an arrow beyond him.
37When the boy had almost reached the arrow, Jonathan shouted, 'The arrow is still ahead of you.
38Hurry, hurry, don’t wait.' So the boy quickly gathered up the arrows and ran back to his master.
39He, of course, suspected nothing; only Jonathan and David understood the signal.
40Then Jonathan gave his bow and arrows to the boy and told him to take them back to town.
2The king has sent me on a private matter,' David said. 'He told me not to tell anyone why I am here. I have told my men where to meet me later.
3Now, what is there to eat? Give me five loaves of bread or anything else you have.'
12David heard these comments and was very afraid of what King Achish of Gath might do to him.
13So he pretended to be insane, scratching on doors and drooling down his beard.
14Finally, King Achish said to his men, 'Must you bring me a madman?
15We already have enough of them around here! Why should I let someone like this be my guest?'
Chapter 22
1So David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam. Soon his brothers and all his other relatives joined him there. 2Then others began coming — men who were in trouble or in debt or who were just discontented — until David was the captain of about 400 men.
3Later David went to Mizpeh in Moab, where he asked the king, 'Please allow my father and mother to live here with you until I know what God is going to do for me.'
4So David’s parents stayed in Moab with the king during the entire time David was living in his stronghold.
7Listen here, you men of Benjamin!' Saul shouted to his officers when he heard the news. 'Has that son of Jesse promised every one of you fields and vineyards? Has he promised to make you all generals and captains in his army?
8Is that why you have conspired against me? For not one of you told me when my own son made a solemn pact with the son of Jesse. You’re not even sorry for me. Think of it! My own son — encouraging him to kill me, as he is trying to do this very day!'
9Then Doeg the Edomite, who was standing there with Saul’s men, spoke up. 'When I was at Nob,' he said, 'I saw the son of Jesse talking to the priest, Ahimelech son of Ahitub.
10Ahimelech consulted the Lord for him. Then he gave him food and the sword of Goliath the Philistine.'
14But sir,' Ahimelech replied, 'is anyone among all your servants as faithful as David, your son-in-law? Why, he is the captain of your bodyguard and a highly honored member of your household!
15This was certainly not the first time I had consulted God for him! May the king not accuse me and my family in this matter, for I knew nothing at all of any plot against you.'
16You will surely die, Ahimelech, along with your entire family!' the king shouted.
17And he ordered his bodyguards, 'Kill these priests of the Lord, for they are allies and conspirators with David! They knew he was running away from me, but they didn’t tell me!' But Saul’s men refused to kill the Lord’s priests.
18Then the king said to Doeg, 'You do it.' So Doeg the Edomite turned on them and killed them that day, eighty-five priests in all, still wearing their priestly garments.
19Then he went to Nob, the town of the priests, and killed the priests’ families — men and women, children and babies — and all the cattle, donkeys, sheep, and goats.
20Only Abiathar, one of the sons of Ahimelech, escaped and fled to David.
21When he told David that Saul had killed the priests of the Lord,
22David exclaimed, 'I knew it! When I saw Doeg the Edomite there that day, I knew he was sure to tell Saul. Now I have caused the death of all your father’s family.
23Stay here with me, and don’t be afraid. I will protect you with my own life, for the same person wants to kill us both.'
5So David and his men went to Keilah. They slaughtered the Philistines and took all their livestock and rescued the people of Keilah.
6Now when Abiathar son of Ahimelech fled to David at Keilah, he brought the ephod with him.
7Saul soon learned that David was at Keilah. 'Good!' he exclaimed. 'We’ve got him now! God has handed him over to me, for he has trapped himself in a walled town!'
8So Saul mobilized his entire army to march to Keilah and besiege David and his men.
9But David learned of Saul’s plan and told Abiathar the priest to bring the ephod and ask the Lord what he should do.
10Then David prayed, 'O Lord, God of Israel, I have heard that Saul is planning to come and destroy Keilah because I am here.
13So David and his men — about 600 of them now — left Keilah and began roaming the countryside. Word soon reached Saul that David had escaped, so he didn’t go to Keilah after all.
14David now stayed in the strongholds of the wilderness and in the hill country of Ziph. Saul hunted him day after day, but God didn’t let Saul find him.
15One day near Horesh, David received the news that Saul was on the way to Ziph to search for him and kill him.
16Jonathan went to find David and encouraged him to stay strong in his faith in God.
17Don’t be afraid,' Jonathan reassured him. 'My father will never find you! You are going to be the king of Israel, and I will be next to you, as my father, Saul, is well aware.'
18So the two of them renewed their solemn pact before the Lord. Then Jonathan returned home, while David stayed at Horesh.
19But now the men of Ziph went to Saul in Gibeah and betrayed David to him. 'We know where David is hiding,' they said. 'He is in the strongholds of Horesh on the hill of Hakilah, which is in the southern part of Jeshimon.
20Come down whenever you’re ready, O king, and we will catch him and hand him over to you!'
21The Lord bless you,' Saul said. 'At last someone is concerned about me!
22Go and check again to be sure of where he is staying and who has seen him there, for I know that he is very crafty.
23Discover his hiding places, and come back when you are sure. Then I’ll go with you. And if he is in the area at all, I’ll track him down, even if I have to search every hiding place in Judah!'
24So the men of Ziph returned home ahead of Saul. Meanwhile, David and his men had moved into the wilderness of Maon in the Arabah Valley south of Jeshimon.
25When David heard that Saul and his men were searching for him, he went even farther into the wilderness to the great rock, and he remained there in the wilderness of Maon. But Saul kept after him in the wilderness.
26Saul and David were now on opposite sides of a mountain. Just as Saul and his men began to close in on David and his men,
27an urgent message reached Saul that the Philistines were raiding Israel again.
28So Saul quit chasing David and returned to fight the Philistines. Ever since that time, the place where David was camped has been called the Rock of Escape.
29David then went to live in the strongholds of En-gedi.
Chapter 24
1After Saul returned from fighting the Philistines, he was told that David had gone into the wilderness of En-gedi. 2So Saul chose 3,000 elite troops from all Israel and went to search for David and his men near the rocks of the wild goats.
5But then David’s conscience began bothering him because he had cut Saul’s robe.
6He said to his men, 'The Lord forbid that I should do this to my lord the king. I shouldn’t attack the Lord’s anointed one, for the Lord himself has chosen him.'
7So David restrained his men and did not let them kill Saul. After Saul had left the cave and gone on his way,
8David came out and shouted after him, 'My lord the king!' And when Saul looked around, David bowed low before him.
9Then he shouted to Saul, 'Why do you listen to the people who say I am trying to harm you?
10This very day you can see with your own eyes it isn’t true. For the Lord placed you at my mercy back there in the cave. Some of my men told me to kill you, but I spared you. For I said, ‘I will never harm the king — he is the Lord’s anointed one.’
11Look, my father, at what I have in my hand. It is a piece of the hem of your robe! I cut it off, but I didn’t kill you. This proves that I am not trying to harm you and that I have not sinned against you, even though you have been hunting for me to kill me.
12May the Lord judge between us. Perhaps the Lord will punish you for what you are trying to do to me, but I will never harm you.
13As that old proverb says, ‘From evil people come evil deeds.’ So you can be sure I will never harm you.
14Who is the king of Israel trying to catch anyway? Should he spend his time chasing one who is as worthless as a dead dog or a single flea?
15May the Lord therefore judge which of us is right and punish the guilty one. He is my advocate, and he will rescue me from your power!'
16When David had finished speaking, Saul called back, 'Is that really you, my son David?' Then he began to cry.
17And he said to David, 'You are a better man than I am, for you have repaid me good for evil.
18Yes, you have been amazingly kind to me today, for when the Lord put me in a place where you could have killed me, you didn’t do it.
19Who else would let his enemy get away when he had him in his power? May the Lord reward you well for the kindness you have shown me today.
20And now I realize that you are surely going to be king, and that the kingdom of Israel will flourish under your rule.
21Now swear to me by the Lord that when that happens you will not kill my family and destroy my line of descendants!'
Chapter 25
1Now Samuel died, and all Israel gathered for his funeral. They buried him at his house in Ramah. Then David moved down to the wilderness of Maon. 2There was a wealthy man from Maon who owned property near the town of Carmel. He had 3,000 sheep and 1,000 goats, and it was sheep-shearing time. 3This man’s name was Nabal, and his wife, Abigail, was a sensible and beautiful woman. But Nabal, a descendant of Caleb, was crude and mean in all his dealings.
4When David heard that Nabal was shearing his sheep,
5he sent ten of his young men to Carmel with this message for Nabal:
6Peace and prosperity to you, your family, and everything you own!
7I am told that it is sheep-shearing time. While your shepherds stayed among us near Carmel, we never harmed them, and nothing was ever stolen from them.
8Ask your own men, and they will tell you this is true. So would you be kind to us, since we have come at a time of celebration? Please share any provisions you might have on hand with us and with your friend David.'
9David’s young men gave this message to Nabal in David’s name, and they waited for a reply.
10Who is this fellow David?' Nabal sneered to the young men. 'Who does this son of Jesse think he is? There are lots of servants these days who run away from their masters.
11Should I take my bread and my water and my meat that I’ve slaughtered for my shearers and give it to a band of outlaws who come from who knows where?'
12So David’s young men returned and told him what Nabal had said.
13Get your swords!' was David’s reply as he strapped on his own. Then 400 men started off with David, and 200 remained behind to guard their equipment.
14Meanwhile, one of Nabal’s servants went to Abigail and told her, 'David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master, but he screamed insults at them.
15These men have been very good to us, and we never suffered any harm from them. Nothing was stolen from us the whole time they were with us.
16In fact, day and night they were like a wall of protection to us and the sheep.
17You need to know this and figure out what to do, for there is going to be trouble for our master and his whole family. He’s so ill-tempered that no one can even talk to him!'
18Abigail wasted no time. She quickly gathered 200 loaves of bread, two wineskins full of wine, five sheep that had been slaughtered, nearly a bushel of roasted grain, 100 clusters of raisins, and 200 fig cakes. She packed them on donkeys
19and said to her servants, 'Go on ahead. I will follow you shortly.' But she didn’t tell her husband Nabal what she was doing.
20As she was riding her donkey into a mountain ravine, she saw David and his men coming toward her.
21David had just been saying, 'A lot of good it did to help this fellow. We protected his flocks in the wilderness, and nothing he owned was lost or stolen. But he has repaid me evil for good.
22May God strike me and kill me if even one man of his household is still alive tomorrow morning!'
23When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her donkey and bowed low before him.
24She fell at his feet and said, 'I accept all blame in this matter, my lord. Please listen to what I have to say.
25I know Nabal is a wicked and ill-tempered man; please don’t pay any attention to him. He is a fool, just as his name suggests. But I never even saw the young men you sent.
26Now, my lord, as surely as the Lord lives and you yourself live, since the Lord has kept you from murdering and taking vengeance into your own hands, let all your enemies and those who try to harm you be as cursed as Nabal is.
27And here is a present that I, your servant, have brought to you and your young men.
28Please forgive me if I have offended you in any way. The Lord will surely reward you with a lasting dynasty, for you are fighting the Lord’s battles. And you have not done wrong throughout your entire life.
