1 Samuel 23-27

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

David Saves the City of Keilah

23 Now they told David, “The Philistines are fighting against Keilah and are robbing the threshing floors.”^{(A) 2} David inquired of the Lord, “Shall I go and attack these Philistines?” The Lord said to David, “Go and attack the Philistines and save Keilah.”^{(B) 3} But David’s men said to him, “Look, we are afraid here in Judah; how much more then if we go to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?” ⁴ Then David inquired of the Lord again. The Lord answered him, “Yes, go down to Keilah, for I will give the Philistines into your hand.”^{(C) 5} So David and his men went to Keilah, fought with the Philistines, brought away their livestock, and dealt them a heavy defeat. Thus David rescued the inhabitants of Keilah.

⁶ When Abiathar son of Ahimelech fled to David at Keilah, he came down with an ephod in his hand.^{(D) 7} Now it was told Saul that David had come to Keilah. And Saul said, “God has given^[a] him into my hand, for he has shut himself in by entering a town that has gates and bars.” ⁸ Saul summoned all the people to war, to go down to Keilah, to besiege David and his men. ⁹ When David learned that Saul was plotting evil against him, he said to the priest Abiathar, “Bring the ephod here.”^{(E) 10} David said, “O Lord, the God of Israel, your servant has heard that Saul seeks to come to Keilah, to destroy the city on my account. ¹¹ And now, will^[b] Saul come down as your servant has heard? O Lord, the God of Israel, I beseech you, tell your servant.” The Lord said, “He will come down.” ¹² Then David said, “Will the men of Keilah surrender me and my men into the hand of Saul?” The Lord said, “They will surrender you.”^{(F) 13} Then David and his men, who were about six hundred, set out and left Keilah; they wandered wherever they could go. When Saul was told that David had escaped from Keilah, he gave up the expedition.^{(G) 14} David remained in the strongholds in the wilderness, in the hill country of the wilderness of Ziph. Saul sought him every day, but the Lord^[c] did not give him into his hand.^(H)

David Eludes Saul in the Wilderness

¹⁵ David was in the wilderness of Ziph at Horesh when he learned that^[d] Saul had come out to seek his life. ¹⁶ Saul’s son Jonathan set out and came to David at Horesh; there he strengthened his hand through the Lord.^{[e](I) 17} He said to him, “Do not be afraid, for the hand of my father Saul shall not find you; you shall be king over Israel, and I shall be second to you; my father Saul also knows that this is so.”^{(J) 18} Then the two of them made a covenant before the Lord; David remained at Horesh, and Jonathan went home.^(K)

¹⁹ Then some Ziphites went up to Saul at Gibeah and said, “David is hiding among us in the strongholds of Horesh, on the hill of Hachilah, which is south of Jeshimon.^{(L) 20} Now, O king, whenever you wish to come down, do so, and our part will be to surrender him into the king’s hand.”^{(M) 21} Saul said, “May you be blessed by the Lord for showing me compassion!^{(N) 22} Go and make sure once more; find out exactly where he is and who has seen him there, for I am told that he is very cunning. ²³ Look around and learn all the hiding places where he lurks and come back to me with sure information. Then I will go with you, and if he is in the land, I will search him out among all the thousands of Judah.” ²⁴ So they set out and went to Ziph ahead of Saul.

David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon, in the Arabah to the south of Jeshimon.^{(O) 25} Saul and his men went to search for him. When David was told, he went down to the rock and stayed in the wilderness of Maon. When Saul heard that, he pursued David into the wilderness of Maon. ²⁶ Saul went on one side of the mountain and David and his men on the other side of the mountain. David was hurrying to get away from Saul, while Saul and his men were closing in on David and his men to capture them.^{(P) 27} Then a messenger came to Saul, saying, “Hurry and come, for the Philistines have made a raid on the land.” ²⁸ So Saul stopped pursuing David and went against the Philistines; therefore that place was called the Rock of Escape.^{[f] 29 [g]}David then went up from there and lived in the strongholds of En-gedi.^(Q)

David Spares Saul’s Life

24 When Saul returned from following the Philistines, he was told, “David is in the wilderness of En-gedi.”^{(R) 2} Then Saul took three thousand chosen men out of all Israel and went to look for David and his men in the direction of the Rocks of the Wild Goats.^{(S) 3} He came to the sheepfolds beside the road, where there was a cave, and Saul went in to relieve himself.^[h] Now David and his men were sitting in the innermost parts of the cave.^{(T) 4} The men of David said to him, “Here is the day of which the Lord said to you, ‘I will give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it seems good to you.’ ” Then David went and stealthily cut off a corner of Saul’s cloak.^{(U) 5} Afterward David was stricken to the heart because he had cut off a corner of Saul’s cloak.^{(V) 6} He said to his men, “The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the Lord’s anointed, to raise my hand against him, for he is the Lord’s anointed.”^{(W) 7} So David rebuked his men severely and did not permit them to attack Saul. Then Saul got up and left the cave and went on his way.

