Saul Fears David

18 When he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was bound to the soul of David, so that Jonathan loved him as his own soul. ² And Saul took him that day and would not permit him to return home to his father’s house. ³ Then Jonathan and David made a covenant because he loved him as his own soul. ⁴ So Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him and gave it to David, even his garments, his sword, his bow, and his belt.

⁵ David went out wherever Saul sent him, and he was successful. So Saul set him over the men of war, and it was pleasing in the sight of all the people and also in the sight of the servants of Saul.

⁶ When they came home, as David was returning from slaying the Philistine, the women came out from all cities of Israel to meet King Saul, singing and dancing, with tambourines, with joy, and with musical instruments. ⁷ The dancing women sang and said,

⁸ Saul became very angry, and this saying was displeasing to him. Therefore he said, “They have ascribed to David ten thousands, but to me they have ascribed thousands. Now what remains for him to have but the kingdom?” ⁹ So Saul was suspicious of David from that day and forward.

¹⁰ It came to pass the following day, that an evil spirit from God came upon Saul, so that he raved in the midst of the house. And David was playing the lyre, as at other times. Now there was a spear in Saul’s hand. ¹¹ And Saul threw the spear. For he said, “I will pin David to the wall.” But David avoided him two times.

¹² Saul was afraid of David because the Lord was with him but had departed from Saul. ¹³ Therefore Saul removed him from his presence and placed him as his captain over a thousand. And he went out and came in before the people. ¹⁴ David was successful in all his ways and the Lord was with him. ¹⁵ When Saul saw that he was very successful, he was afraid of him. ¹⁶ Now all Israel and Judah loved David, because he went out and came in before them.

David Marries Michal

¹⁷ Saul said to David, “Behold my elder daughter Merab, I will give her to you as your wife. Only be valiant for me, and fight the battles of the Lord.” For Saul said, “Let not my hand be against him, but let the hand of the Philistines be against him.”

¹⁸ But David said to Saul, “Who am I? And what is my life, or my father’s family in Israel, that I should be son-in-law to the king?” ¹⁹ So when it was time that Merab, daughter of Saul, should have been given to David, she was given to Adriel the Meholathite for a wife.

²⁰ Now Michal, daughter of Saul, loved David and they told Saul, and the thing pleased him. ²¹ Saul said, “I will give her to him that she may be a snare to him, and so that the hand of the Philistines may be against him.” Therefore Saul said to David, “For a second time, you may be my son-in-law today.”

²² Saul commanded his servants, saying, “Speak to David in secret saying, ‘Listen, the king delights in you and all his servants love you. Now therefore become the king’s son-in-law.’ ”

²³ So the servants of Saul spoke these words in the ears of David. And David said, “Does it seem to you a light thing to be a king’s son-in-law, seeing that I am a poor man, and lightly esteemed?”

²⁴ And the servants of Saul reported to him saying, “According to these words, David spoke.” ²⁵ Saul said, “Thus will you say to David, ‘The king does not desire any dowry but a hundred foreskins of the Philistines, to be avenged of the king’s enemies.’ ” But Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines.

²⁶ When his servants told David these words, it pleased David well to be the king’s son-in-law. Now the days had not expired; ²⁷ therefore David arose and went, he and his men, and killed two hundred men of the Philistines. Then David brought their foreskins and they gave them in full to the king, that he might be the king’s son-in-law. And Saul gave him Michal his daughter for a wife.

²⁸ When Saul saw and knew that the Lord was with David, and that Michal, his daughter, loved him, ²⁹ Saul was yet the more afraid of David, and Saul became the enemy of David continually.

³⁰ Then the commanders of the Philistines went out to make war. And when they went out David was more successful than all the servants of Saul, so that his name was highly honored.

Saul Tries to Kill David

19 And Saul spoke to Jonathan, his son, and to all his servants, that they should kill David. But Jonathan, Saul’s son, delighted very much in David. ² Jonathan told David, saying, “My father Saul seeks to kill you. Therefore, be on guard in the morning; stay in a secret place and hide yourself. ³ And I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are. Then I will speak about you to my father, and what I observe I will report to you.”

