“Your handmaid did not see the young men whom my lord sent. 26I swear, my lord, as the LORD lives and as you live—the LORD who has kept you from seeking redress by blood with your own hands—let your enemies and all who would harm my lord fare like Nabal! 27Here is the present which your maidservant has brought to my lord; let it be given to the young men who are the followers of my lord. 28Please pardon your maid’s boldness. For the LORD will grant my lord an enduring house, because my lord is fighting the battles of the LORD, and no wrong is ever to be found in you. 29And if anyone sets out to pursue you and seek your life, the life of my lord will be bound up in the bundle of life in the care of the LORD; but He will fling away the lives of your enemies as from the hollow of a sling. 30And when the LORD has accomplished for my lord all the good He has promised you, and has appointed you ruler of Israel, 31do not let this be a cause of stumbling and of faltering courage to my lord that you have shed blood needlessly and that my lord sought redress with his own hands. And when the LORD has prospered my lord, remember your maid.”
32David said to Abigail, “Praised be the LORD, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me! 33And blessed be your prudence, and blessed be you yourself for restraining me from seeking redress in blood by my own hands. 34For as sure as the LORD, the God of Israel, lives—who has kept me from harming you—had you not come quickly to meet me, not e-a single male-e of Nabal’s line would have been left by daybreak.” 35David then accepted from her what she had brought him, and he said to her, “Go up to your home safely. See, I have heeded your plea and respected your wish.”
36When Abigail came home to Nabal, he was having a feast in his house, a feast fit for a king; Nabal was in a merry mood and very drunk, so she did not tell him anything at all until daybreak. 37The next morning, when Nabal had slept off the wine, his wife told him everything that had happened; and his courage died within 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, “Praised be the LORD who championed my cause against the insults of Nabal and held back His servant from wrongdoing; the LORD has brought Nabal’s wrongdoing down on his own head.”
David sent messengers f-to propose marriage to-f Abigail, to take her as his wife. 40When David’s servants came to Abigail at Carmel and told her that David had sent them to her to make her his wife, 41she immediately bowed low with her face to the ground and said, “Your handmaid is ready to be your maidservant, to wash the feet of my lord’s servants.” 42Then Abigail rose quickly and mounted an ass, and with five of her maids in attendance she followed David’s messengers; and she became his wife.
43Now David had taken Ahinoam of Jezreel; so both of them became his wives. 44Saul had given his daughter Michal, David’s wife, to Palti son of Laish from Gallim.
26 aThe Ziphites came to Saul at Gibeah and said, “David is hiding in the hill of Hachilah facing Jeshimon.” 2Saul went down at once to the wilderness of Ziph, together with three thousand picked men of Israel, to search for David in the wilderness of Ziph, 3and Saul encamped on the hill of Hachilah which faces Jeshimon, by the road. When David, who was then living in the wilderness, learned that Saul had come after him into the wilderness, 4David sent out scouts and made sure that Saul had come. 5David went at once to the place where Saul had encamped, and David saw the spot where Saul and his army commander, Abner son of Ner, lay asleep. Saul lay asleep inside the barricadeb and the troops were posted around him.
6David spoke up and asked Ahimelech the Hittite and Abishai son of Zeruiah, Joab’s brother, “Who will go down with me into the camp to Saul?” And Abishai answered, “I will go down with you.” 7So David and Abishai approached the troops by night, and found Saul fast asleep inside the barricade,b his spear stuck in the ground at his head, and Abner and the troops sleeping around him. 8And Abishai said to David, “God has delivered your enemy into your hands today. Let me pin him to the ground with a single thrust of the spear. I will not have to strike him twice.” 9But David said to Abishai, “Don’t do him violence! No one can lay hands on the LORD’s anointed with impunity.” 10And David went on, “As the LORD lives, the LORD Himself will strike him down, or his time will come and he will die, or he will go down to battle and perish. 11But the LORD forbid that I should lay a hand on the LORD’s anointed! Just take the spear and the water jar at his head and let’s be off.” 12So David took away the spear and the water jar at Saul’s head, and they left. No one saw or knew or woke up; all remained asleep; a deep sleep from the LORD had fallen upon them.
13David crossed over to the other side and stood afar on top of a hill; there was considerable distance between them. 14And David shouted to the troops and to Abner son of Ner, “Abner, aren’t you going to answer?” And Abner shouted back, “Who are you to shout at the king?” 15And David answered Abner, “You are a man, aren’t you? And there is no one like you in Israel! So why didn’t you keep watch over your lord the king? For one of [our] troops came to do violence to your lord the king. 16You have not given a good account of yourself! As the LORD lives, [all of] you deserve to die, because you did not keep watch over your lord, the LORD’s anointed. Look around, where are the king’s spear and the water jar that were at his head?”
17Saul recognized David’s voice, and he asked, “Is that your voice, my son David?” And David replied, “It is, my lord king.” 18And he went on, “But why does my lord continue to pursue his servant? What have I done, and what wrong am I guilty of? 19Now let my lord the king hear his servant out. If the LORD has incited you against me, let Him be appeasedc by an offering; but if it is men, may they be accursed of the LORD! For they have driven me out today, so that I cannot have a share in the LORD’s possession, but am told, ‘Go and worship other gods.’ 20Oh, let my blood not fall to the ground, away from the presence of the LORD! For the king of Israel has come out to seek a single flea—as if he were hunting a partridge in the hills.”
21And Saul answered, “I am in the wrong. Come back, my son David, for I will never harm you again, seeing how you have held my life precious this day. Yes, I have been a fool, and I have erred so very much.” 22David replied, “Here is Your Majesty’s spear. Let one of the young men come over and get it. 23And the LORD will requite every man for his right conduct and loyalty—for this day the LORD delivered you into myd hands and I would not raise a hand against the LORD’s anointed. 24And just as I valued your life highly this day, so may the LORD value my life and may He rescue me from all trouble.” 25Saul answered David, “May you be blessed, my son David. You shall achieve, and you shall prevail.”
David then went his way, and Saul returned home.
27 David said to himself, “Some day I shall certainly perish at the hands of Saul. The best thing for me is to flee to the land of the Philistines; Saul will then give up hunting me throughout the territory of Israel, and I will escape him.” 2So David and the six hundred men with him went and crossed over to King Achish son of Maoch of Gath. 3David and his men stayed with Achish in Gath, each man with his family, and David with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelite and Abigail wife of Nabal the Carmelite. 4And when Saul was told that David had fled to Gath, he did not pursue him any more.
5David said to Achish, “If you please, let a place be granted me in one of the country towns where I can live; why should your