⁸ Afterward David also rose up and went out of the cave and called after Saul, “My lord the king!” When Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the ground and did obeisance.^{(X) 9} David said to Saul, “Why do you listen to the words of those who say, ‘David seeks to do you harm’? ¹⁰ This very day your eyes have seen how the Lord gave you into my hand in the cave, and some urged me to kill you, but I spared^[i] you. I said, ‘I will not raise my hand against my lord, for he is the Lord’s anointed.’ ¹¹ See, my father, see the corner of your cloak in my hand, for by the fact that I cut off the corner of your cloak and did not kill you, you may know for certain that there is no wrong or treason in my hands. I have not sinned against you, though you are hunting me to take my life.^{(Y) 12} May the Lord judge between me and you! May the Lord avenge me on you, but my hand shall not be against you.^{(Z) 13} As the ancient proverb says, ‘Out of the wicked comes forth wickedness,’ but my hand shall not be against you.^{(AA) 14} Against whom has the king of Israel come out? Whom do you pursue? A dead dog? A single flea?^{(AB) 15} May the Lord, therefore, be judge and give sentence between me and you. May he see to it and plead my cause and vindicate me against you.”^(AC)

¹⁶ When David had finished speaking these words to Saul, Saul said, “Is this your voice, my son David?” Saul lifted up his voice and wept.^{(AD) 17} He said to David, “You are more righteous than I, for you have repaid me good, whereas I have repaid you evil.^{(AE) 18} Today you have explained how you have dealt well with me, in that you did not kill me when the Lord put me into your hands.^{(AF) 19} For who has ever found an enemy and sent the enemy safely away? So may the Lord reward you with good for what you have done to me this day. ²⁰ Now I know that you shall surely be king and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand.^{(AG) 21} Swear to me, therefore, by the Lord that you will not cut off my descendants after me and that you will not wipe out my name from my father’s house.”^{(AH) 22} So David swore this to Saul. Then Saul went home, but David and his men went up to the stronghold.^(AI)

Death of Samuel

25 Now Samuel died, and all Israel assembled and mourned for him. They buried him at his home in Ramah.

Then David got up and went down to the wilderness of Paran.^(AJ)

David and Abigail

² There was a man in Maon whose property was in Carmel. The man was very rich; he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. He was shearing his sheep in Carmel.^{(AK) 3} Now the name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife was Abigail. The woman was clever and beautiful, but the man was surly and mean; he was a Calebite. ⁴ David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep. ⁵ So 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 Thus you shall salute him, ‘Peace be to you, and peace be to your house, and peace be to all that you have.^{(AL) 7} I hear that you have shearers; now your shepherds have been with us, and we did them no harm, and they missed nothing all the time they were in Carmel.^{(AM) 8} Ask your young men, and they will tell you. Therefore let my young men find favor in your sight, for we have come on a feast day. Please give whatever you have at hand to your servants and to your son David.’ ”^(AN)

⁹ When David’s young men came, they said all this to Nabal in the name of David, and then they waited. ¹⁰ But Nabal answered David’s servants, “Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants today who are breaking away from their masters.^{(AO) 11} Shall I take my bread and my water and the meat that I have butchered for my shearers and give it to men who come from I do not know where?” ¹² So David’s young men turned away and came back and told him all this. ¹³ David said to his men, “Every man strap on his sword!” And every one of them strapped on his sword; David also strapped on his sword, and about four hundred men went up after David, while two hundred remained with the baggage.^(AP)

¹⁴ But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, “David sent messengers out of the wilderness to salute our master, and he shouted insults at them. ¹⁵ Yet the men were very good to us, and we suffered no harm, and we never missed anything when we were in the fields as long as we were with them;^{(AQ) 16} they were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep.^{(AR) 17} Now, therefore, know this and consider what you should do, for evil has been decided against our master and against all his house; he is so ill-natured that no one can speak to him.”