⁴ Jonathan spoke positively of David to Saul his father and said to him, “Do not let the king sin against his servant, against David, because he has not sinned against you, and because his deeds have been very good toward you. ⁵ For he took his life in his hand and struck down the Philistine, and the Lord made a great salvation for all Israel. You saw it and rejoiced. Now why then would you sin against innocent blood, to kill David without cause?”

⁶ So Saul listened to the voice of Jonathan and Saul vowed, “As the Lord lives, he will not be killed.”

⁷ Jonathan called David, and Jonathan reported to him all these words. Then Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence as previously.

⁸ Then there was war again, and David went out and fought with the Philistines. He slew them with a great slaughter and they fled from him.

⁹ Now an evil spirit from the Lord was upon Saul as he was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand. And David was playing the lyre. ¹⁰ Then Saul sought to pin David to the wall with the spear, but he escaped from Saul’s presence. He struck the spear into the wall. But David fled and escaped that night.

¹¹ Saul also sent messengers to the house of David, to watch him and to slay him in the morning. But Michal, wife of David, told him, saying, “If you do not save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be dead.” ¹² So Michal let David down through a window, and he went and fled to safety. ¹³ Michal took an idol and laid it in the bed, and put a braided goat hair pillow for its head and covered it with clothes.

¹⁴ When Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, “He is sick.”

¹⁵ Saul sent the messengers again to see David, saying, “Bring him up to me in the bed, that I may kill him.” ¹⁶ When the messengers came in, there was the idol in the bed with a goat hair pillow for its head.

¹⁷ Saul said to Michal, “Why have you betrayed me and sent away my enemy, so that he escaped?”

And Michal said to Saul, “He said to me, ‘Let me go. Why should I kill you?’ ”

¹⁸ Now David fled, and he escaped and came to Samuel at Ramah. And he reported to him all that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and stayed in Naioth. ¹⁹ It was told Saul, saying, “David is at Naioth in Ramah.” ²⁰ Then Saul sent messengers to take David, but when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying and Samuel taking his stand over them, the Spirit of God came upon the messengers of Saul and they also prophesied. ²¹ When it was reported to Saul, he sent other messengers. And they also prophesied. So Saul sent messengers again a third time, and they too prophesied. ²² Then he also went to Ramah and came to the great well that is in Seku. And he asked and said, “Where are Samuel and David?”

And one said, “They are at Naioth in Ramah.

²³ He went there to Naioth in Ramah, and the Spirit of God came upon him also. And he went on and he prophesied until he came to Naioth in Ramah. ²⁴ He stripped off his clothes and he also prophesied before Samuel. And he lay down naked all that day and all that night. Therefore they say, “Is Saul also among the prophets?”

Death of Samuel

25 Now Samuel died. And all the children of Israel gathered together and mourned him, and they buried him at his home in Ramah. Then David arose and went down to the Wilderness of Paran.

David, Nabal, and Abigail

² Now there was a man in Maon whose work was in Carmel. He was a rich man with three thousand sheep and a thousand goats, and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel. ³ The man’s name was Nabal and the name of his wife Abigail. She was a woman of good understanding and beautiful, but the man was harsh and evil in his actions and he was a Calebite.

⁴ David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep. ⁵ So David sent out 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 you will you say to him who lives in prosperity, ‘Peace be to you and peace to your house, and to all that you have, peace.

⁷ “ ‘I have heard that you have shearers. Now your shepherds were with us. We did not harm them nor did they miss anything all the days they were in Carmel. ⁸ Ask your young men and they will tell you. Therefore let my young men find favor in your eyes, for we have come on a good day. Please give whatever you find at hand to your servants, and to your son David.’ ”

⁹ When David’s young men came, they spoke to Nabal according to all these words in the name of David, then they waited.

¹⁰ And Nabal answered David’s servants, and said, “Who is David? And who is the son of Jesse? Today many servants are breaking away each one from his master. ¹¹ Should I then take my bread, and my water, and my meat, that which I have killed for my shearers, and give it to men whose origins are unknown?”

