1 Samuel 23-25

Amplified Bible, Classic Edition

23 Then they told David, Behold, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah and are robbing the threshing floors.

² So David inquired of the Lord, Shall I go and attack these Philistines? And the Lord said to David, Go, smite the Philistines and save Keilah.

³ David’s men said to him, Behold, we are afraid here in Judah. How much more, then, if we come to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?

⁴ Then David inquired of the Lord again. And the Lord answered him, Arise, go down to Keilah, for I will deliver the Philistines into your hand.

⁵ So David and his men went to Keilah and fought the Philistines with a great slaughter and brought away their cattle. So David delivered the people of Keilah.

⁶ When Abiathar son of Ahimelech fled to David at Keilah, he came with an ephod in his hand.

⁷ Now it was told Saul that David had come to Keilah. Saul said, God has delivered him into my hand, for he is shut in by going into a town that has gates and bars.

⁸ Saul summoned all the men for war, to go to Keilah to besiege David and his men.

⁹ David knew that Saul was plotting evil against him; and he said to Abiathar the priest, Bring the ephod here.

¹⁰ Then David said, O Lord, the God of Israel, Your servant has surely heard that Saul intends to come and destroy the city of Keilah on my account.

¹¹ Will the men of Keilah deliver me into his hand? Will Saul come down, as Your servant has heard? O Lord, God of Israel, I beseech You, tell Your servant. And the Lord said, He will come down.

¹² Then David asked, Will the men of Keilah deliver me and my men into Saul’s hand? The Lord said, They will deliver you up.

¹³ Then David and his men, about 600, arose and left Keilah, going wherever they could go. When Saul was told that David had escaped from Keilah, he gave up going there.

¹⁴ David remained in the wilderness strongholds in the hill country of the Wilderness of Ziph. Saul sought him every day, but God did not give him into his hands.

¹⁵ David saw that Saul had come out to seek his life. David was in the Wilderness of Ziph in the wood [at Horesh].

¹⁶ And Jonathan, Saul’s son, rose and went into the wood to David [at Horesh] and strengthened his hand in God.

¹⁷ He said to him, Fear not; the hand of Saul my father shall not find you. You shall be king over Israel, and I shall be next to you. Saul my father knows that too.

¹⁸ And the two of them made a covenant before the Lord. And David remained in the wood [at Horesh], and Jonathan went to his house.

¹⁹ Then the Ziphites came to Saul at Gibeah, saying, Does not David hide himself with us in strongholds in the wood [at Horesh], on the hill of Hachilah, which is south of Jeshimon?

²⁰ Now come down, O king, according to all your heart’s desire to come down, and our part shall be to deliver him into the king’s hands.

²¹ And Saul said, The Lord bless you, for you have compassion on me.

²² Go, make yet more sure; and know and see where his haunt is and who has seen him there; for I am told he deals very craftily.

²³ See and take note of all his hiding places and come back to me with the certain facts, and I will go with you. If he is in the land, I will search him out among all the thousands of Judah.

²⁴ So they arose and went to Ziph ahead of Saul. Now David and his men were in the Wilderness of Maon, in the Arabah south of Jeshimon.

²⁵ Saul and his men went to seek him. And David was told; so he went down to the rock in the Wilderness of Maon and stayed. When Saul heard that, he pursued David in the Wilderness of Maon.

²⁶ And Saul went on one side of the mountain, and David and his men on the other side of the mountain. And David made haste to get away for fear of Saul, for Saul and his men were surrounding [him] and his men to capture them.

²⁷ But a messenger came to Saul, saying, Make haste and come, for the Philistines have made a raid on the land.

²⁸ So Saul returned from pursuing David and went against the Philistines. So they called that place the Rock of Escape.

²⁹ David went up from there and dwelt in the strongholds of En-gedi.

24 When Saul returned from following the Philistines, he was told, Behold, David is in the Wilderness of En-gedi.

² Then Saul took 3,000 chosen men out of all Israel and went to seek David and his men among the Rocks of the Wild Goats.