29Even when you are chased by those who seek to kill you, your life is safe in the care of the Lord your God, secure in his treasure pouch! But the lives of your enemies will disappear like stones shot from a sling!
30When the Lord has done all he promised and has made you leader of Israel,
31don’t let this be a blemish on your record. Then your conscience won’t have to bear the staggering burden of needless bloodshed and vengeance. And when the Lord has done these great things for you, please remember me, your servant!'
32David replied to Abigail, 'Praise the Lord, the God of Israel, who has sent you to meet me today!
33Thank God for your good sense! Bless you for keeping me from murder and from carrying out vengeance with my own hands.
34For I swear by the Lord, the God of Israel, who has kept me from hurting you, that if you had not hurried out to meet me, not one of Nabal’s men would still be alive tomorrow morning.'
35Then David accepted her present and told her, 'Return home in peace. I have heard what you said. We will not kill your husband.'
36When Abigail arrived home, she found that Nabal was throwing a big party and was celebrating like a king. He was very drunk, so she didn’t tell him anything about her meeting with David until dawn the next day.
37In the morning when Nabal was sober, his wife told him what had happened. As a result he had a stroke, and he lay paralyzed on his bed like a stone.
38About ten days later, the Lord struck him, and he died.
41She bowed low to the ground and responded, 'I, your servant, would be happy to marry David. I would even be willing to become a slave, washing the feet of his servants!'
42Quickly getting ready, she took along five of her servant girls as attendants, mounted her donkey, and went with David’s messengers. And so she became his wife.
43David also married Ahinoam from Jezreel, making both of them his wives.
44Saul, meanwhile, had given his daughter Michal, David’s wife, to a man from Gallim named Palti son of Laish.
2So Saul took 3,000 of Israel’s elite troops and went to hunt him down in the wilderness of Ziph.
3Saul camped along the road beside the hill of Hakilah, near Jeshimon, where David was hiding. When David learned that Saul had come after him into the wilderness,
4he sent out spies to verify the report of Saul’s arrival.
6Who will volunteer to go in there with me?' David asked Ahimelech the Hittite and Abishai son of Zeruiah, Joab’s brother. 'I’ll go with you,' Abishai replied.
7So David and Abishai went right into Saul’s camp and found him asleep, with his spear stuck in the ground beside his head. Abner and the soldiers were lying asleep around him.
9No!' David said. 'Don’t kill him. For who can remain innocent after attacking the Lord’s anointed one?
10Surely the Lord will strike Saul down someday, or he will die of old age or in battle.
11The Lord forbid that I should kill the one he has anointed! But take his spear and that jug of water beside his head, and then let’s get out of here!'
15Well, Abner, you’re a great man, aren’t you?' David taunted. 'Where in all Israel is there anyone as mighty? So why haven’t you guarded your master the king when someone came to kill him?
16This isn’t good at all! I swear by the Lord that you and your men deserve to die, because you failed to protect your master, the Lord’s anointed! Look around! Where are the king’s spear and the jug of water that were beside his head?'
17Saul recognized David’s voice and called out, 'Is that you, my son David?' And David replied, 'Yes, my lord the king.
18Why are you chasing me? What have I done? What is my crime?
19But now let my lord the king listen to his servant. If the Lord has stirred you up against me, then let him accept my offering. But if this is simply a human scheme, then may those involved be cursed by the Lord. For they have driven me from my home, so I can no longer live among the Lord’s people, and they have said, ‘Go, worship pagan gods.’
20Must I die on foreign soil, far from the presence of the Lord? Why has the king of Israel come out to search for a single flea? Why does he hunt me down like a partridge on the mountains?'
22Here is your spear, O king,' David replied. 'Let one of your young men come over and get it.
23The Lord gives his own reward for doing good and for being loyal, and I refused to kill you even when the Lord placed you in my power, for you are the Lord’s anointed one.
24Now may the Lord value my life, even as I have valued yours today. May he rescue me from all my troubles.'
2So David took his 600 men and went over and joined Achish son of Maoch, the king of Gath.
3David and his men and their families settled there with Achish at Gath. David brought his two wives along with him — Ahinoam from Jezreel and Abigail, Nabal’s widow from Carmel.
4Word soon reached Saul that David had fled to Gath, so he stopped hunting for him.
6So Achish gave him the town of Ziklag (which still belongs to the kings of Judah to this day),
7and they lived there among the Philistines for a year and four months.
8David and his men spent their time raiding the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites — people who had lived near Shur, toward the land of Egypt, since ancient times.
9David did not leave one person alive in the villages he attacked. He took the sheep, goats, cattle, donkeys, camels, and clothing before returning home to see King Achish.
11No one was left alive to come to Gath and tell where he had really been. This happened again and again while he was living among the Philistines.
12Achish believed David and thought to himself, 'By now the people of Israel must hate him bitterly. Now he will have to stay here and serve me forever!'
English Standard Version
Chapter 19
1And Saul spoke to Jonathan his son and to all his servants, that they should kill David. But Jonathan, Saul 's son, delighted much in David. 2And Jonathan told David, "Saul my father seeks to kill you. Therefore be on your guard in the morning. Stay in a secret place and hide yourself. 3And I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are, and I will speak to my father about you. And if I learn anything I will tell you." 4And Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father and said to him, "Let not the king sin against his servant David, because he has not sinned against you, and because his deeds have brought good to you. 5For he took his life in his hand and he struck down the Philistine, and the Lord worked a great salvation for all Israel. You saw it, and rejoiced. Why then will you sin against innocent blood by killing David without cause?" 6And Saul listened to the voice of Jonathan. Saul swore, "As the Lord lives, he shall not be put to death." 7And Jonathan called David, and Jonathan reported to him all these things. And Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence as before.
8And there was war again. And David went out and fought with the Philistines and struck them with a great blow, so that they fled before him.
9Then a harmful spirit from the Lord came upon Saul, as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand. And David was playing the lyre.
10And Saul sought to pin David to the wall with the spear, but he eluded Saul, so that he struck the spear into the wall. And David fled and escaped that night.
11Saul sent messengers to David 's house to watch him, that he might kill him in the morning. But Michal, David 's wife, told him, "If you do not escape with your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed."
12So Michal let David down through the window, and he fled away and escaped.
13Michal took an image and laid it on the bed and put a pillow of goats ' hair at its head and covered it with the clothes.
14And when Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, "He is sick."
15Then Saul sent the messengers to see David, saying, "Bring him up to me in the bed, that I may kill him."
16And when the messengers came in, behold, the image was in the bed, with the pillow of goats ' hair at its head.
17Saul said to Michal, "Why have you deceived me thus and let my enemy go, so that he has escaped?" And Michal answered Saul, "He said to me, ‘Let me go. Why should I kill you?’"
18Now David fled and escaped, and he came to Samuel at Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and lived at Naioth.
19And it was told Saul, "Behold, David is at Naioth in Ramah."
20Then Saul sent messengers to take David, and when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing as head over them, the Spirit of God came upon the messengers of Saul, and they also prophesied.
21When it was told Saul, he sent other messengers, and they also prophesied. And Saul sent messengers again the third time, and they also prophesied.
22Then he himself went to Ramah and came to the great well that is in Secu. And he asked, "Where are Samuel and David?" And one said, "Behold, they are at Naioth in Ramah."
23And he went there to Naioth in Ramah. And the Spirit of God came upon him also, and as he went he prophesied until he came to Naioth in Ramah.
24And he too stripped off his clothes, and he too prophesied before Samuel and lay naked all that day and all that night. Thus it is said, "Is Saul also among the prophets?"
Chapter 20
1Then David fled from Naioth in Ramah and came and said before Jonathan, "What have I done? What is my guilt? And what is my sin before your father, that he seeks my life?" 2And he said to him, "Far from it! You shall not die. Behold, my father does nothing either great or small without disclosing it to me. And why should my father hide this from me? It is not so." 3But David vowed again, saying, "Your father knows well that I have found favor in your eyes, and he thinks, ‘Do not let Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved.’ But truly, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, there is but a step between me and death." 4Then Jonathan said to David, "Whatever you say, I will do for you." 5David said to Jonathan, "Behold, tomorrow is the new moon, and I should not fail to sit at table with the king. But let me go, that I may hide myself in the field till the third day at evening. 6If your father misses me at all, then say, ‘David earnestly asked leave of me to run to Bethlehem his city, for there is a yearly sacrifice there for all the clan.’ 7If he says, ‘Good!’ it will be well with your servant, but if he is angry, then know that harm is determined by him. 8Therefore deal kindly with your servant, for you have brought your servant into a covenant of the Lord with you. But if there is guilt in me, kill me yourself, for why should you bring me to your father?" 9And Jonathan said, "Far be it from you! If I knew that it was determined by my father that harm should come to you, would I not tell you?" 10Then David said to Jonathan, "Who will tell me if your father answers you roughly?" 11And Jonathan said to David, "Come, let us go out into the field." So they both went out into the field.
12And Jonathan said to David, "The Lord, the God of Israel, be witness! When I have sounded out my father, about this time tomorrow, or the third day, behold, if he is well disposed toward David, shall I not then send and disclose it to you?
13But should it please my father to do you harm, the Lord do so to Jonathan and more also if I do not disclose it to you and send you away, that you may go in safety. May the Lord be with you, as he has been with my father.
14If I am still alive, show me the steadfast love of the Lord, that I may not die;
15and do not cut off your steadfast love from my house forever, when the Lord cuts off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth."
16And Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, "May the Lord take vengeance on David 's enemies."
17And Jonathan made David swear again by his love for him, for he loved him as he loved his own soul.
18Then Jonathan said to him, "Tomorrow is the new moon, and you will be missed, because your seat will be empty.
19On the third day go down quickly to the place where you hid yourself when the matter was in hand, and remain beside the stone heap.
20And I will shoot three arrows to the side of it, as though I shot at a mark.
21And behold, I will send the boy, saying, ‘Go, find the arrows.’ If I say to the boy, ‘Look, the arrows are on this side of you, take them,’ then you are to come, for, as the Lord lives, it is safe for you and there is no danger.
22But if I say to the youth, ‘Look, the arrows are beyond you,’ then go, for the Lord has sent you away.
23And as for the matter of which you and I have spoken, behold, the Lord is between you and me forever."
24So David hid himself in the field. And when the new moon came, the king sat down to eat food.
25The king sat on his seat, as at other times, on the seat by the wall. Jonathan sat opposite, and Abner sat by Saul 's side, but David 's place was empty.
26Yet Saul did not say anything that day, for he thought, "Something has happened to him. He is not clean; surely he is not clean."
27But on the second day, the day after the new moon, David 's place was empty. And Saul said to Jonathan his son, "Why has not the son of Jesse come to the meal, either yesterday or today?"
28Jonathan answered Saul, "David earnestly asked leave of me to go to Bethlehem.
29He said, ‘Let me go, for our clan holds a sacrifice in the city, and my brother has commanded me to be there. So now, if I have found favor in your eyes, let me get away and see my brothers.’ For this reason he has not come to the king 's table."
