1 Samuel 25–27

1When Samuel died, all Israel gathered to mourn for him; and they buried him at his home in Ramah. Then David set out and went down to the Wilderness of Paran.

2Now there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel. He was a very wealthy man with 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, 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 and instructed them, “Go up to Nabal at Carmel. Greet him in my name

6and say to him, ‘Long life to you, and peace to you and to your house and to all that belongs to you.

7Now I hear that it is time for 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 the day of a feast. Please give whatever you can spare to your servants and to your son David.’”

9When David’s young men arrived, they relayed all these words to Nabal on behalf of David. Then they waited.

10But Nabal asked them, “Who is David? Who is this son of Jesse? Many servants these days are breaking away from their masters.

11Why should I take my bread and water and the meat I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give them to these men whose origin I do not know?”

12So David’s men turned around and went back, and they relayed to him all these words.

13And David said to his men, “Strap on your swords!” So David and all his men strapped on their swords, and about four hundred men followed David, while two hundred stayed with the supplies.

14Meanwhile, one of Nabal’s young men informed Nabal’s wife Abigail, “Look, David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master, but he screamed at them.

15Yet these men were very good to us. When we were in the field, we were not harassed, and nothing of ours went missing the whole time we lived among them.

16They were a wall around us, both day and night, the whole time we were herding our sheep near them.

17Now consider carefully what you must do, because disaster looms over our master and all his household. For he is such a scoundrel that nobody can speak to him!”

18Then Abigail hurried and took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five butchered sheep, five seahs of roasted grain, a hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs. She loaded them on donkeys

19and said to her young men, “Go ahead of me. I will be right behind you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal.

20As Abigail came riding her donkey into a mountain ravine, she saw David and his men coming down toward her, and she met them.

21Now David had just said, “In vain I have protected all that belonged to this man in the wilderness. Nothing that belongs to him has gone missing, yet he has paid me back evil for good.

22May God punish David, and ever so severely, if I let one male belonging to Nabal survive until morning.”

23When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off the donkey, fell facedown, and bowed before him.

24She fell at his feet and said, “My lord, may the blame be on me alone, but please let your servant speak to you; hear the words of your servant.

25My lord should pay no attention to this scoundrel Nabal, for he lives up to his name: His name means Fool, and folly accompanies him. I, your servant, did not see my lord’s young men whom you sent.

26Now, my lord, as surely as the LORD lives and you yourself live, since the LORD has held you back from bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hand, may your enemies and those who seek harm for my lord be like Nabal.

27Now let this gift your servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who follow you.

28Please forgive your servant’s offense, for the LORD will surely make a lasting dynasty for my lord, because he fights the LORD’s battles. May no evil be found in you as long as you live.

29And should someone pursue you and seek your life, then the life of my lord will be bound securely by the LORD your God in the bundle of the living. But He shall fling away the lives of your enemies like stones from a sling.

30When the LORD has done for my lord all the good He promised, and when He has appointed you ruler over Israel,

31then my lord will have no remorse or guilt of conscience over needless bloodshed and revenge. And when the LORD has dealt well with my lord, may you remember your servant.”

32Then David said to Abigail, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who sent you to meet me this day!

33Blessed is your discernment, and blessed are you, because today you kept me from bloodshed and from avenging myself by my own hand.

34Otherwise, as surely as the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, who has restrained me from harming you, if you had not come quickly to meet me, then surely no male belonging to Nabal would have been left alive by morning light.”

35Then David accepted from her hand what she had brought him, and he said to her, “Go home in peace. See, I have heeded your voice and granted your request.”

36When Abigail returned to Nabal, there he was in the house, holding a feast fit for a king, in high spirits and very drunk. So she told him nothing until morning light.

37In the morning when Nabal was sober, his wife told him about these events, and his heart failed within him, and he became like a stone.

38About ten days later, the LORD struck Nabal dead.

39On hearing that Nabal was dead, David said, “Blessed be the LORD, who has upheld my cause against the reproach of Nabal and has restrained His servant from evil. For the LORD has brought the wickedness of Nabal down upon his own head.” Then David sent word to Abigail, asking her to become his wife.

40When his servants came to Abigail at Carmel, they said, “David has sent us to take you as his wife.”

41She arose, bowed facedown, and said, “Here is your servant, ready to serve and to wash the feet of my lord’s servants.”

42So Abigail hurried and got on a donkey, and attended by five of her maidens, she followed David’s messengers and became his wife.

43David had also married Ahinoam of Jezreel. So she and Abigail were both his wives.

44But Saul had given his daughter Michal, David’s wife, to Palti son of Laish, who was from Gallim.