¹² So David’s young men turned themselves around and went back. And they came and reported to him all these words. ¹³ David said to his men, “Each man strap on his sword.” And each man strapped on his sword. David also put on his sword, and four hundred men went up after David. But two hundred stayed with the baggage.

¹⁴ Now one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, “Listen, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to bless our master; and he railed against them. ¹⁵ But the men were very good to us, and we were not harmed, nor did we miss anything, all the days we went about with them in the field. ¹⁶ They were a wall to us both by night and day, all the days we were with them keeping the flocks. ¹⁷ Now therefore know and consider what you will do, for evil is determined against our master and against all his household. He is such a worthless man that one cannot speak to him.”

¹⁸ Then Abigail hurried and took two hundred loaves, two bottles of wine, five prepared sheep, five measures^[a] of roasted grain, a hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and she loaded them on donkeys. ¹⁹ And she said to her servants, “Go on before me. See, I will be coming after you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal.

²⁰ And as she was riding on the donkey and going down into the cover of the mountain, David and his men were coming down to meet her and she met them. ²¹ Now David had said, “Surely in vain have I guarded all that this man has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him. And he has returned me evil for good. ²² So may God do unto the enemies of David and more also, if by morning I leave even one male of all who belong to him.”

²³ When Abigail saw David, she hurriedly got down from the donkey and fell before David upon her face. And she bowed herself to the ground. ²⁴ So she fell at his feet and said, “Against me alone, my lord, is the guilt. Please let your handmaid speak in your ears, and hear the words of your handmaid. ²⁵ Please do not let my lord set his heart against this worthless man, against Nabal. For as his name is, so is he. Nabal is his name and folly is with him. But I, your handmaid, did not see the young men of my lord, whom you sent. ²⁶ Now my lord, as the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, because the Lord has restrained you from coming in bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hand, now let your enemies, and those seeking to do evil to my lord, be as Nabal. ²⁷ Now let this blessing which your maidservant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who follow my lord.

²⁸ “Please forgive the transgression of your handmaid, for the Lord will certainly make my lord a sure house, because my lord fights the battles of the Lord, and evil will not be found in you all your days. ²⁹ Even if a man rises to pursue you and to seek your life, the life of my lord will be bound in the bundle of the living with the Lord your God. But the lives of your enemies He will sling out, as from the hollow of a sling. ³⁰ It will be, when the Lord does for my lord according to all the good that He has spoken concerning you and has appointed you ruler over Israel, ³¹ that this will be no grief to you, nor an offense of heart to my lord, either that you have shed blood without cause, or that my lord has avenged himself. But when the Lord has dealt well with my lord, then remember your handmaid.”

³² David said to Abigail, “Blessed be the Lord, God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me. ³³ And blessed is your discretion, and blessed are you who have kept me this day from coming to shed blood and from avenging myself with my own hand. ³⁴ For as the Lord, the God of Israel lives, who has restrained me from injuring you, if you had not hurried to come and meet me, surely there would not have been left even one male to Nabal by the morning light.”

³⁵ So David received from her hand what she had brought him and said to her, “Go up in peace to your house. See, I have obeyed your voice, and have granted your request.”

³⁶ Abigail came to Nabal, and he was feasting in his house, like the feast of a king. And Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk. Therefore she told him nothing until the morning light. ³⁷ But in the morning when the wine was gone out of Nabal, his wife told him these things. And his heart died within him, and he became as a stone. ³⁸ And about ten days after that, the Lord struck Nabal and he died.

³⁹ When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Blessed is the Lord, who has defended the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and has kept His servant from evil. For the Lord has returned the wickedness of Nabal upon his own head.”

And David sent and spoke with Abigail, to take her as his wife. ⁴⁰ When the servants of David came to Abigail at Carmel, they spoke to her, saying, “David has sent us to you to take you as his wife.”

⁴¹ She arose, and bowed herself on her face to the ground, and said, “Here is your handmaid, a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.” ⁴² Abigail hurriedly arose and rode on a donkey with her five young women who attended her. And she went after the messengers of David and became his wife. ⁴³ David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel. So both of them were his wives. ⁴⁴ But Saul had given Michal his daughter, David’s wife, to Paltiel the son of Laish who was from Gallim.