CEB Common English Bible with Apocrypha - eBook [ePub]. Common English Bible

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David also went out of the cave and yelled after Saul, "My master the king!" Saul looked back, and David bowed low out of respect, nose to the ground.

      ⁹David said to Saul, "Why do you listen when people say, 'David wants to ruin you'?¹⁰Look! Today your own eyes have seen that the LORD handed you over to me in the cave. But I refused^e to kill you. I spared you, saying, 'I won't lift a hand against my master because he is the LORD's anointed.'¹¹Look here, my protector! See the corner of your robe in my hand? I cut off the corner of your robe but didn't kill you. So know now that I am not guilty of wrongdoing or rebellion. I haven't wronged you, but you are hunting me down, trying to kill me. ¹²May the LORD judge between me and you! May the LORD take vengeance on you for me, but I won't lift a hand against you. ¹³As the old proverb goes, 'Evil deeds come from evildoers!' but I won't lift a hand against you. ¹⁴So who is Israel's king coming after? Who are you chasing? A dead dog? A single flea?¹⁵May the LORD be the judge and decide between you and me. May he see what has happened, argue my case, and vindicate me against you!"

      ¹⁶As soon as David finished saying all this to Saul, Saul said, "David, my son, is that your voice?" Then he broke down in tears, ¹⁷telling David, "You are more righteous than I am because you have treated me generously, but I have treated you terribly. ¹⁸Today you've told me the good you have done for me--how the LORD handed me over to you, but how you didn't kill me. ¹⁹When someone finds an enemy, do they send the enemy away in peace? May the LORD repay you with good for what you have done for me today. ²⁰Now even I know that you will definitely become king, and Israel's kingdom will flourish in your hands. ²¹Because of that, make a solemn pledge to me by the LORD that you won't kill off my descendants after I'm gone and that you won't destroy my name from my family lineage."

      ²²David made a solemn pledge to Saul. Then Saul went back home, but David and his soldiers went up to the fortress.

Abigail saves David

      1Samuel 25Now Samuel died, and all Israel gathered to mourn for him. They buried him at his home in Ramah. David then left and went down to the Maon wilderness.^f

      ²There was a man in Maon who did business in Carmel. He was a very important man and owned three thousand sheep and one thousand goats. At that time, he was shearing his sheep in Carmel. ³The man's name was Nabal, and his wife's name was Abigail. She was an intelligent and attractive woman, but her husband was a hard man who did evil things. He was a Calebite.

      ⁴While in the wilderness, David heard that Nabal was shearing his sheep. ⁵So David sent ten servants, telling them, "Go up to Carmel. When you get to Nabal, greet him for me. ⁶Say this to him: 'Peace to you,^g your household, and all that is yours!⁷I've heard that you are now shearing sheep. As you know, your shepherds were with us in the wilderness.^h We didn't mistreat them. Moreover, the whole time they were at Carmel, nothing of theirs went missing. ⁸Ask your servants; they will tell you the same. So please receive these young men favorably, because we've come on a special day. Please give whatever you have on hand to your servants and to your son David.'"

      ⁹When David's young men arrived, they said all this to Nabal on David's behalf. Then they waited. ¹⁰But Nabal answered David's servants, "Who is David? Who is Jesse's son? There are all sorts of slaves running away from their masters these days. ¹¹Why should I take my bread, my water, and the meat I've butchered for my shearers and give it to people who came here from who knows where?"¹²So David's young servants turned around and went back the way they came. When they arrived, they reported every word of this to David.

      ¹³Then David said to his soldiers, "All of you, strap on your swords!" So each of them strapped on their swords, and David did the same. Nearly four hundred men went up with David. Two hundred men remained back with the supplies.

      ¹⁴One of Nabal's servants told his wife Abigail, "David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master, but he just yelled at them. ¹⁵But the men were very good to us and didn't mistreat us. Nothing of ours went missing the whole time we were out with them in the fields. ¹⁶In fact, the whole time we were with them, watching our sheep, they were a protective wall around us both night and day. ¹⁷Think about that and see what you can do, because trouble is coming for our master and his whole household. But he's such a despicable person no one can speak to him."

      ¹⁸Abigail quickly took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five sheep ready for cooking, five seahsⁱ of roasted grain, one hundred raisin cakes, and two hundred fig cakes. She loaded all this on donkeys ¹⁹and told her servants, "Go on ahead of me. I'll be right behind you." But she didn't tell her husband Nabal.

      ²⁰As she was riding her donkey, going down a trail on the hillside, David and his soldiers appeared, descending toward her, and she met up with them. ²¹David had just been saying, "What a waste of time--guarding all this man's stuff in the wilderness so that nothing of his went missing! He has repaid me evil instead of good!²²May God deal harshly with me, David,^j and worse still if I leave alive even one single one who urinates on a wall^k belonging to him come morning!"

      ²³When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her donkey and fell facedown before him, bowing low to the ground. ²⁴She fell at his feet and said, "Put the blame on me, my master! But please let me, your servant, speak to you directly. Please listen to what your servant has to say. ²⁵Please, my master, pay no attention to this despicable man Nabal. He's exactly what his name says he is! His name means fool,^l and he is foolish!^m But I myself, your servant, didn't see the young men that you, my master, sent. ²⁶I pledge, my master, as surely as the LORD lives and as you live, that the LORD has held you back from bloodshed and taking vengeance into your own hands! But now let your enemies and those who seek to harm my master be exactly like Nabal!²⁷Here is a gift, which your servant has brought to my master. Please let it be given to the young men who follow you, my master. ²⁸Please forgive any offense by your servant. The LORD will definitely make an enduring dynasty for my master because my master fights the LORD's battles, and nothing evil will be found in you throughout your lifetime. ²⁹If someone chases after you and tries to kill you, my master, then your life will be bound up securely in the bundle of lifeⁿ by the LORD your God, but he will fling away your enemies' lives as from the pouch of a sling. ³⁰When the LORD has done for my master all the good things he has promised you, and has installed you as Israel's leader,³¹don't let this be a blot or burden on my master's conscience, that you shed blood needlessly or that my master took vengeance into his own hands. When the LORD has done good things for my master, please remember your servant."

      ³²David said to Abigail, "Bless the LORD God of Israel, who sent you to meet me today!³³And bless you and your good judgment for preventing me from shedding blood and taking vengeance into my own hands today!³⁴Otherwise, as surely as the LORD God of Israel lives--the one who kept me from hurting you--if you hadn't come quickly and met up with me, there wouldn't be one single one who urinates on a wall left come morning."³⁵Then David accepted everything she had brought for him. "Return home in peace," he told her. "Be assured that I've heard your request and have agreed to it."

      ³⁶When Abigail got back home to Nabal, he was throwing a party fit for a king in his house. Nabal was in a great mood and very drunk, so Abigail didn't tell him anything until daybreak. ³⁷In the morning, when Nabal was sober, his wife told him everything. Nabal's heart failed inside him, and he became like a stone. ³⁸About ten days later, the LORD struck Nabal, and he died.

      ³⁹When David heard that Nabal was

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