1 Samuel 25-27New King James Version (NKJV)
Death of Samuel
25 Then Samuel died; and the
Israelites gathered together and lamented for him, and buried him at his home
in Ramah. And David arose and went down to the Wilderness of Paran.[a]
David and the Wife of Nabal
2 Now there was a man in Maon
whose business was in Carmel, and the man wasvery rich. He had three thousand
sheep and a thousand goats. And he was shearing his sheep in Carmel. 3 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 ofCaleb.
4 When David heard in the
wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep, 5 David sent ten young men; and
David said to the young men, “Go up to Carmel, go to Nabal, and greet him in my
name. 6 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!7 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. 8
Ask your young men, and they will tell you. Therefore let myyoung 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.’”
9 So when David’s young men came,
they spoke to Nabal according to all these words in the name of David, and
waited.
10 Then Nabal answered David’s
servants, and said, “Who is David, and who is the son of Jesse? There are many
servants nowadays who break away each one from his master. 11 Shall I then take
my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my shearers, and give
it to men when I do not know where they arefrom?”
12 So David’s young men turned on
their heels and went back; and they came and told him all these words. 13 Then
David said to his men, “Every man gird on his sword.” So every man girded on
his sword, and David also girded on his sword. And about four hundred men went
with David, and two hundred stayed with the supplies.
14 Now one of the young men told
Abigail, Nabal’s wife, saying, “Look, David sent messengers from the wilderness
to greet our master; and he reviled them. 15 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. 16 They were a wall to us both by night and day,
all the time we were with them keeping the sheep.17 Now therefore, know and
consider what you will do, for harm is determined against our master and
against all his household. For he is such a scoundrel[b] that one cannot speak to him.”
18 Then Abigail made haste and
took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five sheep already
dressed, five seahs of roasted grain, one hundred clusters of raisins, and two
hundred cakes of figs, and loaded them on donkeys. 19 And she said to her
servants, “Go on before me; see, I am coming after you.” But she did not tell
her husband Nabal.
20 So it was, as she rode on the
donkey, that she went down under cover of the hill; and there were David and
his men, coming down toward her, and she met them. 21 Now David had said,
“Surely in vain I have protected all that this fellowhas in the wilderness, so
that nothing was missed of all that belongs to him. And he has repaid me evil
for good. 22 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.”
23 Now when Abigail saw David, she
dismounted quickly from the donkey, fell on her face before David, and bowed
down to the ground. 24 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.25 Please, let not my lord regard this
scoundrel Nabal. For as his name is, so is he: Nabal[c] is his name, and folly is with him! But I, your
maidservant, did not see the young men of my lord whom you sent. 26 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. 27 And now this present which your maidservant has brought to my lord,
let it be given to the young men who follow my lord. 28 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 your days.29 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. 30 And it shall come to pass, when the Lord has
done 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 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 maidservant.”
32 Then David said to Abigail:
“Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me! 33 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. 34 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!” 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 heeded
your voice and respected your person.”
36 Now Abigail went to Nabal, and
there he was, holding a feast 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, little or much, until morning light. 37 So it was, in the 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. 38 Then it happened,
after about ten days, that the Lord struck Nabal, and he died.
39 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! For 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. 40 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.”
41 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.” 42 So Abigail rose in haste and rode on a donkey,
attended by five of her maidens; and she followed the messengers of David, and
became his wife. 43 David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel, and so both of them
were his wives.
44 But Saul had given Michal his
daughter, David’s wife, to Palti[d] the son of Laish, who was from Gallim.
David Spares Saul a Second Time
26 Now the Ziphites came to Saul
at Gibeah, saying, “Is David not hiding in the hill of Hachilah, opposite
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 encamped in the hill of Hachilah, which is opposite
Jeshimon, by the road. But David stayed in the wilderness, and he saw that Saul
came after him into the wilderness. 4 David therefore sent out spies, and
understood that Saul had indeed come.
5 So David arose and came to the
place where Saul had encamped. And David saw the place where Saul lay, and
Abner the son of Ner, the commander of his army. Now Saul lay within the camp,
with the people encamped all around him.6 Then David answered, and said to
Ahimelech the Hittite and to Abishai the son of Zeruiah, brother of Joab,
saying, “Who will go down with me to Saul in the camp?”
And Abishai said, “I will go down
with you.”
