Study Desk

And so then, know and consider what you should do, for evil has been decided against our master and against all his household, and he is such a wicked man, nobody can reason with him!"

Please do not let my lord set his heart against this worthless man, Nabal; for as his name, so is he. Nabal is his name, and stupidity is with him! But I, your female servant, did not see the young men of my lord whom you sent.

So then, my lord, as Yahweh lives and as your soul lives, since Yahweh restrained you from bloodguilt by taking matters into your own hand, so then, may your enemies be like Nabal, even those who seek to do my lord harm.

So then, this gift which your female servant has brought to my lord, may it be given to the young men who follow my lord.

Then Abigail went to Nabal, and look, he was holding a feast in his house like the feast of the king. Nabal was enjoying himself, and he was very drunk, so she did not tell him a thing, nothing at all, until the light of morning.

So the servants of David came to Abigail at Carmel, and they spoke to her, saying, "David has sent us to you to take you for his wife."

So David and Abishai came to the army by night, and there was Saul lying asleep in the encampment with his spear thrust into the ground near his head, and Abner and the army were lying all around him.

Then Abishai said to David, "God has handed over your enemy into your hand today! So then, please let me pin him to the ground with the spear one time, and I will not strike him twice."

Yahweh forbid me from stretching out my hand against Yahweh's anointed one! So then, please take the spear that is near his head and the jar of water, and let us go."

So David took the spear and the jar of water from near Saul's head, and they went away. No one saw, no one knew, and no one awakened, for all of them were sleeping because a deep sleep of Yahweh had fallen upon them.

So David said to Abner, "Are you not a man? And who is like you in Israel? Why did you not keep watch over your lord the king? For one of the people came to destroy your lord the king.

This thing that you have done is not good. As Yahweh lives, surely you people deserve to die since you have not kept watch over your lord, over Yahweh's anointed one! So then, see where the king's spear is and the jar of water that was near his head!"

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!'

And so then, do not let my blood fall to the ground away from the presence of Yahweh, for the king of Israel has gone out to seek a single flea, as one hunts a partridge in the mountains."

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."

So David got up and crossed over, he and the six hundred men who were with him, to Achish the son of Maoch, the king of Gath.

And it was reported to Saul that David had fled to Gath, so he no longer searched for him.

So Achish gave him Ziklag on that day. (Therefore, Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah until this day.)

So David struck the land and did not leave a man or a woman alive; he took the sheep, the cattle, the donkeys, the camels, and the clothing. Then he returned and came to Achish.

And David did not leave alive a man or a woman to bring them back to Gath, thinking, "So that they will not report about us, saying, ‘David did thus and so.'" Thus was his practice all the days that he lived in the countryside of the Philistines.