¹⁸ Then Abigail hurried and took two hundred loaves, two skins of wine, five sheep ready dressed, five measures of parched grain, one hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs. She loaded them on donkeys^{(AS) 19} and said to her young men, “Go on ahead of me; I am coming after you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal.^{(AT) 20} As she rode on the donkey and came down under cover of the mountain, David and his men came down toward her, and she met them. ²¹ Now David had said, “Surely it was in vain that I protected all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him, but he has returned me evil for good.^{(AU) 22} God do so to David^[j] and more also if by morning I leave so much as one male of all who belong to him.”^(AV)

²³ When Abigail saw David, she hurried and dismounted from the donkey and fell before David on her face, bowing to the ground.^{(AW) 24} She fell at his feet and said, “Upon me alone, my lord, be the guilt; please let your servant speak in your ears and hear the words of your servant.^{(AX) 25} My lord, do not take seriously this ill-natured fellow, Nabal, for as his name is, so is he; Nabal^[k] is his name, and folly is with him, but I, your servant, did not see the young men of my lord, whom you sent.^(AY)

²⁶ “Now then, my lord, as the Lord lives and as you yourself live, since the Lord has restrained you from bloodguilt and from taking vengeance with your own hand, now let your enemies and those who seek to do evil to my lord be like Nabal.^{(AZ) 27} And now let this present that your servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who follow my lord. ²⁸ Please forgive the trespass of your servant, for the Lord will certainly make my lord a sure house, because my lord is fighting the battles of the Lord, and evil shall not be found in you so long as you live.^{(BA) 29} If anyone should rise up to pursue you and to seek your life, the life of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living under the care of the Lord your God, but the lives of your enemies he shall sling out as from the hollow of a sling. ³⁰ When the Lord has done to my lord according to all the good that he has spoken concerning you and has appointed you prince over Israel, ³¹ my lord shall have no cause of grief or pangs of conscience for having shed blood without cause or for having saved himself. And when the Lord has dealt well with my lord, then remember your servant.”

³² David said to Abigail, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who sent you to meet me today!^{(BB) 33} Blessed be your good sense, and blessed be you, who kept me today from bloodguilt and from avenging myself by my own hand! ³⁴ For as surely as the Lord the God of Israel lives, who has restrained me from hurting you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, truly by morning there would not have been left to Nabal so much as one male.” ³⁵ Then David received from her hand what she had brought him; he said to her, “Go up to your house in peace; see, I have heeded your voice, and I have granted your petition.”^(BC)

³⁶ Abigail came to Nabal; he was holding a feast in his house like the feast of a king. Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk, so she told him nothing at all until the morning light.^{(BD) 37} In the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal, his wife told him these things, and his heart died within him; he became like a stone. ³⁸ About ten days later the Lord struck Nabal, and he died.

³⁹ When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Blessed be the Lord, who has judged the case of Nabal’s insult to me and has kept back his servant from evil; the Lord has returned the evildoing of Nabal upon his own head.” Then David sent word to Abigail to make her his wife.^{(BE) 40} When David’s servants came to Abigail at Carmel, they said to her, “David has sent us to you to take you to him as his wife.” ⁴¹ She rose and bowed down, with her face to the ground, and said, “Your servant is a slave to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.”^{(BF) 42} Abigail got up hurriedly and rode away on a donkey; her five maids attended her. She went after the messengers of David and became his wife.^(BG)

⁴³ David also married Ahinoam of Jezreel; both of them became his wives.^{(BH) 44} Saul had given his daughter Michal, David’s wife, to Palti son of Laish, who was from Gallim.^(BI)

David Spares Saul’s Life a Second Time

26 Then the Ziphites came to Saul at Gibeah, saying, “David is in hiding on the hill of Hachilah, which is opposite Jeshimon.”^{[l](BJ) 2} So Saul rose and went down to the wilderness of Ziph, with three thousand chosen men of Israel, to seek David in the wilderness of Ziph.^{(BK) 3} Saul encamped on the hill of Hachilah, which is opposite Jeshimon,^[m] beside the road. But David remained in the wilderness. When he learned that Saul had come after him into the wilderness, ⁴ David sent out spies and learned that Saul had indeed arrived. ⁵ Then David set out and came to the place where Saul had encamped, and David saw the place where Saul lay, with Abner son of Ner, the commander of his army. Saul was lying within the encampment, while the army was encamped around him.^(BL)

