1 Samuel 24:1-10

Common English Bible

David spares Saul’s life

24 ^[a] Even as Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, he was informed that David was in the En-gedi wilderness. ² So Saul took three thousand men selected from all Israel and went to look for David and his soldiers near the rocks of the wild goats. ³ He came to the sheep pens beside the road where there was a cave. Saul went into the cave to use the restroom.^[b] Meanwhile, David and his soldiers were sitting in the very back of the cave.

⁴ David’s soldiers said to him, “This is the day the Lord spoke of when he promised you, ‘I will hand your enemy over to you, and you can do to him whatever you think best.’” So David snuck up and cut off a corner of Saul’s robe. ⁵ But immediately David felt horrible that he had cut off a corner of Saul’s robe.^[c]

⁶ “The Lord forbid,” he told his men, “that I should do something like that to my master, the Lord’s anointed, or lift my hand against him, because he’s the Lord’s anointed!” ⁷ So David held his soldiers in check by what he said,^[d] and he wouldn’t allow them to attack Saul. Saul then left the cave and went on his way.

⁸ Then David also went out of the cave and yelled after Saul, “My master the king!” Saul looked back, and David bowed low out of respect, nose to the ground.

⁹ David said to Saul, “Why do you listen when people say, ‘David wants to ruin you’? ¹⁰ Look! Today your own eyes have seen that the Lord handed you over to me in the cave. But I refused^[e] to kill you. I spared you, saying, ‘I won’t lift a hand against my master because he is the Lord’s anointed.’