30Then Saul 's anger was kindled against Jonathan, and he said to him, "You son of a perverse, rebellious woman, do I not know that you have chosen the son of Jesse to your own shame, and to the shame of your mother 's nakedness?
31For as long as the son of Jesse lives on the earth, neither you nor your kingdom shall be established. Therefore send and bring him to me, for he shall surely die."
32Then Jonathan answered Saul his father, "Why should he be put to death? What has he done?"
33But Saul hurled his spear at him to strike him. So Jonathan knew that his father was determined to put David to death.
34And Jonathan rose from the table in fierce anger and ate no food the second day of the month, for he was grieved for David, because his father had disgraced him.
35In the morning Jonathan went out into the field to the appointment with David, and with him a little boy.
36And he said to his boy, "Run and find the arrows that I shoot." As the boy ran, he shot an arrow beyond him.
37And when the boy came to the place of the arrow that Jonathan had shot, Jonathan called after the boy and said, "Is not the arrow beyond you?"
38And Jonathan called after the boy, "Hurry! Be quick! Do not stay!" So Jonathan 's boy gathered up the arrows and came to his master.
39But the boy knew nothing. Only Jonathan and David knew the matter.
40And Jonathan gave his weapons to his boy and said to him, "Go and carry them to the city."
41And as soon as the boy had gone, David rose from beside the stone heap and fell on his face to the ground and bowed three times. And they kissed one another and wept with one another, David weeping the most.
42Then Jonathan said to David, "Go in peace, because we have sworn both of us in the name of the Lord, saying, ‘The Lord shall be between me and you, and between my offspring and your offspring, forever.’" And he rose and departed, and Jonathan went into the city.
Chapter 21
1Then David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech came to meet David, trembling, and said to him, "Why are you alone, and no one with you?" 2And David said to Ahimelech the priest, "The king has charged me with a matter and said to me, ‘Let no one know anything of the matter about which I send you, and with which I have charged you.’ I have made an appointment with the young men for such and such a place. 3Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever is here." 4And the priest answered David, "I have no common bread on hand, but there is holy bread — if the young men have kept themselves from women." 5And David answered the priest, "Truly women have been kept from us as always when I go on an expedition. The vessels of the young men are holy even when it is an ordinary journey. How much more today will their vessels be holy?" 6So the priest gave him the holy bread, for there was no bread there but the bread of the Presence, which is removed from before the Lord, to be replaced by hot bread on the day it is taken away.
8Then David said to Ahimelech, "Then have you not here a spear or a sword at hand? For I have brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king 's business required haste."
9And the priest said, "The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you struck down in the Valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you will take that, take it, for there is none but that here." And David said, "There is none like that; give it to me."
10And David rose and fled that day from Saul and went to Achish the king of Gath.
11And the servants of Achish said to him, "Is not this David the king of the land? Did they not sing to one another of him in dances, ‘Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands’?"
12And David took these words to heart and was much afraid of Achish the king of Gath.
13So he changed his behavior before them and pretended to be insane in their hands and made marks on the doors of the gate and let his spittle run down his beard.
14Then Achish said to his servants, "Behold, you see the man is mad. Why then have you brought him to me?
15Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to behave as a madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?"
Chapter 22
1David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. And when his brothers and all his father 's house heard it, they went down there to him. 2And everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was bitter in soul, gathered to him. And he became commander over them. And there were with him about four hundred men.
3And David went from there to Mizpeh of Moab. And he said to the king of Moab, "Please let my father and my mother stay with you, till I know what God will do for me."
4And he left them with the king of Moab, and they stayed with him all the time that David was in the stronghold.
5Then the prophet Gad said to David, "Do not remain in the stronghold; depart, and go into the land of Judah." So David departed and went into the forest of Hereth.
6Now Saul heard that David was discovered, and the men who were with him. Saul was sitting at Gibeah under the tamarisk tree on the height with his spear in his hand, and all his servants were standing about him.
7And Saul said to his servants who stood about him, "Hear now, people of Benjamin; will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards, will he make you all commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds,
8that all of you have conspired against me? No one discloses to me when my son makes a covenant with the son of Jesse. None of you is sorry for me or discloses to me that my son has stirred up my servant against me, to lie in wait, as at this day."
9Then answered Doeg the Edomite, who stood by the servants of Saul, "I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub,
10and he inquired of the Lord for him and gave him provisions and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine."
11Then the king sent to summon Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitub, and all his father 's house, the priests who were at Nob, and all of them came to the king.
12And Saul said, "Hear now, son of Ahitub." And he answered, "Here I am, my lord."
13And Saul said to him, "Why have you conspired against me, you and the son of Jesse, in that you have given him bread and a sword and have inquired of God for him, so that he has risen against me, to lie in wait, as at this day?"
14Then Ahimelech answered the king, "And who among all your servants is so faithful as David, who is the king 's son-in-law, and captain over your bodyguard, and honored in your house?
15Is today the first time that I have inquired of God for him? No! Let not the king impute anything to his servant or to all the house of my father, for your servant has known nothing of all this, much or little."
16And the king said, "You shall surely die, Ahimelech, you and all your father 's house."
17And the king said to the guard who stood about him, "Turn and kill the priests of the Lord, because their hand also is with David, and they knew that he fled and did not disclose it to me." But the servants of the king would not put out their hand to strike the priests of the Lord.
18Then the king said to Doeg, "You turn and strike the priests." And Doeg the Edomite turned and struck down the priests, and he killed on that day eighty-five persons who wore the linen ephod.
19And Nob, the city of the priests, he put to the sword; both man and woman, child and infant, ox, donkey and sheep, he put to the sword.
20But one of the sons of Ahimelech the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped and fled after David.
21And Abiathar told David that Saul had killed the priests of the Lord.
22And David said to Abiathar, "I knew on that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul. I have occasioned the death of all the persons of your father 's house.
23Stay with me; do not be afraid, for he who seeks my life seeks your life. With me you shall be in safekeeping."
Chapter 23
1Now they told David, "Behold, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah and are robbing the threshing floors." 2Therefore David inquired of the Lord, "Shall I go and attack these Philistines?" And the Lord said to David, "Go and attack the Philistines and save Keilah." 3But David 's men said to him, "Behold, we are afraid here in Judah; how much more then if we go to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?" 4Then David inquired of the Lord again. And the Lord answered him, "Arise, go down to Keilah, for I will give the Philistines into your hand." 5And David and his men went to Keilah and fought with the Philistines and brought away their livestock and struck them with a great blow. So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah.
6When Abiathar the son of Ahimelech had fled to David to Keilah, he had come down with an ephod in his hand.
7Now it was told Saul that David had come to Keilah. And Saul said, "God has given him into my hand, for he has shut himself in by entering a town that has gates and bars."
8And Saul summoned all the people to war, to go down to Keilah, to besiege David and his men.
9David knew that Saul was plotting harm against him. And he said to Abiathar the priest, "Bring the ephod here."
10Then David said, "O Lord, the God of Israel, your servant has surely heard that Saul seeks to come to Keilah, to destroy the city on my account.
11Will the men of Keilah surrender me into his hand? Will Saul come down, as your servant has heard? O Lord, the God of Israel, please tell your servant." And the Lord said, "He will come down."
12Then David said, "Will the men of Keilah surrender me and my men into the hand of Saul?" And the Lord said, "They will surrender you."
13Then David and his men, who were about six hundred, arose and departed from Keilah, and they went wherever they could go. When Saul was told that David had escaped from Keilah, he gave up the expedition.
14And David remained in the strongholds in the wilderness, in the hill country of the wilderness of Ziph. And Saul sought him every day, but God did not give him into his hand.
15David saw that Saul had come out to seek his life. David was in the wilderness of Ziph at Horesh.
16And Jonathan, Saul 's son, rose and went to David at Horesh, and strengthened his hand in God.
17And he said to him, "Do not fear, for the hand of Saul my father shall not find you. You shall be king over Israel, and I shall be next to you. Saul my father also knows this."
18And the two of them made a covenant before the Lord. David remained at Horesh, and Jonathan went home.
19Then the Ziphites went up to Saul at Gibeah, saying, "Is not David hiding among us in the strongholds at Horesh, on the hill of Hachilah, which is south of Jeshimon?
20Now come down, O king, according to all your heart 's desire to come down, and our part shall be to surrender him into the king 's hand."
21And Saul said, "May you be blessed by the Lord, for you have had compassion on me.
22Go, make yet more sure. Know and see the place where his foot is, and who has seen him there, for it is told me that he is very cunning.
23See therefore and take note of all the lurking places where he hides, and come back to me with sure information. Then I will go with you. And if he is in the land, I will search him out among all the thousands of Judah."
24And they arose and went to Ziph ahead of Saul. Now David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon, in the Arabah to the south of Jeshimon.
25And Saul and his men went to seek him. And David was told, so he went down to the rock and lived in the wilderness of Maon. And when Saul heard that, he pursued after David in the wilderness of Maon.
26Saul went on one side of the mountain, and David and his men on the other side of the mountain. And David was hurrying to get away from Saul. As Saul and his men were closing in on David and his men to capture them,
27a messenger came to Saul, saying, "Hurry and come, for the Philistines have made a raid against the land."
28So Saul returned from pursuing after David and went against the Philistines. Therefore that place was called the Rock of Escape.
29And David went up from there and lived in the strongholds of Engedi.
Chapter 24
1When Saul returned from following the Philistines, he was told, "Behold, David is in the wilderness of Engedi." 2Then Saul took three thousand chosen men out of all Israel and went to seek David and his men in front of the Wildgoats ' Rocks. 3And he came to the sheepfolds by the way, where there was a cave, and Saul went in to relieve himself. Now David and his men were sitting in the innermost parts of the cave. 4And the men of David said to him, "Here is the day of which the Lord said to you, ‘Behold, I will give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it shall seem good to you.’" Then David arose and stealthily cut off a corner of Saul 's robe. 5And afterward David 's heart struck him, because he had cut off a corner of Saul 's robe. 6He said to his men, "The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the Lord 's anointed, to put out my hand against him, seeing he is the Lord 's anointed." 7So David persuaded his men with these words and did not permit them to attack Saul. And Saul rose up and left the cave and went on his way.
8Afterward David also arose and went out of the cave, and called after Saul, "My lord the king!" And when Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the earth and paid homage.
9And David said to Saul, "Why do you listen to the words of men who say, ‘Behold, David seeks your harm’?
10Behold, this day your eyes have seen how the Lord gave you today into my hand in the cave. And some told me to kill you, but I spared you. I said, ‘I will not put out my hand against my lord, for he is the Lord 's anointed.’
11See, my father, see the corner of your robe in my hand. For by the fact that I cut off the corner of your robe and did not kill you, you may know and see that there is no wrong or treason in my hands. I have not sinned against you, though you hunt my life to take it.
12May the Lord judge between me and you, may the Lord avenge me against you, but my hand shall not be against you.
13As the proverb of the ancients says, ‘Out of the wicked comes wickedness.’ But my hand shall not be against you.
14After whom has the king of Israel come out? After whom do you pursue? After a dead dog! After a flea!
