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When David heard that Nabal had died, he said, "Blessed be Yahweh who has vindicated the case of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and he has kept back his servant from evil; but Yahweh has returned the evil of Nabal on his own head." Then David sent and spoke with Abigail to take her for his wife.

Now Saul was on the hill of Hakilah, which is opposite Jeshimon by the road, but David was staying in the wilderness. When he realized that Saul had come to the wilderness after him,

But David said to Abishai, "Do not destroy him! For who has stretched out his hand against Yahweh's anointed one and remained blameless?"

And so then, please let my lord the king listen to the words of his servant: If Yahweh has incited you against me, may he delight in an offering; but if it is mortals, may they be accursed before Yahweh, for they have driven me away today from sharing in the inheritance of Yahweh, saying, ‘Go, serve other gods!'

Yahweh repays to each one his righteousness and his faithfulness, for Yahweh gave you into my hand today, but I was not willing to stretch out my hand against Yahweh's anointed.

Then Saul said to David, "Blessed are you, my son David; you will not only do many things, but also will always succeed!" Then David went on his way and Saul returned to his place.

Then David thought to himself, "Now I will perish one day by the hand of Saul! There is nothing better for me but that I must certainly escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will desist from searching for me further in all of the territories of Israel, and so I will escape from his hand."

And Saul inquired of Yahweh, but Yahweh did not answer him, not by dreams or by the Urim or by the prophets.

But the woman said to him, "Look, you know what Saul did, how he exterminated the mediums and the soothsayers from the land! Why are you setting a trap for my life to kill me?"

Then Samuel said to Saul, "Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?" And Saul said, "I am in distress! For the Philistines are about to make war against me, but God has turned away from me, and he does not answer me any more, not by the prophets or by the dreams. So I called to you to let me know what I should do."

But he refused and said, "I will not eat!" However, his servants urged him, and the woman also. So he listened to what they said, and he got up from the ground and sat on the bed.

But the commanders of the Philistines were angry with him and they said to him, "Send the man back so that he might return to his place where you have assigned him! But he will not go down with us into the battle, so that he does not become an adversary to us in the battle. By what could this fellow make himself favorable to his lord? Is it not with the heads of these men?

Is this not David about whom they sing in the dances, saying, ‘Saul has killed his thousands, but David his ten thousands'?"

So Achish called David and said to him, "As Yahweh lives, certainly you were honest, and I am pleased to have you marching with me in the campaign. For I have not found any wrong in you from the day you came to me until this day, but in the eyes of the rulers, you are not good.

Then David said to Achish, "But what have I done? And what have you found in your servant from the day that I entered your service until this day, that I should not go and fight against the enemies of my lord the king?"

So David set out early, he and his men, to leave in the morning to return to the land of the Philistines, but the Philistines went up to Jezreel.

They took captive the women who were in it, from the youngest to the oldest. They did not kill anyone, but carried them off and went on their way.

And David was in a very precarious situation, for the people spoke of stoning him, for the souls of all the people were bitter, each one over his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in Yahweh his God.

So David went, he and the six hundred men who were with him, and they came to the Wadi Besor, but the rest remained.

David pursued, he and four hundred men; but two hundred men stayed because they were too exhausted to pass over the Wadi Besor.