The First Book of Samuel, starting at chapter 25
{25:1} Samuel died; and all Israel gathered themselves together, and
lamented him, and buried him in his house at Ramah. David arose, and
went down to the wilderness of Paran. {25:2} There was a man in Maon,
whose possessions were in Carmel; and the man was very great, and he
had three thousand sheep, and a thousand goats: and he was shearing
his sheep in Carmel. {25:3} Now the name of the man was Nabal; and the
name of his wife Abigail; and the woman was of good understanding, and
of a beautiful face: but the man was churlish and evil in his doings;
and he was of the house of Caleb. {25:4} David heard in the wilderness
that Nabal was shearing his sheep. {25:5} David sent ten young men,
and David said to the young men, "Go up to Carmel, and go to Nabal,
and greet him in my name. {25:6} You shall tell him, 'Long life to
you! Peace be to you, and peace be to your house, and peace be to all
that you have. {25:7} Now I have heard that you have shearers. Your
shepherds have now been with us, and we didn't hurt them, neither was
there anything missing from them, all the while they were in Carmel.
{25:8} Ask your young men, and they will tell you. Therefore, let the
young men find favor in your eyes; for we come in a good day. Please
give whatever comes to your hand, to your servants, and to your son
David.'"
{25:9} When David's young men came, they spoke to Nabal according to
all those words in the name of David, and ceased.
{25:10} Nabal answered David's servants, and said, "Who is David?
Who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants who break away from
their masters these days. {25:11} Shall I then take my bread, and my
water, and my meat that I have killed for my shearers, and give it to
men who I don't know where they come from?"
{25:12} So David's young men turned on their way, and went back, and
came and told him according to all these words. {25:13} David said to
his men, "Every man put on his sword!"
Every man put on his sword. David also put on his sword. About four
hundred men followed David; and two hundred stayed by the baggage.
{25:14} But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, saying,
"Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to Greet our
master; and he railed at them. {25:15} But the men were very good to
us, and we were not hurt, neither missed we anything, as long as we
went with them, when we were in the fields. {25:16} They were a wall
to us both by night and by day, all the while we were with them
keeping the sheep. {25:17} Now therefore know and consider what you
will do; for evil is determined against our master, and against all
his house; for he is such a worthless fellow that one can't speak to
him."
{25:18} Then Abigail hurried and took two hundred loaves of bread,
two bottles of wine, five sheep ready dressed, five measures of
parched grain, one hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes
of figs, and laid them on donkeys. {25:19} She said to her young men,
"Go on before me. Behold, I come after you." But she didn't tell her
husband, Nabal. {25:20} It was so, as she rode on her donkey, and came
down by the covert of the mountain, that behold, David and his men
came down toward her; and she met them.
{25:21} Now David had said, "Surely in vain have I kept all that
this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all
that pertained to him. He has returned me evil for good. {25:22} God
do so to the enemies of David, and more also, if I leave of all that
belongs to him by the morning light so much as one [1>]who urinates on
a wall.[<1]"
{25:23} When Abigail saw David, she hurried, and alighted from her
donkey, and fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the
ground. {25:24} She fell at his feet, and said, "On me, my lord, on me
be the iniquity; and please let your handmaid speak in your ears. Hear
the words of your handmaid. {25:25} Please don't let my lord regard
this worthless fellow, even Nabal; for as his name is, so is he. Nabal
is his name, and folly is with him; but I, your handmaid, didn't see
the young men of my lord, whom you sent. {25:26} Now therefore, my
lord, as the LORD lives, and as your soul lives, since the LORD has
withheld you from blood guiltiness, and from avenging yourself with
your own hand, now therefore let your enemies, and those who seek evil
to my lord, be as Nabal. {25:27} Now this present which your servant
has brought to my lord, let it be given to the young men who follow my
lord. {25:28} Please forgive the trespass of your handmaid. For the
LORD will certainly make my lord a sure house, because my lord fights
the battles of the LORD; and evil shall not be found in you all your
days. {25:29} Though men may rise up to pursue you, and to seek your
soul, yet the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life
with the LORD your God. He will sling out the souls of your enemies,
as from the hollow of a sling. {25:30} It shall come to pass, when the
LORD has done to my lord according to all the good that he has spoken
concerning you, and shall have appointed you prince over Israel,
{25:31} that this shall 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. When the LORD has dealt well with my lord, then
remember your handmaid."