15May the Lord therefore be judge and give sentence between me and you, and see to it and plead my cause and deliver me from your hand."
16As soon as David had finished speaking these words to Saul, Saul said, "Is this your voice, my son David?" And Saul lifted up his voice and wept.
17He said to David, "You are more righteous than I, for you have repaid me good, whereas I have repaid you evil.
18And you have declared this day how you have dealt well with me, in that you did not kill me when the Lord put me into your hands.
19For if a man finds his enemy, will he let him go away safe? So may the Lord reward you with good for what you have done to me this day.
20And now, behold, I know that you shall surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand.
21Swear to me therefore by the Lord that you will not cut off my offspring after me, and that you will not destroy my name out of my father 's house."
22And David swore this to Saul. Then Saul went home, but David and his men went up to the stronghold.
2And there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel. The man was very rich; he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. He was shearing his sheep in Carmel.
3Now the name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife Abigail. The woman was discerning and beautiful, but the man was harsh and badly behaved; he was a Calebite.
4David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep.
5So David sent ten young men. And David said to the young men, "Go up to Carmel, and go to Nabal and greet him in my name.
6And thus you shall greet him: ‘Peace be to you, and peace be to your house, and peace be to all that you have.
7I hear that you have shearers. Now your shepherds have been with us, and we did them no harm, and they missed nothing all the time they were in Carmel.
8Ask your young men, and they will tell you. Therefore let my young men find favor in your eyes, for we come on a feast day. Please give whatever you have at hand to your servants and to your son David.’"
9When David 's young men came, they said all this to Nabal in the name of David, and then they waited.
10And Nabal answered David 's servants, "Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants these days who are breaking away from their masters.
11Shall I take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my shearers and give it to men who come from I do not know where?"
12So David 's young men turned away and came back and told him all this.
13And David said to his men, "Every man strap on his sword!" And every man of them strapped on his sword. David also strapped on his sword. And about four hundred men went up after David, while two hundred remained with the baggage.
14But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal 's wife, "Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to greet our master, and he railed at them.
15Yet the men were very good to us, and we suffered no harm, and we did not miss anything when we were in the fields, as long as we went with them.
16They were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep.
17Now therefore know this and consider what you should do, for harm is determined against our master and against all his house, and he is such a worthless man that one cannot speak to him."
18Then Abigail made haste and took two hundred loaves and two skins of wine and five sheep already prepared and five seahs of parched grain and a hundred clusters of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on donkeys.
19And she said to her young men, "Go on before me; behold, I come after you." But she did not tell her husband Nabal.
20And as she rode on the donkey and came down under cover of the mountain, behold, David and his men came down toward her, and she met them.
21Now David had said, "Surely in vain have I guarded all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him, and he has returned me evil for good.
22God do so to the enemies of David and more also, if by morning I leave so much as one male of all who belong to him."
23When Abigail saw David, she hurried and got down from the donkey and fell before David on her face and bowed to the ground.
24She fell at his feet and said, "On me alone, my lord, be the guilt. Please let your servant speak in your ears, and hear the words of your servant.
25Let not my lord regard this worthless fellow, Nabal, for as his name is, so is he. Nabal is his name, and folly is with him. But I your servant did not see the young men of my lord, whom you sent.
26Now then, my lord, as the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, because the Lord has restrained you from bloodguilt and from saving with your own hand, now then let your enemies and those who seek to do evil to my lord be as Nabal.
27And now let this present that your servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who follow my lord.
28Please forgive the trespass of your servant. For the Lord will certainly make my lord a sure house, because my lord is fighting the battles of the Lord, and evil shall not be found in you so long as you live.
29If men rise up to pursue you and to seek your life, the life of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living in the care of the Lord your God. And the lives of your enemies he shall sling out as from the hollow of a sling.
30And when the Lord has done to my lord according to all the good that he has spoken concerning you and has appointed you prince over Israel,
31my lord shall have no cause of grief or pangs of conscience for having shed blood without cause or for my lord working salvation himself. And when the Lord has dealt well with my lord, then remember your servant."
32And David said to Abigail, "Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me!
33Blessed be your discretion, and blessed be you, who have kept me this day from bloodguilt and from working salvation with my own hand!
34For as surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, who has restrained me from hurting you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, truly by morning there had not been left to Nabal so much as one male."
35Then David received from her hand what she had brought him. And he said to her, "Go up in peace to your house. See, I have obeyed your voice, and I have granted your petition."
36And Abigail came to Nabal, and behold, he was holding a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. And Nabal 's heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk. So she told him nothing at all until the morning light.
37In the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal, his wife told him these things, and his heart died within him, and he became as a stone.
38And about ten days later the Lord struck Nabal, and he died.
39When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, "Blessed be the Lord who has avenged the insult I received at the hand of Nabal, and has kept back his servant from wrongdoing. The Lord has returned the evil of Nabal on his own head." Then David sent and spoke to Abigail, to take her as his wife.
40When the servants of David came to Abigail at Carmel, they said to her, "David has sent us to you to take you to him as his wife."
41And she rose and bowed with her face to the ground and said, "Behold, your handmaid is a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord."
42And Abigail hurried and rose and mounted a donkey, and her five young women attended her. She followed the messengers of David and became his wife.
43David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel, and both of them became his wives.
44Saul had given Michal his daughter, David 's wife, to Palti the son of Laish, who was of Gallim.
Chapter 26
1Then the Ziphites came to Saul at Gibeah, saying, "Is not David hiding himself on the hill of Hachilah, which is on the east of Jeshimon?" 2So Saul arose and went down to the wilderness of Ziph with three thousand chosen men of Israel to seek David in the wilderness of Ziph. 3And Saul encamped on the hill of Hachilah, which is beside the road on the east of Jeshimon. But David remained in the wilderness. When he saw that Saul came after him into the wilderness, 4David sent out spies and learned that Saul had indeed come. 5Then David rose and came to the place where Saul had encamped. And David saw the place where Saul lay, with Abner the son of Ner, the commander of his army. Saul was lying within the encampment, while the army was encamped around him.
6Then David said to Ahimelech the Hittite, and to Joab 's brother Abishai the son of Zeruiah, "Who will go down with me into the camp to Saul?" And Abishai said, "I will go down with you."
7So David and Abishai went to the army by night. And there lay Saul sleeping within the encampment, with his spear stuck in the ground at his head, and Abner and the army lay around him.
8Then Abishai said to David, "God has given your enemy into your hand this day. Now please let me pin him to the earth with one stroke of the spear, and I will not strike him twice."
9But David said to Abishai, "Do not destroy him, for who can put out his hand against the Lord 's anointed and be guiltless?"
10And David said, "As the Lord lives, the Lord will strike him, or his day will come to die, or he will go down into battle and perish.
11The Lord forbid that I should put out my hand against the Lord 's anointed. But take now the spear that is at his head and the jar of water, and let us go."
12So David took the spear and the jar of water from Saul 's head, and they went away. No man saw it or knew it, nor did any awake, for they were all asleep, because a deep sleep from the Lord had fallen upon them.
13Then David went over to the other side and stood far off on the top of the hill, with a great space between them.
14And David called to the army, and to Abner the son of Ner, saying, "Will you not answer, Abner?" Then Abner answered, "Who are you who calls to the king?"
15And David said to Abner, "Are you not a man? Who is like you in Israel? Why then have you not kept watch over your lord the king? For one of the people came in to destroy the king your lord.
16This thing that you have done is not good. As the Lord lives, you deserve to die, because you have not kept watch over your lord, the Lord 's anointed. And now see where the king 's spear is and the jar of water that was at his head."
17Saul recognized David 's voice and said, "Is this your voice, my son David?" And David said, "It is my voice, my lord, O king."
18And he said, "Why does my lord pursue after his servant? For what have I done? What evil is on my hands?
19Now therefore let my lord the king hear the words of his servant. If it is the Lord who has stirred you up against me, may he accept an offering, but if it is men, may they be cursed before the Lord, for they have driven me out this day that I should have no share in the heritage of the Lord, saying, ‘Go, serve other gods.’
20Now therefore, let not my blood fall to the earth away from the presence of the Lord, for the king of Israel has come out to seek a single flea like one who hunts a partridge in the mountains."
21Then Saul said, "I have sinned. Return, my son David, for I will no more do you harm, because my life was precious in your eyes this day. Behold, I have acted foolishly, and have made a great mistake."
22And David answered and said, "Here is the spear, O king! Let one of the young men come over and take it.
23The Lord rewards every man for his righteousness and his faithfulness, for the Lord gave you into my hand today, and I would not put out my hand against the Lord 's anointed.
24Behold, as your life was precious this day in my sight, so may my life be precious in the sight of the Lord, and may he deliver me out of all tribulation."
25Then Saul said to David, "Blessed be you, my son David! You will do many things and will succeed in them." So David went his way, and Saul returned to his place.
Chapter 27
1Then David said in his heart, "Now I shall perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will despair of seeking me any longer within the borders of Israel, and I shall escape out of his hand." 2So David arose and went over, he and the six hundred men who were with him, to Achish the son of Maoch, king of Gath. 3And David lived with Achish at Gath, he and his men, every man with his household, and David with his two wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel, and Abigail of Carmel, Nabal 's widow. 4And when it was told Saul that David had fled to Gath, he no longer sought him.
5Then David said to Achish, "If I have found favor in your eyes, let a place be given me in one of the country towns, that I may dwell there. For why should your servant dwell in the royal city with you?"
6So that day Achish gave him Ziklag. Therefore Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah to this day.
7And the number of the days that David lived in the country of the Philistines was a year and four months.
8Now David and his men went up and made raids against the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites, for these were the inhabitants of the land from of old, as far as Shur, to the land of Egypt.
9And David would strike the land and would leave neither man nor woman alive, but would take away the sheep, the oxen, the donkeys, the camels, and the garments, and come back to Achish.
10When Achish asked, "Where have you made a raid today?" David would say, "Against the Negeb of Judah," or, "Against the Negeb of the Jerahmeelites," or, "Against the Negeb of the Kenites."
11And David would leave neither man nor woman alive to bring news to Gath, thinking, "lest they should tell about us and say, ‘So David has done.’" Such was his custom all the while he lived in the country of the Philistines.
12And Achish trusted David, thinking, "He has made himself an utter stench to his people Israel; therefore he shall always be my servant."
New International Version
Chapter 19
1Saul told his son Jonathan and all the attendants to kill David. But Jonathan had taken a great liking to David 2and warned him, "My father Saul is looking for a chance to kill you. Be on your guard tomorrow morning; go into hiding and stay there. 3I will go out and stand with my father in the field where you are. I’ll speak to him about you and will tell you what I find out."
4Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father and said to him, "Let not the king do wrong to his servant David; he has not wronged you, and what he has done has benefited you greatly.
5He took his life in his hands when he killed the Philistine. The Lord won a great victory for all Israel, and you saw it and were glad. Why then would you do wrong to an innocent man like David by killing him for no reason?"
9But an evil spirit from the Lord came on Saul as he was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand. While David was playing the lyre,
10Saul tried to pin him to the wall with his spear, but David eluded him as Saul drove the spear into the wall. That night David made good his escape.
