Beginning

25 ¶ And Samuel died, and all Israel gathered together and lamented him and buried him in his house at Ramah. And David arose and went down to the wilderness of Paran.

² ¶ And there was a man in Maon whose possessions were in Carmel, and the man was very great, and he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats, and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel.

³ Now the name of the man was Nabal; and the name of his wife Abigail. And she was a woman of good understanding and of a beautiful countenance, but the man was hard and evil in his doings, and he was of the lineage of Caleb.

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

⁵ And David sent out ten young men, and David said unto the young men, Climb up to Carmel and go to Nabal and greet him in my name.

⁶ And thus shall ye say to him, May thou live and peace be unto thee and peace be unto thy house and peace be unto all that thou hast.

⁷ I have recently heard that thou hast shearers. Now thy shepherds who were with us, we did not hurt them, neither was there anything missing unto them all the while they were in Carmel.

⁸ Ask thy slaves, and they will tell thee. Therefore, let the young men find grace in thine eyes, for we come in a good day; give, I pray thee, whatever is in thy hand unto thy slaves and to thy son David.

⁹ And when David’s young men came, they spoke to Nabal according to all those words in the name of David and ceased.

¹⁰ And Nabal answered David’s slaves and said, Who is David? And who is the son of Jesse? There are many slaves nowadays that break from their masters.

¹¹ Shall I then take my bread and my water and my slaughtered meat that I have killed for my shearers and give it unto men that I do not know where they are from?

¹² ¶ So David’s young men left and returned and came and told him all those words.

¹³ Then David said unto his men, Gird ye on each man his sword. And each one girded on his sword, and David also girded on his sword; and about four hundred men went up after David, and they left two hundred with the stuff.

¹⁴ And one of the servants told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, saying, Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to bless our master, and he railed on them.

¹⁵ But the men were very good unto us and never hurt us, neither did we miss anything all the time that we have been conversant with them when we were in the fields.

¹⁶ They were a wall unto us both by night and day all the time that we were feeding the sheep with them.

¹⁷ Now, therefore, know and consider what thou must do, for evil is determined against our master and against all his household, for he is such a son of Belial that no one can speak to him.

¹⁸ ¶ Then Abigail made haste and took two hundred loaves and two bottles of wine and five sheep ready dressed and five measures of parched flour and one hundred bunches of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs and laid them on asses.

¹⁹ And she said unto her servants, Go on before me; behold, I come after you. But she told nothing to her husband Nabal.

²⁰ And it was so as she rode on the ass that she came down a secret part of the mountain, and, behold, David and his men came down against her, and she met them.

²¹ Now David had said, Surely in vain have I kept all that this fellow has in the wilderness so that nothing was missed of all that pertained unto him, and he has returned unto me evil for good.

²² Let God do so and more also unto the enemies of David if I leave of all that pertain to him by the morning light any that piss against the wall.

²³ And when Abigail saw David, she hastened and lighted off the ass and fell before David on her face and bowed herself to the ground

²⁴ and fell at his feet and said, Upon me, my lord, upon me let this iniquity be, and let thy handmaid, I pray thee, speak in thy audience; and hear the words of thy handmaid.

²⁵ Let not my lord, I pray thee, take to heart this man of Belial, even Nabal, for as his name is, so is he; Nabal {Heb. fool} is his name, and folly is with him; but I, thy handmaid, did not see the servants of my lord whom thou didst send.

²⁶ Now, therefore, my lord, as the LORD lives and as thy soul lives, seeing the LORD has withheld thee from coming to shed blood and from avenging thyself with thy own hand, now let thy enemies and those that seek evil to my lord be as Nabal.

²⁷ And now this blessing which thy handmaid has brought unto my lord, let it be given unto the servants that follow my lord.

²⁸ I pray thee, forgive the trespass of thy handmaid, for the LORD will certainly make my lord a sure house because my lord fights the battles of the LORD, and evil has not been found in thee all thy days.