{25:32} David said to Abigail, "Blessed is the LORD, the God of
Israel, who sent you this day to meet me! {25:33} Blessed is your
discretion, and blessed are you, that have kept me this day from blood
guiltiness, and from avenging myself with my own hand. {25:34} For
indeed, as the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, who has withheld me
from hurting you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, surely
there wouldn't have been left to Nabal by the morning light so much as
one [2>]who urinates on a wall.[<2]"
{25:35} So David received of her hand that which she had brought
him: and he said to her, "Go up in peace to your house. Behold, I have
listened to your voice, and have granted your request."
{25:36} Abigail came to Nabal; and behold, he held a feast in his
house, like the feast of a king. Nabal's heart was merry within him,
for he was very drunken. Therefore she told him nothing, less or more,
until the morning light. {25:37} It happened in the morning, when the
wine was gone out of Nabal, that his wife told him these things, and
his heart died within him, and he became as a stone. {25:38} It
happened about ten days after, that the LORD struck Nabal, so that he
died. {25:39} When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, "Blessed
is the LORD, who has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of
Nabal, and has kept back his servant from evil. The LORD has returned
the evildoing of Nabal on his own head." David sent and spoke
concerning Abigail, to take her to him as wife. {25:40} When the
servants of David had come to Abigail to Carmel, they spoke to her,
saying, "David has sent us to you, to take you to him as wife."
{25:41} She arose, and bowed herself with her face to the earth, and
said, "Behold, your handmaid is a servant to wash the feet of the
servants of my lord." {25:42} Abigail hurried, and arose, and rode on
a donkey, with five ladies of hers who followed her; and she went
after the messengers of David, and became his wife. {25:43} David also
took Ahinoam of Jezreel; and they both became his wives. {25:44} Now
Saul had given Michal his daughter, David's wife, to Palti the son of
Laish, who was of Gallim.
{26:1} The Ziphites came to Saul to Gibeah, saying, "Doesn't David
hide himself in the hill of Hachilah, which is before the desert?"
{26:2} 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. {26:3} Saul encamped in the hill of Hachilah,
which is before the desert, by the way. But David stayed in the
wilderness, and he saw that Saul came after him into the wilderness.
{26:4} David therefore sent out spies, and understood that Saul had
certainly come. {26:5} 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 captain of his army: and Saul lay within the place of
the wagons, and the people were encamped around him. {26:6} Then
answered David and said to Ahimelech the Hittite, and to Abishai the
son of Zeruiah, brother to Joab, saying, "Who will go down with me to
Saul to the camp?"
Abishai said, "I will go down with you." {26:7} So David and Abishai
came to the people by night: and, behold, Saul lay sleeping within the
place of the wagons, with his spear stuck in the ground at his head;
and Abner and the people lay around him. {26:8} Then Abishai said to
David, "God has delivered up your enemy into your hand this day. Now
therefore please let me strike him with the spear to the earth at one
stroke, and I will not strike him the second time."
{26:9} David said to Abishai, "Don't destroy him; for who can put
forth his hand against the LORD's anointed, and be guiltless?" {26:10}
David said, "As the LORD lives, the LORD will strike him; or his day
shall come to die; or he shall go down into battle and perish. {26:11}
The LORD forbid that I should put forth my hand against the LORD's
anointed; but now please take the spear that is at his head, and the
jar of water, and let us go."
{26:12} So David took the spear and the jar of water from Saul's
head; and they went away: and no man saw it, nor knew it, neither did
any awake; for they were all asleep, because a deep sleep from the
LORD was fallen on them. {26:13} Then David went over to the other
side, and stood on the top of the mountain afar off; a great space
being between them; {26:14} and David cried to the people, and to
Abner the son of Ner, saying, "Don't you answer, Abner?"
Then Abner answered, "Who are you who cries to the king?"
{26:15} David said to Abner, "Aren't you a man? Who is like you in
Israel? Why then have you not kept watch over your lord, the king? For
one of the people came in to destroy the king your lord. {26:16} This
thing isn't good that you have done. As the LORD lives, you are worthy
to die, because you have not kept watch over your lord, the LORD's
anointed. Now see where the king's spear is, and the jar of water that
was at his head."
