Chronological

25 Shortly afterwards Samuel died, and all Israel gathered for his funeral and buried him in his family plot at Ramah.

Meanwhile David went down to the wilderness of Paran. ² A wealthy man from Maon owned a sheep ranch there, near the village of Carmel. He had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats, and was at his ranch at this time for the sheepshearing. ³ His name was Nabal and his wife, a beautiful and very intelligent woman, was named Abigail. But the man, who was a descendant of Caleb, was uncouth, churlish, stubborn, and ill-mannered.

⁴ When David heard that Nabal was shearing his sheep, ⁵ he sent ten of his young men to Carmel to give him this message: ⁶ “May God prosper you and your family and multiply everything you own. ⁷ I am told that you are shearing your sheep and goats. While your shepherds have lived among us, we have never harmed them, nor stolen anything from them the whole time they have been in Carmel. ⁸ Ask your young men and they will tell you whether or not this is true. Now I have sent my men to ask for a little contribution from you, for we have come at a happy time of holiday. Please give us a present of whatever is at hand.”

⁹ The young men gave David’s message to Nabal and waited for his reply.

¹⁰ “Who is this fellow David?” he sneered. “Who does this son of Jesse think he is? There are lots of servants these days who run away from their masters. ¹¹ Should I take my bread and my water and my meat that I’ve slaughtered for my shearers and give it to a gang who comes from God knows where?”

¹² So David’s messengers returned and told him what Nabal had said.

¹³ “Get your swords!” was David’s reply as he strapped on his own. Four hundred of them started off with David and two hundred remained behind to guard their gear.

¹⁴ Meanwhile, one of Nabal’s men went and told Abigail, “David sent men from the wilderness to talk to our master, but he insulted them and railed at them. ^15-16 But David’s men were very good to us and we never suffered any harm from them; in fact, day and night they were like a wall of protection to us and the sheep, and nothing was stolen from us the whole time they were with us. ¹⁷ You’d better think fast, for there is going to be trouble for our master and his whole family—he’s such a stubborn lout that no one can even talk to him!”

¹⁸ Then Abigail hurriedly took two hundred loaves of bread, two barrels of wine, five dressed sheep, two bushels of roasted grain, one hundred raisin cakes, and two hundred fig cakes, and packed them onto donkeys.

¹⁹ “Go on ahead,” she said to her young men, “and I will follow.” But she didn’t tell her husband what she was doing. ²⁰ As she was riding down the trail on her donkey, she met David coming toward her.

²¹ David had been saying to himself, “A lot of good it did us to help this fellow. We protected his flocks in the wilderness so that not one thing was lost or stolen, but he has repaid me bad for good. All that I get for my trouble is insults. ²² May God curse me if even one of his men remains alive by tomorrow morning!”

²³ When Abigail saw David, she quickly dismounted and bowed low before him.

²⁴ “I accept all blame in this matter, my lord,” she said. “Please listen to what I want to say. ²⁵ Nabal is a bad-tempered boor, but please don’t pay any attention to what he said. He is a fool—just like his name means. But I didn’t see the messengers you sent. ²⁶ Sir, since the Lord has kept you from murdering and taking vengeance into your own hands, I pray by the life of God, and by your own life too, that all your enemies shall be as cursed as Nabal is. ²⁷ And now, here is a present I have brought to you and your young men. ²⁸ Forgive me for my boldness in coming out here. The Lord will surely reward you with eternal royalty for your descendants, for you are fighting his battles; and you will never do wrong throughout your entire life. ²⁹ Even when you are chased by those who seek your life, you are safe in the care of the Lord your God, just as though you were safe inside his purse! But the lives of your enemies shall disappear like stones from a sling! ^30-31 When the Lord has done all the good things he promised you and has made you king of Israel, you won’t want the conscience of a murderer who took the law into his own hands! And when the Lord has done these great things for you, please remember me!”

³² David replied to Abigail, “Bless the Lord God of Israel who has sent you to meet me today! ³³ Thank God for your good sense! Bless you for keeping me from murdering the man and carrying out vengeance with my own hands. ³⁴ For I swear by the Lord, the God of Israel who has kept me from hurting you, that if you had not come out to meet me, not one of Nabal’s men would be alive tomorrow morning.”

³⁵ Then David accepted her gifts and told her to return home without fear, for he would not kill her husband. ³⁶ When she arrived home she found that Nabal had thrown a big party. He was roaring drunk, so she didn’t tell him anything about her meeting with David until the next morning. ^37-38 By that time he was sober, and when his wife told him what had happened, he had a stroke and lay paralyzed^[a] for about ten days, then died, for the Lord killed him.

³⁹ When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Praise the Lord! God has paid back Nabal and kept me from doing it myself; he has received his punishment for his sin.”