²⁹ Yet a man is risen to pursue thee and to seek thy soul, but the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the LORD thy God, and he shall hurl forth the souls of thine enemies as out of the middle of a sling.

³⁰ And it shall come to pass when the LORD shall have done to my lord according to all the good that he has spoken concerning thee and shall have appointed thee ruler over Israel,

³¹ that this shall be no stumblingblock unto thee nor grief of heart unto my lord, either that thou hast shed blood causeless or that my lord has avenged himself; but when the LORD shall have dealt well with my lord, then remember thy handmaid.

³² ¶ Then David said to Abigail, Blessed be the LORD God of Israel who sent thee this day to meet me;

³³ and blessed be thy advice, and blessed be thou who hast kept me this day from coming to shed blood and from avenging myself with my own hand.

³⁴ For in very deed as the LORD God of Israel lives, who has kept me back from hurting thee, except thou hadst hastened and come to meet me, surely there had not been left unto Nabal by the morning light any that piss against the wall.

³⁵ So David received of her hand that which she had brought him and said unto her, Go up in peace to thy house; see, I have hearkened to thy voice and have accepted thy person.

³⁶ ¶ And Abigail came to Nabal, and, behold, he held a banquet in his house like the banquet of a king; and Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunken; therefore, she told him nothing, less or more, until the morning light.

³⁷ But it came to pass in the morning when the wine was gone out of Nabal, and his wife had told him these things, that his heart died within him, and he became as a stone.

³⁸ And it came to pass about ten days after, that the LORD smote Nabal, and he died.

³⁹ And when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, Blessed be the LORD that judged the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal and has kept his slave from evil, for the LORD has returned the wickedness of Nabal upon his own head. And David sent word unto Abigail to take her to him to wife.

⁴⁰ And when the slaves of David were come to Abigail to Carmel, they spoke with her, saying, David sent us unto thee to take thee to him to wife.

⁴¹ And she arose and bowed herself on her face to the earth and said, Behold, let thy handmaid be a slave to wash the feet of the slaves of my lord.

⁴² And Abigail hastened and arose and rode upon an ass with five damsels of hers that went after her, and she went after the messengers of David and became his wife.

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

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

26 ¶ And the Ziphites came unto Saul to Gibeah, saying, Does David not hide himself in the hill of Hachilah, which is before Jeshimon?

² Then Saul arose and went down to the wilderness of Ziph, having three thousand chosen men of Israel with him, to seek David in the wilderness of Ziph.

³ And Saul pitched camp in the hill of Hachilah, which is before the wilderness by the way. But David abode in the wilderness, and he perceived that Saul came after him into the wilderness.

⁴ David, therefore, sent out spies and understood that Saul was indeed come.

⁵ And David arose and came to the place where Saul had pitched camp, and David beheld the place where Saul lay and Abner, the son of Ner, the captain of his host. And Saul lay in the trench, and the people pitched round about him.

⁶ ¶ Then David spoke and said to Ahimelech, the Hittite, and to Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, brother to Joab, saying, Who will go down with me to Saul to the camp? And Abishai said, I will go down with thee.

⁷ So David and Abishai came to the people by night, and, behold, Saul lay sleeping within the trench and his spear stuck in the ground at his head, but Abner and the people lay round about him.

⁸ Then Abishai said to David, God has delivered thy enemy into thy hand today; now, therefore, let me smite him, I pray thee, with the spear and pin him to the earth at once, and I will not need a second opportunity.

⁹ And David said to Abishai, Do not destroy him, for who has stretched forth his hand against the LORD’s anointed, and remained innocent?

¹⁰ David said furthermore, As the LORD lives, if the LORD does not smite him or his day comes to die or he descends into battle and perishes,

¹¹ the LORD forbid that I should stretch forth my hand against the LORD’s anointed; but, I pray thee, take thou now the spear that is at his head and the cruse of water and let us go.

¹² So David took the spear and the cruse of water that were at Saul’s head, and they went, and no one saw it nor knew it neither awaked, for they were all asleep because a deep sleep from the LORD had fallen upon them.