11Saul sent men to David’s house to watch it and to kill him in the morning. But Michal, David’s wife, warned him, "If you don’t run for your life tonight, tomorrow you’ll be killed."
12So Michal let David down through a window, and he fled and escaped.
13Then Michal took an idol and laid it on the bed, covering it with a garment and putting some goats’ hair at the head.
15Then Saul sent the men back to see David and told them, "Bring him up to me in his bed so that I may kill him."
16But when the men entered, there was the idol in the bed, and at the head was some goats’ hair.
18When David had fled and made his escape, he went to Samuel at Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to him. Then he and Samuel went to Naioth and stayed there.
19Word came to Saul: "David is in Naioth at Ramah";
20so he sent men to capture him. But when they saw a group of prophets prophesying, with Samuel standing there as their leader, the Spirit of God came on Saul’s men, and they also prophesied.
21Saul was told about it, and he sent more men, and they prophesied too. Saul sent men a third time, and they also prophesied.
23So Saul went to Naioth at Ramah. But the Spirit of God came even on him, and he walked along prophesying until he came to Naioth.
24He stripped off his garments, and he too prophesied in Samuel’s presence. He lay naked all that day and all that night. This is why people say, "Is Saul also among the prophets?"
5So David said, "Look, tomorrow is the New Moon feast, and I am supposed to dine with the king; but let me go and hide in the field until the evening of the day after tomorrow.
6If your father misses me at all, tell him, ‘David earnestly asked my permission to hurry to Bethlehem, his hometown, because an annual sacrifice is being made there for his whole clan.’
7If he says, ‘Very well,’ then your servant is safe. But if he loses his temper, you can be sure that he is determined to harm me.
8As for you, show kindness to your servant, for you have brought him into a covenant with you before the Lord. If I am guilty, then kill me yourself! Why hand me over to your father?"
12Then Jonathan said to David, "I swear by the Lord, the God of Israel, that I will surely sound out my father by this time the day after tomorrow! If he is favorably disposed toward you, will I not send you word and let you know?
13But if my father intends to harm you, may the Lord deal with Jonathan, be it ever so severely, if I do not let you know and send you away in peace. May the Lord be with you as he has been with my father.
14But show me unfailing kindness like the Lord’s kindness as long as I live, so that I may not be killed,
15and do not ever cut off your kindness from my family—not even when the Lord has cut off every one of David’s enemies from the face of the earth."
16So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, "May the Lord call David’s enemies to account."
17And Jonathan had David reaffirm his oath out of love for him, because he loved him as he loved himself.
18Then Jonathan said to David, "Tomorrow is the New Moon feast. You will be missed, because your seat will be empty.
19The day after tomorrow, toward evening, go to the place where you hid when this trouble began, and wait by the stone Ezel.
20I will shoot three arrows to the side of it, as though I were shooting at a target.
21Then I will send a boy and say, ‘Go, find the arrows.’ If I say to him, ‘Look, the arrows are on this side of you; bring them here,’ then come, because, as surely as the Lord lives, you are safe; there is no danger.
22But if I say to the boy, ‘Look, the arrows are beyond you,’ then you must go, because the Lord has sent you away.
23And about the matter you and I discussed—remember, the Lord is witness between you and me forever."
24So David hid in the field, and when the New Moon feast came, the king sat down to eat.
25He sat in his customary place by the wall, opposite Jonathan, and Abner sat next to Saul, but David’s place was empty.
26Saul said nothing that day, for he thought, "Something must have happened to David to make him ceremonially unclean—surely he is unclean."
27But the next day, the second day of the month, David’s place was empty again. Then Saul said to his son Jonathan, "Why hasn’t the son of Jesse come to the meal, either yesterday or today?"
28Jonathan answered, "David earnestly asked me for permission to go to Bethlehem.
29He said, ‘Let me go, because our family is observing a sacrifice in the town and my brother has ordered me to be there. If I have found favor in your eyes, let me get away to see my brothers.’ That is why he has not come to the king’s table."
30Saul’s anger flared up at Jonathan and he said to him, "You son of a perverse and rebellious woman! Don’t I know that you have sided with the son of Jesse to your own shame and to the shame of the mother who bore you?
31As long as the son of Jesse lives on this earth, neither you nor your kingdom will be established. Now send someone to bring him to me, for he must die!"
32"Why should he be put to death? What has he done?" Jonathan asked his father.
33But Saul hurled his spear at him to kill him. Then Jonathan knew that his father intended to kill David.
35In the morning Jonathan went out to the field for his meeting with David. He had a small boy with him,
36and he said to the boy, "Run and find the arrows I shoot." As the boy ran, he shot an arrow beyond him.
37When the boy came to the place where Jonathan’s arrow had fallen, Jonathan called out after him, "Isn’t the arrow beyond you?"
38Then he shouted, "Hurry! Go quickly! Don’t stop!" The boy picked up the arrow and returned to his master.
39(The boy knew nothing about all this; only Jonathan and David knew.)
40Then Jonathan gave his weapons to the boy and said, "Go, carry them back to town."
2David answered Ahimelek the priest, "The king sent me on a mission and said to me, ‘No one is to know anything about the mission I am sending you on.’ As for my men, I have told them to meet me at a certain place.
3Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever you can find."
5David replied, "Indeed women have been kept from us, as usual whenever I set out. The men’s bodies are holy even on missions that are not holy. How much more so today!"
6So the priest gave him the consecrated bread, since there was no bread there except the bread of the Presence that had been removed from before the Lord and replaced by hot bread on the day it was taken away.
12David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of Achish king of Gath.
13So he pretended to be insane in their presence; and while he was in their hands he acted like a madman, making marks on the doors of the gate and letting saliva run down his beard.
14Achish said to his servants, "Look at the man! He is insane! Why bring him to me?
15Am I so short of madmen that you have to bring this fellow here to carry on like this in front of me? Must this man come into my house?"
Chapter 22
1David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and his father’s household heard about it, they went down to him there. 2All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him, and he became their commander. About four hundred men were with him.
3From there David went to Mizpah in Moab and said to the king of Moab, "Would you let my father and mother come and stay with you until I learn what God will do for me?"
4So he left them with the king of Moab, and they stayed with him as long as David was in the stronghold.
6Now Saul heard that David and his men had been discovered. And Saul was seated, spear in hand, under the tamarisk tree on the hill at Gibeah, with all his officials standing at his side.
7He said to them, "Listen, men of Benjamin! Will the son of Jesse give all of you fields and vineyards? Will he make all of you commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds?
8Is that why you have all conspired against me? No one tells me when my son makes a covenant with the son of Jesse. None of you is concerned about me or tells me that my son has incited my servant to lie in wait for me, as he does today."
9But Doeg the Edomite, who was standing with Saul’s officials, said, "I saw the son of Jesse come to Ahimelek son of Ahitub at Nob.
10Ahimelek inquired of the Lord for him; he also gave him provisions and the sword of Goliath the Philistine."
14Ahimelek answered the king, "Who of all your servants is as loyal as David, the king’s son-in-law, captain of your bodyguard and highly respected in your household?
15Was that day the first time I inquired of God for him? Of course not! Let not the king accuse your servant or any of his father’s family, for your servant knows nothing at all about this whole affair."
18The king then ordered Doeg, "You turn and strike down the priests." So Doeg the Edomite turned and struck them down. That day he killed eighty-five men who wore the linen ephod.
19He also put to the sword Nob, the town of the priests, with its men and women, its children and infants, and its cattle, donkeys and sheep.
20But one son of Ahimelek son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped and fled to join David.
21He told David that Saul had killed the priests of the Lord.
22Then David said to Abiathar, "That day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, I knew he would be sure to tell Saul. I am responsible for the death of your whole family.
23Stay with me; don’t be afraid. The man who wants to kill you is trying to kill me too. You will be safe with me."
4Once again David inquired of the Lord, and the Lord answered him, "Go down to Keilah, for I am going to give the Philistines into your hand."
5So David and his men went to Keilah, fought the Philistines and carried off their livestock. He inflicted heavy losses on the Philistines and saved the people of Keilah.
6(Now Abiathar son of Ahimelek had brought the ephod down with him when he fled to David at Keilah.)
7Saul was told that David had gone to Keilah, and he said, "God has delivered him into my hands, for David has imprisoned himself by entering a town with gates and bars."
8And Saul called up all his forces for battle, to go down to Keilah to besiege David and his men.
9When David learned that Saul was plotting against him, he said to Abiathar the priest, "Bring the ephod."
10David said, "Lord, God of Israel, your servant has heard definitely that Saul plans to come to Keilah and destroy the town on account of me.
15While David was at Horesh in the Desert of Ziph, he learned that Saul had come out to take his life.
16And Saul’s son Jonathan went to David at Horesh and helped him find strength in God.
17"Don’t be afraid," he said. "My father Saul will not lay a hand on you. You will be king over Israel, and I will be second to you. Even my father Saul knows this."
18The two of them made a covenant before the Lord. Then Jonathan went home, but David remained at Horesh.
19The Ziphites went up to Saul at Gibeah and said, "Is not David hiding among us in the strongholds at Horesh, on the hill of Hakilah, south of Jeshimon?
20Now, Your Majesty, come down whenever it pleases you to do so, and we will be responsible for giving him into your hands."
21Saul replied, "The Lord bless you for your concern for me.
22Go and get more information. Find out where David usually goes and who has seen him there. They tell me he is very crafty.
23Find out about all the hiding places he uses and come back to me with definite information. Then I will go with you; if he is in the area, I will track him down among all the clans of Judah."
24So they set out and went to Ziph ahead of Saul. Now David and his men were in the Desert of Maon, in the Arabah south of Jeshimon.
25Saul and his men began the search, and when David was told about it, he went down to the rock and stayed in the Desert of Maon. When Saul heard this, he went into the Desert of Maon in pursuit of David.
26Saul was going along one side of the mountain, and David and his men were on the other side, hurrying to get away from Saul. As Saul and his forces were closing in on David and his men to capture them,
27a messenger came to Saul, saying, "Come quickly! The Philistines are raiding the land."
28Then Saul broke off his pursuit of David and went to meet the Philistines. That is why they call this place Sela Hammahlekoth.
29And David went up from there and lived in the strongholds of En Gedi.
Chapter 24
1After Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, he was told, "David is in the Desert of En Gedi." 2So Saul took three thousand able young men from all Israel and set out to look for David and his men near the Crags of the Wild Goats.
3He came to the sheep pens along the way; a cave was there, and Saul went in to relieve himself. David and his men were far back in the cave.
4The men said, "This is the day the Lord spoke of when he said to you, ‘I will give your enemy into your hands for you to deal with as you wish.’ " Then David crept up unnoticed and cut off a corner of Saul’s robe.
5Afterward, David was conscience-stricken for having cut off a corner of his robe.
6He said to his men, "The Lord forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the Lord’s anointed, or lay my hand on him; for he is the anointed of the Lord."
7With these words David sharply rebuked his men and did not allow them to attack Saul. And Saul left the cave and went his way.
8Then David went out of the cave and called out to Saul, "My lord the king!" When Saul looked behind him, David bowed down and prostrated himself with his face to the ground.
