![CEB Common English Bible with Apocrypha - eBook [ePub] - Common English Bible](/cover_715844.jpg "CEB Common English Bible with Apocrypha - eBook [ePub] - Common English Bible")
he said, "Bless the LORD, who has rendered a verdict regarding Nabal's insult to me and who kept me, his servant, from doing something evil! The LORD has brought Nabal's evil down on his own head." Then David sent word to Abigail, saying that he would take her as his wife.
40When David's servants reached Abigail at Carmel, they said to her, "David has sent us to you so you can become his wife."
41She bowed low to the ground and said, "I am your servant, ready to serve and wash the feet of my master's helpers."42Then Abigail got up quickly and rode on her donkey, with five of her young women going with her. She followed David's messengers and became his wife.
43David also married Ahinoam from Jezreel, so both of them were his wives. 44But Saul had given his daughter Michal, David's wife, to Palti, Laish's son, from Gallim.
David spares Saul's life a second time
1Samuel 26The Ziphites came to Saul at Gibeah. "David is hiding on Hachilah's hill, which faces Jeshimon," they said. 2So Saul got up and went down to the Ziph wilderness to look for David there. He had three thousand handpicked soldiers from Israel with him. 3Saul camped on Hachilah's hill opposite Jeshimon beside the road, but David stayed in the wilderness. When David learned that Saul had come after him into the wilderness, 4he sent spies and discovered that Saul had definitely arrived.
5So David got up and went to the place where Saul camped, and saw the place where Saul and Abner, Ner's son and Saul's general, were sleeping. Saul was sleeping inside the camp with the troops camped all around him. 6David asked Ahimelech the Hittite and Joab's brother Abishai, Zeruiah's son, "Who will go down into the camp with me to Saul?"
"I'll go down with you," Abishai answered.
7So David and Abishai approached the troops at night and found Saul lying there, asleep in the camp, with his spear stuck in the ground by his head. Abner and the army were sleeping all around him.
8Abishai said to David, "God has handed your enemy over to you today! Let me pin him to the ground with my spear. One stroke is all I need! I won't need a second."
9But David said to Abishai, "Don't kill him! No one can lift a hand against the LORD's anointed and go unpunished. 10As surely as the LORD lives," David continued, "it will be the LORD who will strike him down, or his day will come and he will die, or he'll fall in battle and be destroyed. 11The LORD forbid that I lift my hand against the LORD's anointed! But go ahead and take the spear by Saul's head and the water jug and let's go!"12So David took the spear and the water jug that were by Saul's head, and he and Abishai left. No one saw them, no one knew they were there, and no one woke up. All of them remained asleep because a deep sleep from the LORD had come over them.
13David crossed over to the other side and stood on top of a hill with considerable distance between them. 14Then David shouted to the army and to Abner, Ner's son, "Abner! Aren't you going to answer me?"
"Who are you to shout to the king?" Abner asked.
15David answered Abner, "You are a man, aren't you? And you have no equal in Israel, right? Then why haven't you kept watch over your master the king? One of the soldiers came to kill your master the king. 16What you've done is terrible! As surely as the LORD lives, all of you are dead men because you didn't keep close watch over your master, the LORD's anointed. Have a look around! Where are the king's spear and the water jug that were by his head?"
17Saul recognized David's voice and said, "David, my son, is that your voice?"
David said, "Yes it is, my master the king. 18Why," David continued, "is my master chasing me, his servant? What have I done and what wrong am I guilty of?19My master the king, please listen to what your servant has to say. If it is the LORD who has incited you against me, then let him accept an offering! But if human beings have done it, then let them be cursed before the LORD because they have now driven me off, keeping me from sharing in the LORD's inheritance. 'Go!' they tell me. 'Worship other gods!'20Don't let my blood spill on the ground apart from the LORD's presence, because the king of Israel has come out looking for a single fleao like someone hunting a partridgep in the mountains."
21Then Saul said, "I have sinned! David, my son, come back! Because you considered my life precious today, I won't harm you again. I have acted foolishly and have made a huge mistake."
22"Here is the king's spear," David answered. "Allow one of your servants to come over and get it. 23Remember: The LORD rewards every person for their righteousness and loyalty, and I wasn't willing to lift a hand against the LORD's anointed, even though the LORD handed you over to me today. 24And just as I considered your life valuable today, may the LORD consider my life valuable, and may he deliver me from all trouble."
25Then Saul said to David, "Bless you, David, my son! You will accomplish much and will certainly succeed." Then David went on his way, but Saul went back home.
David serves the Philistine Achish
1Samuel 27David thought, One day I will be destroyed by Saul's power. The best thing for me to do is to escape to Philistine territory. Then Saul will give up looking for me in Israelite territory, and I will escape his power. 2So David set out with his six hundred soldiers and went to Achish, Maoch's son and Gath's king. 3David and his soldiers stayed there at Gath with Achish. Each man had his family with him, and David had his two wives, Ahinoam from Jezreel and Abigail, Nabal's widow from Carmel. 4When Saul was told that David had fled to Gath, he didn't pursue him anymore.
5Then David said to Achish, "If you approve of me, please give me a place in one of the towns in the country so I can live there. Why should I, your servant, live in the capital city with you?"6So Achish gave the town of Ziklag to David at that time. That's why Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah until now. 7David lived in the Philistine countryside for a total of one year and four months.
8David and his soldiers went out on raids against the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites. They were the people who lived in the land from Telamq to Shur all the way to the land of Egypt. 9When David attacked an area, he wouldn't leave anyone alive, man or woman. He would take the sheep, the cattle, the donkeys, the camels, and the clothes and would then go back to Achish. 10When Achish asked, "Where did you raid today?"r David would say, "The southern plain of Judah," or "The southern plain of the Jerahmeelites," or "The southern plain of the Kenites."11David never spared a man or woman so they could be brought back alive to Gath. "Otherwise," he said, "they might talk about us, and say, 'David did this or that.'" So this was David's practice during the entire time he lived in the Philistine countryside.
12Achish trusted David, thinking, David has alienated himself so badly from his own people in Israel that he'll serve me forever.
1Samuel 28At that time, the Philistines gathered their troops for war to fight against Israel. Achish said to David, "Count on you and your soldiers marching out with me in the army."
2"Excellent," David answered Achish. "Now you'll see for yourself what your servant can do."
"Excellent," Achish replied. "I will make you my permanent bodyguard."
Saul