¹³ ¶ Then David went over to the other side and stood out of the way on the top of the mountain, a great space being between them;

¹⁴ and David cried to the people and to Abner, the son of Ner, saying, Dost thou not answer, Abner? Then Abner answered and said, Who art thou that dost cry to the king?

¹⁵ And David said to Abner, Art not thou a man? And who is there like unto thee in Israel? Why then hast thou not kept thy lord the king? For one of the people came in to destroy the king thy lord.

¹⁶ This thing is not good that thou hast done. As the LORD lives, ye are worthy to die because ye have not kept your master, the LORD’s anointed. And now see where the king’s spear is and the cruse of water that was at his head.

¹⁷ And Saul knew David’s voice and said, Is this thy voice, my son David? And David said, It is my voice, my lord, O king.

¹⁸ And he said, Why does my lord thus pursue after his slave? What have I done? What evil is in my hand?

¹⁹ Now, therefore, I pray thee, let my lord the king hear the words of his slave. If the LORD has stirred thee up against me, let him smell the fragrance of an offering, but if they were the sons of men, let them be cursed before the LORD, for they have driven me out this day from joining myself to the inheritance of the LORD, saying, Go, serve other gods.

²⁰ Now therefore, do not let my blood fall to the earth before the face of the LORD, for the king of Israel is come out to seek a flea as when one hunts a partridge in the mountains.

²¹ ¶ Then Saul said, I have sinned; return, my son David; for I will do no more harm unto thee because my life was precious in thine eyes today. Behold, I have played the fool and have erred exceedingly.

²² And David answered and said, Behold the king’s spear! Let one of the servants come over and take it.

²³ The LORD render to each one his righteousness and his faithfulness, for the LORD delivered thee into my hand today, but I would not stretch forth my hand against the LORD’s anointed.

²⁴ And, behold, as thy life has been esteemed today in my eyes, so let my life be esteemed in the eyes of the LORD and let him deliver me out of all affliction.

²⁵ Then Saul said to David, Blessed art thou, my son David; without a doubt thou shalt do great things and prevail. So David went on his way, and Saul returned to his place.

27 ¶ And David said in his heart, In the end I shall be killed some day by the hand of Saul; there is nothing better for me than that I should escape once and for all into the land of the Philistines; and Saul shall despair of me, to seek me any more within the borders of Israel; so shall I escape out of his hand.

² And David arose, and he went over with the six hundred men that were with him unto Achish, the son of Maoch, king of Gath.

³ And David dwelt with Achish at Gath, he and his men, each one with his household, David with his two wives, Ahinoam, the Jezreelitess, and Abigail, who had been the wife of Nabal of Carmel.

⁴ And it was told Saul that David had fled to Gath, and he sought him no more.

⁵ And David said unto Achish, If I have now found grace in thine eyes, let me be given a place in one of the cities of the land that I may dwell there, for why should thy slave dwell in the royal city with thee?

⁶ Then Achish gave him Ziklag that day. Therefore, Ziklag pertains to the kings of Judah unto this day.

⁷ And the number of days that David dwelt in the country of the Philistines was four months and some days.

⁸ ¶ And David and his men went up and invaded the Geshurites and the Gezrites and the Amalekites, for these had inhabited the land for a long time, from as thou goest unto Shur even unto the land of Egypt.

⁹ And David smote the land and left neither man nor woman alive and took away the sheep and the oxen and the asses and the camels and the apparel and returned and came to Achish.

¹⁰ And Achish would say, Where have ye raided today? And David would say, Against the south of Judah and towards the Negev of the Jerahmeelites or towards the Negev of the Kenites.

¹¹ And David left neither man nor woman alive, to bring tidings to Gath, saying, Lest they should tell on us, saying, So did David. And this was his manner all the time he dwelt in the land of the Philistines.

¹² And Achish believed David, saying, He is making himself abominable unto his people of Israel; therefore, he shall be my slave for ever.