⁶ Then David said to Ahimelech the Hittite and to Joab’s brother Abishai son of Zeruiah, “Who will go down with me into the camp to Saul?” Abishai said, “I will go down with you.”^{(BM) 7} So David and Abishai went to the army by night; there Saul lay sleeping within the encampment, with his spear stuck in the ground at his head, and Abner and the army lay around him. ⁸ Abishai said to David, “God has given your enemy into your hand today; now, therefore, let me pin him to the ground with one stroke of the spear; I will not strike him twice.” ⁹ But David said to Abishai, “Do not destroy him, for who can raise his hand against the Lord’s anointed and be guiltless?”^{(BN) 10} David said, “As the Lord lives, the Lord will strike him down, or his day will come to die, or he will go down into battle and perish.^{(BO) 11} The Lord forbid that I should raise my hand against the Lord’s anointed, but now take the spear that is at his head and the water jar, and let us go.”^{(BP) 12} So David took the spear that was at Saul’s head and the water jar, and they went away. No one saw it or knew it, nor did anyone awake, for they were all asleep, because a deep sleep from the Lord had fallen upon them.^(BQ)

¹³ Then David went over to the other side and stood on top of a hill far away, with a great distance between them. ¹⁴ David called to the army and to Abner son of Ner, saying, “Abner! Will you not answer?” Then Abner replied, “Who are you who calls to the king?” ¹⁵ David said to Abner, “Are you not a man? Who is like you in Israel? Why then have you not kept watch over your lord the king? For one of the people came in to destroy your lord the king. ¹⁶ This thing that you have done is not good. As the Lord lives, you deserve to die because you have not kept watch over your lord, the Lord’s anointed. See now, where is the king’s spear or the water jar that was at his head?”

¹⁷ Saul recognized David’s voice and said, “Is this your voice, my son David?” David said, “It is my voice, my lord, O king.”^{(BR) 18} And he added, “Why does my lord pursue his servant? For what have I done? What guilt is on my hands?^{(BS) 19} Now, therefore, let my lord the king hear the words of his servant. If it is the Lord who has stirred you up against me, may he accept an offering, but if it is mortals, may they be cursed before the Lord, for they have driven me out today from my share in the heritage of the Lord, saying, ‘Go, serve other gods.’^{(BT) 20} Now therefore, do not let my blood fall to the ground away from the presence of the Lord, for the king of Israel has come out to seek a single flea, like one who hunts a partridge in the mountains.”^(BU)

²¹ Then Saul said, “I have done wrong; come back, my son David, for I will never harm you again, because my life was precious in your sight today; I have been a fool and have made a great mistake.”^{(BV) 22} David replied, “Here is the spear, O king! Let one of the young men come over and get it.^{(BW) 23} The Lord rewards everyone for his righteousness and his faithfulness, for the Lord gave you into my hand today, but I would not raise my hand against the Lord’s anointed. ²⁴ As your life was precious today in my sight, so may my life be precious in the sight of the Lord, and may he rescue me from all tribulation.”^{(BX) 25} Then Saul said to David, “Blessed be you, my son David! You will do many things and will succeed in them.” So David went his way, and Saul returned to his place.

David Serves King Achish of Gath

27 David said in his heart, “I shall certainly perish one day by the hand of Saul; there is nothing better for me than to escape to the land of the Philistines; then Saul will despair of seeking me any longer within the borders of Israel, and I shall escape out of his hand.” ² So David set out and went over, he and the six hundred men who were with him, to King Achish son of Maoch of Gath.^{(BY) 3} David stayed with Achish at Gath, he and his troops, every man with his household, and David with his two wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail of Carmel, Nabal’s widow.^{(BZ) 4} When Saul was told that David had fled to Gath, he no longer sought for him.

⁵ Then David said to Achish, “If I have found favor in your sight, let a place be given me in one of the country towns so that I may live there, for why should your servant live in the royal city with you?” ⁶ So that day Achish gave him Ziklag; therefore Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah to this day.^{(CA) 7} The length of time that David lived in the country of the Philistines was one year and four months.^(CB)

⁸ Now David and his men went up and made raids on the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites, for these were the landed settlements from Telam^[n] on the way to Shur and on to the land of Egypt.^{(CC) 9} David struck the land, leaving neither man nor woman alive, but took away the sheep, the oxen, the donkeys, the camels, and the clothing and came back to Achish.^{(CD) 10} When Achish asked, “Against whom^[o] have you made a raid today?” David would say, “Against the Negeb of Judah,” or “Against the Negeb of the Jerahmeelites,” or “Against the Negeb of the Kenites.”^{(CE) 11} David left neither man nor woman alive to be brought back to Gath, thinking, “They might tell about us and say, ‘David has done so and so.’ ” Such was his practice all the time he lived in the country of the Philistines. ¹² Achish trusted David, thinking, “He has made himself utterly abhorrent to his people Israel; therefore he shall always be my servant.”