19bSome Ziphites went up to Saul in Gibeah and said, “David is hiding among us in the strongholds of Horesh, at the hill of Hachilah south of Jeshimon. 20So if Your Majesty has the desire to come down, come down, and it will be our task to deliver him into Your Majesty’s hands.” 21And Saul replied, “May you be blessed of the LORD for the compassion you have shown me! 22Go now and prepare further. Look around and learn what places he sets foot on [and] who has seen him there, for I have been told he is a very cunning fellow. 23Look around and learn in which of all his hiding places he has been hiding, and return to me when you are certain. I will then go with you, and if he is in the region, I will search him out among all the clans of Judah.”
24They left at once for Ziph, ahead of Saul; David and his men were then in the wilderness of Maon, in the Arabah, to the south of Jeshimon. 25When Saul and his men came to search, David was told about it; and he went down to a-the rocky region-a and stayed in the wilderness of Maon. On hearing this, Saul pursued David in the wilderness of Maon. 26Saul was making his way along one side of a hill, and David and his men were on the other side of the hill. a-David was trying hard to elude Saul, and Saul and his men were trying to encircle David and his men and capture them,-a 27when a messenger came and told Saul, “Come quickly, for the Philistines have invaded the land.” 28Saul gave up his pursuit of David and went to meet the Philistines. That is why that place came to be called the Rock of Separation.a
24 David went from there and stayed in the wildernesses of En-gedi. 2When Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, he was told that David was in the wilderness of En-gedi. 3So Saul took three thousand picked men from all Israel and went in search of David and his men a-in the direction of the rocks of the wild goats;-a 4and he came to the sheepfolds along the way. There was a cave there, and Saul went in b-to relieve himself.-b Now David and his men were sitting in the back of the cave.
5David’s men said to him, “This is the day of which the LORD said to you, ‘I will deliver your enemy into your hands; you can do with him as you please.’ ” cDavid went and stealthily cut off the corner of Saul’s cloak. 6 But afterward d-David reproached himself-d for cutting off e-the corner of Saul’s cloak.-e 7He said to his men, “The LORD forbid that I should do such a thing to my lord—the LORD’s anointed—that I should raise my hand against him; for he is the LORD’s anointed.” 8David rebukedahis men and did not permit them to attack Saul.
Saul left the cave and started on his way. 9Then David also went out of the cave and called after Saul, “My lord king!” Saul looked around and David bowed low in homage, with his face to the ground. 10And David said to Saul, “Why do you listen to the people who say, ‘David is out to do you harm?’ 11You can see for yourself now that the LORD delivered you into my hands in the cave today. And though a-I was urged-a to kill you, I showed you pity;f for I said, ‘I will not raise a hand against my lord, since he is the LORD’s anointed.’ 12Please, sir,g take a close look at the corner of your cloak in my hand; for when I cut off the corner of your cloak, I did not kill you. You must see plainly that I have done nothing evil or rebellious, and I have never wronged you. Yet you are bent on taking my life. 13May the LORD judge between you and me! And may He take vengeance upon you for me, but my hand will never touch you. 14As the ancient proverb has it: ‘Wicked deeds come from wicked men!’ My hand will never touch you. 15Against whom has the king of Israel come out? Whom are you pursuing? A dead dog? A single flea? 16May the LORD be arbiter and may He judge between you and me! May He take note and uphold my cause, and vindicate me against you.”
17When David finished saying these things to Saul, Saul said, “Is that your voice, my son David?” And Saul broke down and wept. 18He said to David, “You are right, not I; for you have treated me generously, but I have treated you badly. 19Yes, you have just revealed how generously you treated me, for the LORD delivered me into your hands and you did not kill me. 20If a man meets his enemy, does he let him go his way unharmed? Surely, the LORD will reward you generously for h-what you have done for me this day.-h 21I know now that you will become king, and that the kingship over Israel will remain in your hands. 22So swear to me by the LORD that you will not destroy my descendants or wipe out my name from my father’s house.” 23David swore to Saul, Saul went home, and David and his men went up to the strongholds.
25 Samuel died, and all Israel gathered and made lament for him; and they buried him in Ramah, his home.
David went down to the wilderness of Paran.a
2There was a man in Maon whose possessions were in Carmel. The man was very wealthy; he owned three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. At the time, he was shearing his sheep in Carmel. 3The man’s name was Nabal, and his wife’s name was Abigail. The woman was intelligent and beautiful, but the man, a Calebite, was a hard man and an evildoer. 4David was in the wilderness when he heard that Nabal was shearing his sheep. 5David dispatched ten young men, and David instructed the young men, “Go up to Carmel. When you come to Nabal, greet him in my name. 6Say b-as follows: ‘To life!-b Greetings to you and to your household and to all that is yours! 7I hear that you are now doing your shearing. As you know, your shepherds have been with us; we did not harm them, and nothing of theirs was missing all the time they were in Carmel. 8Ask your young men and they will tell you. So receive these young men graciously, for we have come on a festive occasion. Please give your servants and your son David whatever you can.’ ”
9David’s young men went and delivered this message to Nabal in the name of David. When they stopped speaking, 10Nabal answered David’s servants, “Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many slaves nowadays who run away from their masters. 11Should I then take my bread and my water,c and the meat that I slaughtered for my own shearers, and give them to men who come from I don’t know where?” 12Thereupon David’s young men retraced their steps; and when they got back, they told him all this. 13And David said to his men, “Gird on your swords.” Each girded on his sword; David too girded on his sword. About four hundred men went up after David, while two hundred remained with the baggage.
14One of [Nabal’s] young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, that David had sent messengers from the wilderness to greet their master, and that he had spurnedb them. 15“But the men had been very friendly to us; we were not harmed, nor did we miss anything all the time that we went about with them while we were in the open. 16They were a wall about us both by night and by day all the time that we were with them tending the flocks. 17So consider carefully what you should do, for harm threatens our master and all his household; he is such a nasty fellow that no one can speak to him.”
18Abigail quickly got together two hundred loaves of bread, two jars of wine, five dressed sheep, five seahs of parched corn, one hundred cakes of raisin, and two hundred cakes of pressed figs. She loaded them on asses, 19and she told her young men, “Go on ahead of me, and I’ll follow you”; but she did not tell her husband Nabal. 20She was riding on the ass and going down a trailb on the hill, when David and his men appeared, coming down toward her; and she met them.—21Now David had been saying, “It was all for nothing that I protected that fellow’s possessions in the wilderness, and that nothing he owned is missing. He has