1Then the Ziphites came to Saul at Gibeah and said, “Is not David hiding on the hill of Hachilah, opposite Jeshimon?”

2So Saul, accompanied by three thousand chosen men of Israel, went down to the Wilderness of Ziph to search for David there.

3Saul camped beside the road at the hill of Hachilah opposite Jeshimon, but David was living in the wilderness. When he realized that Saul had followed him there,

4David sent out spies to verify that Saul had arrived.

5Then David set out and went to the place where Saul had camped. He saw the place where Saul and Abner son of Ner, the general of his army, had lain down. Saul was lying inside the inner circle of the camp, with the troops camped around him.

6And David asked Ahimelech the Hittite and Abishai son of Zeruiah, Joab’s brother, “Who will go down with me to Saul in the camp?” “I will go with you,” answered Abishai.

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. And Abner and the troops were lying around him.

8Abishai said to David, “Today God has delivered your enemy into your hand. Now, therefore, please let me thrust the spear through him into the ground with one stroke. I will not need to strike him twice!”

9But David said to Abishai, “Do not destroy him, for who can extend a hand against the LORD’s anointed and be guiltless?”

10David added, “As surely as the LORD lives, the LORD Himself will strike him down; either his day will come and he will die, or he will go into battle and perish.

11But the LORD forbid that I should extend my hand against the LORD’s anointed. Instead, take the spear and water jug by his head, and let us go.”

12So David took the spear and water jug by Saul’s head, and they departed. No one saw them or knew about it, nor did anyone wake up; they all remained asleep, because a deep sleep from the LORD had fallen on them.

13Then David crossed to the other side and stood atop the mountain at a distance; there was a wide gulf between them.

14And David shouted to the troops and to Abner son of Ner, “Will you not answer me, Abner?” “Who are you who calls to the king?” Abner replied.

15So David said to Abner, “You are a man, aren’t you? And who in Israel is your equal? Why then did you not protect your lord the king when one of the people came to destroy him?

16This thing you have done is not good. As surely as the LORD lives, all of you deserve to die, since you did not protect your lord, the LORD’s anointed. Now look around. Where are the king’s spear and water jug that were by his head?”

17Then Saul recognized David’s voice and asked, “Is that your voice, David my son?” “It is my voice, my lord and king,” David said.

18And he continued, “Why is my lord pursuing his servant? What have I done? What evil is in my hand?

19Now please, may my lord the king hear the words of his servant: If the LORD has stirred you up against me, then may He accept an offering. But if men have done it, may they be cursed in the presence of the LORD! For today they have driven me away from sharing in the inheritance of the LORD, saying, ‘Go, serve other gods.’

20So 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 look for a flea, like one who hunts a partridge in the mountains.”

21Then Saul replied, “I have sinned. Come back, David my son. I will never harm you again, because today you considered my life precious. I have played the fool and have committed a grave error!”

22“Here is the king’s spear,” David answered. “Let one of the young men come over and get it.

23May the LORD repay every man for his righteousness and faithfulness. For the LORD delivered you into my hand today, but I would not extend my hand against the LORD’s anointed.

24As surely as I valued your life today, so may the LORD value my life and rescue me from all trouble.”

25Saul said to him, “May you be blessed, David my son. You will accomplish great things and will surely prevail.” So David went on his way, and Saul returned home.

1David, however, said to himself, “One of these days now I will be swept away by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than to escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will stop searching for me all over Israel, and I will slip out of his hand.”

2So David set out with his six hundred men and went to Achish son of Maoch, the 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.

4And when Saul learned that David had fled to Gath, he no longer searched for him.

5Then David said to Achish, “If I have found favor in your eyes, let me be assigned a place in one of the outlying towns, so I can live there. For why should your servant live in the royal city with you?”

6That day Achish gave him Ziklag, and to this day it still belongs to the kings of Judah.

7And the time that David lived in Philistine territory amounted to 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 people had inhabited the land extending to Shur and Egypt.)

9Whenever David attacked a territory, he did not leave a man or woman alive, but he took the flocks and herds, the donkeys, camels, and clothing. Then he would return to Achish,

10who would ask him, “What have you raided today?” And David would reply, “The Negev of Judah,” or “The Negev of Jerahmeel,” or “The Negev of the Kenites.”

11David did not leave a man or woman alive to be brought to Gath, for he said, “Otherwise they will report us, saying, ‘This is what David did.’” And this was David’s custom the whole time he lived in Philistine territory.

12So Achish trusted David, thinking, “Since he has made himself an utter stench to his people Israel, he will be my servant forever.”