³ He came to the sheepfolds on the way, where there was a cave, and Saul went in to relieve himself. Now David and his men were sitting in the cave’s innermost recesses.

⁴ David’s men said to him, Behold the day of which the Lord said to you, Behold, I will deliver your enemy into your hands and you shall do to him as seems good to you. Then David arose [in the darkness] and stealthily cut off the skirt of Saul’s robe.

⁵ Afterward, David’s heart smote him because he had cut off Saul’s skirt.

⁶ He said to his men, The Lord forbid that I should do this to my master, the Lord’s anointed, to put my hand out against him, when he is the anointed of the Lord.

⁷ So David checked his men with these words and did not let them rise against Saul. But Saul rose up and left the cave and went on his way.

⁸ David also arose afterward and went out of the cave and called after Saul, saying, My lord the king! And when Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the earth and did obeisance.

⁹ And David said to Saul, Why do you listen to the words of men who say, David seeks to do you harm?

¹⁰ Behold, your eyes have seen how the Lord gave you today into my hands in the cave. Some told me to kill you, but I spared you; I said, I will not put forth my hand against my lord, for he is the Lord’s anointed.

¹¹ See, my father, see the skirt of your robe in my hand! Since I cut off the skirt of your robe and did not kill you, you know and see that there is no evil or treason in my hands. I have not sinned against you, yet you hunt my life to take it.

¹² May the Lord judge between me and you, and may the Lord avenge me upon you, but my hand shall not be upon you.

¹³ As the proverb of the ancients says, Out of the wicked comes forth wickedness; but my hand shall not be against you.

¹⁴ After whom has the king of Israel come out? After whom do you pursue? After a dead dog? After a flea?

¹⁵ May the Lord be judge and judge between me and you, and see and plead my cause, and deliver me out of your hands.^(A)

¹⁶ When David had said this to Saul, Saul said, Is this your voice, my son David? And Saul lifted up his voice and wept.

¹⁷ He said to David, You are more upright in God’s eyes than I, for you have repaid me good, but I have rewarded you evil.

¹⁸ You have declared today how you have dealt well with me; for when the Lord gave me into your hand, you did not kill me.

¹⁹ For if a man finds his enemy, will he let him go away unharmed? Therefore may the Lord reward you with good for what you have done for me this day.

²⁰ And now, behold, I well know that you shall surely be king and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hands.

²¹ Swear now therefore to me by the Lord that you will not cut off my descendants after me and that you will not destroy my name out of my father’s house.

²² David gave Saul his oath; and Saul went home, but David and his men went up to the stronghold.

25 Now Samuel died, and all the Israelites assembled and mourned for him, and buried him at his house in Ramah. David arose and went to the Wilderness of Paran.

² A very rich man was in Maon, whose possessions and business were in Carmel. He had 3,000 sheep and 1,000 goats, and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel.

³ The man’s name was Nabal and his wife’s name was Abigail; she was a woman of good understanding, and beautiful. But the man was rough and evil in his doings; he was a Calebite.

⁴ David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep.

⁵ And David sent out ten young men and said to [them], Go up to Carmel to Nabal and greet him in my name;

⁶ And salute him thus: Peace be to you and to your house and to all that you have.

⁷ I have heard 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.

⁸ Ask your young men and they will tell you. Therefore let my young men find favor in your sight, for we come at an opportune time. I pray you, give whatever you have at hand to your servants and to your son David.

⁹ And when David’s young men came, they said all this to Nabal in the name of David, and then paused.

¹⁰ And Nabal answered David’s servants and said, Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants nowadays who are each breaking away from his master.

¹¹ Shall I then take my bread and my water, and my meat that I have killed for my shearers, and give it to men when I do not know where they belong?

¹² So David’s young men turned away, and came and told him all that was said.

¹³ And David said to his men, Every man gird on his sword. And they did so, and David also girded on his sword; and there went up after David about 400 men, and 200 remained with the baggage.

¹⁴ But one of Nabal’s young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to salute our master, and he railed at them.

¹⁵ But David’s men were very good to us, and we were not harmed, nor did we miss anything as long as we went with them, when we were in the fields.

