1 Samuel 25-26New 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 was very
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 of Caleb.
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 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.’”
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 are from?”
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 fellow has
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 are by his head,
and let us go.” 12 So David took the spear and the
jug of water by Saul’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.
