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1 Samuel 25
And Samuel died; and all Israel gathered themselves together, and lamented him, and buried him by his house at Ramah. And David arose, and went down to the wilderness of Paran.
2 And 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. 3 Now the name of the man was Nabal; and the name of his wife Abigail; and the woman was of good understanding, and of a beautiful appearance: but the man was hostile and evil in his doings; and he was of the house of Caleb.
4 And David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep. 5 And 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: 6 and thus shall you say to him that lives in prosperity, Peace be to you, and peace be to your house, and peace be to all that you have. 7 And now I have heard that you have shearers: your shepherds have now been with us, and we did them no hurt, neither was there anything of theirs missing, all the while they were in Carmel. 8 Ask your young men, and they will tell you: therefore let the young men find favor in your eyes; since we come in a good day: give, I pray you, whatever comes to your hand, to your servants, and to your son David. 9 And when David’s young men came, they spoke to Nabal according to all those words in the name of David, and ceased.
10 And Nabal answered David’s servants, and said, Who is David? And who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants now-a-days that break away every man from his master. 11 Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and give it to men of whom I know not where they are? 12 So David’s young men turned on their way, and went back, and came and told him according to all these words. 13 And David said to his men, Every man put on his sword. And every man put on his sword; and David also put on his sword: and there went up after David about four hundred men; and two hundred remained by the baggage.
14 But 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 at them. 15 But the men were very good to us, and we were not hurt, neither did we miss anything, as long as we went with them, when we were in the fields: 16 they were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep. 17 Now therefore know and consider what you will do; for evil is determined against our master, and against all his house: for he is such a worthless fellow, that one cannot speak to him.
18 Then Abigail hurried, and took two hundred loaves, and two bottles of wine, and five sheep already dressed, and five measures of parched grain, and a hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on asses. 19 And she said to her young men, Go on before me; behold, I will come after you. But she told not her husband Nabal. 20 And it was so, as she rode on her ass, and came down by the covert of the mountain, that, behold, David and his men came down toward her; and she met them. 21 Now David had said, Surely in vain have I kept all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that pertained to him: and he has returned to me evil for good. 22 May Elohim do so to the enemies of David, and more also, if I leave any that pertains to him by the morning light so much as one man-child.
23 And when Abigail saw David, she hurried, and came down from her ass, and fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground. 24 And she fell at his feet, and said, Upon me, my Superior, upon me is the iniquity; and let your handmaid, I pray you, speak in your ears, and hear the words of your handmaid. 25 Do not let my Sovereign, I pray you, regard this worthless fellow, even Nabal; for as his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and folly is with him: but I your handmaid saw not the young men of my leader, whom you did send. 26 Now therefore, my leader, as Yahweh lives, and as your soul lives, seeing Yahweh has withheld you from bloodguiltiness, and from avenging yourself with your own hand, now therefore let your enemies, and them that seek evil to my sovereign, be as Nabal. 27 And now this present which your servant has brought to my leader, let it be given to the young men that follow my Ruler. 28 Forgive, I pray you, the trespass of your handmaid: for Yahweh will certainly make my Sovereign a sure house, because my leader fights the battles of Yahweh; and evil shall not be found in you all your days. 29 And though a man has risen up to pursue you, and to seek your soul, yet the soul of my Superior shall be bound in the bundle of life with Yahweh your Elohim; and the souls of your enemies, them shall he sling out, as from the hollow of a sling. 30 And it shall come to pass, when Yahweh shall have done to my Master according to all the good that he has spoken concerning you, and has appointed you prince over Israel, 31 that this shall be no grief to you, nor offence of heart to my Superior, either that you have shed blood without cause, or that my leader has avenged himself. And when Yahweh shall have dealt well with my Sovereign, then remember your handmaid.
32 And David said to Abigail, Blessed be Yahweh, the Elohim of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me: 33 and blessed be your discretion, and blessed be you, that has kept me this day from bloodguiltiness, and from avenging myself with my own hand. 34 For in very deed, as Yahweh, the Elohim of Israel, lives, who has withheld me from hurting you, except you had hurried and come to meet me, surely there would not have been left to Nabal by the morning light so much as one man-child. 35 So David received of her hand that which she had brought him: and he said to her, Go up in peace to your house; see, I have listened to your voice, and have accepted your person.
36 And 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: so she told him nothing, more or less, until the morning light. 37 And it came to pass in the morning, when the wine was gone out of Nabal, that his wife told him these things, and his heart died within him, and he became as a stone. 38 And it came to pass about ten days after, that Yahweh struck Nabal, so that he died.
39 And when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, Blessed be Yahweh, that has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and has kept back his servant from evil: and the evil-doing of Nabal has Yahweh returned on his own head. And David sent and spoke concerning Abigail, to take her to himself to wife. 40 And when the servants of David had come to Abigail to Carmel, they spoke to her, saying, David has sent us to you, to take you to him to become his wife. 41 And she arose, and bowed herself with her face to the earth, and said, Behold, your handmaid is a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my Superior. 42 And Abigail hurried, and arose, and rode upon an ass, with five damsels of hers that followed her; and she went after the messengers of David, and became his wife.