9He said to Saul, "Why do you listen when men say, ‘David is bent on harming you’?
10This day you have seen with your own eyes how the Lord delivered you into my hands in the cave. Some urged me to kill you, but I spared you; I said, ‘I will not lay my hand on my lord, because he is the Lord’s anointed.’
11See, my father, look at this piece of your robe in my hand! I cut off the corner of your robe but did not kill you. See that there is nothing in my hand to indicate that I am guilty of wrongdoing or rebellion. I have not wronged you, but you are hunting me down to take my life.
12May the Lord judge between you and me. And may the Lord avenge the wrongs you have done to me, but my hand will not touch you.
13As the old saying goes, ‘From evildoers come evil deeds,’ so my hand will not touch you.
14"Against whom has the king of Israel come out? Who are you pursuing? A dead dog? A flea?
15May the Lord be our judge and decide between us. May he consider my cause and uphold it; may he vindicate me by delivering me from your hand."
16When David finished saying this, Saul asked, "Is that your voice, David my son?" And he wept aloud.
17"You are more righteous than I," he said. "You have treated me well, but I have treated you badly.
18You have just now told me about the good you did to me; the Lord delivered me into your hands, but you did not kill me.
19When a man finds his enemy, does he let him get away unharmed? May the Lord reward you well for the way you treated me today.
20I know that you will surely be king and that the kingdom of Israel will be established in your hands.
21Now swear to me by the Lord that you will not kill off my descendants or wipe out my name from my father’s family."
2A certain man in Maon, who had property there at Carmel, was very wealthy. He had a thousand goats and three thousand sheep, which he was shearing in Carmel.
3His name was Nabal and his wife’s name was Abigail. She was an intelligent and beautiful woman, but her husband was surly and mean in his dealings—he was a Calebite.
4While David was in the wilderness, he heard that Nabal was shearing sheep.
5So he sent ten young men and said to them, "Go up to Nabal at Carmel and greet him in my name.
6Say to him: ‘Long life to you! Good health to you and your household! And good health to all that is yours!
7" ‘Now I hear that it is sheep-shearing time. When your shepherds were with us, we did not mistreat them, and the whole time they were at Carmel nothing of theirs was missing.
8Ask your own servants and they will tell you. Therefore be favorable toward my men, since we come at a festive time. Please give your servants and your son David whatever you can find for them.’ "
10Nabal answered David’s servants, "Who is this David? Who is this son of Jesse? Many servants are breaking away from their masters these days.
11Why should I take my bread and water, and the meat I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give it to men coming from who knows where?"
12David’s men turned around and went back. When they arrived, they reported every word.
13David said to his men, "Each of you strap on your sword!" So they did, and David strapped his on as well. About four hundred men went up with David, while two hundred stayed with the supplies.
14One of the servants told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, "David sent messengers from the wilderness to give our master his greetings, but he hurled insults at them.
15Yet these men were very good to us. They did not mistreat us, and the whole time we were out in the fields near them nothing was missing.
16Night and day they were a wall around us the whole time we were herding our sheep near them.
17Now think it over and see what you can do, because disaster is hanging over our master and his whole household. He is such a wicked man that no one can talk to him."
18Abigail acted quickly. She took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five dressed sheep, five seahs of roasted grain, a hundred cakes of raisins and two hundred cakes of pressed figs, and loaded them on donkeys.
19Then she told her servants, "Go on ahead; I’ll follow you." But she did not tell her husband Nabal.
20As she came riding her donkey into a mountain ravine, there were David and his men descending toward her, and she met them.
21David had just said, "It’s been useless—all my watching over this fellow’s property in the wilderness so that nothing of his was missing. He has paid me back evil for good.
22May God deal with David, be it ever so severely, if by morning I leave alive one male of all who belong to him!"
23When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her donkey and bowed down before David with her face to the ground.
24She fell at his feet and said: "Pardon your servant, my lord, and let me speak to you; hear what your servant has to say.
25Please pay no attention, my lord, to that wicked man Nabal. He is just like his name—his name means Fool, and folly goes with him. And as for me, your servant, I did not see the men my lord sent.
26And now, my lord, as surely as the Lord your God lives and as you live, since the Lord has kept you from bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hands, may your enemies and all who are intent on harming my lord be like Nabal.
27And let this gift, which your servant has brought to my lord, be given to the men who follow you.
28"Please forgive your servant’s presumption. The Lord your God will certainly make a lasting dynasty for my lord, because you fight the Lord’s battles, and no wrongdoing will be found in you as long as you live.
29Even though someone is pursuing you to take your life, the life of my lord will be bound securely in the bundle of the living by the Lord your God, but the lives of your enemies he will hurl away as from the pocket of a sling.
30When the Lord has fulfilled for my lord every good thing he promised concerning him and has appointed him ruler over Israel,
31my lord will not have on his conscience the staggering burden of needless bloodshed or of having avenged himself. And when the Lord your God has brought my lord success, remember your servant."
32David said to Abigail, "Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, who has sent you today to meet me.
33May you be blessed for your good judgment and for keeping me from bloodshed this day and from avenging myself with my own hands.
34Otherwise, as surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, who has kept me from harming you, if you had not come quickly to meet me, not one male belonging to Nabal would have been left alive by daybreak."
36When Abigail went to Nabal, he was in the house holding a banquet like that of a king. He was in high spirits and very drunk. So she told him nothing at all until daybreak.
37Then in the morning, when Nabal was sober, his wife told him all these things, and his heart failed him and he became like a stone.
38About ten days later, the Lord struck Nabal and he died.
39When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, "Praise be to the Lord, who has upheld my cause against Nabal for treating me with contempt. He has kept his servant from doing wrong and has brought Nabal’s wrongdoing down on his own head." Then David sent word to Abigail, asking her to become his wife.
40His servants went to Carmel and said to Abigail, "David has sent us to you to take you to become his wife."
41She bowed down with her face to the ground and said, "I am your servant and am ready to serve you and wash the feet of my lord’s servants."
42Abigail quickly got on a donkey and, attended by her five female servants, went with David’s messengers and became his wife.
43David had also married Ahinoam of Jezreel, and they both were his wives.
44But Saul had given his daughter Michal, David’s wife, to Paltiel son of Laish, who was from Gallim.
2So Saul went down to the Desert of Ziph, with his three thousand select Israelite troops, to search there for David.
3Saul made his camp beside the road on the hill of Hakilah facing Jeshimon, but David stayed in the wilderness. When he saw that Saul had followed him there,
4he sent out scouts and learned that Saul had definitely arrived.
9But David said to Abishai, "Don’t destroy him! Who can lay a hand on the Lord’s anointed and be guiltless?
10As surely as the Lord lives," he said, "the Lord himself will strike him, or his time will come and he will die, or he will go into battle and perish.
11But the Lord forbid that I should lay a hand on the Lord’s anointed. Now get the spear and water jug that are near his head, and let’s go."
15David said, "You’re a man, aren’t you? And who is like you in Israel? Why didn’t you guard your lord the king? Someone came to destroy your lord the king.
16What you have done is not good. As surely as the Lord lives, you and your men must die, because you did not guard your master, the Lord’s anointed. Look around you. Where are the king’s spear and water jug that were near his head?"
17Saul recognized David’s voice and said, "Is that your voice, David my son?" David replied, "Yes it is, my lord the king."
18And he added, "Why is my lord pursuing his servant? What have I done, and what wrong am I guilty of?
19Now let my lord the king listen to his servant’s words. If the Lord has incited you against me, then may he accept an offering. If, however, people have done it, may they be cursed before the Lord! They have driven me today from my share in the Lord’s inheritance and have said, ‘Go, serve other gods.’
20Now do not let my blood fall to the ground far from the presence of the Lord. The king of Israel has come out to look for a flea—as one hunts a partridge in the mountains."
22"Here is the king’s spear," David answered. "Let one of your young men come over and get it.
23The Lord rewards everyone for their righteousness and faithfulness. The Lord delivered you into my hands today, but I would not lay a hand on the Lord’s anointed.
24As surely as I valued your life today, so may the Lord value my life and deliver me from all trouble."
2So David and the six hundred men with him left and went over to Achish son of Maok king of Gath.
3David and his men settled in Gath with Achish. Each man had his family with him, and David had his two wives: Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail of Carmel, the widow of Nabal.
4When Saul was told that David had fled to Gath, he no longer searched for him.
6So on that day Achish gave him Ziklag, and it has belonged to the kings of Judah ever since.
7David lived in Philistine territory a year and four months.
8Now David and his men went up and raided the Geshurites, the Girzites and the Amalekites. (From ancient times these peoples had lived in the land extending to Shur and Egypt.)
9Whenever David attacked an area, he did not leave a man or woman alive, but took sheep and cattle, donkeys and camels, and clothes. Then he returned to Achish.
10When Achish asked, "Where did you go raiding today?" David would say, "Against the Negev of Judah" or "Against the Negev of Jerahmeel" or "Against the Negev of the Kenites."
11He did not leave a man or woman alive to be brought to Gath, for he thought, "They might inform on us and say, ‘This is what David did.’ " And such was his practice as long as he lived in Philistine territory.
12Achish trusted David and said to himself, "He has become so obnoxious to his people, the Israelites, that he will be my servant for life."
New King James Version
Chapter 19
1Now Saul spoke to Jonathan his son and to all his servants, that they should kill David; but Jonathan, Saul’s son, delighted greatly in David. 2So Jonathan told David, saying, “My father Saul seeks to kill you. Therefore please be on your guard until morning, and stay in a secret place and hide. 3And I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are, and I will speak with my father about you. Then what I observe, I will tell you.”
4Thus Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father, and said to him, “Let not the king sin against his servant, against David, because he has not sinned against you, and because his works have been very good toward you.
5For he took his life in his hands and killed the Philistine, and the Lord brought about a great deliverance for all Israel. You saw it and rejoiced. Why then will you sin against innocent blood, to kill David without a cause?”
6So Saul heeded the voice of Jonathan, and Saul swore, “ As the Lord lives, he shall not be killed.”
7Then Jonathan called David, and Jonathan told him all these things. So Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence as in times past.
9Now the distressing spirit from the Lord came upon Saul as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand. And David was playing music with his hand.
10Then Saul sought to pin David to the wall with the spear, but he slipped away from Saul’s presence; and he drove the spear into the wall. So David fled and escaped that night.
11Saul also sent messengers to David’s house to watch him and to kill him in the morning. And Michal, David’s wife, told him, saying, “If you do not save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed.”
12So Michal let David down through a window. And he went and fled and escaped.
13And Michal took an image and laid it in the bed, put a cover of goats’ hair for his head, and covered it with clothes.
14So when Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, “He is sick.”
15Then Saul sent the messengers back to see David, saying, “Bring him up to me in the bed, that I may kill him.”
16And when the messengers had come in, there was the image in the bed, with a cover of goats’ hair for his head.
18So David fled and escaped, and went to Samuel at Ramah, and told him all that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and stayed in Naioth.
19Now it was told Saul, saying, “Take note, David is at Naioth in Ramah!”