7 So David and Abishai came to the
people by night; and there Saul lay sleeping within the camp, with his spear
stuck in the ground by his head. And Abner and the people lay all around him. 8
Then Abishai said to David, “God has delivered your enemy into your hand this
day. Now therefore, please, let me strike him at once with the spear, right to
the earth; and I will not have to strike him a second time!”
9 But David said to Abishai, “Do
not destroy him; for who can stretch out his hand against the Lord’s anointed,
and be guiltless?” 10 David said furthermore, “As the Lord lives, the Lord
shall strike him, or his day shall come to die, or he shall go out to battle
and perish. 11 The Lord forbid that I should stretch out my hand against the
Lord’s anointed. But please, take now the spear and the jug of water that areby
his head, and let us go.” 12 So David took the spear and the jug of water
bySaul’s head, and they got away; and no man saw or knew it or awoke. For they
were all asleep, because a deep sleep from the Lord had fallen on them.
13 Now David went over to the
other side, and stood on the top of a hill afar off, a great distance being
between them. 14 And David called out to the people and to Abner the son of
Ner, saying, “Do you not answer, Abner?”
Then Abner answered and said, “Who
are you, calling out to the king?”
15 So David said to Abner, “Are
you not a man? And who is like you in Israel? Why then have you not guarded
your lord the king? For one of the people came in to destroy your lord the
king. 16 This thing that you have done is not good. As the Lord lives, you
deserve to die, because you have not guarded your master, the Lord’s anointed.
And now see where the king’s spear is, and the jug of water that was by his
head.”
17 Then Saul knew David’s voice,
and said, “Is that your voice, my son David?”
David said, “It is my voice, my
lord, O king.” 18 And he said, “Why does my lord thus pursue his servant? For
what have I done, or what evil is in my hand? 19 Now therefore, please, let my
lord the king hear the words of his servant: If the Lord has stirred you up
against me, let Him accept an offering. But if it is the children of men, may
they be cursed before the Lord, for they have driven me out this day from
sharing in the inheritance of the Lord, saying, ‘Go, serve other gods.’ 20 So
now, do not let my blood fall to the earth before the face of the Lord. For the
king of Israel has 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 harm you no more, because my life was precious
in your eyes this day. Indeed I have played the fool and erred exceedingly.”
22 And David answered and said,
“Here is the king’s spear. Let one of the young men come over and get it. 23 May
the Lord repay every man for his righteousness and his faithfulness; for the
Lord delivered you into my hand today, but I would not stretch out my hand
against the Lord’s anointed. 24 And indeed, as your life was valued much this
day in my eyes, so let my life be valued much in the eyes of the Lord, and let
Him deliver me out of all tribulation.”
25 Then Saul said to David, “May
you be blessed, my son David! You shall both do great things and also still
prevail.”
So David went on his way, and Saul
returned to his place.
David Allied with the Philistines
27 And David said in his heart,
“Now I shall perish someday by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me
than that I should speedily escape to the land of the Philistines; and Saul
will despair of me, to seek me anymore in any part of Israel. So I shall escape
out of his hand.” 2 Then David arose and went over with the six hundred men who
were with him to Achish the son of Maoch, king of Gath. 3 So David dwelt with
Achish at Gath, he and his men, each man with his household, and David with his
two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the Carmelitess, Nabal’s
widow. 4 And it was told Saul that David had fled to Gath; so he sought him no
more.
5 Then David said to Achish, “If I
have now found favor in your eyes, let them give me a place in some town in the
country, that I may dwell there. For why should your servant dwell in the royal
city with you?” 6 So Achish gave him Ziklag that day. Therefore Ziklag has
belonged to the kings of Judah to this day. 7 Now the time that David dwelt in
the country of the Philistines was one full year and four months.
8 And David and his men went up
and raided the Geshurites, the Girzites,[e] and the Amalekites. For those nations were the
inhabitants of the land from of old, as you go to Shur, even as far as the land
of Egypt. 9 Whenever David attacked the land, he left neither man nor woman
alive, but took away the sheep, the oxen, the donkeys, the camels, and the
apparel, and returned and came to Achish. 10 Then Achish would say, “Where have
you made a raid today?” And David would say, “Against the southern area of
Judah, or against the southern area of the Jerahmeelites, or against the
southern area of the Kenites.” 11 David would save neither man nor woman alive,
to bring news to Gath, saying, “Lest they should inform on us, saying, ‘Thus
David did.’” And thus was his behavior all the time he dwelt in the country of
the Philistines. 12 So Achish believed David, saying, “He has made his people
Israel utterly abhor him; therefore he will be my servant forever.”
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