¹⁶ They were a wall to us night and day, all the time we were with them keeping the sheep.

¹⁷ So know this and consider what you will do, for evil is determined against our master and all his house. For he is such a wicked man that one cannot speak to him.

¹⁸ Then Abigail made haste and took 200 loaves, two skins of wine, five sheep already dressed, five measures of parched grain, 100 clusters of raisins, and 200 cakes of figs, and laid them on donkeys.

¹⁹ And she said to her servants, Go on before me; behold, I come after you. But she did not tell her husband Nabal.

²⁰ As she rode on her donkey, she came down hidden by the mountain, and behold, David and his men came down opposite her, and she met them.

²¹ Now David had said, Surely in vain have I protected all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him; and he has repaid me evil for good.

²² May God do so, and more also, to David ^[a]if I leave of all who belong to him one male alive by morning.

²³ When Abigail saw David, she hastened and lighted off the donkey, and fell before David on her face and did obeisance.

²⁴ Kneeling at his feet she said, Upon me alone let this guilt be, my lord. And let your handmaid, I pray you, speak in your presence, and hear the words of your handmaid.

²⁵ Let not my lord, I pray you, regard this foolish and wicked fellow Nabal, for as his name is, so is he—Nabal [foolish, wicked] is his name, and folly is with him. But I, your handmaid, did not see my lord’s young men whom you sent.

²⁶ So now, my lord, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, seeing that the Lord has prevented you from bloodguiltiness and from avenging yourself with your own hand, now let your enemies and those who seek to do evil to my lord be as Nabal.

²⁷ And now this gift, which your handmaid has brought my lord, let it be given to the young men who follow my lord.

²⁸ Forgive, I pray you, the trespass of your handmaid, for the Lord will certainly make my lord a sure house, because my lord is fighting the Lord’s battles, and evil has not been found in you all your days.

²⁹ Though man is risen up to pursue you and to seek your life, yet the life of my lord shall be bound in the living bundle with the Lord your God. And the lives of your enemies—them shall He sling out as out of the center of a sling.

³⁰ And when the Lord has done to my lord according to all the good that He has promised concerning you and has made you ruler over Israel,

³¹ This shall be no staggering grief to you or cause for pangs of conscience to my lord, either that you have shed blood without cause or that my lord has avenged himself. And when the Lord has dealt well with my lord, then [^[b]earnestly] remember your handmaid.

³² And David said to Abigail, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, Who sent you this day to meet me.

³³ And blessed be your discretion and advice, and blessed be you who have kept me today from bloodguiltiness and from avenging myself with my own hand.

³⁴ For as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, Who has prevented me from hurting you, if you had not hurried and come to meet me, surely by morning there would not have been left so much as one male to Nabal.

³⁵ So David accepted what she had brought him and said to her, Go up in peace to your house. See, I have hearkened to your voice and have granted your petition.

³⁶ And Abigail came to Nabal, and behold, he was holding a feast in his house like the feast of a king. And [his] heart was merry, for he was very drunk; so she told him nothing at all until the morning light.

³⁷ But in the morning, when the wine was gone out of Nabal, and his wife told him these things, his heart died within him and he became [paralyzed, helpless as] a stone.

³⁸ And about ten days after that, the Lord smote Nabal and he died.

³⁹ When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, Blessed be the Lord, Who has pleaded the cause of my reproach at the hand of Nabal, and kept His servant from evil. For the Lord has returned the wickedness of Nabal upon his own head. And David sent and communed with Abigail, to take her to him as his wife.

⁴⁰ And when the servants of David had come to Abigail at Carmel, they said to her, David sent us to you to take you to him to be his wife.

⁴¹ And she arose and bowed herself to the earth and said, Behold, let your handmaid be a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.

⁴² And Abigail hastened and arose and rode on a donkey, with five of her maids who followed her, and she went after the messengers of David and became his wife.

⁴³ David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel, and they both became his wives.

⁴⁴ Saul had given Michal his daughter, David’s wife, to Phalti son of Laish, who was of Gallim.