20Then Saul sent messengers to take David. And when they saw the group of prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing as leader over them, the Spirit of God came upon the messengers of Saul, and they also prophesied.
21And when Saul was told, he sent other messengers, and they prophesied likewise. Then Saul sent messengers again the third time, and they prophesied also.
22Then he also went to Ramah, and came to the great well that is at Sechu. So he asked, and said, “Where are Samuel and David?” And someone said, “Indeed they are at Naioth in Ramah.”
23So he went there to Naioth in Ramah. Then the Spirit of God was upon him also, and he went on and prophesied until he came to Naioth in Ramah.
24And he also stripped off his clothes and prophesied before Samuel in like manner, and lay down naked all that day and all that night. Therefore they say, “ Is Saul also among the prophets?”
5And David said to Jonathan, “Indeed tomorrow is the New Moon, and I should not fail to sit with the king to eat. But let me go, that I may hide in the field until the third day at evening.
6If your father misses me at all, then say, ‘David earnestly asked permission of me that he might run over to Bethlehem, his city, for there is a yearly sacrifice there for all the family.’
7If he says thus: ‘ It is well,’ your servant will be safe. But if he is very angry, be sure that evil is determined by him.
8Therefore you shall deal kindly with your servant, for you have brought your servant into a covenant of the Lord with you. Nevertheless, if there is iniquity in me, kill me yourself, for why should you bring me to your father?”
11And Jonathan said to David, “Come, let us go out into the field.” So both of them went out into the field.
12Then Jonathan said to David: “The Lord God of Israel is witness! When I have sounded out my father sometime tomorrow, or the third day, and indeed there is good toward David, and I do not send to you and tell you,
13may the Lord do so and much more to Jonathan. But if it pleases my father to do you evil, then I will report it to you and send you away, that you may go in safety. And the Lord be with you as He has been with my father.
14And you shall not only show me the kindness of the Lord while I still live, that I may not die;
15but you shall not cut off your kindness from my house forever, no, not when the Lord has cut off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth.”
16So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, “Let the Lord require it at the hand of David’s enemies.”
17Now Jonathan again caused David to vow, because he loved him; for he loved him as he loved his own soul.
18Then Jonathan said to David, “Tomorrow is the New Moon; and you will be missed, because your seat will be empty.
19And when you have stayed three days, go down quickly and come to the place where you hid on the day of the deed; and remain by the stone Ezel.
20Then I will shoot three arrows to the side, as though I shot at a target;
21and there I will send a lad, saying, ‘Go, find the arrows.’ If I expressly say to the lad, ‘Look, the arrows are on this side of you; get them and come’—then, as the Lord lives, there is safety for you and no harm.
22But if I say thus to the young man, ‘Look, the arrows are beyond you’—go your way, for the Lord has sent you away.
23And as for the matter which you and I have spoken of, indeed the Lord be between you and me forever.”
24Then David hid in the field. And when the New Moon had come, the king sat down to eat the feast.
25Now the king sat on his seat, as at other times, on a seat by the wall. And Jonathan arose, and Abner sat by Saul’s side, but David’s place was empty.
26Nevertheless Saul did not say anything that day, for he thought, “Something has happened to him; he is unclean, surely he is unclean.”
27And it happened the next day, the second day of the month, that David’s place was empty. And Saul said to Jonathan his son, “Why has the son of Jesse not come to eat, either yesterday or today?”
28So Jonathan answered Saul, “David earnestly asked permission of me to go to Bethlehem.
29And he said, ‘Please let me go, for our family has a sacrifice in the city, and my brother has commanded me to be there. And now, if I have found favor in your eyes, please let me get away and see my brothers.’ Therefore he has not come to the king’s table.”
30Then Saul’s anger was aroused against Jonathan, and he said to him, “You son of a perverse, rebellious woman! Do I not know that you have chosen the son of Jesse to your own shame and to the shame of your mother’s nakedness?
31For as long as the son of Jesse lives on the earth, you shall not be established, nor your kingdom. Now therefore, send and bring him to me, for he shall surely die.”
32And Jonathan answered Saul his father, and said to him, “Why should he be killed? What has he done?”
33Then Saul cast a spear at him to kill him, by which Jonathan knew that it was determined by his father to kill David.
35And so it was, in the morning, that Jonathan went out into the field at the time appointed with David, and a little lad was with him.
36Then he said to his lad, “Now run, find the arrows which I shoot.” As the lad ran, he shot an arrow beyond him.
37When the lad had come to the place where the arrow was which Jonathan had shot, Jonathan cried out after the lad and said, “ Is not the arrow beyond you?”
38And Jonathan cried out after the lad, “Make haste, hurry, do not delay!” So Jonathan’s lad gathered up the arrows and came back to his master.
39But the lad did not know anything. Only Jonathan and David knew of the matter.
40Then Jonathan gave his weapons to his lad, and said to him, “Go, carry them to the city.”
41As soon as the lad had gone, David arose from a place toward the south, fell on his face to the ground, and bowed down three times. And they kissed one another; and they wept together, but David more so.
42Then Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, since we have both sworn in the name of the Lord, saying, ‘May the Lord be between you and me, and between your descendants and my descendants, forever.’ ” So he arose and departed, and Jonathan went into the city.
2So David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has ordered me on some business, and said to me, ‘Do not let anyone know anything about the business on which I send you, or what I have commanded you.’ And I have directed my young men to such and such a place.
3Now therefore, what have you on hand? Give me five loaves of bread in my hand, or whatever can be found.”
12Now David took these words to heart, and was very much afraid of Achish the king of Gath.
13So he changed his behavior before them, pretended madness in their hands, scratched on the doors of the gate, and let his saliva fall down on his beard.
14Then Achish said to his servants, “Look, you see the man is insane. Why have you brought him to me?
15Have I need of madmen, that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?”
Chapter 22
1David therefore departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. So when his brothers and all his father’s house heard it, they went down there to him. 2And everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to him. So he became captain over them. And there were about four hundred men with him.
3Then David went from there to Mizpah of Moab; and he said to the king of Moab, “Please let my father and mother come here with you, till I know what God will do for me.”
4So he brought them before the king of Moab, and they dwelt with him all the time that David was in the stronghold.
6When Saul heard that David and the men who were with him had been discovered—now Saul was staying in Gibeah under a tamarisk tree in Ramah, with his spear in his hand, and all his servants standing about him—
7then Saul said to his servants who stood about him, “Hear now, you Benjamites! Will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards, and make you all captains of thousands and captains of hundreds?
8All of you have conspired against me, and there is no one who reveals to me that my son has made a covenant with the son of Jesse; and there is not one of you who is sorry for me or reveals to me that my son has stirred up my servant against me, to lie in wait, as it is this day.”
9Then answered Doeg the Edomite, who was set over the servants of Saul, and said, “I saw the son of Jesse going to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub.
10And he inquired of the Lord for him, gave him provisions, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.”
14So Ahimelech answered the king and said, “And who among all your servants is as faithful as David, who is the king’s son-in-law, who goes at your bidding, and is honorable in your house?
15Did I then begin to inquire of God for him? Far be it from me! Let not the king impute anything to his servant, or to any in the house of my father. For your servant knew nothing of all this, little or much.”
16And the king said, “You shall surely die, Ahimelech, you and all your father’s house!”
17Then the king said to the guards who stood about him, “Turn and kill the priests of the Lord, because their hand also is with David, and because they knew when he fled and did not tell it to me.” But the servants of the king would not lift their hands to strike the priests of the Lord.
18And the king said to Doeg, “You turn and kill the priests!” So Doeg the Edomite turned and struck the priests, and killed on that day eighty-five men who wore a linen ephod.
19Also Nob, the city of the priests, he struck with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children and nursing infants, oxen and donkeys and sheep—with the edge of the sword.
20Now one of the sons of Ahimelech the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped and fled after David.
21And Abiathar told David that Saul had killed the Lord’s priests.
22So David said to Abiathar, “I knew that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul. I have caused the death of all the persons of your father’s house.
23Stay with me; do not fear. For he who seeks my life seeks your life, but with me you shall be safe.”
4Then David inquired of the Lord once again. And the Lord answered him and said, “Arise, go down to Keilah. For I will deliver the Philistines into your hand.”
5And David and his men went to Keilah and fought with the Philistines, struck them with a mighty blow, and took away their livestock. So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah.
7And Saul was told that David had gone to Keilah. So Saul said, “God has delivered him into my hand, for he has shut himself in by entering a town that has gates and bars.”
8Then Saul called all the people together for war, to go down to Keilah to besiege David and his men.
9When David knew that Saul plotted evil against him, he said to Abiathar the priest, “Bring the ephod here.”
10Then David said, “O Lord God of Israel, Your servant has certainly heard that Saul seeks to come to Keilah to destroy the city for my sake.
14And David stayed in strongholds in the wilderness, and remained in the mountains in the Wilderness of Ziph. Saul sought him every day, but God did not deliver him into his hand.
15So David saw that Saul had come out to seek his life. And David was in the Wilderness of Ziph in a forest.
16Then Jonathan, Saul’s son, arose and went to David in the woods and strengthened his hand in God.
17And he said to him, “Do not fear, for the hand of Saul my father shall not find you. You shall be king over Israel, and I shall be next to you. Even my father Saul knows that.”
18So the two of them made a covenant before the Lord. And David stayed in the woods, and Jonathan went to his own house.
19Then the Ziphites came up to Saul at Gibeah, saying, “Is David not hiding with us in strongholds in the woods, in the hill of Hachilah, which is on the south of Jeshimon?
20Now therefore, O king, come down according to all the desire of your soul to come down; and our part shall be to deliver him into the king’s hand.”
21And Saul said, “Blessed are you of the Lord, for you have compassion on me.
22Please go and find out for sure, and see the place where his hideout is, and who has seen him there. For I am told he is very crafty.
23See therefore, and take knowledge of all the lurking places where he hides; and come back to me with certainty, and I will go with you. And it shall be, if he is in the land, that I will search for him throughout all the clans of Judah.”
24So they arose and went to Ziph before Saul. But David and his men were in the Wilderness of Maon, in the plain on the south of Jeshimon.
25When Saul and his men went to seek him, they told David. Therefore he went down to the rock, and stayed in the Wilderness of Maon. And when Saul heard that, he pursued David in the Wilderness of Maon.
26Then Saul went on one side of the mountain, and David and his men on the other side of the mountain. So David made haste to get away from Saul, for Saul and his men were encircling David and his men to take them.
27But a messenger came to Saul, saying, “Hurry and come, for the Philistines have invaded the land!”
28Therefore Saul returned from pursuing David, and went against the Philistines; so they called that place the Rock of Escape.
29Then David went up from there and dwelt in strongholds at En Gedi.
