Samuel & King Saul

Meanwhile, let this present which your servant has brought to my lord be given to the men in my lord's service.

And please forgive the offense your servant has caused; because ADONAI will certainly establish my lord's dynasty, for my lord fights ADONAI's battles, and nothing bad has been found in you all your life long.

Even if someone comes along searching for you and seeking your life, your life will be bound in the bundle of life with ADONAI your God. But the lives of your enemies he will fling away as if from the pouch of a slingshot.

Then, when ADONAI has done all the good to my lord that he has said about you and made you ruler over Isra'el,

what happens here will not have become an obstacle to you or a cause for remorse to my lord, neither that you shed blood without cause nor that my lord took vengeance into his own hands. Finally, when ADONAI has dealt well with my lord, then remember your servant."

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

and blessed be your tactfulness, and blessed be yourself for having kept me today from the guilt of shedding blood and taking vengeance into my own hands.

For as ADONAI the God of Isra'el, lives, who has kept me from harming you, if you hadn't rushed to meet me, not even one male would have been left to Naval by morning!"

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."

Avigayil came to Naval; there he was in his house, holding a feast fit for a king. He was in high spirits, because he was very drunk. So she told him nothing whatever until the next morning.

In the morning, when he was sober and his wife told him what had happened, he had a stroke and became as motionless as a stone.

Some ten days later ADONAI struck Naval, and he died.

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."

She got up, bowed with her face to the ground, and said, "Your servant is here to serve you, to wash the feet of my lord's servants."

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.

The people from Zif went to Sha'ul in Giv'ah and said, "David is hiding himself on Hakhilah Hill, across from Yeshimon."

Then Sha'ul set out and went down to the Zif Desert with three thousand men chosen from Isra'el, to search for David in the Zif Desert.

Sha'ul pitched camp on Hakhilah Hill, across from Yeshimon, near the road. David was staying in the desert, and he saw that Sha'ul was coming into the desert after him.

So David dispatched spies and determined that Sha'ul had definitely come.

David set out and went to where Sha'ul had pitched his camp. He saw where Sha'ul and Avner the son of Ner, the commander of his army, were sleeping. Sha'ul was lying inside the barricade with the troops asleep all around him.

David said to Achimelekh the Hitti and Avishai the son of Tz'ruyah, Yo'av's brother, "Who will go down with me to Sha'ul in the camp?" Avishai said, "I will go down with you."

So David and Avishai went to the soldiers by night. Sha'ul was lying there asleep inside the barricade. His spear was stuck in the ground next to his head, with Avner and the troops asleep all around him.