So they told David saying, Look, the Philistines are fighting against Kila, and they are robbing the threshing floors. Therefore David inquired to the Lord saying, Shall I go and attack these Philistines? And the Lord said to David, Go and attack the Philistines and save Kila. But David's men said to him, Look, we're afraid here in Judah.
How much more than if we go to Kila against the armies of the Philistines? Then David inquired to the Lord once again, and the Lord answered him and said, Arise, go down to Kila, for I will deliver the Philistines into your hands. And David and his men went to Kila and fought with the Philistines, struck him with a mighty blow and took away their livestock. So David saved it and happened to Kila.
Now it happened when a bithar that sounded like a hen of a hen of a hannah fled to David at Kila, but he went down with an e-phod in his hand, and Saul was told that David had gone to Kila. So Saul said, God has delivered him into my hand, for he has shut himself in by entering a town that has gates and bars. Then Saul called all the people together for war to go down to Kila to besiege David and his men. When David knew that Saul plotted evil against him, he said to a bithar to the priest, Ring the e-phod here.
Then David said, Oh Lord God of Israel, your servant has certainly heard that Saul seeks to come to Kila to destroy the city for my sake. Will the men of Kila deliver me into his hand? Will Saul come down as your servant is heard? Oh Lord God of Israel, I pray, tell your servant.
And the Lord said, He will come down. Then David said, Will the men of Kila deliver me and my men into the hand of Saul? And the Lord said, They will deliver you. So David and his men, about 600, arose into part from Kila and went wherever they could go.
Then it was told Saul that David had escaped from Kila, so he halted the expedition. And David staying strong holds in the wilderness and remained in the mountains in the wilderness of Zif. Saul saw him every day, but God did not deliver him into his hand. So David saw that Saul had come out to seek his life.
And David was in the wilderness of Zif in a forest. Then Jonathan, Saul's son, arose and went to David in the woods and strengthened his hand in God. And he said to him, Do not fear, for the hand of Saul my father shall not find you. You shall be king over Israel and I shall be next to you.
Even my father Saul knows that. So the two of them made a covenant before the Lord, and David stayed in the woods, and Jonathan went to his own house. Then the Zif fights came up to Saul that gave you a saying, Is David not hiding with us in strong holds in the woods, in the hill of Hakela, which is on the south of Jeshimamam? Now therefore, O King, come down according to all the desire of your soul to come down, and our part shall be to deliver him into the King's hand.
And Saul said, Blessed are you of the Lord, for you have compassion on me. Please go and find out for sure and see the place where his hideout is, and who was seen in there. And when Saul told him he is very crafty. See therefore and take knowledge of all the lurking places where he hides, and come back to me with certainty, and I will go with you.
And it shall be, if he is in the land, that I will search for him throughout all the clans of Judah. So they arose and went to Zif before Saul, but David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon, in the plain of the south of Jeshimam. When Saul and his men went to seek him, they told David. Therefore, he went down to the rock, and stayed in the wilderness of Maon.
And when Saul heard that, he pursued David in the wilderness of Maon. Then Saul went on one side of the mountain, and David and his men on the other side of the mountain. So David made haste to get away from Saul, for Saul and his men went circling David, and his men to take them. But a messenger came to Saul, saying, Hurry and come, for the Philistines have invaded the land.
Therefore, Saul returned from pursuing David and went against the Philistines, so they called that place, the rock of escape. Then David went up from there, and dwelt in strongholds at En Gedi. Now it happened when Saul had returned from following the Philistines, that it was told him saying, Take note, David is in the wilderness of En Gedi. Then Saul took three thousand chosen men from all Israel, and went to seek David and his men on the rocks of the wild goats.
So he came to the sheep, pulled by the road, where there was a cave, and Saul went in to attend to his needs. David and his men were staying in the recesses of the cave. In the men of David said to him, This is the day of which the Lord has said to you, Behold, I will deliver your enemy into your hand, that you may do to him as it seems good to you. David arose and secretly cut off a corner of Saul's robe.
Now it happened afterward that David's heart troubled him because he had cut Saul's robe. Then he said to his men, The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my master, the Lord's anointed. To stretch out my hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the Lord. So David restrained his servants with these words, and did not allow them to rise against Saul, and Saul got out from the cave and went on his way.
David also arose afterward, went out of the cave and called out to Saul, saying, My Lord the King, and when Saul looked behind him, David stooped with the space to the earth, and bowed down. David said to Saul, Why do you listen to the words of men who say, Indeed David seeks your harm? Look, this day your eyes have seen that the Lord delivered you today into my hand in the cave, and someone urged me to kill you, but my eyes spared you, and I said, I will not stretch out my hand against my Lord, for he is the Lord's anointed. Moreover my Father, see?
Yes, see the corner of your robe in my hand. For in that I cut off the corner of your robe and did not kill you. Know and see that there is neither evil nor rebellion in my hand, and I have not sinned against you. Yet you hunt my life to take it.
Let the Lord judge between you and me, and let the Lord avenge me on you, but my hand shall not be against you. As the proverb of the ancient says, Wickedness proceeds from the wicked, but my hand shall not be against you. After whom has the king of Israel come out? whom do you pursue, a dead dog, a flea?
Therefore let the Lord be judged, and judged between you and me, and see and plead my case, and deliver me out of your hand. So what was when David had finished speaking these words to Saul that Saul said, Is this your voice, my son David? And Saul lifted up his voice and wept. Then he said to David, You are more righteous than I, for you have rewarded me with good, whereas I have rewarded you with evil.