Chapter 24
1Now it happened, when Saul had returned from following the Philistines, that it was told him, saying, “Take note! David is in the Wilderness of En Gedi.” 2Then Saul took three thousand chosen men from all Israel, and went to seek David and his men on the Rocks of the Wild Goats. 3So he came to the sheepfolds by the road, where there was a cave; and Saul went in to attend to his needs. ( David and his men were staying in the recesses of the cave.) 4Then the men of David said to him, “This is the day of which the Lord said to you, ‘Behold, I will deliver your enemy into your hand, that you may do to him as it seems good to you.’ ” And David arose and secretly cut off a corner of Saul’s robe. 5Now it happened afterward that David’s heart troubled him because he had cut Saul’s robe. 6And he said to his men, “The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my master, the Lord’s anointed, to stretch out my hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the Lord.” 7So David restrained his servants with these words, and did not allow them to rise against Saul. And Saul got up from the cave and went on his way.
8David also arose afterward, went out of the cave, and called out to Saul, saying, “My lord the king!” And when Saul looked behind him, David stooped with his face to the earth, and bowed down.
9And David said to Saul: “Why do you listen to the words of men who say, ‘Indeed David seeks your harm’?
10Look, this day your eyes have seen that the Lord delivered you today into my hand in the cave, and someone urged me to kill you. But my eye spared you, and I said, ‘I will not stretch out my hand against my lord, for he is the Lord’s anointed.’
11Moreover, my father, see! Yes, see the corner of your robe in my hand! For in that I cut off the corner of your robe, and did not kill you, know and see that there is neither evil nor rebellion in my hand, and I have not sinned against you. Yet you hunt my life to take it.
12Let the Lord judge between you and me, and let the Lord avenge me on you. But my hand shall not be against you.
13As the proverb of the ancients says, ‘Wickedness proceeds from the wicked.’ But my hand shall not be against you.
14After whom has the king of Israel come out? Whom do you pursue? A dead dog? A flea?
15Therefore let the Lord be judge, and judge between you and me, and see and plead my case, and deliver me out of your hand.”
16So it was, when David had finished speaking these words to Saul, that Saul said, “ Is this your voice, my son David?” And Saul lifted up his voice and wept.
17Then he said to David: “You are more righteous than I; for you have rewarded me with good, whereas I have rewarded you with evil.
18And you have shown this day how you have dealt well with me; for when the Lord delivered me into your hand, you did not kill me.
19For if a man finds his enemy, will he let him get away safely? Therefore may the Lord reward you with good for what you have done to me this day.
20And now I know indeed that you shall surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand.
21Therefore swear now to me by the Lord that you will not cut off my descendants after me, and that you will not destroy my name from my father’s house.”
2Now there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel, and the man was very rich. He had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. And he was shearing his sheep in Carmel.
3The name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife Abigail. And she was a woman of good understanding and beautiful appearance; but the man was harsh and evil in his doings. He was of the house of Caleb.
4When David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep,
5David sent ten young men; and David said to the young men, “Go up to Carmel, go to Nabal, and greet him in my name.
6And thus you shall say to him who lives in prosperity: ‘Peace be to you, peace to your house, and peace to all that you have!
7Now I have heard that you have shearers. Your shepherds were with us, and we did not hurt them, nor was there anything missing from them all the while they were in Carmel.
8Ask your young men, and they will tell you. Therefore let my young men find favor in your eyes, for we come on a feast day. Please give whatever comes to your hand to your servants and to your son David.’ ”
10Then Nabal answered David’s servants, and said, “Who is David, and who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants nowadays who break away each one from his master.
11Shall I then take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my shearers, and give it to men when I do not know where they are from?”
12So David’s young men turned on their heels and went back; and they came and told him all these words.
13Then David said to his men, “Every man gird on his sword.” So every man girded on his sword, and David also girded on his sword. And about four hundred men went with David, and two hundred stayed with the supplies.
14Now one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, saying, “Look, David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master; and he reviled them.
15But the men were very good to us, and we were not hurt, nor did we miss anything as long as we accompanied them, when we were in the fields.
16They were a wall to us both by night and day, all the time we were with them keeping the sheep.
17Now therefore, know and consider what you will do, for harm is determined against our master and against all his household. For he is such a scoundrel that one cannot speak to him.”
18Then Abigail made haste and took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five sheep already dressed, five seahs of roasted grain, one hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and loaded them on donkeys.
19And she said to her servants, “Go on before me; see, I am coming after you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal.
20So it was, as she rode on the donkey, that she went down under cover of the hill; and there were David and his men, coming down toward her, and she met them.
21Now David had said, “Surely in vain I have protected all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belongs to him. And he has repaid me evil for good.
22May God do so, and more also, to the enemies of David, if I leave one male of all who belong to him by morning light.”
23Now when Abigail saw David, she dismounted quickly from the donkey, fell on her face before David, and bowed down to the ground.
24So she fell at his feet and said: “On me, my lord, on me let this iniquity be! And please let your maidservant speak in your ears, and hear the words of your maidservant.
25Please, let not my lord regard this scoundrel Nabal. For as his name is, so is he: Nabal is his name, and folly is with him! But I, your maidservant, did not see the young men of my lord whom you sent.
26Now therefore, my lord, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, since the Lord has held you back from coming to bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hand, now then, let your enemies and those who seek harm for my lord be as Nabal.
27And now this present which your maidservant has brought to my lord, let it be given to the young men who follow my lord.
28Please forgive the trespass of your maidservant. For the Lord will certainly make for my lord an enduring house, because my lord fights the battles of the Lord, and evil is not found in you throughout your days.
29Yet a man has risen to pursue you and seek your life, but the life of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living with the Lord your God; and the lives of your enemies He shall sling out, as from the pocket of a sling.
30And it shall come to pass, when the Lord has done for my lord according to all the good that He has spoken concerning you, and has appointed you ruler over Israel,
31that this will be no grief to you, nor offense of heart to my lord, either that you have shed blood without cause, or that my lord has avenged himself. But when the Lord has dealt well with my lord, then remember your maidservant.”
32Then David said to Abigail: “Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me!
33And blessed is your advice and blessed are you, because you have kept me this day from coming to bloodshed and from avenging myself with my own hand.
34For indeed, as the Lord God of Israel lives, who has kept me back from hurting you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, surely by morning light no males would have been left to Nabal!”
35So David received from her hand what she had brought him, and said to her, “Go up in peace to your house. See, I have heeded your voice and respected your person.”
36Now Abigail went to Nabal, and there he was, holding a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. And Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk; therefore she told him nothing, little or much, until morning light.
37So it was, in the morning, when the wine had gone from Nabal, and his wife had told him these things, that his heart died within him, and he became like a stone.
38Then it happened, after about ten days, that the Lord struck Nabal, and he died.
39So when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Blessed be the Lord, who has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and has kept His servant from evil! For the Lord has returned the wickedness of Nabal on his own head.” And David sent and proposed to Abigail, to take her as his wife.
40When the servants of David had come to Abigail at Carmel, they spoke to her saying, “David sent us to you, to ask you to become his wife.”
41Then she arose, bowed her face to the earth, and said, “Here is your maidservant, a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.”
42So Abigail rose in haste and rode on a donkey, attended by five of her maidens; and she followed the messengers of David, and became his wife.
43David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel, and so both of them were his wives.
Chapter 26
1Now the Ziphites came to Saul at Gibeah, saying, “Is David not hiding in the hill of Hachilah, opposite Jeshimon?” 2Then Saul arose and went down to the Wilderness of Ziph, having three thousand chosen men of Israel with him, to seek David in the Wilderness of Ziph. 3And Saul encamped in the hill of Hachilah, which is opposite Jeshimon, by the road. But David stayed in the wilderness, and he saw that Saul came after him into the wilderness. 4David therefore sent out spies, and understood that Saul had indeed come.
7So David and Abishai came to the people by night; and there Saul lay sleeping within the camp, with his spear stuck in the ground by his head. And Abner and the people lay all around him.
8Then Abishai said to David, “God has delivered your enemy into your hand this day. Now therefore, please, let me strike him at once with the spear, right to the earth; and I will not have to strike him a second time!”
9But David said to Abishai, “Do not destroy him; for who can stretch out his hand against the Lord’s anointed, and be guiltless?”
10David said furthermore, “ As the Lord lives, the Lord shall strike him, or his day shall come to die, or he shall go out to battle and perish.
11The Lord forbid that I should stretch out my hand against the Lord’s anointed. But please, take now the spear and the jug of water that are by his head, and let us go.”
12So David took the spear and the jug of water by Saul’s head, and they got away; and no man saw or knew it or awoke. For they were all asleep, because a deep sleep from the Lord had fallen on them.
15So David said to Abner, “ Are you not a man? And who is like you in Israel? Why then have you not guarded your lord the king? For one of the people came in to destroy your lord the king.
16This thing that you have done is not good. As the Lord lives, you deserve to die, because you have not guarded your master, the Lord’s anointed. And now see where the king’s spear is, and the jug of water that was by his head.”
17Then Saul knew David’s voice, and said, “ Is that your voice, my son David?” David said, “ It is my voice, my lord, O king.”
18And he said, “Why does my lord thus pursue his servant? For what have I done, or what evil is in my hand?
19Now therefore, please, let my lord the king hear the words of his servant: If the Lord has stirred you up against me, let Him accept an offering. But if it is the children of men, may they be cursed before the Lord, for they have driven me out this day from sharing in the inheritance of the Lord, saying, ‘Go, serve other gods.’
20So now, do not let my blood fall to the earth before the face of the Lord. For the king of Israel has come out to seek a flea, as when one hunts a partridge in the mountains.”
22And David answered and said, “Here is the king’s spear. Let one of the young men come over and get it.
23May the Lord repay every man for his righteousness and his faithfulness; for the Lord delivered you into my hand today, but I would not stretch out my hand against the Lord’s anointed.
24And indeed, as your life was valued much this day in my eyes, so let my life be valued much in the eyes of the Lord, and let Him deliver me out of all tribulation.”
Chapter 27
1And David said in his heart, “Now I shall perish someday by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape to the land of the Philistines; and Saul will despair of me, to seek me anymore in any part of Israel. So I shall escape out of his hand.” 2Then David arose and went over with the six hundred men who were with him to Achish the son of Maoch, king of Gath. 3So David dwelt with Achish at Gath, he and his men, each man with his household, and David with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the Carmelitess, Nabal’s widow. 4And it was told Saul that David had fled to Gath; so he sought him no more.
5Then David said to Achish, “If I have now found favor in your eyes, let them give me a place in some town in the country, that I may dwell there. For why should your servant dwell in the royal city with you?”
6So Achish gave him Ziklag that day. Therefore Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah to this day.
7Now the time that David dwelt in the country of the Philistines was one full year and four months.
8And David and his men went up and raided the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites. For those nations were the inhabitants of the land from of old, as you go to Shur, even as far as the land of Egypt.
9Whenever David attacked the land, he left neither man nor woman alive, but took away the sheep, the oxen, the donkeys, the camels, and the apparel, and returned and came to Achish.
10Then Achish would say, “Where have you made a raid today?” And David would say, “Against the southern area of Judah, or against the southern area of the Jerahmeelites, or against the southern area of the Kenites.”
11David would save neither man nor woman alive, to bring news to Gath, saying, “Lest they should inform on us, saying, ‘Thus David did.’ ” And thus was his behavior all the time he dwelt in the country of the Philistines.
12So Achish believed David, saying, “He has made his people Israel utterly abhor him; therefore he will be my servant forever.”