43 David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel; and both of them became his wives. 44 Now Saul had given Michal his daughter, David’s wife, to Palti the son of Laish, who was of Gallim.
1 Samuel 26
And the Ziphites came to Saul at Gibeah, saying, Is not David hiding himself in the hill of Hachilah, which is before the desert? 2 Then 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. 3 And Saul encamped in the hill of Hachilah, which is before the desert, by the way. But David remained in the wilderness, and he saw that Saul came after him into the wilderness. 4 David therefore sent out spies, and understood that Saul had definitely come. 5 And David arose, and came to the place where Saul had encamped; and David beheld the place where Saul lay, and Abner the son of Ner, the captain of his host: and Saul lay within the barricade, and the people were encamped around him.
6 Then David answered 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 you. 7 So David and Abishai came to the people by night: and, behold, Saul lay sleeping within the barricade, with his spear stuck in the ground at his head; and Abner and the people lay around him. 8 Then Abishai said to David, Elohim has delivered up your enemy into your hand this day: now therefore let me strike him, I pray you, with the spear to the earth at one stroke, and I will not strike him the second time. 9 And David said to Abishai, Destroy him not; for who can put forth his hand against Yahweh’s anointed, and be guiltless? 10 And David said, As Yahweh lives, Yahweh will strike him; or his day shall come to die; or he shall go down into battle, and perish. 11 Yahweh forbid that I should put forth my hand against Yahweh’s anointed: but now take, I pray you, the spear that is at his head, and the skin of water, and let us go. 12 So David took the spear and the skin of water from Saul’s head; and they went away: and no man saw it, nor knew it, neither did any awake; for they were all asleep, because a deep sleep from Yahweh had fallen upon them.
13 Then David went over to the other side, and stood on the top of the mountain far off; a great space being between them; 14 and David cried to the people, and to Abner the son of Ner, saying, Do you not answer, Abner? Then Abner answered and said, Who are you that cries to the king? 15 And David said to Abner, Aren’t you a valiant man? Who is like you in Israel? Why then have you not kept watch over your sovereign the king? For there came one of the people in to destroy the king your sovereign. 16 This thing is not good that you have done. As Yahweh lives, you are worthy to die, because you have not kept watch over your master, Yahweh’s anointed. And now see where the king’s spear is, and the skin of water that was at his head.
17 And Saul knew David’s voice, and said, Is this your voice, my son David? And David said, It is my voice, my superior O king. 18 And he said, Why does my sovereign pursue after his servant? What have I done? What evil is in my hand? 19 Now therefore, I pray you, let my sovereign the king hear the words of his servant. If it is Yahweh that has stirred you up against me, let him accept an offering: but if it is the children of men, cursed be they before Yahweh; for they have driven, me out this day that I should not hold fast to the inheritance of Yahweh, saying, Go, serve other elohim. 20 Now therefore, let not my blood fall to the earth away from the presence of Yahweh: for the king of Israel has come out to seek a flea, as when one hunts a partridge in the mountains.
21 Then 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 played the fool, and have erred greatly. 22 And David answered and said, Behold the spear, O king! Let then one of the young men come over and get it. 23 And Yahweh will render to every man his righteousness and his faithfulness; in that Yahweh delivered you into my hand today, and I would not put forth my hand against Yahweh’s anointed. 24 And, behold, as your life was much set by this day in my eyes, so let my life be much set by in the eyes of Yahweh, and let him deliver me out of all tribulation. 25 Then Saul said to David, May you be blessed, my son David: you shall both do mightily, and shall surely prevail. So David went his way, and Saul returned to his place.
1 Samuel 27
And David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul: there is nothing better for me than that I should escape into the land of the Philistines; and Saul will despair of me, to seek me any more in all the borders of Israel: so shall I escape out of his hand. 2 And David arose, and passed over, he and the six hundred men that were with him, to Achish the son of Maoch, king of Gath. 3 And David dwelt with Achish at Gath, he and his men, every man with his household, even David with his two wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel, and Abigail of Carmel, Nabal’s wife. 4 And it was told to Saul that David had fled to Gath: and he sought no more again for him.
5 And David said to Achish, if I now have found favor in your eyes, let them give me a place in one of the cities in the country, that I may dwell there: for why should your servant dwell in the royal city with you? 6 Then Achish gave him Ziklag that day: therefore Ziklag belongs to the kings of Judah to this day. 7 And the number of the days that David dwelt in the country of the Philistines was a full year and four months.
8 And David and his men went up, and made a raid on the Geshurites, and the Girzites, and the Amalekites; for those nations were the inhabitants of the land, who were of old, as you go to Shur, even to the land of Egypt. 9 And David struck the land, and saved neither man nor woman alive, and took away the sheep, and the oxen, and the asses, and the camels, and the apparel; and he returned, and came to Achish. 10 And Achish said, Against whom have you made a raid today? And David said, Against the South of Judah, and against the South of the Jerahmeelites, and against the South of the Kenites. 11 And David saved neither man nor woman alive, to bring them to Gath, saying, Lest they should tell of us, saying, So did David, and so has been his manner all the while he has dwelt in the country of the Philistines. 12 And Achish believed David, saying, he has made his people Israel utterly abhor him; therefore he shall be my servant for ever.