And you have shown this day how you have dealt with me. For when the Lord delivered me into your hand, you did not kill me. For if a man finds his enemy, will he let him go away safely. Therefore, may the Lord reward you with good for what you have done to me this day.
And now I know indeed that you shall surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand. Therefore swear to me now by the Lord that you will not cut off my descendants after me, and that you will not destroy my name from my father's house. So David saw and saw went home, but David and his men went up to the stronghold. Then Samuel died, and all his lives gathered together and lamented for him, and buried him at his home in Raima, and David arose and went down to the wilderness apparent.
Now there was a man in Mayon whose business was in Carmel, and the man was very rich, he had 3,000 sheep and a thousand goats, and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel. The name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife, Abigail, and she was a woman of good understanding and beautiful appearance. But the man was harsh and evil in his doings. He was of the house of Caleb.
When David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep, David sent ten young men, and David sent to the young men, go up to Carmel, go to Nabal, and greet him in my name. And thus you shall say to him who lives in prosperity, peace be to you, peace to your house, and peace to all that you have. Now I have heard that you have shearers, your shepherds were with us, and we did not hurt them, nor was there anything missing from them all the while they were in Carmel. Ask your young men and they will tell you.
Therefore let my young men find favor in your eyes, for we come on a feast day. Please give whatever comes to your hand to your servants and to your son David. So when David's young men came, they spoke to Nabal according to all these words in the name of David and waited. Then Nabal answered David's servants and said, Who is David, and who is the son of Jesse?
There are many servants now and days who break away each one from his master. Shall I then take my bread and my meat that I have keeled for my shears and give it to men when I do not know where they are from? So David's young men turned on their heels and went back, and they came and told him all these words. Then David said to his men, Every man gird on his sword, so every man girded on his sword, David also girded on his sword, and about 400 men went with David and 200 stayed with the supplies.
Now, one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, saying, Look, David sent messages from the wilderness to greet our master, and he reviled them. But the men were very good to us, and we were not hurt, nor did we miss anything as long as we accompanied them when we were in the fields. They were a wall to us, most by night and day, all the time we were with them keeping the sheep. Now therefore, no one considered what you will do for harm is determined against our master, and against all his household, for he is such a scoundrel that one cannot speak to him.
Then Abigail made haste and took 200 loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five sheep already dressed, five seyas of roasted grain, 100 clusters of raisins, and 200 cakes of figs and loaded them on donkeys. And she said to her servants, Go on before me, see, I am coming after you, but she did not tell her husband Nabal. So it was as she rode on the donkey that she went down under cover of the hill, and they were David and his men coming down toward her, and she met them. Now David had said, Surely in vain I have protected all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed if all that belongs to him, and he has repaid me evil for good.
May God do so, and more also to the enemies of David if I leave one male of all who belong to him by morning light. Now, when Abigail saw David, she dismounted quickly from the donkey, fell on her face before David and bowed down to the ground, so she fell at his feet and said, On me, my Lord, on me, let this iniquity be. And please let your maidservant speak in your ears and hear the words of your maidservant. Please let not my Lord regard this scoundrel, Nabal, for as his name is, so he is.
Nabal is his name, and folly is with him. But I, your maidservant, did not see the young men of my Lord whom you sent. Now therefore my Lord, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, since the Lord has held you back from coming to bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hand. Now then, let your enemies and those who seek harm for my Lord be as Nabal.
And now this present, which your maidservant has brought to my Lord, let it be given to the young men who follow my Lord. Please forgive the trespass of your maidservant, for the Lord will certainly make for my Lord an enduring house because my Lord fights the battles of the Lord, and evil is not found in you throughout all your days. Yet a man has risen to pursue you and seek your life, but the life of my Lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living with the Lord your God, and the lives of your enemies he shall sling out as from the pocket of a sling. Then he shall come to pass when the Lord is done for my Lord according to all good that he has spoken concerning you and has appointed you ruler over Israel.
That this will be no grief to you nor offensive heart to my Lord, either that you have shed blood without cause or that my Lord has avenged himself, when the Lord has dealt with my Lord, then remember your maidservant. Then David said to Abigail, blessed is the Lord God of Israel who sent you this day to meet me. And blessed is your advice and blessed are you because you have kept me this day from coming to bloodshed and from avenging myself with my own hand. For indeed as the Lord God of Israel lives who has kept me back from hurting you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, surely by morning light no males would have been left to Nabal.
So David received from her hand what she had brought him and said to her, go up and peace to your house. See I have heeded your voice and respected your person. Now Abigail went to Nabal and there he was holding a feast in his house like the Feast of the King and Nabal's heart was married within him for he was very drunk. Therefore she told him nothing little or much until morning light.
So it wasn't a morning when the wine had gone from Nabal and his wife had told him these things that his heart died within him and he became like a stone. Then it happened after about ten days that the Lord struck Nabal and he died. So when David heard that Nabal was dead he said, blessed be the Lord who has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal and has kept his servant from evil. But the Lord has returned the wickedness of Nabal on his own head.
And David sent and proposed to Abigail to take her as his wife. When the servants of David had come to Abigail at Carmel they spoke to her saying, David sent us to you to ask you to become his wife. Then she arose, bowed her face to the earth and said, here is your maidservant, a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my Lord. Then Abigail rose and hastened and rode on a donkey, attended by five of her maidens and she followed the messengers of David and became his wife.
David also took I and Oum of Jezreel and so both of them were his wives. But Saul had given Michael his daughter, David's wife, to Paulty, the son of Lesh, who was from Galim.