{26:17} Saul knew David's voice, and said, "Is this your voice, my
son David?"
David said, "It is my voice, my lord, O king." {26:18} He said, "Why
does my lord pursue after his servant? For what have I done? Or what
evil is in my hand? {26:19} Now therefore, please let my lord the king
hear the words of his servant. If it is so that the LORD has stirred
you up against me, let him accept an offering. But if it is the
children of men, they are cursed before the LORD; for they have driven
me out this day that I shouldn't cling to the LORD's inheritance,
saying, 'Go, serve other gods!' {26:20} Now therefore, don't let my
blood fall to the earth away from the presence of the LORD; for the
king of Israel has come out to seek a flea, as when one hunts a
partridge in the mountains."
{26:21} Then Saul said, "I have sinned. Return, my son David; for I
will no more do you harm, because my life was precious in your eyes
this day. Behold, I have played the fool, and have erred exceedingly."
{26:22} David answered, "Behold the spear, O king! Then let one of
the young men come over and get it. {26:23} The LORD will render to
every man his righteousness and his faithfulness; because the LORD
delivered you into my hand today, and I wouldn't put forth my hand
against the LORD's anointed. {26:24} Behold, as your life was
respected this day in my eyes, so let my life be respected in the eyes
of the LORD, and let him deliver me out of all oppression."
{26:25} Then Saul said to David, "You are blessed, my son David. You
shall both do mightily, and shall surely prevail." So David went his
way, and Saul returned to his place.
{27:1} David said in his heart, "I shall now perish one day by the
hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should escape
into the land of the Philistines; and Saul will despair of me, to seek
me any more in all the borders of Israel. So shall I escape out of his
hand." {27:2} David arose, and passed over, he and the six hundred men
who were with him, to Achish the son of Maoch, king of Gath. {27:3}
David lived with Achish at Gath, he and his men, every man with his
household, even David with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess,
and Abigail the Carmelitess, Nabal's wife. {27:4} It was told Saul
that David was fled to Gath: and he sought no more again for him.
{27:5} David said to Achish, "If now I have found favor in your eyes,
let them give me a place in one of the cities in the country, that I
may dwell there. For why should your servant dwell in the royal city
with you?" {27:6} Then Achish gave him Ziklag that day: why Ziklag
pertains to the kings of Judah to this day. {27:7} The number of the
days that David lived in the country of the Philistines was a full
year and four months. {27:8} David and his men went up, and made a
raid on the Geshurites, and the Girzites, and the Amalekites; for
those were the inhabitants of the land, who were of old, as you go to
Shur, even to the land of Egypt. {27:9} David struck the land, and
saved neither man nor woman alive, and took away the sheep, and the
cattle, and the donkeys, and the camels, and the clothing; and he
returned, and came to Achish. {27:10} Achish said, "Against whom have
you made a raid today?"
David said, "Against the South of Judah, against the South of the
Jerahmeelites, and against the South of the Kenites." {27:11} David
saved neither man nor woman alive, to bring them to Gath, saying,
"Lest they should tell of us, saying, 'David this, and this has been
his way all the time he has lived in the country of the Philistines.'"
{27:12} Achish believed David, saying, "He has made his people
Israel utterly to abhor him. Therefore he shall be my servant forever."
________________________________________________________________________
Footnotes:
[1] {25:22} or, male.
[2] {25:34} or, male.
________________________________________________________________________
The World English Bible: Messianic Edition is in the Public Domain.
This translation is also known as the Hebrew Names Version. "World
English Bible," "World English Bible: Messianic Edition," and "World
English Bible" are trademarks of Rainbow Missions, Inc., and may only
be used as names for the Bible translations so named and distributed by
Rainbow Missions, Inc., and faithful copies thereof. Typo reports are
welcome at http://eBible.org/cgi-bin/comment.cgi. Please see
http://HNVBible.org for updates.
_______________________________________________
This message came to you through the HNV mailing list at your request.
You are subscribed as [EMAIL PROTECTED]
You may unsubscribe or change your address at:
http://lists.ebible.org/mailman/listinfo/hnv
Sender:
RAINBOW MISSIONS
PO BOX 716
BUENA VISTA CO 81211-0716
USA
http://RainbowMissions.org
