David

Then David too got up and went outside the cave, where he called after Sha'ul, "My lord the king!" When Sha'ul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the ground and prostrated himself.

David said to Sha'ul, "Why do you listen to people who say, 'David is out to harm you?'

After David had finished speaking to Sha'ul, Sha'ul said, "Is that your voice, my son David?" Then Sha'ul cried out and wept;

and he said to David, "You are more righteous than I, because you have treated me well, while I have been treating you badly.

David swore to Sha'ul, and Sha'ul went home, but David and his men went back up to the stronghold.

Sh'mu'el died. All of Isra'el assembled to mourn him and bury him at his home in Ramah. Then David set out and went down to the Pa'ran Desert.

David, there in the desert, heard that Naval was shearing his sheep.

David sent off ten young men with these orders: "Go up to Naval in Karmel, and bring him greetings from me.

Ask your own men; they'll tell you. Therefore, receive my men favorably, since we have come on a festive day. Please give what you can to your servants and to your son David.'"

On arrival, David's men said all these things to Naval in David's name. When they had finished,

Naval answered David's servants, "Who is David? Who is the son of Yishai? There are many servants nowadays running away from their masters.

So David's men turned around, went back and came and told him everything Naval had said.

David said to his men, "Buckle your swords on, all of you!" Each one buckled on his sword, David too; and there went up after David about four hundred men, while two hundred stayed with the equipment.

But one of Naval's men told Avigayil his wife, "David sent messengers from the desert to greet our master, and he flew on them in a rage,

She was riding her donkey down past the hiding-place in the mountain, when David and his men descended toward her, and she met them.

David had said, "What a waste it has been guarding everything this fellow has in the desert, so that nothing of his was missing! He has repaid me bad for good!"

Then he swore, "May God do the same and more to David's enemies if I leave alive even one male of everything he owns."

When Avigayil saw David, she hurried to dismount from her donkey, fell on her face in front of David and bowed down to the ground.

David said to Avigayil, "Blessed be ADONAI the God of Isra'el, who sent you today to meet me;

So David received from her what she had brought him, then said to her, "Go up in peace to your home. I have listened to what you said and granted your request."

When David heard that Naval was dead, he said, "Blessed be ADONAI for having taken my side in the matter of Naval's insult and for having prevented his servant from doing anything bad. On the contrary, ADONAI has caused Naval's bad deeds to return on his own head."Then David sent a message that he wanted to make Avigayil his own wife.

When David's servants reached Avigayil in Karmel, they said to her, "David has sent us to you to bring you to him to be his wife."

Avigayil then hurried, set out and rode off on a donkey, with five of her female servants following her; she went after David's messengers; and she became his wife.

David also took Achino'am of Yizre'el; both of them became his wives.

Meanwhile, Sha'ul had given Mikhal his daughter, David's wife, to Palti the son of Layish, who came from Gallim.