Then David wasted no time in sending messengers to Abigail to ask her to become his wife. ⁴⁰ When the messengers arrived at Carmel and told her why they had come, ⁴¹ she readily agreed to his request. ⁴² Quickly getting ready, she took along five of her serving girls as attendants, mounted her donkey, and followed the men back to David. So she became his wife.

⁴³ David also married Ahinoam from Jezreel. ⁴⁴ King Saul, meanwhile, had forced David’s wife Michal, Saul’s daughter, to marry a man from Gallim named Palti (the son of Laish).

26 Now the men from Ziph came back to Saul at Gibeah to tell him that David had returned to the wilderness and was hiding on Hachilah Hill. ² So Saul took his elite corps of three thousand troops and went to hunt him down. ^3-4 Saul camped along the road at the edge of the wilderness where David was hiding, but David knew of Saul’s arrival and sent out spies to watch his movements.

^5-7 David slipped over to Saul’s camp one night to look around. King Saul and General Abner were sleeping inside a ring formed by the slumbering soldiers.

“Any volunteers to go down there with me?” David asked Ahimelech (the Hittite) and Abishai (Joab’s brother and the son of Zeruiah).

“I’ll go with you,” Abishai replied. So David and Abishai went to Saul’s camp and found him asleep, with his spear in the ground beside his head.

⁸ “God has put your enemy within your power this time for sure,” Abishai whispered to David. “Let me go and put that spear through him. I’ll pin him to the earth with it—I’ll not need to strike a second time!”

⁹ “No,” David said. “Don’t kill him, for who can remain innocent after attacking the Lord’s chosen king? ¹⁰ Surely God will strike him down some day, or he will die in battle or of old age. ¹¹ But God forbid that I should kill the man he has chosen to be king! But I’ll tell you what—we’ll take his spear and his jug of water and then get out of here!”

¹² So David took the spear and jug of water, and they got away without anyone seeing them or even waking up, because the Lord had put them sound asleep. ¹³ They climbed the mountain slope opposite the camp until they were at a safe distance.

¹⁴ Then David shouted down to Abner and Saul, “Wake up, Abner!”

“Who is it?” Abner demanded.

¹⁵ “Well, Abner, you’re a great fellow, aren’t you?” David taunted. “Where in all Israel is there anyone as wonderful? So why haven’t you guarded your master the king when someone came to kill him? ¹⁶ This isn’t good at all! I swear by the Lord that you ought to die for your carelessness. Where is the king’s spear and the jug of water that was beside his head? Look and see!”

^17-18 Saul recognized David’s voice and said, “Is that you, my son David?”

And David replied, “Yes, sir, it is. Why are you chasing me? What have I done? What is my crime? ¹⁹ If the Lord has stirred you up against me, then let him accept my peace offering. But if this is simply the scheme of a man, then may he be cursed by God. For you have driven me out of my home so that I can’t be with the Lord’s people, and you have sent me away to worship heathen gods. ²⁰ Must I die on foreign soil, far from the presence of Jehovah? Why should the king of Israel come out to hunt my life like a partridge on the mountains?”

²¹ Then Saul confessed, “I have done wrong. Come back home, my son, and I’ll no longer try to harm you; for you saved my life today. I have been a fool, and very, very wrong.”

²² “Here is your spear, sir,” David replied. “Let one of your young men come over and get it. ²³ The Lord gives his own reward for doing good and for being loyal, and I refused to kill you even when the Lord placed you in my power. ²⁴ Now may the Lord save my life, even as I have saved yours today. May he rescue me from all my troubles.”

²⁵ And Saul said to David, “Blessings on you, my son David. You shall do heroic deeds and be a great conqueror.”

Then David went away and Saul returned home.

27 But David kept thinking to himself, “Someday Saul is going to get me. I’ll try my luck among the Philistines until Saul gives up and quits hunting for me; then I will finally be safe again.”

^2-3 So David took his six hundred men and their families to live at Gath under the protection of King Achish. He had his two wives with him—Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail of Carmel, Nabal’s widow. ⁴ Word soon reached Saul that David had fled to Gath, so he quit hunting for him.

⁵ One day David said to Achish, “My lord, if it is all right with you, we would rather live in one of the country towns instead of here in the royal city.”

⁶ So Achish gave him Ziklag (which still belongs to the kings of Judah to this day), ⁷ and they lived there among the Philistines for a year and four months. ⁸ He and his men spent their time raiding the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites—people who had lived near Shur along the road to Egypt ever since ancient times. ⁹ They didn’t leave one person alive in the villages they hit and took for themselves the sheep, oxen, donkeys, camels, and clothing before returning to their homes.

¹⁰ “Where did you make your raid today?” Achish would ask.

And David would reply, “Against the south of Judah and the people of Jerahmeel and the Kenites.”

¹¹ No one was left alive to come to Gath and tell where he had really been. This happened again and again while he was living among the Philistines. ¹² Achish believed David and thought that the people of Israel must hate him bitterly by now. “Now he will have to stay here and serve me forever!” the king thought.