^4 (A)Then 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.

^23 (A)May the Lord ^(B)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.

⁸ Then Abishai said to David, ^(A)“God has delivered your enemy into your hand this day. Now therefore, please, let me strike him ^[a]at once with the spear, right to the earth; and I will not have to strike him a second time!”

⁹ But David said to Abishai, “Do not destroy him; ^(B)for who can stretch out his hand against the Lord’s anointed, and be guiltless?” ¹⁰ David said furthermore, “As the Lord lives, ^(C)the Lord shall strike him, or ^(D)his day shall come to die, or he shall ^(E)go out to battle and perish. ^11 (F)The 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.”

¹⁰ Look, 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.’

²⁸ Please forgive the trespass of your maidservant. For ^(A)the Lord will certainly make for my lord an enduring house, because my lord ^(B)fights the battles of the Lord, ^(C)and evil is not found in you throughout your days. ²⁹ Yet a man has risen to pursue you and seek your life, but the life of my lord shall be ^(D)bound in the bundle of the living with the Lord your God; and the lives of your enemies He shall ^(E)sling out, as from the pocket of a sling. ³⁰ And 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 ^(F)ruler over Israel,

¹⁸ And you have shown this day how you have dealt well with me; for when ^(A)the Lord delivered me into your hand, you did not kill me.

¹⁷ And he said to him, ^(A)“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. ^(B)Even my father Saul knows that.”

⁷ And 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.”

⁸ And they brought the head of Ishbosheth to David at Hebron, and said to the king, “Here is the head of Ishbosheth, the son of Saul your enemy, ^(A)who sought your life; and the Lord has avenged my lord the king this day of Saul and his descendants.”