June
16
1
Samuel 25, 26
1Sa
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.
1Sa
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.
1Sa
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.
1Sa
25:4 David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his
sheep.
1Sa
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:
1Sa
25:6 and thus you shell tell him who lives in
prosperity, Peace be to you, and peace
be to your house, and peace be to all that you have.
1Sa
25:7 Now I have heard that you have shearers: your shepherds have
now been with us, and we did them no hurt, neither was there anything
missing to them, all the while they were in Carmel.
1Sa
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.
1Sa
25:9 When David's young men came, they spoke to Nabal according to
all those words in the name of David, and ceased.
1Sa
25:10 Nabal answered David's servants, and said, Who is David? and
who is the son of Jesse? there are many servants who break away from
their masters these days.
1Sa
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?
1Sa
25:12 So David's young men turned on their way, and went back, and
came and told him according to all these words.
1Sa
25:13 David said to his men, Every man put on his sword! Every man
put on his sword; and David also put on his sword: and there went up
after David about four hundred men; and two hundred abode by the
baggage.
1Sa
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.
1Sa
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:
1Sa
25:16 they were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the while
we were with them keeping the sheep.
1Sa
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.
1Sa
25:18 Then Abigail made haste, and took two hundred loaves, and two
bottles of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of
parched grain, and one hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred
cakes of figs, and laid them on donkeys.
1Sa
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.
1Sa
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.
1Sa
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: and he has returned me evil for good.
1Sa
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 who
urinates on a wall.
1Sa
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.
1Sa
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.
1Sa
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.
1Sa
25:26 Now therefore, my lord, as Yahweh lives, and as your soul
lives, seeing Yahweh 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.
1Sa
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.
1Sa
25:28 Please forgive the trespass of your handmaid: for Yahweh will
certainly make my lord a sure house, because my lord fights the
battles of Yahweh; and evil shall not be found in you all your days.
1Sa
25:29 Though men be risen up to pursue you, and to seek your soul,
yet the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with
Yahweh your God; and the souls of your enemies, them shall he sling
out, as from the hollow of a sling.
1Sa
25:30 It shall come to pass, when Yahweh shall have done to my lord
according to all the good that he has spoken concerning you, and
shall have appointed you prince over Israel,
1Sa
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 Yahweh shall have dealt well with my lord,
then remember your handmaid.
1Sa
25:32 David said to Abigail, Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel,
who sent you this day to meet me:
1Sa
25:33 and blessed be your discretion, and blessed be you, that have
kept me this day from blood guiltiness, and from avenging myself with
my own hand.
1Sa
25:34 For in very deed, as Yahweh, the God of Israel, lives, who has
withheld me from hurting you, except 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 who urinates on a wall.
1Sa
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 accepted your person.
1Sa
25:36 Abigail came to Nabal; and behold, he held a feast in his
house, like the feast of a king; and Nabal's heart was merry within
him, for he was very drunken: therefore she told him nothing, less or
more, until the morning light.
1Sa
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.
1Sa
25:38 It happened about ten days after, that Yahweh struck Nabal, so
that he died.
1Sa
25:39 When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, Blessed be
Yahweh, who has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of
Nabal, and has kept back his servant from evil: and the evildoing of
Nabal has Yahweh returned on his own head. David sent and spoke
concerning Abigail, to take her to him as wife.
1Sa
25:40 When the servants of David were come to Abigail to Carmel,
they spoke to her, saying, David has sent us to you, to take you to
him as wife.
1Sa
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.
1Sa
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.
1Sa
25:43 David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel; and they became both of
them his wives.
1Sa
25:44 Now Saul had given Michal his daughter, David's wife, to Palti
the son of Laish, who was of Gallim.
1Sa
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?
1Sa
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.
1Sa
26:3 Saul encamped in the hill of Hachilah, which is before the
desert, by the way. But David abode in the wilderness, and he saw
that Saul came after him into the wilderness.
1Sa
26:4 David therefore sent out spies, and understood that Saul was
come of a certainty.
1Sa
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.
1Sa
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.
1Sa
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.
1Sa
26:8 Then said Abishai 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.
1Sa
26:9 David said to Abishai, Don't destroy him; for who can put forth
his hand against Yahweh's anointed, and be guiltless?
1Sa
26:10 David said, As Yahweh lives, Yahweh will strike him; or his
day shall come to die; or he shall go down into battle and perish.
1Sa
26:11 Yahweh forbid that I should put forth my hand against Yahweh's
anointed: but now please take the spear that is at his head, and the
jar of water, and let us go.
1Sa
26:12 So David took the spear and the jar of water from Saul's head;
and they got them away: and no man saw it, nor knew it, neither did
any awake; for they were all asleep, because a deep sleep from Yahweh
was fallen on them.
1Sa
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;
1Sa
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?
1Sa
26:15 David said to Abner, Aren't you a valiant
man? and who is like you in Israel? why then have you not kept watch
over your lord, the king? for there came one of the people in to
destroy the king your lord.
1Sa
26:16 This thing isn't good that you have done. As Yahweh lives, you
are worthy to die, because you have not kept watch over your lord,
Yahweh's anointed. Now see where the king's spear is, and the jar of
water that was at his head.
1Sa
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.
1Sa
26:18 He said, Why does my lord pursue after his servant? for what
have I done? or what evil is in my hand?
1Sa
26:19 Now therefore, please let my lord the king hear the words of
his servant. If it is so Yahweh that has stirred you up against me,
let him accept an offering: but if it be the children of men, cursed
be they before Yahweh: for they have driven me out this day that I
shouldn't cling to Yahweh's inheritance, saying, Go, serve other
gods.
1Sa
26:20 Now therefore, don't let my blood fall to the earth away from
the presence of Yahweh: for the king of Israel is come out to seek a
flea, as when one does hunt a partridge in the mountains.
1Sa
26:21 Then said Saul, 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.
1Sa
26:22 David answered, Behold the spear, O king! let then one of the
young men come over and get it.
1Sa
26:23 Yahweh will render to every man his righteousness and his
faithfulness; because Yahweh delivered you into my hand today, and I
wouldn't put forth my hand against Yahweh's anointed.
1Sa
26:24 Behold, as your life was much set by this day in my eyes, so
let my life be much set by in the eyes of Yahweh, and let him deliver
me out of all oppression.
1Sa
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.